Wide Open Road

You’ll know when you’ve found it.

Pausing to catch your breath, you savor it. Real, deep satisfaction. Unfiltered clarity. Blue skies. Growing confidence. Perhaps even a sigh of relief.

Wide Open Road - metaphor for a breakthrough, a unique and profitable path.

Looking for relief from the gnawing reality that your company or non-profit struggles to separate itself from the pack?

Or perhaps your organization is thriving, but you worry about complacency and hunger for continued success?

It might be a small incremental innovation to an existing product, the launch of a different fundraising channel, the introduction of an industry changing service standard, or a whole new company.

Whatever the breakthrough, most would agree that you need to “get on the road” to find it…

Among “Wide Open Road” stories, the Snap-on tale is one of the best…

Snap-on trucks are a common and often celebrated sight on the road today (especially for those that make their living with tools). The now $2.5 Billion dollar S & P 500 company had humble beginnings 90 years ago.

The birth and rise of the automobile meant more mechanical breakdowns and the need for better and more flexible tools that could be adapted to repair the ever increasing variety of models.

In 1920, Joseph Johnson and William Seidemann found their Wide Open Road with the revolutionary idea of interchangeable sockets and wrench handles. Their first marketing slogan, “Five Do the Work of Fifty,” referred to their system which allowed mechanics to invest in 5 different handles and ten sockets that could be attached and detached as needed to allow for 50 different combinations.

The fledgling enterprise took off when their first two salesmen, Stanton Palmer and Newton Tarble, took the tool system on a “road show” of sorts, visiting auto repair shops along Chicago’s Michigan Avenue. Product demonstrations and hands-on customer use of the tools drove rapid sales growth.  Incremental improvement suggestions and new product ideas were a natural by-product of the customer face time. They learned that mechanics don’t mince words. It was pure unfiltered market research every day.

Snap-on adapted to their customers financial challenges in the 1930s by being the first in the industry to extend credit. In the 1950’s they pioneered the franchise delivery and marketing channel. Bringing inventory to customers for review and immediate purchase and delivery, the now familiar, Snap-on stocked vans were born.

Snap-on was an early provider of electronic diagnostic tools to repair shops. Incorporating innovative technology in many of its more than 14,000 products, they are renowned for staying on the leading edge of tool design. Today, 90 years after their founding, Wide Open Road thinking continues to be Snap-on’s core strength.

Their model is beautiful, simple and effective.

Snap-on’s eyes and ears (their sales force/drivers) are with end users every day. They sell something. They reinforce the relationship. They get feedback. They share what they learn. Snap-on gets smarter. They refine their offerings and introduce new products and services. Marketing, Meet Sales. Each day, the cycle begins again…

It’s the ultimate Wide Open Road system.

You say, “Great story…what now?”

Get on the road. You’re looking for clues in pure unfiltered customer feedback. It’s up to you to make the connections and find the blue sky.

Wide Open Road…you’ll know when you’ve found it.