How to Stay Fresh and Remain Welcome

A lot of what I’m about to go through will have elements that are different from one market to another. Manitoba and Mississippi have very different seasonal needs. That said, we all have winter, spring, summer and fall at the same time, so I’ll keep it general. You can’t truly build an account by handing out promotions and taking orders on the fly. You need to build the business brick by brick with your customer. That said, you will never sell everything to a customer in one shot unless the customer has been blocked from buying (at least on credit) from every single one of your competitors. And you will always gain and lose a little business just in the regular business of making your rounds, so you better be intentional about it.

Make a long-term plan

What I’m talking about here is a 12-month plan. One year is enough. The rest of the year works fine as well, you can then take what you’ve learned to build a plan for a full calendar year. Each month you want to be focused on a product category. It can be as large or small as you want. It could be as all-encompassing as HVAC or as simple and specific as Cam Shafts.

Here’s why. Your customers are busy. At least you hope they are, so they are getting paid and therefore they can pay your bills. By trying to go too far at once you will lose them because you’re just giving them too much work. So smaller is better but it’s okay. Also, because you want their business more than they want to give you all their money, it’s up to you to do the heavy lifting.

If you have specific seasons for different jobs, like in the north we tend to do brake jobs in the spring, and air dryers in the fall, then you definitely want to use those to your advantage, just know that everyone else is as well. So, your selection can actually be a bit random. Even if you choose HVAC in February, customers may need heater hoses, actuators, and they may want to get ahead of the spring rush. Just know that they may not as well. Even if they don’t, you can still use your monthly focus to let them know what you can offer when it is time.

What each month should do

For any given month, whatever you chose for the product, there are a few common things you want to have ready. A list of most common parts, a matching list of crossover numbers, pricing, and related articles. I’ll use the before-mentioned Cam Shafts as an example here. If possible, you want one excel file with the Cam Shafts you’ve sold the most in the last 12 months (shows you're actually competitive on these numbers and do sell them regularly); a suppliers most sold over a similar time period (show larger trends, outside of just your market), crossovers or cross-references (so they know that checking part numbers and prices will be easy) and elated articles (no time like the present to sell bushing drivers and grease!).

The first week or two of the month as you meet with everyone for the first half of the month, go through promotions as usual. Ask if they need anything, need help on anything or if they’ve been unable to source anything, or if they’ve had products fail lately. Once you’ve done this and asked for orders accordingly you want to open the discussion on your chosen monthly focus. We’re using the example of Cam Shafts, and I’m assuming the customer doesn’t already buy all their Cam Shafts from you. If they do, remind them that you are thankful for their business and ask about related tools as well as if they are interested in using a better or less expensive grease (options you should have listed and priced before the month begins).

If the customer is currently buying elsewhere simply ask if you can do a price and availability check on the Cam Shafts they buy the most. If the customer agrees, great, begin the project of verifying every Cam Shaft they need. Over the first half of the month, weeks one and two, do you want to make a deal or not. You need to be quick not only because you have another monthly focus coming up but because you don’t want your customer to avoid these questions from you because they drag on so much. Be concise and quick.

For the second half of the month, you want to move to close up any still undecided deals. Once done, win or lose, you want to bring up related articles. The obvious ones in this case are bushing drivers and even hardware installation tools. You’re just bringing it up in passing while you’re on the topic and whether the customer just told you no or just decided to send you a few thousand dollars per month, it’s usually not a big stretch to throw this on the same PO or just make a new one.

Conclusion

Cam Shafts are not the most exciting product in the world to sell. But they are important and everyone needs them. You will sell some, eventually, to basically all of your customers if for no other reason than by chance. The problem, other than the obvious, is that often a customer doesn’t give you their entire business for a few reasons you will uncover during this process. Sometimes they didn’t think you had what they needed. They could have gone twice in a month for their most popular model and by bad luck both times you were out of stock. It’s just bad luck, but maybe the customer doesn’t know it. Maybe they bought from you in the past but because you never made a deal, the customer is paying counter prices and thinks you're way too expensive.

The point is that you want to systematically build your business. It’s arduous, it takes time, and best of all it never ends. The difference between you and Sisyphus is that you’re making more and more money as you go up the mountain. And when you go around and start again at the bottom, you’re not. You’ll already be working with a damn good book of business. Good luck.