Building Your Retail Windshield Repair Business

[c_mackowski]

I thought I would let everyone know that Tuesday 02/03 was my first day out on my own. David and I talked last week, I told him was very anxious about starting. I really needed to just get out there and quit talking and well "just do it". Started out the day 00:00 wide awake. I tossed and turned all night. I work nights from 6pm to 6am so sometimes on my days off I'm just too tired to sleep. I decided to sleep in till 10 am but felt like I had been beaten with a baseball bat all night. After several cups of coffee I started feeling better and started getting ready. I should have know it was just going to be one of those days? No matter how hard I tried I could not manage to leave. Needless to say I was very frustrated. It was 12:45 before I pulled in to the spot I picked out.
My goal really was to just get over talking to that first person. I'm not a sales man, that is what worried me. David does this so easily and I was not too sure if I would be able to.
Found my first vehicle, a gray Tahoe. I kept driving around for a few mins before I got up the nerve. Well I could not find that guy. Next one was a really nice late model chevy pickup, could not find that owner. The third was I believe a Ford pickup can't remember he looked interested but didn't want to commit. At least I was able to give him my speech. I got that out of the way? Finally?
Could not find the fourth owner. I find a Ford Expedition in front of "America Hospice". I remember thinking maybe the Hospice people will be an easier sell. The owner was in a meeting. Well another owner overheard and had me look at his GMC truck with a small chip. He was with State Farm, I made the call to lynx, it was a breeze. We then located the owner of the Ford. She was a sell also. Then a coworker, she had a Honda. I was so jazzed, I sold three without much work it was only 1:20. So I grabbed my toolbox and started work on the GMC pickup.
This crack was different, the impact point was about 2cm above the crack which was very small. I knew I needed to drill the I/P. I was horrified when I realized my new drill bits would not fit in my drill. The collar was too big. I was so very disappointed. Well before I would just give up I wrapped some tape around the bit and clamped it down. I was very surprised that this worked. My problems did not stop there. This chip was horrible. I used all the tricks David thought me. An hour and a half later it occurred to me the impact point was above the chip. So I drilled right on top of the crack popped a bullseye and finally resin started to flow. The Ford went like a breeze. It was a bullseye combo.
This lady brought her hubby by who had two in his f250. I was now 4:20 and I was really nervous about using this drill again.
I made a tactical retreat (blamed it on the clouds, no sun ?.)rescheduled the f250 and Honda.

When I was on my way home I could not figure out how I felt about the day a lot of crap, but something very good. I did manage to sell 4 chips. I had problems but I'll get over that. Also I did manage to do $100 in 3.5 hours. Sure I want that to be more, I expected to do a flat zero the first day. So in short?..if I can manage to sell 4 anyone else can!!!

[DaveC]

Great Going!!! You hit the nail on the head!!!

One can either spend countless hours/weeks/months developing killer marketing strategies, billboards and researching all the nuances of getting that extra buck out of the insurance companies....

OR, one can get off their duff and repair some windshields.

Just think of all of the obstacles you had to overcome. Late start, difficulties locating owners, equipment mismatch, an untried/unproven sales pitch and you managed to sell 4 in such a short time!

I guess ya got to send David some dollars for his next trip to the store for all of his support;)

[Coitster]

Chris,
I'm so proud of you buddy. Yea you had some problems but everyone does there first week. You did the hardest thing there is to do. You got over your fear of talking to people. Most people don't ever do that. They keep saying to themselves I am going to do it, or get around to it and they never do. You did it, thats just awsome. WTG, keep it up.
David
Coitster

[GRT]

Chris, I congratulate you. 90% of people never make it to this part. ACTION! You have jumped out of your comfort zone, and I may add, made money to boot. I agree with DaveC, you really need to send Coitster some dollars so he can keep up with his shopping.

