Professional Distributor - 8

DISTRIBUTOR PROFILE
owned and ran a landscaping company
for about 15 years, and he credits that
experience for some of his current success. Prior to that, he worked at some
of his father's businesses and says he
gained much of his business knowledge
from him.
Nelson's father was a corporate
marketing director for a large wholesale food and tobacco company when
Nelson was young, complete with an
oceanfront window office in Oyster
Point in San Francisco. His father was
successful, and eventually became the
largest buyer and seller of tobacco in the
world for that company. Nelson adds
that when his father left that position,
he opened some other businesses such
as mailbox stores, video stores, and coffee shops.
"I only know anything about business because my dad is probably the
sharpest business guy I've ever been
around," he says. "When I was a kid I'd
work for him at his retail stores. That's
how I figured out what I know now. Just
working for him at his stores ... I [didn't]
think he was teaching me anything, but
then I look back in life and go, 'Oh.'"
Around the time Nelson began
running his landscaping business, his
father was retiring from his own ventures. The landscaping business grew
quickly and became too much for one
person to handle, so Nelson's father
helped him manage it for a few years.
Nelson notes that by comparison,
the landscaping business was much
less complicated than being a mobile
tool distributor. Having a background in
business, both from his father's teachings and his own experience, made all
the difference.
"When I see [new distributors] trying to get out on the truck that haven't
worked for themselves, there's a big
learning curve there that I take for
granted, because I've been taught that
since I was a kid," Nelson says. "They
can learn it and pick it up, and a lot
of these guys are really sharp, but it

just takes time to figure it out. I had
an advantage getting into this business
having prior business experience. I got
it from someone that I respect who
knows more about business in general
than most people I know."
Nelson's father still helps him out
with his tool business, handling pickups and deliveries, building toolboxes,
and the like.
"My wife will help, too, but she's got
a full-time job, and we've got two little
kids, a three-year-old and a sevenyear-old," Nelson says. "We've got our
hands full with the kids and her with
her job, so having him around to help
makes our lives a lot easier."

A QUICK START
That extra insight into the business portion of the job has paid off. Nelson started selling tools for Mac just six years ago
- a relatively short amount of time in the
tool business - and has already earned
multiple top seller awards.
"Every full year I've been in business since [I started], I've been a diamond distributor for Mac Tools and in
the President's Club," he says. "I've been
second or third every year I've been in
business as far as the top distributor in
my [western United States] region, and
then last year I got the top distributor
Eagle Award."

8 Professional Distributor I December 2019 I VehicleServicePros.com

"I sell to people the way I'd want to be sold to,"
Nelson says. "I'm really good at closing a deal,
but I don't push stuff."

The key to a good start, according to
Nelson, is pretty basic: Get customers
on the truck. But this can be trickier
than it sounds.
"You've got to get guys to the truck,
and when you first start out that's hard
to do because everybody is standoffish,
they don't necessarily know that they
want to deal with you," he says. "Just
finding your little quirk or niche to at
least get guys to give you a shot - that's
kind of hard."
He recommends getting on the
good side of one person at each stop.
It can be the shop owner, a manager,
or a technician that the others look up
to. Whatever the case, it pays to get on
their good side early on.
"It's important to have a good rapport with the shop owners," Nelson
says. "If they've got your back, they're
going to point their guys when they're
new [toward purchasing from you]. And
it's not always only the shop owners.
If you find a respected guy in a big
shop, they're your mouthpiece; they're
your guy that's telling [other technicians] 'The Mac guy's the guy.' You can
develop that yourself without, but those
guys help a lot. If everybody looks

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Professional Distributor

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