As told by Buddy Weaver:
Two years ago, we lost a veteran tool man by the name of Austin King. He was a 20-plus-year veteran of the Norfolk Mac Tools route. He serviced his customers better than anyone.
I was approached by many customers who asked when I was going to come to Norfolk. I told them I couldn’t for many reasons. I wasn’t financially ready. I didn’t have the right guy. I didn’t have a truck. I didn’t have the inventory. The timing wasn’t right.
Also, how can you expect someone to fill Austin King’s shoes? You can’t just send a rookie on a route that was serviced the way his route was serviced. His guys did business with Austin King. Not because he was with Mac Tools, but because he was Austin King.
I knew it would take a veteran to make it work. Dave Shaffer had been in business for a long time, but he was going to close his doors. Things eventually started coming together, and certain doors opened up. I called up Dave and told him we could come together as a team, knock out Norfolk and get Austin King’s route back to where it had been in the past.
Do we have a lot of work to do? Yes, we do. But the knowledge Dave possesses, it would cost me a lot of years and a lot of dollars to train someone to have the knowledge that he has when it comes to selling tools. It’s all relationship-building right now on that route, and it’s coming together.
