Although Brian Houpt has been a Cornwell Tools distributor for nearly five years, servicing the Hagerstown, Pennsylvania, area, he has been part of the mobile tool business for most of his life. His father was a field manager for another flag for 30 years before switching to Cornwell Tools.
“I would go to tools shows with him, [tool dealers] would often stop by the house, and … I also helped with inventory on some of his dealers tool trucks,” Houpt says.
During high school, one of his father’s tool dealers would take a two-week vacation in summer. Houpt would help by driving his pick-up truck around to shops for him.
Houpt was working at Home Depot when his father asked if he was interested in making the tool selling business a career, and that’s how he got started. Five years later, after a bit of a rough start, Houpt is still glad that he got into the business.
“I like the freedom the most,” he says. “I’m out here on my truck doing my thing and not really having a boss to answer to. It’s nice.”
When Houpt first started, he came across a few challenges. One was managing his time to see customers while also spending time with his family. Another was keeping customers on track by making sure they made their payments each week. Lastly, a lack of experience working on vehicles was a challenge he faced.
“I didn’t know much about working on cars, so I had to learn,” he says. “Learning [the] different tools to take to different shops to different guys to figure out what is best to help them make their job easier.”
His learning has paid off. Houpt enjoys showing tools to customers that he knows will help them. Not to mention, for the past three years he has been in Cornwell’s Top 100 and will be again this year.
Customers have told Houpt they like that he shows up every week with new tools on the truck, and that if they have broken tools Houpt takes care of them quickly. It is qualities like these that help Houpt stand out from other tool distributors.
Houpt’s route is a mix of city and suburbs, and his customers range from large heavy duty shops (Freightliner, Mack Trucks, Peterbilt) to car dealerships, body shops, tractor and lawn mower shops, and mom-and-pop shops. He even services an excavating and mining company. What he finds most interesting about his stops are the people and getting to know them.
“It’s a combination of meeting different people and the different experiences and interactions with customers on a day-to-day basis,” Houpt notes. “[I try] to help them out the best that I can.”
When it comes to the type of tools that are most popular with his customers, Houpt points to cordless tools such as Milwaukee and hand tools offered by Cornwell Tools.
“And of course, lights and more lights, and more lights,” he laughs.
Houpt has been looking to get into scan tools more. He’s been selling more Autel scan tools, and now that Cornwell has picked up TEXA in the heavy duty line, he has been exploring those. Cornwell also recently released their platinum series toolboxes, another product category Houpt is looking into.
“It’s been about three years since I’ve had a big toolbox on the truck, so I’ve been trying to get back into selling toolboxes,” he notes. “It’s been awhile since we had a full line.”
So, what does the future hold for Houpt? A new truck, he says. His 2007 GMC C5500 (with 18” box on the back) has been a good truck but is “getting some age on it now.”
