Merchants can’t afford to ignore the growing popularity of cordless tools says Mark Batchelor, Sales Manager — National Accounts, at Makita UK. Here, he explains the customer benefits of such solutions and how maintaining good stocks can help generate greater returns.
With more tradespeople looking for new ways to tackle construction tasks more efficiently, many are adopting modern solutions which benefit from technological innovations such as brushless motors and cordless design. For merchants looking to ensure their range meets demand and continues to deliver real value to their customers, consider how products that feature such innovations may influence your power tools offering.
Cordless and brushless benefits
In recent years, leading manufacturers have worked to develop tools that harness these technologies and deliver outstanding results with cordless machines that are suitable for even high-demand, industrial applications.
In the past, some in the sector were reluctant to adopt cordless tools due to a perceived tradeoff between flexibility and power. However, advancements in battery technology and product design have improved the performance of cordless tools to provide the power and torque comparable to their corded counterparts. This means that professionals can not only work harder, for longer and tackle many common construction tasks on just a single charge, but also enjoy increased flexibility on site without being constrained by the limits of a cable, power supply, or the need to carry heavy transformers.
Furthermore, cordless tools that have been designed with a brushless motor yield even greater benefits for your audience. Brushless motors require minimal maintenance and tend to have much greater lifecycles, primarily because there are no brushes within the motor causing friction — which is a potential cause of wear and tear in brushed motor alternatives. As such, supplying brushless motor tools can help to reduce the likelihood of customer returns.
What’s more, brushless tools produce more torque per weight, which means less power is required to achieve the same result. For example, Makita’s brushless solutions help to extend tool run times by up to 50% on each battery charge, which instantly allows customers to improve their on-site productivity rate.
Battery platform
For your customers, a manufacturer that can offer a wide range of tools that are powered by one battery platform will be appealing as well as ensure your own business has less SKUs to manage and products to navigate.
Makita’s cordless power tools are driven by one of three battery platforms – CXT, LXT and XGT, depending on the application. For example, the 18V LXT battery alone is compatible with over 270 of the company’s tools and equipment products, representing a huge revenue opportunity. For end users, the ability to interchange between tools to tackle different tasks seamlessly with one battery is a strong sales message.
Once invested into the battery platform system, these customers will remain loyal to the brand family, again opening up ongoing revenue streams as they increase their cordless tool supply.
Ensuring customers are satisfied with their cordless purchase seems obvious, but there are sadly manufacturers that make unsubstantiated claims regarding battery and power performance resulting in a tool purchase that does not match customer expectations. To avoid the risk of an unhappy customer, dissatisfied with their product, it is vital that when making recommendations that only trusted and reliable manufacturers are considered.
This also extends to warrantees. Suppliers that provide long-term guarantees with their units can instill longer term confidence and trust in the product. Warrantees are protected when genuine Makita batteries are used with its products and tools.
Product knowledge
As always, it’s important to make sure you have the appropriate product knowledge to guide customers and to make recommendations that increases potential basket value. To this end, working with an industry-leading manufacturer that has a wide sales support network which can offer flexible product training is ideal. Makita has a regular training programme to keep merchant partners fully updated on new products in its range and its technologies, as well comprehensive point of sale material to help customers at the point of their purchase.
This can be a beneficial resource to provide further value and care for your client base.
As the nation looks to start building again, merchant professionals will once again be called upon to help ensure those in the trade are getting the best tools and equipment on offer to them. There’s an increased incentive for those in the trade to find new ways to improve work efficiency and on-site productivity. As such, there now exists a distinct opportunity to recommend modern, innovative solutions which benefit from technological advancements, such as brushless motors and cordless design.
In doing so, merchants can deliver additional value to their customers, to help generate greater customer satisfaction and loyalty in return. More than anything, being up to date on this new range of technologies can help merchants go above and beyond with advice and guidance, whilst stocking the latest in-demand products will ensure your business remains relevant in today’s modern marketplace.
For more information on Makita’s cordless range, go to: www.makita.co.uk
