Reporters say “Dog bites Man” is not a story. But “Man bites Dog”, there’s a story.
Sadly, there are so many stabbing crimes in today’s world that it rarely makes front page. Unless people get outraged it just doesn’t hold their interest.
Plenty of outrage happening about a Kansas woman stabbed in a convenience store. The security cameras show 5 customers stepping over her as she pled for help. Two minutes elapsed before any call was made to police. One woman even took a picture of her with her cell phone.
I know, its a dark subject, but this is important. In running your business and in life, you must study human behavior. Knowing why people act the way they do is key to success.
Psychologists have done extensive studies on why a crime victim goes ignored. Most of these offer no practical advice, just more debate. I recommend reading “Influence – the Psychology of Persuasion” by Robert Cialdini.
Not only will this book help you in business, it also tells what to do if you find yourself in a situation like the woman in Kansas. He goes into great detail about a similar situation in Queens, New York, in 1968 where more than 60 people ignored the pleas of a stabbing victim.
You will find great value in knowing why you respond the way you do to sales messages and you will come away with the tools to ethically influence your customers. To help them make the right decision, which of course is to choose you and your services.
Social Proof
This is one of the most powerful weapons of influence. People will do what they observe others doing. Try this experiment. You and two friends go into a public place and form a line and see how many follow. Or on a busy street, all of you look up into the sky.
The practical part of this is you need to gather testimonials from customers. Carry that digital camera with you at all times. Ask the happy car owner to stand next to it and smile. Also, carry a cheap tripod with you and take a picture of yourself with the dent and the same pose after its complete. This will show customers you really fixed it plus keep others from stealing it when you place it on your website.
I know the customer is willing as lately I’ve been gathering video testimonials from them. I’ll let you know when these are posted.
Even if you don’t have a website, you can put these in a notebook to carry with you and show customers.
Does everyone know how Green you are?
I’m a big fan of live music and just listened to “Live Earth” on XM radio while working a hail car. Multiple concerts on live feeds from 7 continents.
Former US Vice President Al Gore is riding the wave of melting polar ice caps. If you haven’t seen his documentary “An Inconvenient Truth” its worth seeing. He uses all of the weapons of influence in it.
With high gas prices and crazy weather patterns occurring everywhere, you should be screaming as loud as you can about your greenness, or environmental friendliness.
Think about every car you save from the paint booth and the impact this has on the environment. California now requires body shops to shoot water based paints. The rest of the world will likely follow. This should tell you what a serious impact body shops have on air quality as California’s air quality standards are legendary.
When I painted, the reps used to scare the wits out of us with stories of guys in wheelchairs or going blind from spraying paint with hardener. Seems the poly-isocyanates never leave your system. Got me to wear my respirator.
Think of the good you do by lowering emissions and hazardous waste production when you fix that car. Feel good about it, then use it as logical argument in your advertising.
Lessons from chasing a storm
This past month I chased a storm for work. I haven’t been on the road for hail since 2003. Wanted to see if my speed was still there. Learned a couple of things.
Like always be suspicious of the first car you get. Sometimes it doesn’t matter, you just have to fix it. I found out the hard way you need to get the full story.
Here’s what happened. I was asked to fill in for a couple of days in Lake Charles, Louisiana at a body shop. I’d be working for Dent Wizard’s hail division just until someone could take my place.
I’m a two weeks here and there kind of guy when it comes to hail. The ride the storm out guys are who they really want, but they’ll send me if I go “right now”. My son just graduated this year and has been wanting to learn dents, so I thought it’d be good education for him.
The Wiz had placed a guy from their corporate hail division in the shop already. But he needed help so they were going to add one more tech to this particular shop. When the Regional manager called me, he projected the numbers I should make in the time I would be there based on what the corporate guy had been doing. Here’s where it gets interesting.
I know I’m not the fastest, but I am pretty quick and I know what I can and should produce. When I arrived, the corporate tech pointed at a car and said, “This one’s next.”
He gave me an out and I should have taken it. For he then said, “Do you want to look at the other cars or the estimates?”
“Nah, if you say this is the next car, I’m going to fix it.”
