Be New, Introduce Options

Don’t just hand out literature. You want to avoid being an intrusive mail deliverer. Handing a promotion to a customer and asking for an order is spam. It’s worse than the intrusive pop-up on your browser. At a strict minimum you need to highlight the products you know your customer buys, even if it’s from you, and let them know there’s a good deal on things they already use.

Using promotions properly

Be ready to highlight why promoted items in literature can help specific customers. Hopefully you know your customers pretty well. If you do, look over the promotion before going in on a call. Be ready to highlight products that you think could be a good fit for your customer and why. Instead of letting your customer read the promo in front of you while you wait, go through it with them ready to point out what you think will be good for them. It’s a personalizing touch that let the customer know you’re paying attention.

Even if you don’t know your customer very well, maybe because it’s a new customer, maybe it’s because your new to the industry, talk with your team to understand what are the basic advantages of the different products. Is it a premium product for a now medium-range price? Is it a brand-new product or technology you’d like to get market feedback from your customers? Let them know!

Tell them why certain products in the literature isn’t for them. As much as you want to be ready to highlight products on promotion you think they’ll be happy to see, you also want to know ahead of time which products won’t be a fit for your customer. Let’s say that you know for a fact that your customer only works on his engine in regards to maintenance or accessory parts like alternators and EGR valves. This month you happen to be selling in-frame rebuild kits, no other engine related parts. The promotion is not useful for your customer but what you would say is something to the effect of “I know this promotional item isn’t useful to you, but I’d like to ask you about *engine related parts you’re not currently selling them but would like to*”. Here, you are acknowledging you understand their needs and putting them in the uncomfortable position of saying no and/or having to explain themselves. You then use this to open a conversation that is useful to both of you. You’ll be amazed how this gives you the opportunity to talk about something that your customer would otherwise resist.

Beyond provided promotions

This is more of a message to sales reps than managers. You cannot rely solely on sales and promotions. It’s a lot of work, but what you want to do is focus on one product line every month. It doesn’t have to be, probably shouldn’t be something as large as “wheel end” or suspension. It can be as specific as one part or as large as a 5 or 6-part product line. One example would be a new or little known 1” impact wrench for a great price that’s also reliable. Use this then to talk about more tools. Another example would be camshafts, make a point of talking to your customers about camshafts all month and you can lead into installation/hardware kits.

It's even better if you can offer seasonal product ideas. Talking about air dryers in September in the north is probably a great idea. Here’s an example of how this would work, we’ll use the impact wrench for the example. So, you’ve found out about an impact wrench that seems to be reliable and comes at a great price, but you don’t see them selling very much. The first two weeks of the month when you’re handing out and explaining the new monthly promotions throw in sort form of “by the way, have you seen this impact wrench?” explain why it’s a great deal and be ready to sell not only this tool but any other as well. A broader conversation about tools is a great thing not a distraction. Then, for the last two weeks make a second round to ask follow up questions like have you thought more about the impact wrench I told you about? Or, better yet: How do you like that Impact wrench you bought last week? Need a second? How about sockets or air tool oil?

Conclusion

In the end the most important thing is that you don’t read a promotion to your customer and leave, or worse watch them as the read it then take an order or be told no. Have a conversation about the promotion and talk about what is good for your customer. Always have something new to talk about it and try and loosely plan it out. You don’t want to never talk about new product lines with customers and you don’t want to always talk about the same products with customers. With so many parts you can sell you don’t want to ask 5 times per year for their U-bolt business. And try and have fun. Have open conversations when you offer products specifically or product lines broadly. If you go in asking about impact wrenches and the customers doesn’t even answer your question but says he needs a price on a new air compressor, it’s okay. First, you can try again later, second, if you’re too busy selling other products to talk about the specific ones you chose, you’re doing okay. Have fun.