What’s the deal with PBE?
While I was at the AAPEX/SEMA/NACE/CARS shows this year (watch for your December issue of PD for some of the great tools there), I was asked why most tool and equipment jobbers don’t stop at PBE shops. In my limited knowledge, I couldn’t answer. But I promised to start asking and look for an answer.
What I’ve heard so far is that traditional PBE jobbers concentrate on paint, finishing chemicals and sandpaper, and T/E jobbers just don’t stop at PBE.
That appears to me that your average PBE tech is left without a weekly source for the power tools and hardlines he needs in his work. After all, it’s not just sanding and spraying.
So, if you stop at PBE shops every week, how many? If you don’t, why not? I would love to learn a bit more about this side, or potential side, to your business. If you’d like to remain anonymous and not post here, please click here to email me directly.
Thanks!
-Brendan
February 12th, 2008 at 10:22 pm
PBE shops are in my mind even better than regular mechanic shops, b/c they need the tools a regular mechanic needs and even more that are specifically for body work. Yes there are very few painters that will buy more than a spray gun from you, but the occasional painter is a tool freek like the rest of us, and or works on rods on his/her off time. The bodymen however are about the best customers you can ask for, because there are a ton of mo clamps to choose from, and he also doubles as a mechanic. Most seasoned body men jump on the jobs with the added mechanic labor on them.
I was a body man for 8 years before starting my franchise and in that time I spent about $100,000 on Matco and Snapon tools. So if you are a mobile distributor and you are passing up your local body shops, especially independent body shops, then you are doing you and your business a great diservice.