Shop Management/Marketing Archives - Page 12 of 29 - Transmission Digest
How Does the Stock Market Affect Your Business?

The stock market is a venue for people who want to gamble on something many of them think they can control by doing a lot of research and constant tracking of the companies in which they invest. In point of fact you can follow your companies all you want. You can find out lots of information that will tell you how strong their sales are as opposed to their costs. You can check the background of all their executives and look into their relationships with other companies. In fact, with the Internet putting so much information right in front of you on your computer screen, you might think you can find out everything you need to know about how well companies are doing and how their stocks should behave on the market. One little problem though: Some of the best companies simply follow the market up or down, their individual performance notwithstanding. In other words, when the Dow Jones drops it takes these great companies with it no matter how well they are doing.

The Cheap Haircut

It’s great to show your personality, make jokes, and upsell to increase your bottom line. At the end of the day, if your main product sucks, none of the rest matters.

The Honey Effect

No two customers or situations are exactly the same. But you will find that you get better results if you treat the person on the other end with respect and a little extra TLC.

The Older We Get

Aging is not always a pleasant subject with which to deal. It tends to slow us down, make us forgetful and force us to change the way we go about our everyday lives. Although deep down inside most of us will be 25 forever, our bodies don’t help us keep that promise. Our brains tell our arms and legs which way to go but they don’t always obey, and remembering everything that used to be automatic becomes a struggle, so we have to continually think a move or two ahead.
I’ve found, as I’ve aged, that the simpler I keep things the more chance I’ll have of remembering them. This is especially true in dealing with customers. If I follow the same routines and tell the truth all the time there is much less I have to remember, allowing me to be far more effective. That way I won’t hesitate when I’m speaking and won’t have to search my internal database constantly trying to remember what lie I told to which customer. I was never a very good liar to begin with, but for those who are, you probably won’t be as you age, so it might be a good idea to start changing your tactics now.

It’s Just Routine

“Routine.” The word basically means to do the same things in the same order time after time. What’s interesting is that in the transmission or auto repair business that’s exactly what we need to do to be successful: Follow the same routines every time. There are routines for dealing with telephone callers, with customers as they come in, with diagnosing and pricing jobs, with calling customers to close sales, with handling price objections, with delivering the finished vehicle, and with following up after the work is completed.

The Fast and the Furious Way to Make Sales

In context, this is exclusively talking about racing cars. Out of context, I’d argue that this applies to sales. Standing by your car is like standing next to a list of sales you’ve made. Sure, it’s cool to have a mile-long list to show how many people you can sell something to. But after a while, you’ll likely run out of people willing to fork over their money. Racing your car is when you’re performing your job. When you put in the work to hone your craft and take challenges head on, you become one of the best. Your skills lead to admiration. Admiration earns respect. Respect opens the door to friendship. With that friendship, your list of possible customers can be endless.

Outside Insight – Can Restart Your Marketing Brain

If you’re lucky, your thoughts, opinions, and ideas are challenged every day. Regular, open discussion is a healthy thing, especially when it comes to justifying what you’re most passionate about.

But let’s be real. With the various responsibilities you have in your day and how busy work can seem, it’s easy to fall into a consistent, comfortable, unchallenged rut.

Bill Paying and Reputation

Paying bills is one of the most difficult things we have to do in business for a number of reasons. One that always bothered me was that the money I worked so hard to get didn’t even have a chance to get all warm and comfortable in my checking account before I had to take it out to pay bills. The old “hard-come, easy-go” scenario. It was almost like the money was never really there. Time is another factor. The time it takes to pay bills pulls you away from money-making activities, and we all know that’s where we should be placing most of our energy. Of course some of us have bookkeepers to help with the bill paying, but often we need to get involved anyway to determine who needs to get paid now, who can wait longer, and how much we can pay each creditor.

Honesty, Here’s My Wallet

If I encounter a sales rep who even remotely sounds like he’s trying to feed me B.S., I’ll take my money elsewhere – simple as that. Once trust in the individual is broken, it makes you question the honesty of the company – and products.

How Fortunate We Are!

Did you ever stop to think about how fortunate we are to live in a place where we can ply our trade with only minor guidelines imposed by government agencies, a place where we can get what we need so quickly that we get bent completely out of shape if we call the local parts store for a delivery and the driver doesn’t show up within 20 minutes with the exact right part in his hand? We tend to take all that for granted, but there are many places in the world where that kind of luxury just doesn’t exist.

It Ain’t All About You

I hate managers who brag on themselves to the customer. Makes me want to puke. They are absolutely missing the point. They should be bragging on the owner of the shop and the technicians who work there. That is what the customer wants to hear.

If You Built Your Team with a Fantasy Football Strategy

There are many ways for a manager to pick a “dream team” for the upcoming season, from high-risk to top-dollar and everywhere in the middle. Some of the methods are great, while others leave you with less than you started with.