Windshield Repair Forum

I pull into any dealer of my choice.
I Walk the lot and find the most cherry break on the nicest, latest model car you can find.
I Note the make, model ,year and stock number.
I Walk in and ask to speak to the used car manager.
I introduce myself.
I tell him I need to show him something as I turn around.
I walk out the door.
He follows me like a puppy.
I point out the break on the car glass and tell him I am going to fix it for him.
He tells me he has someone that he has been using since 2000bc.
I say, I understand and hes very good at what he does, I seen his work while I walked your lot and found this one.
I will not charge you anything and fix it for you at no cost just to show you this, its really cool!
He caves in and gives me the ok.
Before he can think about what just hit him, I show up back in the show room in 5 minutes.
He asks me what I need.
I say,I dont need anything, I just want to show you my work.
He says YOUR DONE?
SMILING ear to ear, I say yes.
He walks out to see for himself.
I walk behind him chuckling under my breath.
He say where was it, I cant find it.
I say thank you, that is the best compliment I can recieve, as I tell him, if you cant find it, I will have to charge you for pointing it out!
He asks me what I charge.
I tell him.
He says, give me one of your cards I will call you.
I say sure, as I point to my clip board and point out the list I made.
At this point he asks me if I want a job selling cars for him but hes too late, when he turns around he finds me 3 cars down the row pointing out another one.
I show him all of them.
He says, what if you break one?
I say nothing and hand him a check made out to his dealership for $300.00 for glass replacement cost.
He looks at me as I put him sound to sleep and says the keys are on the board in the office.
I tell him a joke.
He laughs.
I try not to feel sorry for the other glass techs I put out of buisness.
I thank my maker
I keep my $300.00 check.
I walk out of there with a $300.00 P.O.
I drive off on my goldwing motorcycle with tunes playing.
I reflect.

I want to give myself a raise.
I walk into a busy service dept and I.......................................

Great post Barry, Wow you really did invent the Drystar, I know Brent and Screenman are BIG fans, Kudo's to you.
Have you really retired??? surely not, I bet the cogs are still turning.

Sorry Barry but I think you've set yourself up for a little criticism. I don't think your approach would work in my area and here's why.

1. At the point where you tell him you want to show him something and you walk out, most would not follow like a puppy. They would rather chase you off like a pitbull than follow you like a puppy.

2. If you show back up in 5 minutes, you have not taken the time necessary to do a proper repair. Just curing time alone can take that long.

Sales Managers at car dealers are often times not the nicest people in the world. Often they are smug and can be too busy to give you the time of day. There are a few exceptions once you get to know them but more often than not you would be lucky to have things happen the way you have described,

Don't get me wrong, I do a lot of dealer work and have developed some great relationships with sales personel at these locations, but had I walked in and tried to take the bull by the horns and expected someone to follow me out onto the lot, it would not have happened.

I have offered to do a free repair as an example of the quality of my work and that is a good selling tool. I have taken advantage of oppurtunities to help them out on short notice in an emergency situation when their "regular" guy was not available. I have even bought vehicles from a couple of my best dealer accounts. But for the most part I was acquired the account by using a more subtle approach than trying to take them by storm.

Splitpit,

In all fairness to Barry's approach, in the 1980's selling repair to dealers was probably that simple because you only had 1 tech for every 20 dealers. Mobile windshield repair was in very high demand back then. Today things are much different with market saturation at 3 techs available for every dealer in many areas.

I don't think there is a used car manager around today that would be happy with me dragging them out in the lot to look at something later to find out I'm actually selling and not buying.

Don't get me wrong, you can still find dealer work but it usually breaks down to a few things.

Your sales personality, professional appearance, quality of work provided and
ability to service their needs by showing up every week on same day and time. Oh! I forgot to also mention price because that is what most care about!

I agree SQ. It does boil down to the things you mentioned but of those things, first and foremost, I believe is reliability. Once they know they can count on you, you keep them by doing quality work, being professional and becoming friends with them.

Price? Let's face it, there's always another Joe that can match your price or even undercut you but if you have taken care of them as stated above, most will stay loyal to you.

I've even raised my dealer rate recently by $5.00. It hasn't caused any of my accounts to drop me, even though they know they can get it done cheaper.

Wouldn't work for me either, but that's because of me, my natural make-up. I've seen some gifted sales people do amazing things though as has been described, so I know it's possible. BTW That's all politicians are is high powered salesmen (or saleswomen) Keep that in mind when you cast your votes this year!

I have used much the same method with success, however I think I may have been lucky with the guys I tried it on. There is no fixed method of selling as I see it there are millions of variables. The secret is to find out what the customer wants and sell on that point. My USP (unique selling point) changes with every customer. Your fleet customers may want a different service to the trade or retail ones. A good saleman will find that point and go for it. Always take a no as a maybe and always follow up on a I will get it done later.

As somebody once said on this forum. Never sell a repair to a stranger make them a friend first.

Just because it will not work for some doent mean it will not work for others.Some are just more talented in sales and some are more talented at making excuses why it wont work...................................

I agree with you on that, what is happening, I am agreeing with everyone on here today. Must be getting soft in my old age.