Alphabet Soup and Employee Engagement
In short, engaged employees give a damn about your company. They’re not working just for a paycheck; they’re working because they’re connected to your company’s values, committed to its goals, and feel responsible for its successes or failures. Not only are they valuable as employees, they’re valuable as recruiters, salesmen, and marketers.
Expectations
What exactly do you expect from the people with whom you deal every day? Do you have certain expectations of your employees, suppliers, and customers? But the bigger question is, Do they know it? Do they know exactly what you want from all of them, or are you the type who just thinks they should all be able to figure it out for themselves and then if they don’t, get all bent out of shape?
Monopoly Money Can Work
When I first enter a shop and before I start selling, I like to look at past individual sales amounts for the past year to get an understanding of the previous pricing policy. The next step is to find out what the market will bear in that area. When I get into the shop and start selling, I make a list of transmission types. I call the dealership on each transmission type as they come in and get a price before I work up my cost. The dealerships will set what the market will bear in any area I am working in. Within a month or two, I have the list up to date with the most common 15 or so transmission types that this particular shop is working on. As a salesman, I do not care what the other transmission shops are charging. They are not whom I am competing with. I am competing with dealership prices. They set what the market will bear – local transmission shops do not. Now that I know what the market will bear, I work up my prices based on that and make sure I am not leaving any money on the table.
Is That The Best You Can Do?
Selling value is easy once you’re in the habit. Here are some great ways to start (if you’re new, or a veteran who could use a tune-up)…
Quitters, Campers and Climbers
Team building is a job that a transmission-shop owner has to do well if he is going to have any success – now or in the future. You see, if your employees can’t sell it and fix it, you are not going to last long in this industry. A transmission shop will pick your pocket quicker than anything you can imagine if you don’t know what you are doing. The problem is that employees come and go. That is just a fact of life. Recruiting the right employees is the key to your success now and, the key to any continued success you might hope to have in the future. At the end of the day, we are selling high-dollar labor to our customers. It is your number-one responsibility to recruit and hire the best employees you can find.
TRUTH OR DARE
The other day while waiting for one of the forever traffic lights they have here to turn green I started studying the sign posted just outside the office of the automotive shop on my left. It read, “WE WILL BEAT ANY WRITTEN ESTIMATE BY 20-40%.” Really? What does that mean? Will they write their own estimate that’s 20-40% less, but is that just what they will write, not what they will charge? Will they just knock 20-40% off whatever the other estimate was? Will they actually do the job for that much less? Will they provide the same kind of quality for such a lower price if indeed they will ever actually sell the job at the lower price they are going to quote, or will they tell the customer who walks in after reading that sign that it only applies to certain types of cars or jobs and that his isn’t one of them?
7 Ways to Onboard a Rockstar
When you hire a new guy or gal, your job isn’t done when they walk in the door. In fact, it’s just starting.
So how do we ensure the newest person on our sales crew is ready to be a rockstar for our customers? Here are 7 ways…
Telephone Procedure Dos and Don’ts
I began investigating how to maximize leads in today’s shops last year by interviewing some online lead experts, since that is where all the leads are nowadays. The common opinion in their line of work was that they would be a lot more successful if the managers in our industry knew how to answer the phone properly and convert their leads into jobs. I know there is a lot of truth in that because I have listened to recordings of my managers and when I saw them next, it was all I could do to keep my hands off their throats; however, there are a lot of managers out there in our industry that are trained on proper telephone procedure and know how to set a lead. The lead guys like them. Good salesmen make them look good. But, on the other hand, a good lead guy can make a salesman look good too.
THE MOVE FROM HELL
Moving is never easy, especially when it’s half way across the country to a place you’ve only visited a couple of times. Uprooting your family and changing your lifestyle from one that you’ve known for most or all of your life can be traumatizing. I’ve always prided myself in being adaptable and I’m sure I’ll get used to my new surroundings quickly but that wasn’t nearly my biggest problem with this move.
What We Want and What We Need
As much as we get used to what we are doing on a daily basis, sometimes the way we do it needs to change as conditions around us do or when we realize that what we’ve been doing just doesn’t get the job done anymore.
Marketing is one area in which this might hold true above all others. It’s just too easy to fall into the trap that “the way we’re doing it must be alright because it’s the way we’ve always done it.” Look around you. Nothing is the way it used to be–especially not the way you receive or convey information–and isn’t that what marketing and advertising are all about? Your message may not have changed very much because you still want to offer your excellent services to the public, but the way you deliver the message certainly has, and the types of offerings you put out need to make sense to your potential customers. Customers have to see your offer and immediately say to themselves, “I need that.”–not “I want it”, but “I need it.”
Wasted Marketing Dollars
Transmission shop owners throw away thousands of dollars every year on advertising that does not work. Why ? I have been a shop owner and visited with a lot of transmission shop owners over the years and I am convinced that they just don’t have time (or haven’t taken the time) to figure out exactly how they should be spending their marketing dollars.
Elevate Yourself from Order-Taker to Salesperson
Every time you answer the phone, you have an opportunity and a choice.
The opportunity: Somebody is calling you because they need or want something.
The choice: You can give them information or you can give them a reason to buy from you.
Before you answer that next call, think “What’s my goal?” Hint: If your goal is to give them prompt, courteous information, you’re only a fraction of the way there.
