What better way to showcase a tool's features than through a demonstration? Providing your customers with a product demo allows them to better understand how a tool works, what it's meant to be used for, and how it might help them do their job better. Whether you demo all your products or just a certain few, we reached out to five distributors to see how they handle performing demos.

1. Demo where your products are

"I don't really do the tote-and-promote thing. Unless I have a pile of multiple [products]. However, I'll always promote something new and fancy. I've been walking into shops with Olight's ArkPro. I demo stuff on the truck more when customers come out."

-Scott Bowles, Cornwell Quality Tools 

2. Demo new or complex technology

"Scan tools are the main thing I demo because most of the other tools don't require a demo. The truck jacks or transmission jacks, those are pretty standard in function. But there are a couple of different tools that I've demoed over the years for pulling bearings or pulling seals. A new device may come out, and I'll pick it up and show the guys. It makes the job a little bit easier."

-Duayne Sharpe, Cornwell Quality Tools 

3. Let your customers test out the tools

"Most of the demos I do are for new products or something that they haven't seen, or that hasn't been on our sale flyers. I'll pretty much demo anything that's in the flyers because you're trying to sell them. I'll get three or four [customers] together and talk [the product] up — features and benefits, and how it's gonna save them time or how it's gonna save them money or what have you, and then pass it around. Feeling is believing. I also tell [my mentees] — and I may or may not practice it consistently — you can take any one item off your truck. Maybe you've been sitting on this item for six months, and you want to sell it. Just carry it and show it off to every shop until it sells. And it will. It's just a question of when and to whom."

-Foster Troutt, Mac Tools 

4. Get it in their hands

“I demo everything from scanners and cordless tools to various pullers and even smaller items, like Lisle electrical connector pliers and VIM clip and disconnect tools. I’ve even turned tools into fidget toys while customers are shopping just to get them into their hands. For me, any good demo starts with putting the tool in the customer’s hand, whether I’m showing them its features and benefits or letting them use it right there in the shop or on the truck.”

-Douglas Simms, Matco Tools

5. Use it in the shop

“With our Mac RBRT impact extractor sockets, I tell customers to show me the most rounded bolt they have in the shop. We’ll hammer the socket on, and I let the customer crank it out themselves. When the tool is in their hands and they can see firsthand what it can do, it makes a difference. That’s the key to a good demo: let the customer use the tool.”

-Steve O'Leary, Mac Tools