This car was loaded with nickel and quarter size dents. Have you ever seen hail stones make dents all the way to the bottom of the door before? This one had 50 plus dents on each door. I glue pulled the first door, the second I took completely off the car. Much faster that way.
On the third day I was frustrated. The car was taking longer because we were only working an eight hour day. Thats all the shop owner would allow, 8 to 5. Foolish when you consider the narrow window of time to get the hail cars done. In most cases three months is all you got.
Needless to say, I was way behind on the numbers I’d projected. I asked Matt how he had been doing since he was there two weeks prior to me. He had done some very big numbers. He’s fast for a four year guy, faster than me even, but not that much faster.
When he told me his numbers I said, “ You did that much money on cars like this?”
“Oh no, this is the first car I bid when I got here and its the worst one we’ve gotten. The owner told me to get all the light cars out first. We’ve been putting this one off for two weeks now.”
I don’t believe this tech had any mean plan against me, I’m the one who let it happen. He gave me an out and I didn’t take it. I could’ve grabbed an easier car but didn’t. Still, it was a good lesson.
I was stuck on the worst car in the whole shop. Right out of the gates, shot in the foot. I’m grateful for the work and I hit my minimum goal, so in the end, I’m pleased.
Its a dog eat dog world in the hail business and I’ve got milk bone flavored shoes.
In his defense, he hadn’t pushed a dent since October and it was now mid June. If you haven’t pushed or estimated hail for a while, you tend to forget just how hard some cars are. Those first two cars should be re-bid or thrown away.
I’m sure he has worked with some Gravy Grabbers in the past, also. You quickly learn all the tricks guys use to get easy cars or gravy. Like dropping the headliner on their next one even though they aren’t finished with the one in front of them. (that one’s mine, I started on it already).
Working commission has its ugly side. You’ll walk a fine line between greed and human kindness. Between self preservation and fairness. Easy to get upset about it, but its just wasted energy. Better to decide on what you will and won’t do for jobs.
Happened to meet two high level chasers at a restaurant. One fellow listed all the places he’d been as he traversed the country in the past few months. He listed more places where he didn’t make money than where he did. He was doing well there in Lake Charles and planned to ride it out. Therein lies the lesson. He knows one or two storms a year will pay off for him. If he hits the right ones for six months, he’s OK.
At one point in our conversation he looked at my son and said, “that’s why I stay in this business, so I can take off half the year and hunt and fish.”
I’ve met many techs who earned high six figure incomes in a previous season, only they couldn’t rub two nickels together to get to the storms of the following season.
Not this guy.
“I keep two years living expenses in the bank.” Smart.
Too many times you hear of a storm where the money is no good and still techs go there and work. “I gotta keep pushing,” they say.
Really its a money issue. Much easier to say no to a losing situation if you’re not scared about finding another.
When you have a windfall like a hailstorm, live on less than you make. Remember its only temporary and next year might be slow to get started. Saying “no” is much easier with a cushion.
How does Dent Wizard win in the hail business?
They are the preferred company for Allstate Insurance. If Allstate writes a hail claim it has Dent Wizard’s name on it and was written off their chart. Big insurance is pushing for a prevailing rate for hail repair and the Wiz is big enough to give it to them.
A big problem for techs is their money comes after the body shop gets paid. Typically 70 percent of what’s left goes to the tech.
Lately, in an effort to be “competitive” foolish hail companies have been offering as much as 40 percent of the total ticket to the shop. Dent Wizard never gives more than 20 percent. How? They are one of the few companies to actually bring business to your shop. If you use them, you do more volume and gain a larger list of future customers.
So the answer given to “why should I take 20 from you when I can get 40 from him?” is this:
“Would you rather have 40 percent of your current volume or 20 of a much greater volume?”
So they have a system where Allstate loves them because they handle the estimating, the scheduling and even pre-arranged supplement procedures. Dent Wizard has turned the tables on the body shop by being the Direct Repair Provider. If you or I go to a body shop with our hail company we are vendors. When the Wiz goes in, they make the body shop the vendor. All dealings with Allstate go through them, not the shop owner. You have to love the genius of this.
Next month: How to take on a giant like Dent Wizard in your business.
Till next time,
Tim