Rolling billboards

Distributors can carve out a unique service niche with mobile hose repair, installation and sales support programs.

by Richard Vurva

Distributors that offer onsite mobile hose service say it has helped them open new business opportunities and strengthened ties with existing customers. The keys to success include hiring the right person to operate the vehicle, understanding how to apply the service to satisfy specific customer segments and making sure top management is fully committed to the effort.

Mobile hose service programs have been highly successful in Australia, New Zealand and Europe for more than 20 years. Introduced in North America within the last decade, the concept has slowly picked up steam. Today, Parker Hannifin’s Hose Doctor, Eaton’s Aeroquip Express Van and Pirtek USA all provide onsite mobile repair, installation and sales of industrial hoses and assemblies to a variety of industries.

Brian Carlisle of Custom Hose Tech in Lakeville, Minn., is one of the more successful Hose Doctor operators in the U.S., with four trucks in the Minneapolis area. He put his first truck on the road five years ago, added a second vehicle six months later, two more over the next two years and recently opened a ParkerStore location to handle walk-in customers.

“There are several hydraulic hose and fitting shops in the Minneapolis/Twin Cities area. The only thing to differentiate us from all those other companies was the ability to go in the field and supply everything on the spot. It opened the eyes of quite a few customers,” he says.

By offering a complete mobile service, customers came to rely on Carlisle not only for emergency field service, but for non-emergency phone orders.

Don Presley of Trident Supply Company, an Aeroquip distributor, operates two vans from two locations in Jacksonville, Fla. The vans primarily call on road construction accounts but also provide service to manufacturing facilities.

“Because of traffic patterns, customers generally will not travel more than 20 minutes to get a hose. So, we put the trucks on the road initially to try to attract business we weren’t receiving outside that 20-minute radius,” Presley says.

Hire the right person
Without the right kind of person behind the wheel of the service vehicle, the program won’t succeed. The job requires someone who is mechanically inclined but who also understands how to relate to customers.

“Hiring the right person is crucial,” says Carlisle. “It’s not a matter of driving up in your clean shirt, making a hose and handing it to them and telling them to have a good day. We get in there and pull the hoses. We get under the machines and get oil dripped on us,” he says.

Brad Fischer, manager of retail services for Parker Hannifin Corporation, agrees.

“You need a unique individual who can not only sell the service and deal with objections, but also turn a wrench. Strong product knowledge is crucial,” Fischer says.

Brian Milek, program manager for the Eaton Aeroquip Express Van program, says a good compensation plan can help keep the right person behind the wheel. Most distributors pay van operators a base salary and a modest commission on product sales. Milek recommends that distributors also pay the driver extra for emergency after-hours service calls.

Some companies hire people with mechanical ability and teach them sales skills on the job. Others transition counter salespeople with mechanical aptitude or assemblers into the van operator role. Either way, the job requires an energetic person able to handle multiple tasks.

When Presley bought his second truck, his purchasing manager volunteered to take on the challenge of building the business, but was unsure about the sales responsibilities of the job.

“I told him, ‘Don’t worry about trying to sell anything, just show people the truck.’  He ended up outselling my first guy in total dollar sales,” Presley says.

A savvy truck operator with a knack for seeking add-on sales opportunities may go to a site for a simple repair job but generate considerably more business. For example, one of Trident Supply’s drivers recently went to a local steel mill to replace two hoses. He ultimately spent a day-and-a-half at the plant and sold and installed 49 hoses.

“Because both of my guys are mechanically oriented, a mechanic doesn’t feel threatened by them. They speak their language,” Presley says. That familiarity often results in greater sales success.

To help find the right person, Parker developed a Web-based candidate assessment tool that includes about 180 questions to help evaluate a candidate’s aptitudes and abilities.

“We created a model based on what we saw in successful Hose Doctors,” says Fischer. “When a candidate takes the test, we match his results to the model. The results of a 17-page report will tell you if your candidate is a good candidate.”

The company also provides comprehensive training manuals for new operators, including course material and homework. Trainers ride with new operators to evaluate their mechanical and sales skills.

To help new drivers learn the ropes, Aeroquip offers an Aeroquip Express territory training program that provides one-on-one training with van operators.

Understand your service niche 
The second key to success is understanding the unique customer need the service satisfies. It’s not a delivery service; it’s a work vehicle. In addition to emergency repairs, some operators take the vehicle to job sites and factories to perform hose inspections, preventative maintenance tasks and onsite product demonstrations.

“Our ultimate goal with this program is to be such a valuable service to the customer that they treat us as an employee and not a vendor,” Milek says.

Distributors should avoid keeping the vehicle at a single location for too long. When a truck sits on a customer’s lot for a lengthy job requiring complex assembly or engineering, it keeps the vehicle from its intended purpose. The goal is to get the van into as many facilities as possible, where customers can see it in action.

“Make sure you take people inside the truck, because it’s going to help sell the service when they see all the products you carry and the manufacturing equipment onboard the truck,” Fischer says.

Milek adds that a fully equipped truck, with a crimper and an assortment of hoses and fittings, is like a rolling billboard.

“Everybody wants to stop and see the truck,” he says.

Still, business doesn’t soar overnight. Operators may have to call on an account five or six times before getting them to try the service.

Mobile hose service generates revenue from fees charged for emergency service and from product sales. Milek recommends that distributors charge hourly service fees equal to labor rates charged by local auto dealerships. Customers pay a minimum 1-hour fee for calls during normal business hours and a minimum 2-hour fee for after-hours service calls.

“Depending on a distributor’s hourly charge for labor, you can receive enough fees to compensate your van operator. Then, you take the gross profit from selling the product and re-invest it in the business,” says Milek.

Get full management buy-in
Like any business endeavor, mobile hose service can succeed only with total management support. Company owners must be prepared to do the necessary market research before launching the service to test its viability and invest the necessary time and financial resources to make it a success.

Unlike Pirtek USA, which offers franchise opportunities and plans to add 350 locations in the U.S., Parker and Eaton Aeroquip do not charge franchise fees. Operators can lease or buy vehicles. In addition to fuel and vehicle upkeep, ongoing expenses include the operator’s salary and the cost of product to stock the vehicle.

“You have to be totally committed for the truck program to work,” says Presley. “When a guy is in the field with a piece of equipment that is down, he’s got to know that he can call the shop and get top priority if he needs additional product or needs help solving a customer’s problem.”

Presley routes all after-hours calls to his house, so he can decide whether or not to send an operator into the field. All other calls go through a dispatcher, who schedules them on a first-come, first-served basis.

Mobile service operators say it’s also important that salespeople view the program as an additional tool they can use to sell service to customers. Some may feel threatened that mobile sales will cut into their earnings and may be reluctant to promote the service. Presley says his walk-in traffic didn’t drop after introducing the Aeroquip Express Van. Although some existing customers may opt for on-site support, the service also attracts new business.

Eaton Aeroquip offers rebate incentives on product sales for Aeroquip Express Van operators during their first three years of operations to help offset their initial costs. The company also developed a co-op program to share the cost of advertising and helps distributors develop a media plan to promote the service. To help distributors introduce the service, the company also will provide a database of potential customers in their local marketplace.

Parker offers a variety of marketing support to Hose Doctors, including print literature, a Web locator where customers can type in a zip code to find the nearest Hose Doctor, and a promotional video geared toward selling the program to customers.

This article appeared in the March 2003 issue of Progressive Distributor. Copyright 2003.

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