Back to Basics
I know this much: Managers who sell on the phone make less money than managers who contact-sell. I have tried it both ways. When I call on the phone, the customer is sitting in his environment and all he has to do is hang up and I am finished. He may be distracted and not able to focus on my service recommendation. He may not be able to take personal calls at work. Bottom line, the customer has control of me and can easily postpone his decision. I don’t know about you, but when it is my money on the line, I like to be in control of the transaction. If you can do it over the phone, my hat is off to you. I just don’t get that warm and fuzzy feeling over the phone.
What Did You Expect?
When you’re hiring new employees it is extremely important to tell them exactly what your expectations of them are right from the beginning. There has to be some direction from the start or they can easily decide for themselves what this job should be, and that probably won’t get you the results you want.
What Are You so Afraid of?
Do these customers threaten physical violence if they don’t get their cars fixed at a cheap price? Not usually; if anything they say scary things like “That’s too much money,” “the car’s not worth it,” “I can get it cheaper down the street,” or “I don’t have that kind of money.” Now, if those phrases have rattled you so much in the past that you are now at the point where you drop your price before you even present it to the customer, you are losing sight of a very important point. The customer who would try to negotiate down your price by giving you all those objections would do so no matter what price you started out at. He or she would have fought you no matter what. The problem is that if you started low out of fear, there is nothing more for you to do than go even lower or try very hard to fight off the onslaught of price objections to follow. Starting higher would at least give you some wiggle room if you couldn’t handle every one of their price objections and felt at some point that you would have to negotiate. Then even a negotiated price would be profitable.
The Future of Transmission Specialty Shops
The economy went south, so you tried to figure out what to do. Other shops were doing general repairs. You knew you needed to generate more money so you started selling general repairs too. But was that the right decision for your shop?
It seems like the logical thing to do, but my experiences in a transmission shop tell me not to do general repairs. Too many bad things can happen. I personally do not want to open up that can of worms.
No Tech to High Tech
The source of the confusion seems to come when shop owners mix how and where we access our business tools used to manage our transmission shops. For example, If your production board is at the shop, unless you call and ask you have to go to the shop to see what is going on with production. If your lead sheet is at the shop, you have to go to the shop to view it.
If your parts invoices for the week are in a stack of papers in the back office, if your cash collected for the week is on a computer program at the shop, if your sales records are at the accountant’s office, if your production reports are in your car, if your vendor list is on a piece of paper taped to the wall at the shop and your checkbook in is in your desk at home, you “might” be caught up in the confusion I am talking about.
It’s not What You Do, It’s the Way You Do It!
Presentation is critical in dealing with comebacks or other customer concerns
Good intentions are wonderful, but they are only a concept until they are put into action and properly executed. For example, you may be more than willing to take care of a comeback or other not-so-enjoyable customer situation, but is that what your voice and mannerisms convey to your customers?
Understaffed Shops Make for Underserved Customers
When the shop is understaffed, owners and managers turn down work. Often they don’t know they are doing it and they will never admit that they are chasing customers, but that’s what they’re doing by not trying very hard to sell a job or by stalling customers off to a point where some of them just go away – all because they are understaffed and don’t know how they will get the work out after they’ve taken it in.
It’s Not Your Fault – or Is It?
We may need to market our goods and services differently, but we should never change our morality and basic philosophy. We came this far by providing honesty and customer service at profitable prices; to change any of that would prove disastrous. I understand that the fear of charging too much during hard economic times can scare shop owners into lowering prices and not trying as hard to sell everything the customer may need, but the reality is that you need a good price or you won’t be around to sell the customer anything in the not-too-distant future, and it is a disservice not to report everything that’s needed.
Recruiting Pays Big Dividends
Most transmission-shop owners would rather wear a dress than recruit. Who can blame you? The numbers are stacked against you as a recruiter. I get it. But I also know it’s part of your responsibility as a shop owner, and if you are going to be successful you need to keep your recruiting skills sharp. The fact is, if you hire the right people you can stop working for the numbers and have the numbers start working for you. I will show you in this article how that works.
Do You Sell Enough to Keep Your Technicians Busy?
Technicians can play a big part in the sales process, thereby controlling their own destiny to some degree. They can and should be doing an excellent job of checking out each vehicle that comes into their bay no matter why it is initially there. They should make all repair and service recommendations to the service adviser even if they find so many items that it might scare them. The service adviser’s job is to sort them all out, check the vehicle’s history to see what has already been done and decide what the customer really needs now, what can be put off for a little while and what can wait even longer; then he or she has to do a stellar job of selling all those items and giving alternatives only if the customer can’t or is unwilling to have them all done now. The idea is to keep the vehicle on the lift and perform as many repairs and services as possible to save the technician from making unnecessary moves, allowing for maximum productivity.
Rounding It Down
Did you ever get excited about the prospect of paying a visit to your local deli for coffee or a sandwich? I do every time. From the point of view of a marketing and sales consultant, doing business in this store is an absolute and rare pleasure, the kind of experience we should provide for our customers every time. Because I witness so many doing it wrong, it’s extremely refreshing to deal with people who go out of their way to do it right day after day.
On Building Better Customer Relationships
Not very many years ago the business world seemed to be in full swing. Anyone who wanted to put forth even a minimal effort was making money at one thing or another. Jobs were plentiful – to the point, in fact, where many could not be filled. Compared with now it was relatively easy for us to sell our services and repairs, because the motoring public had readily available funds or the credit they needed to secure them.
