Building Your Retail Windshield Repair Business

Post your windshield repair tips, questions, advice! Note there is a sub-forum specifically for business development questions.
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Coitster
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Post by Coitster »

Hey Chris,
Don't just limit yourself to the small industrial complexes. Obvously I like those the best because you can hit lots of businesses at once. Anyplace that has a few cars parked out front will work. When we go out next time together I will show you my B list in terms of what other types of places you can go. Fort Worth is a gold mine for B lists. To give you an example on monday before newyears I took my sister to one of my B list properties and we went around for 6 hours and made over 500 dollars in one day. 9 insurance jobs. Thats not too bad, and my sister just watched.
I sure love this business.
David
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Coitster
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Post by Coitster »

Gary,
I just want to say that I am so excited by the success you are having. You are right in the fact that most people who try this approach really try to over complicate it. Please feel free to give any comments about the approach. The great thing about it is the more people who comment on it the better it gets. As for making money consistantly that I think thats wonderfull. The reason most people get out of the repair business is because they just can't make a consistant living. I went out today for only 6 hours and made over $400 dollars. The other day C_MacKowski from the forum was with me and we walked up to what I call a B sight, thats more of an industrial complex. They only had 5 doors in that place. We sold 6 insurance and 1 cash job and made $380 dollars in 4 hours. This is amazing how easy it is.
David
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% of repairs

Post by glassdoctor »

Ccol, I had not heard if you found success in a this type of location. Was it a typical factory, or multiple tenants? I was just thinking about the really large companies around here, and wondered about the security guards, etc... Ever milked jobs from these?

I have met up with a few security people while working on a car in their parking lot. These were jobs that I was supposed to go there to do. I never took the opportunity to land more work while there. Next time...
Coitster
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Post by Coitster »

No, I am sorry thats not what I meant. When I talk about industrial I mean a small office with only a few employee's or like 5 to 10 vehicles out front. Maybe a row of offices that semi's can back up to and a row of like 4 to 6 offices. If there is a security guard I would avoid it. Besides the bigger the parking lot the harder it is to find the vehicles owner. Remember the small the better.
David
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glassdoctor
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Post by glassdoctor »

Yeah, that's what I was thinking... You want nice lakes, not the ocean, and no puddles. :shock:

Thanks
Coitster
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Post by Coitster »

Ok, this is another part of my sales pitch or how I do business. Most people don't realize this but over half of the people I sell windshield repair to tell me no when I give them my pitch. I am still able to sell quite a few of them anyway because I keep the conversation going.

Let's talk about why people say no. Most people are offended or devastated when someone says no to them. Actually this is why most people don't succeed in sales. You see people are conditioned in today's society to say no whenever they are offered something. People a lot of the time don't even listen to you when you even talk to them. They just say no as a gut reaction. Now I am not advocating pressuring people or being a pest. If someone is genuinely not interested, go and find someone else.

However most people when they tell me no, don't even know what they are saying no to. So here is what I do. When I throw out my pitch and tell them that I can fix their chip in their windshield for free, they are usually telling me no because either they don't believe me, or its just a gut reaction. Now here is the key! What do I do?

Simple, without batting an eyelash I look them dead in the eye, put my hands up with my palms facing them and say, "No problem thats ok, for future reference when you decide to do that this is how it works when you are ready". Now think about what I just did here. First off, I have just lowered all their defense barriers, they understand that its ok to tell me no, I am not going to come back and ask them why, which mind you is very confrontational.

Usually the reaction is instantaneous, they relax and they listen to me give them the rest of my pitch. And now that I have lowered their barriers they actually listen because they don't think I am going to sell them anymore. This gives me a chance to explain why its free, how it works and the fact that I am going to call their insurance company and that the insurance company is going to confirm everything I just said. Its because of this response and the ability now to talk to them in a non threatening way that sells me a huge amount of no's.

Just ask any of the guys that ride with me, they see lots of people tell me no and I still sell them. They don't feel like they have gotten a hard sell, they are actually very appreciative that I came by. Most of my customers tell me when I am done that they are so happy I stopped by. They never knew about the program.

Again don't be threatening, just understand that most people are going to tell you no as a gut reaction. Its just overcoming that. If after I have explained the program they are still not interested well, next. I have forgotten about them before I have closed the door. I don't dwell on it, I don't worry if I just had a crabby secretary I just move on. Thats really it guys. Hope some of this helps.
David
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AutoEgo

Post by AutoEgo »

I have come to the realization in the short time and I mean very short time I have been doing this that all you have to do is ask and the jobs will start flowing. I got to my local Speed Shop at 10:30 saturday morning. Just stopped in to buy some parts. I fixed 3 of their fleet vehicles at $40 each did 3 of their employees vehicles, 2 for cash and 1 for insurance. and as I was leaving booked a job for later in the afternoon at a guys house that had come in to buy some brakes for his Porsche! i made $300 bucks in 4 hours! Didn't plan on making anything on Saturday.