[Coitster]

[drfixachip]

I gotta give it to Coister for sharing his simple techniques for rock chip
success. >>APPLAUSE<<

I have been in this business for 4 years now and have tried almost every form of marketing/ advertising you can think of... With VERY poor results.
(except for direct field sales) Sure the deals were coming in... just not in the quantities I would like to see to accomplish my longer term goals.
I have tried:
-Flyers (of all sorts)
-Print ads (weeklies and others)
-Signs
-Telemarketing
-Tents
-Flea Markets(??)
-Direct mail
-"take one" boxes
-Internet (I have the highest search ranking for all things glass in my area)
-and many other things

I was getting kinda frustrated actually... My business has suffered several
major hits over the past year and a half. To top it all all off I came home
one day to find that my wife had moved to another state to live with her new boyfriend. Talk about a blow below the belt... (hence my lengthy absence from the forum)

Last week I remembered this post... So I checked it out again. After reading the whole post again I asked myself... "why on earth have I been wasting all of this money on ads that just don't work well?"

See... I used to be a star field salesman who managed a team that did $100k/mo in gross sales... that was 10 years ago. I got very burned out
selling the hard to sell high dollar items. At some point in time I had obviously started to link pain to field sales, in my mind. So the only type of marketing I had been doing for my WSR business was basically passsive marketing... Not direct "go get em" field sales... Therein lies my biggest mistake of the past 4 years.

So after re-reading Coisters post I decided to see if I could regain that state of mind from BEFORE I got burned out in field sales. The next day I
went out per Coisters suggestions and looked for some business parks.
I got a late start to the day due to weather... At 2pm I entered my first
office building. It was like I had instant access to the OLD state of mind
from my younger days... after the 4th NO I moved on... 2nd office was open but nobody home... 3rd office I walked into had a work truck in the front that a was a great candidate.

So I asked for the manager of the company after sweet talking the gal
in the office for a minute or two. I delivered Coisters basic pitch and piqued this guys interest. But ... His answer was NO... So I stepped back
and used Davids simple response to NO. Then I continued forward with some more basic info... "Let's do it", he says!

So he gets out his insurance card and I call in the repair. While I'm setting
up for the repair I ask about a f350 right beside this work truck. By the
time I finish the first repair, the f350 guy was getting out his insurance card! Perfect... Two birds with one stone... And I didn't have to sell this guy at all... the other guy did the selling!

So as I was thanking them both again, the manager says, "did ya check our work trucks out back?" I wasn't aware there were trucks out back so he showed them to me... What do ya know? 4 more chips! He decided to just pay cash for the other trucks in the back... one had one combo and another had 2 combos and a batwing.

BTW... there was a big NO SOLICITNG sign on the front door...haha

I had actually only spent about 10 minutes that first day prospecting,
if that's what you wanna call it. That 10 minutes of prospecting led to 2.5 hours of work and almost $200 in volume. And this was just the first day!

Since then (while fighting the weather) I have been extremely happy with
the results of Davids simple approach to field selling WSR. Short simple and to the point... OH and it's FUN!

So what is the point? Follow Coisters advice and do exactly as he says.
You will succeed!

It can be very difficult to get over the anxiety of opening that first door.
That is a natural human physiological response to stepping out of your comfort zone. Even as a person who has hardcore door-to-door sales experience, I still feel that way before I really get warmed up for the
day. All you really have to do is "just do it"!

Go talk to people. Most of them won't bite The work is there
guys. Just go get it. If someone says no, don't let it bother you.
Every no is just one step closer to a yes. David is right... This is
actually an easy sale in the field... Shockingly easy in fact.

David, I want to thank you for reminding me about what I SHOULD have
been doing all along. Thanks for giving ME that kick in the pants and helping me see that I should have been using what I know works... rather than sitting on my duff waiting for people to come find me. NEVER AGAIN! I have been passive for far too long.

I truly appreciate your willingness to share your insight with the rest of the WSR folks on this board. And for those of you who are wondering if
this really works... You will never know until you just GO DO IT!!!!

The most important thing in any field sales is to just go have fun. The more you do it, the more fun it will become... and the more persuasive you will become. If ya mess up... who cares? Just do it some more.

Despite 2003 ending on a very sour note for me... 2004 looks brighter than ever!

Thanks again David for the inspiration. You are an asset to the community.

