Meet Bill Knippenberg and his wife, Brenda
Meet Bill Knippenberg, owner of BDK Tools, Inc. based out of the North Central region in Illinois. Bill and his wife, Brenda, started their Snap-on® Franchise back in August of 2012.
Over the past 11 years, they have built their business to include a fleet of five stores/trucks. The routes cover a good bit of area – going as far as an hour north of Joliet, IL; 45 minutes south, and about 30 minutes east and west of Joliet.
While Bill manages the day-to-day business of the five stores and leads his store managers to achieve their goals, Brenda takes care of the many administrative tasks required. Together, they have built a tremendous business.
Their most recent success with diagnostics is with the recently launched SOLUS+™. Bill told us that when a new product comes out, he directs his sales team to conduct an all-out customer focus, which answers the weekly question, “What’s new Snappy?”
Furthermore, it initiates a lot of excitement and “gotta have it” type of buying decisions. With this strategy, the Knippenberg team is close to an impressive 30 SOLUS+™ FTAs so far, since the launch just a few months ago.
Bill shared with us that during the first six months of the business, he was completely intimidated by diagnostic tools. But that fear-based mindset soon changed when he discovered three key things that would change his business dynamic concerning diagnostics forever:
- As a franchisee, you don’t need to know how to diagnose a vehicle’s problem with a scan tool to sell it, but you do need to point out a couple of cool features and benefits.
- Although shop owners may find it difficult to justify new hand tools and tool storage items, coming with common answers like “I already have that” or “I don’t need tools as much anymore,” diagnostic tools and information is an entirely different breed. There’s always a need to update technology to keep up with the best of the best.
- Selling diagnostic tools can be a lot of fun, and turns out, way easier than other big-ticket items.
As Bill began his business, 11 years ago, he engaged with programs like TechKnow with his Representative Mike Beidel. These programs helped him gain the confidence he needed to dominate the diagnostic market in his route and all his future routes.
We spoke with Mike Beidel who is now the RDM (Regional Diagnostic Manager) in the North Central region and asked him: What makes the Knippenberg organization such a strong business and specifically, their diagnostic business? His responses were:
- All five store managers reflect the way that Bill sells and conducts business.
- He teaches them to sell and have confidence in the diagnostic product line like he does.
- Bill is a very engaged owner and participates in programs available including the Diagnostic Sales Developer (DSD) and Sales Developer (SD).
- Mike wrapped up answering us by saying, “the Knippenberg’s organization mission, is to sell BIG - and they do.”
We asked Bill what the future holds for their business. He simply said, “focus on growth.” Not adding anymore stores, but to maximize the potential for the five existing ones.
He then shared what had been working best for growth in diagnostics to date and what he would continue in the future.
Bill has a huge social media strategy and following. He will continue to expand that. He uses Facebook® to get the word out on assistant openings on his stores as he strongly believes in two on a truck, for all five of his fleet. He also uses it to announce contests and promotions, along with all new diagnostic platform launches. All diagnostics trade-in's are featured on Facebook® and sell through quickly.
When a customer’s scanner is out of date, the team does not focus on selling an update, they focus on trading it into the next level tool.
This organization always participates in the promo package and marketing plans with Business Aid (BA) offerings. They create their own packages, too. They have used Trade Allowance (TA) to offer chances at dirt bikes, electric bikes, four wheelers, golf carts and even a Harley®. This always keeps customers excited about big-ticket items. Bill shared a very important factor with us concerning this - his team utilizes a TA book. He explained that it was sort of like a check book register where you keep track of your account balance. Instead of tracking the account balance, the TA book tracks unused TA dollars. That is what funds the BA items that this team utilizes for reasons to buy big-ticket items now (RTBN).
The Knippenberg organization dominates the diagnostic market in all five routes. Bill attributes this to how user friendly the Snap-on® tools are over the competitors and of course, his teams’ customer relationships.
In addition, Bill conducts quarterly training for his store managers and assistants. Product knowledge and demonstration skills to instill a higher level of confidence is a common topic – and a great strategy. He teaches his team to not overlook any customer, as every customer is a prospect. He also stands by not prejudging anyone.
Bill is the kind of team leader that is very engaged in the contracts. He wants to make sure his customers are receiving the most for their investment and that they leave satisfied with their purchase. Moreover, he wants to ensure every Fast-Track® intelligent Diagnostic platform has a data plan as well.
Bill believes that diagnostic tools are very much like a consumable product. It is the gift that keeps on giving, in his business. That is why diagnostics is such a large part of his overall business strategy and historically, such a big part of his paid sales.
As far as future goals go, Bill simply says “We will be the best.”
Bill and Brenda, congratulations on such huge success and we wish you all the best! Thank you so much for sharing your one of a kind story with us.