One thing I noticed and this is a very basic sales principle. If the potential customer is set on not going through the insurance company offer the repair to them as a cash job and be sure to say " I understand your not wanting to go through your insurance company. I can take care of it without ever contacting your insurance company for X $ and you will have the same lifetime guarantee that offer all my clients. Will this work for you?". Step back and let them make the next move. Offer them a solution to the problem. don't make the problem worse by asking them why don't you want this for free.

I'm not saying do this for every customer you meet. You have to know when to offer the alternative. Most of the folks here have been doing this long enough to know when to switch the pitch or go for another no.

Sean
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Post by glassdoctor »

AutoEgo, I have to say that's a good reminder for all of us no matter how long we have been in WSR biz.

Especially for those of us that do fleet work almost exlusively, it's very easy to ignore all the potential "informal" sales from our day to day activity. I know I can say I have been in a rut in this regard. I can't rememeber the last time I looked for bonus jobs like you just did.

Maybe if your bread and butter is selling retail this is much easier... to always have you "radar" on. :wink:
Scott Tyner

Big Crack dilemma

Post by Scott Tyner »

"Marketing Do's and Don'ts"

As I'm sure most of you are aware....getting customers is our biggest obstacle. This is not a bad thing altogether. If you think about it...if getting customers was as easy as running an ad in the weekly shopper, everyone and his brother would be in this business.

The market would become saturated to the point that no one would be making any money. When it comes to your marketing efforts, you should use a combination of tried and proven techniques (you'll find plenty of posts here in the forum) and those not so common!

One of the cheapest (under $1.00) ways to come up with a strategic marketing plan is to get yourself a notebook and place the following headings in it (leave plenty of pages between each heading):

1) ADS!
When it comes to ads, start "Thinking Outside of the Box!" 99% of repair techs are running "ME TOO" ads to try and attract business! This is a complete waste of money! When you run these type of "cookie cutter" ads you're saying "hey, try me...I offer the same service as all the other guys.

Think about this: When you are looking through a newspaper are you stopping to look at each advertisement or are you skimming? You are ignoring the majority of the ads....BUT, every so often an ad will catch your eye and you STOP to read it!

This is what you're wanting with your own ads....for as many people as possible to notice the ads and if in need of a repair, to CALL YOU!

Next, start cutting out ads that catch your eye. Keep them in a folder for future use. Once you have a minimum of 10, get them out any spread on the table. Let your imagination roam....you'll start to get ideas for a creative ad of your own.

2) Pre-emptive Strike!
DO NOT COPY what the other techs in your area are doing. Look for ways to "stand out from the crowd." Be first with ideas.

An example of this would be:

Instead of saying you offer a "Lifetime Warranty" on all repairs...come up with a guarantee that stands out from the crowd, such as:

"Fixed Right The First Time, Everytime."
We stand behind every repair with a
WRITTEN LIFETIME GUARANTEE!

There are lots of ways to stand out from the crowd, you just need to take the time to think of them.

3) IDEAS!

In this section, write down ideas you have on how you could improve your business.

You'll be surprised at how many ideas you will start to come up with when writing them down. The majority of us have ideas on a daily basis, but fail to write them down and before you know it we forget them.


Final note: Spend time each day on these topics. Even if it's just 30-minutes. Make a committment and watch it pay off for you. Many of us fall into a routine of neglecting our business and then wondering why it's not doing as well as we want it to.

It takes continuous effort if you want to be successful!

Scott
:)
Coitster
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Post by Coitster »

Here you must be very carefull. You see windshield repair is not like most business's. Chips for most people is an out of site out of mind thing. It has been my experiance that nearly 99.999999999% of all forms of advertising is worthless. I have found that direct sales or one on one comunications is by far the best technique to sell people. That doesn't mean that all advertising doesn't work.

All I am saying is that if you are going to try something that you see, like Scott sugests is that you test, test, and test some more. Do it on a very small scale and check the results. I have literaly tried hundreds of different things and found very few of them to work. However :wink: I have found a few to work well for people that are aware of windshield repair.

Just be carefull, being self employeed you have to watch your expenses so that you remain profitable. :)
David
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