Sales Tip: Relating to customers

Coming from a shop background himself, independent distributor Noah Hammond can relate well to many of his customers.

“Mechanics will tell you – they’re pretty honest – they’ll tell you if they think it’s a bad price or a bad deal, or they don’t like the way you’re doing things. Usually all you have to do is listen, and they’ll tell you.”

While he can relate to these customers, he has transitioned his mentality to be more business-like when he approaches shops.

“I used to talk with them a lot, try to be their best friend. The next thing you know, you’ve only made it to five shops and you haven’t made any money. You haven’t sold anything,” says Hammond. “I think you’ve got to try and keep it focused on selling tools. If they want to talk about tools, and what this does, or why I think this is better, that stuff I talk about.

“I try to keep it on-topic. It doesn’t always work.”