The Who, what, and Why of Parts Selling

There are a few things that need to be considered when selling truck parts to any customer. To be clear, if a customer contacts you, asks for an item you sell, and he has the money and intention to pay you, then you should probably sell them that thing, and any associated items you can think of that can help them out. What I mean by selling truck parts is actively approaching the customer or prospect with a product or product line you want them to buy from you. The basic approach will always resemble Who, What, and Why.

Who are the parts for?

If a fleet has no garage and all their units are leased, then trying to sell them a clutch is probably a waste of both your time and a great way for the customer or prospect to know that you should be avoided. You need to understand what the customer has chosen as their line of business and therefore what parts and tools will they need. There are different levels, or tiers, of work done by fleets, garages and service providers of all kinds. This does not make one company better or worse than another.

If a company decides to focus on their drivers and logistics they can excel or be inferior. If a company decides to rebuild engines, transmissions and will rebuild a trailer that was burned to the ground in an electrical fire, they can also be very competent and financially strong, or they could just as easily go bankrupt. If a company has no idea how to run a garage, it’s okay that they don’t.

What do they need?

Once you understand who your customer is and what type of business they operate, then you can intelligently offer them better solutions for their needs. This is the first step to becoming a useful and appreciated salesperson. That said, even if a company does literally every single repair and every last bit of maintenance, doesn’t mean they need everything you sell. The equipment they operate will also dictate what their needs are. Are their vehicles automatic or manual shift? Do they do linehaul shipping in the southern United States, or do they run day cab trucks in the forests of northern Alberta? Do they run flat-bed trailers, dry-vans, or straight body trucks? A dry-van trailer door seal will be pretty useless, even insulting to the guy who hauls logs out of the woods.

Why do they need it?

This is the question from which profits are made and margins are improved. The answer cannot be, they’ve been buying it for years. For example, if a fleet of 50 tractors is replacing a 55-gallon drum of driveshaft universal joints every year, then you can’t just say to the customer “here’s a great price on those u-joints, and this is how much inventory I hold so you can call me any time”. The pitch should be something like “here’s the u-joint that is a high enough quality that you won’t burn through so many and at a price close to what you were paying for the inferior quality u-joints that clearly not doing the job. And here’s a type of grease that performs really well under the extreme loads inside a u-joint and is stickier so all that spinning won’t empty the u-joint by the time you’ve driven around the block”.

Conclusion

There are many ways you can, and at times, need to approach a customer. Reps face all sorts of problems and challenges all day, every day. That said, this is a near-perfect, near-universal approach to building any customers sales. With time and practice, asking these questions will become second nature. And you’ll be on your way to healthier and stronger customer relationships because you’ll be helping your customers run their fleets better.