Professional Distributor - 28

Get up, eat breakfast, hug the kids,
kiss the spouse, sell tools,
collect payment, repeat
If your sales life was that easy everyone would be doing it.
BY ALAN SIPE
CONTRIBUTING EDITOR
Alan W. Sipe has spent the last 42
years in the basic hand tool industry
including positions as president of
KNIPEX Tools North America, senior
vice president of sales and marketing at Klein Tools, manager of special
markets at Stanley Tools, and sales
manager at toolbox manufacturer
Waterloo Industries. Currently, Sipe
is the owner of Toolbox Sales and
Consulting, a company specializing
in sales strategy, structure, development, and training. Sipe can be
reached at alansipe@gmail.com or
847-910-1063.

ure we all have a day - every once in a while
- where everything goes as planned. But
every so often the day starts as follows and
it's all downhill from there:
Get up late, customer calls about a broken tool,
kids won't get up for school, toast gets burned, another
customer texts about a repair part that isn't in yet, your
son teases your daughter and she cries, spouse is a
touch cranky, and you run out of the house swearing.
Have a good day. Ha!
Everyone will also have those days that start
off great and then disaster strikes just when you
least expect it.
So what is a jobber to do? You still need to make
your calls, collect your money, and sell something
every working day.
When I was working full-time I was always the
first one out of bed and got out of the house before
the morning riot started, which worked great for
me. This tactic doesn't work for everyone.
My son, the Marine, tells me the United States
Marine Corps has a saying: "PPP produces PPR."
"P*** Poor Planning produces P*** Poor Results."
Yet, reality tells us that Murphy's Law is also correct: If something can go wrong, it will. An addition
to this law reads: "...and usually at the worst time."
Proper logical planning and thoughtful execution will help you save the day. But even good planning can depend on simple things like the geography
of your route. I once rode with my local Matco jobber
whose Schaumburg, Illinois, area is about two by 10
miles. Compare that to someone in Montana who
covers 1/3 of the state. Jumping from here to there
may not always be possible because of factors like
route geography, traffic, never-ending construction,
and weather issues. So, for the jobber in Schaumburg
to go a mile out of his way to drop off that 1/2" socket
is not impossible, but for the Montana jobber this
would be a real time-waster.

28 Professional Distributor I December 2019 I VehicleServicePros.com

The following are some ideas that may help you
plan a more successful sales day:
* Schedule big ticket item sales presentations
and potentially long demonstrations for the
end of the day. This allows you to take all
the time you need to make the sale without
worrying about your next stop. You will be
relaxed and on your game, and the customer
will not feel rushed to make a decision. When
a customer feels rushed, the answer is very
often, "No."
* When you get that late start or are held up,
you must carefully decide: Is it better to skip
that location with one or two technicians and
hit the big dealer on time? Or should you do
a halfhearted job on both calls, since you
are trying to make up time? One good call is
always better than two worthless ones. Would
a phone call or text to the small location suffice? How about a text with the latest promotion attached?
* Speaking of brochures and promotions, are
you emailing or texting these to your customers as soon as you get them? This gets the word
out and may build up some demand before
you get there in person. It may also stifle a
competitor's promotion on the same products.
* If you have a support person working with
you, can they run that 1/2" socket to the customer who called you at 7 AM?
* Set your schedule to provide a time midweek
to take care of the week's demands. Maybe
set aside Wednesday morning for catching up
on emergencies, talking to your favorite WD,
reading PD magazine, or thinking through
how to handle a major customer problem. A
scheduled midweek "thinking time" will let
you focus on your business plan and not cut
into your family time in the evenings.

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