It's usually wet and cold here in the Northwest in winter. This is my second winter season as a WSR tech and I have been using a tent location for most of my sales until now. The bad weather really slows sales in the tent set up so I've been working hard on some fleet sales. (lots of no's there) It is an up hill battle to get the accounts going around here!!! Lots of WSR Hacking going on and people are very skeptical when it comes to repair.
I've visited a company here multiple times just to be brushed off in a polite way so I stopped dumping my effort on those folks and moved on. Then yesterday a customer I did a classic car for says to me you need to go back there and fix my wife's vehicle she didn't know who you are and when she came home and told me you tried to sell her (she showed him my card) I told her Yeah that's the guy you want to fix your shield!! He is friends with the owner of the outfit I was ORIGINALY approaching for work. He told me he also talked to that gent too. I guess the old word of mouth thing is going to make this sale I know that just being there (multiple times) didn't get it; I couldn't even get these folks to take a free sample repair. The doggone hack had spoiled this guy to the point of refusing a freebie. We'll see what happens after this. Thoughts? Scott
My best mentor one said " be fair with your priceing but never too low, be honest with your customer/competition, when the day is done be sure you have done "good works", and always leave something of value on the barganing table!!
While my friend and trainer/ mentor Ray has moved on, his words live.
Hi Scott- Hang in there buddy- I think that I waited to reply to this due to the fact that this is a rather depressing situation that you are in. Many other members here are depressed due to this winter weather..... I have been thinking about your situation and perhaps a little bit of Brian Jeremiah is starting to rub off on me....OMG....but - I was brain storming on this and it occured to me...Why not find an enclosed area such as a shopping mall or an indoor craft fair and set yourself up with a booth (ala Deltakits at a trade show), and just start putting chips in a piece of glass with a punch and then fixing them as people walk by. Instead of selling them a kit, sell them a repair. Have an assistant on hand with an appointment book and a phone plus plenty of hand outs and pens, magnets ect. The assistant should have contact numbers for the insurance companies and networks, and get a dispatch number. You can take on the repairs later in the week by appointment. I know when you start breaking glass, and then magically fixing it, you should get a fair share of interested spectators. If they don't have a chip now- they will in the future- and they will remember seeing your company AND the quality of work you perform. Best wishes, Bob Pennington at Paintless Plus
Winter is the best time to get new business, not traditional. Take the time to make up a little marketing pamphlet and a demo shield. I carry my demo glass to the insurance agents(1/4 of a windshield urathaned to a frame i made with a leg on a hinde to form a tabletop tri-pod) and break and repair your demo glass for them. It makes a good board-room demo, hand out your info packs(be sure to include some saftey info regarding windshield replacement). They will reccomend you to there policy holders. This is the time to prepare for spring, do demo's anywhere you can, The above mall or craft show approach is a good one I have done it and it works(home renovation shows, car shows........). Do some marketing, press release (if the local paper hasn't done a report on you get them to do it, just bring them some meat and they will chew to the bone), checking up on slow accounts, and general PR. Benefit from an opportunity that our frinds in the south don't have(imagine, they have to work for 12 months we work for 9, do pr for 2 and take one off, to go south).
I wish I had my fleet video done .... there is way too much to go over in a textual format but suffice it to say that if you REALLY want to become successful at fleets you should try to stop in for some training in Portland with me or San Antonio at the next training session Delta is putting on. I am not tooting my own horn as many people have a successful fleet business, but not very many have taken the time to sit down and figure out exactly how they got their accounts and put it into a format that is trainable and repeatable. I have aroun 150 fleet accounts with around 15,000 vehicles under my care. I do the regional gas, electric, phone and until recently the cable company (comcast). We do the local multi hundred vehicle bus system, many large trucking companies, many medium and small companies as well .... all this to say that it CAN happen and I would be willing to place a dollar to a dime that I could teach you to get accounts in your area everyday you go out to solicit. There isn't a single day that I go out and solicit that I don't get a new account using these techniques. Certainly I am not the only one using these like I said earlier ... there are many other very successful fleet guys on the board .. just I am close to you and have a program already in place to train. Traveling is never cheap but being mediocre and unsuccessful carries a far greater cost.
I could not agree more with Brian Jeremiahs above post. I attended Deltakits training a while back in Austin Texas. My expectations were to gain confidence in my repairs and to learn how to run this business. David Coit aka Coitster gave a presentation on his methods at the time, and was excellent. The one thing that I gained the most from Deltakits training was the surge of energy that you get from being around others dedicated to the same goal. It is unbelievable what you can learn from others in a short amount of time on a face to face level. There is truely electricity in the air at these training classes and you will leave with a lot of knowledge AND motivation. Many people will stumble on this site and buy a kit and try to make a go of this business.....but in my opinion if they don't have the motivation, they will fall short of their goals. If time permits I plan to attend another Deltakits training class in the future just to meet Brian and get my "Battery Recharged." Bob
Thanks for the responses Bob, Brian and repare-brise.
I didn't intend to be so negative on this post and I appreciate the feedback.
I was really charged up when I came home from training in eugene too. It's been a year and a half and mabey I could use a booster shot!! :~)
The local glass installers give free repairs around here (no ins billing or nothing). I've seen the work they do mostly crap when it comes to repair but they been doing it long enough to make things difficult to sway customers away from what they have ingrained them to believe. I've turned a few customers and I know that in time the reality of what is going on will come to light but it makes for a battle.
I would like to hook up with you Brian I've been thinking about coming down there if you think we could do that fire me a PM and we can discuss it.
The Mall/craft fair idea is something I would like to try also I have some marketing material that I've put together as well as some smaller piece of lami that would fill the bill for the repair display, Great idea!! Anyway I just wanted to say THANK YOU to you guys!!!! Scott
My best mentor one said " be fair with your priceing but never too low, be honest with your customer/competition, when the day is done be sure you have done "good works", and always leave something of value on the barganing table!!
While my friend and trainer/ mentor Ray has moved on, his words live.
Nothing beats the cold call find a chip aproach owner offer to fix it right now right here and its probably free. The easiest sale there is and ive sold everything from chemicals door to door to Automobiles. In the winter you dont get alot of nice days so you have to get max penitration on the days you can work. Save the fleet intros for the cruddy days dont waste valuable work days on prospecting
