Last year was a challenging year for many, but not for Casey Parmalee. In November, he expanded his mobile tool distribution business by picking up an additional route, adding a new truck and hiring a new team member.
“We were already a multi-route, we already had someone selling for us — Cody Kay who just hit his three-year anniversary in May — and another route opened that bordered the routes that I had currently and everything just kind of lined up,” says the Mac Tools dealer, who is based in Rochester, New York. “I had somebody in mind that I wanted to have join our team and it was just the right time.”
That somebody was Shawn Kepler, an old friend of Parmalee’s, who took over Parmalee’s route, which serves the Rochester area and includes about 25 dealerships.
Parmalee tackled the new route himself.
“The new route is a good mix of city and country,” he said. “I enjoy taking on the new challenge of a route. It had been vacant for a year and a half when I took it.”
The new route also required a truck shuffle. Parmelee had always been driving a 2009 Chevy C6500 24’ diesel truck but he decided to turn it into a dedicated toolbox truck, and buy a used 2009 Chevy Workhorse W62 16’ with a gas motor. He purchased this truck (and all his trucks) from DNJ Truck Upfitting in Jamestown, Ohio.
“I bought new inventory for the new truck and new route and I decided that I was going to downsize and take the smaller truck,” Parmalee says. “I personally wanted to challenge myself to going into a smaller truck while maintaining my current sales and collection numbers. I wanted to prove to myself that it’s not the truck it’s the salesman.”
Kepler drives a 2010 Chevy Workhorse W62 16’ and Kay drives a 2016 Ford F59 18’ step van. Both of those trucks are gas powered and that was a major consideration for Parmalee when he was buying this 2009 Chevy Workhorse.
“I don’t buy diesel trucks anymore; I'm done with diesel. There’s just too much gov regulations on emissions and the upkeep of diesel is not worth what you get back out of them,” he says, adding that his gas truck starts up every morning and works great. “You don’t have to worry about regeneration, you don’t have to worry about DPF filters clogging up. Your maintenance costs are substantially lower. You can do an oil change for $50 as opposed to a diesel for $250.”
Inside the truck
In getting a smaller truck, Parmalee also got a smaller workspace — by choice. It has a very small desk with just a computer and a small receipt printer. He ditched the computer printer as everything can be emailed to customers nowadays.
“My old 24' truck had a very large workspace with lots of drawers and two desks, but it just ends up being an area of clutter,” he says. “My new truck just has a single row, very small desk and it works a lot better. The smaller the desks, the more tools you can get on the truck. Inventory is what matters.”
Parmalee and his team keep scan tools displayed and ready to go on their trucks because they are a big-ticket item.
“All it takes is a conversation that could lead to a big sale,” he says. "So, I try to keep scan tools neat and organized and displayed just so it leads to conversations.”
The team tries to keep their trucks organized but it can be overwhelming when they're selling a lot of tools, Parmalee notes.
“I try to do a little bit every day as far as organizing instead of doing a lot every week,” he says. “None of our trucks are perfect, never have been and never will be, but we try our best."
Parmalee enjoys selling toolboxes and tries to keep them in stock. Parmalee and his team will shuffle toolboxes between trucks to have different options available to show customers. With the one truck dedicated to toolboxes, it’s likely Parmalee will have a box in stock if a customer is looking for something specific, which he can bring to them right away.
Being dedicated to selling toolboxes turned out to be a lifesaver for Parmalee five years ago. At the time, he just had his truck and a 22' enclosed trailer for toolboxes when he blew a motor on his truck. He filled it with inventory and hitched that trailer to his pickup truck while his 24' truck was getting fixed.
“That truck was out just shy of one month while we were waiting for the new motor to come in. That trailer saved my business,” he says. “If I had been sitting at home for a month, that would have put me out of business. Having that trailer ready to go was a savior for me.”
Running a “pretty cut-and-dry business” that is based on consistency has been the key to Parmalee’s success over the past 15 years and helps him continue to take on new routes and employees.
“We show up every week, always have inventory, and we’re not showy, not pushy, we’re just consistent — it’s worked for me,” he says. “And I am always looking for a way to grow my business and make it bigger. I am always looking for a way to expand and take it to the next step.”