[StarQuest]

Chris,

Great post in sharing your first day with all of us! It takes a "real man" to openly disclose all his fears and anxiety associated with starting out in WSR. I just wanted to say "Bravo" your the man this week! I only hope some of the newbies starting out will read your post and learn from your initial experience and will never give up when things look bleak.

I'll never forget the first week I went out on my own. Much like you, I also had a veteran WSR tech like David Coister(not nearly as good as David though!) to help me get things started. During that week everything seemed so easy when he was at my side. Then I week later I went solo repair

My very first repair was a brand new F250 with only 950 miles registered that had a half inch hit right over the mirror tab. The customer was a Ford engineer who made a point of mentioning he loved his truck more then his wife. Didn't really need to hear that! Made me more nervous! It was a AAA insurance repair that paid $75. Easy money right? Wrong!!! Although it looked like a very easy repair and I felt confident, it turned out to be a major disaster! As I was writing up the invoice and the repair looked great under curing pressure, I made a mistake by calling the customer at his office and told him another ten minutes to cap, polish and everything looked good. Unfortunately, right after getting off my cell phone, I looked at the repair again it wasn't going so great! That half inch repair grew three inches in length during my invoice write-up. I then panicked!!! When I climbed up on my latter to chase this runner I accidently leaned into his fender with my leg and popped a dent Talk about sweating bullets on your first day. I was so embarassed. Not to mention experiencing a total loss of confidence with my repair ablilities.

I was seriously considering to quit that day in WSR but I didn't. Yes, I did drive back home with tail between my legs. Once home, I thought about what happened for a few minutes, took a shower to relax, then went back out again and did three more repairs. Glad I did because they all turned out perfect and built my confidense levels back up.

I didn't make any money that day after paying off my losses for the fender repair...but I did learn something very important about surviving in this business. WSR is definatley not for the weak hearted! Anybody going into WSR as a starter who can't deal with some of the down moments in this business should probably consider doing something else for a living.

Chris is just one great example of a starter who will become successful in WSR.

[CPR]

Nice job on your first day, I hope mine will be the same. Should be ready in a couple of weeks and it is nice to read your post and realize that we are in the real world. You were able to hang in there when things did not go your way ( I really hate the cold sweats ) this gives all of us a shot of confidence. I did paint touchup for a while and was very good at it, thought that was enough to succeed.

I was wrong ! you have to be able to sell your service, most consumers out there do not even know anything about what we do. They have to believe in what you are selling and feel confident that they can trust you and your service. I will be prepared this time and failure is not an option, I know how to do it wrong, this time I will be prepared. Everyone here has taken the time to give there unselfish input to keep me motivated, thanks.

[Coitster]

First of all I want to thank you Jason,
Those are kind words. Most off all I want to congratulate you. I think you are awesome man, getting out there and doing it is incredible. Way to go buddy. You have hit it on the head when you say Just Get Out And Do It. That is so right. Most people think they want to try traditional advertising however if you leave it in the customers hands it is very had to get business. Those that are successful are the ones that get out and make it happen. I am so very much excited for you and this coming year. You are right, this year has never looked brighter. If you continue to go out and make things happen this will be your best year and then some. :::Claps::::

David
Coitster

[c_mackowski]

I wrote my post during the course of night here at work. Reading it today I realized I forgot the biggest part.

Thanks David!

If it ain't broke don't fix it. David's plan does not need fixing. Just go out and do what he says!

DavidC
"I guess ya got to send David some dollars for his next trip to the store for all of his support;)"
-I figured the least I could do for all the training was to let David bill for my windshield!! That "should" keep him busy for a little while.... We'll see

StarQuest
"It takes a "real man" to openly disclose all his fears and anxiety associated with starting out in WSR."
-Well... Ummm...I wanted to include how I felt and how the process went for that "first" sell. Hopefully this help someone else who is just starting. Some things are easier said than done. I was worried this would be me trying to sell wsr.
"I just wanted to say "Bravo" your the man this week!"
- Thanks but that should go to David! When I first searched google for windshield repair and found Delta Kits, It was David's sticky that made me realize this was feasible. Not too mention all the invaluable info on the forum, thanks everyone!

Hopefully things will go even better next week!