Tools improve performance; are you the best customer resource?

The changing weather, a national election and a new selling season all create both new excitement and a host of distractions. At the risk of adding to the melee many of us are feeling at the present time, let me introduce myself, your new editor. As a longtime business-to-business editor at Cygnus Business Media, I bring a nuts and bolts view from the trenches of business life.

But enough about me. Today’s business realities raise the bar for all service providers. And no service business is more about service than mobile tool distributors. The technicians that keep our country’s vehicles moving need the tools that this magazine’s readership delivers like no other group of providers.

Getting the right tools in people’s hands when they need them is more important than ever. Everyone has less time to get more work done. Time is at a premium. Hence, a service that delivers the benefit of convenience carries a high premium.

Technology raises the bar

Did someone mention technology?

Just as your customers are using wireless diagnostic scanners, more of you are using mobile phones to help customers find product information on the Internet. And your competitors (other tool trucks, big box stores and Internet merchants) are using mobile devices to reach your customers with special offers and the convenience of placing orders online.

The growth of mobile commerce requires all merchants to incorporate these new tools as best as possible. Tool distributors will find it useful to use mobile commerce, including social media, to update customers on when they will be coming and what new products they have to show them.

Marketing tools can enhance the convenience the tool truck already provides.

No other sales venue can replicate the convenience the tool truck provides to the millions of technicians for whom productive shop minutes can be measured in monetary value. There is nothing that can replace the knowledgeable salesperson who can answer questions, face to face, about products.

In-person sales expertise, along with the ability to see and touch the merchandise before making a purchase, remains the mobile tool distributor’s top ace in today’s playing field.

Yes, technology changes the playing field. Competitors who are adept at making their offerings known to more people faster challenge us to be even better than we are in every conceivable way.

Professional Distributor Magazine and vehicleservicepros.com are here to inform the mobile tool distributor on ways to meet the challenges of a changing industry. I look forward to meeting you and welcome any suggestions on how we can better our job.