road block

[GFD77]

okay, I went about this morning giving out business cards, however I went into a used car dealer and they gave me the opportunity to sell my service and then asked me for a price, I said $50 dollars a windshield, he politely told me that a gentleman has the repair industry in his area locked in at $20 a windshield cash jobs, so my dilema is who do I sell the $50 repair job to and do I reduce my prices for auto dealers since they offer repeat work?

:eusa_thin

[Thomas]

I have no experience yet, but from reading almost all the old posts and archives, $50 looks too high for the dealers, and the guy doing it for $20 is probably too low. Truth is the dealers will take the lower price no matter what the outcome when the price difference is that much.

Count the one small victory as even being able to have the opportunity to give him your pitch. You must have had a good approach to get that far.

As for who you sell the $50 jobs to, I dont have the answer, but in my case, I have already called all of the other "windshield repair and auto glass" shops in the yellow pages, and have gotten quotes from them, which run from $35 to $53 in my metro area.

I myself will probably do mostly insurance work so will take whatever it is they give. When asked for a cash quote however, I will be medium range for my area, with the added line of "it may not cost anything if you have comprehensive insurance". And if they have insurance I will then add the line, that it is customary to take whatever the insurance company pays. Then I may actually make more on the same job. Then if I have quoted 40 or 45, and they find out insurance did pay 50, I can avoid the problem of them complaining too much by reminding them I said I would take what insurance offered and it still didnt cost them anything.

I am not much of a salesman, but I am trying to consider all aspects of what may come up before I actually start the business, which hopefully will be withn a week or so. Still waiting for my kit to arrive, and am lining up my insurance and edirect.com stuff right now. But your ? is one I already gave a little thought too and hope that I am taking the right point of view, but maybe some of the "older" or more experienced members have a better way. I would also be interested in it if they do, as I want to remain flexible, and not get myself locked into any certain way of doing things if another way or point of view is better.

[DaveC]

ACK

Personally, I consider dealerships just as I would any other fleet account.

Your $50.00 customers would be retail/insurance jobs.

While you might have blown yourself out of the water with this guy, at least you have an idea as to what the going fleet rate is in your area.

[maxryde]

$20 is too cheap in my opinion. What kind of repair is he doing have you checked him out? The glass guys around here do it for free. I still have a couple of shops that employ me over the free repairs that the glass shops do because I repair the shields not just put a bridge on there and then remove it a couple of minuets later!! You have to sell those guys and you'll find no loyalty and some other headaches in dealing with the lots so you might try logistics outfits they are spending a ton on glass and if you can get 20 or 30 trucks in a row it makes for a good evening or night, the only issue is scheduling!! You'll have to be flexible on that work around their schedule and make it simple to buy your product one price no matter how many chips on a shield and recommend replacement when it is appropriate so they know your honest and concerned with their welfare (Drivers could use your repairs as an excuse if they have an accident so use caution) you need to know the regs in you area as well as any place the rigs will be going. In the state where I am their pretty tough on trucks but the enforcement is lax so we get away with more for now. Common sense approach if a guy is giving you a new contract with a bunch of damage you can sweeten the pot a bit just make sure not to shoot yourself in the foot so to speak by going too low on your price. For example "If you let me have what you got right now I know it's a lot of dollars but I'll knock off X % to start and then we'll get you on our maintenance program and we'll be out every (time frame) to inspect your inventory for needed repairs at the normal rate after that. Doing a labor market survey in your area is a good idea too I recommend it to all who do any kind of business, you glean a lot of useful information!! You would have known about the guy who is in your market and could have a strategy ready for the folks who you'll bump into out there that are using him. There is plenty of work available so don't get discouraged just move on to the unplowed fields and sow your seeds there and watch them as they grow so as to not be choked out by the weeds!!

Percerverance has a lot of r's in it. R u keeping a good attitude today even if thing's arent as you would have them?

R u presenting your self and your product in a good light today?

R u comming off as a pushy salesman or a concerned professional repair tech?

I could go on for a while, if you are new consider having a person whom you respect in their decision making abilities to check you out on your pitch. They may be able to help with the incite needed to correct anything that could be a turnoff to a prospect. Sometimes we just need to slow down and let it happen. Get out of the way so to speak!!

[Chips_Away_Windshield_Repair]

If you do good work, offer to do a freebe for comparison. One account I do work from a freebe first comments was "you spend a lot more time, looks a lot different"
Of course it looks a lot different, I fixed it!

[screenman]

Thomas you mention that you hope to start business within a week ,but you have not recieved your kit yet. Do you have previous experience in screen repair if not you need to work very hard to get a least 100 practise repairs wet and dry before you go out selling.Other wise you will do rubbish repairs and blow any confidence you might have. Sorry about the odd letters on the end my delete button is not working. seib

[Delta Kits]

First of all, i'll state the obvious. Do as many practice repairs as you can. Practice practice practice.

Next though, this idea that you have to do the magical "100" repairs before you go out selling or your repairs will be rubbish, is well, rubbish.

Hey, it sells us more resin. "Make sure you use up all the resin in your kit and order resupply prior to going out to make money."

The plain truth is, i've trained people who have come in after having done literally thousands of repairs, and some of these guys I wouldn't let near my truck with a ten foot pole!

On the flip side, there are some technicians who are new, have done nowhere near thousands of repairs, and i'd let them repair my windshield any day.

So, do as many practice repairs as you can, but if you're doing very well, or have excelled at training like Thomas did, you're going to be doing repairs better than 95% of the technicians out there, and there's no reason to wait.

Now, the original topic was a price issue, let's focus on that.

[GlassStarz]

The way to get dealer work is walk the lot find how many repairs are needed walk in introduce yourself to the sales manager and offer to do the repairs right now for a flat rate IE you saw 7 cars with 10 chips mr manager dude I want you to see the quality of my work so I will do everything for $165 today! normaly im $25 per car but I want to EARN your buisness today. Sure it seems low but the reality is you will be there 2 hours and make $80 per hr and if they like your work give you more when you walk in there 2 weeks from now and do the same thing. Two dealers like this a day is $330 per day do the math.

[Dave M]

My face turns two shades of red when I read a post like that! If you are new to this business and locate 7 vehicles with 10 repairs, count on being there longer than 2 hours. Those of us that have been repairing for years and have numerous injectors may be able to achieve that time frame, but if you are new to this business plan on being at that one location for half the day. When you are able to charge your full price at that dealership those 7 vehicles should get you around $300!
Take your time, take a deep breath and do some quality repairs.

[repare-brise]

don't sweat it with the $20 repairs, my competition charges$0.00, and I charge $40. The dealers prefer to pay that ruin a perfectly servicable WS with a free repair(you get what you pay for). To get you foot in the door do a free demo(I scout the lot before going inside and find the biggest dammage on the lot that I can repair, and I suggest that as a demo), and if they don't have a car that needs repair, get out your ball and elastic and do a demo on your WS(it impresses them to know you have such high confidence in your product), my shield has more than 40 repairs in it and it's still showing strong.

Merci

Yvan