After training guys in person and via the Paintless Mentor System for all these years, I am seeing patterns emerge. Is there a proven path to success?
What are the actions of someone who will make a good dent guy?
I have seen those that make it and those that don’t and after studying the differences betwen their actions and thoughts, can only conclude that there really are steps which can guarantee success.
What are the 7 biggest obstacles one faces in learning PDR?
- Not following the steps to mastering the skill. The System lays it out for you step by step. We all want to jump to mastery without reading the instructions right? I shudder when I see students grab the glue puller and start to pulling dents before first learning to read the light. If there is an area you are struggling with, go back and make sure you have conquered the preceding steps then move on.
- Asking, “where do I push first?” Other than first in, first out, it honestly doesn’t matter. Start pushing and the answer will come to you. You will see where you need to push each time. Sounds hokie but one push really does reveal the next. This question comes from a fear of making a mistake. We are taught in school that mistakes equal bad grades. In this case, fear of making a mistake means no skill developed.
- Thinking there is something that I haven’t told you. This feeling is natural and is no doubt caused by watching me take out a dent and seeing me do it well. But for you it’s a struggle. Therefore, I as teacher must be holding something back. Fear not, we all went through this. When you get this feeling you are very close to making this skill your own. Stay with it. This goes hand in hand with the next obstacle for new ones.
- Not allowing yourself to be bad at first. No one picks up a tool and gets it right away. If they did it wouldn’t be a very lucrative skill. You will be bad at first. Just accept it as a given and allow the process to work. Imagine wanting to learn to ride a bike but demanding to be taught without falling. You’d never get it.
- Watching the videos in the system with a critical eye. I enjoy your emails and suggestions, but frankly, you’re not helping yourself with your armchair comments. Remember, this is not a passive activity like watching football. This is a system that will teach you dent repair.
One student got mad and said he would have got it if only had I not shown the large dents being repaired. Fine by me. I’ll take the blame for his failure but truth is unless he takes ownership of his progress, he won’t get it.
Interestingly, Mike R. was doing large dents in his first year of dents.
‘Yeah, but he’s just naturally good.’
Maybe. Some do get it faster than others. I asked Mike what he thought made the difference for him.
“I gave myself no choice. There was no other option but to conquer it.”
In a recent conversation he told me many techs were surprised that he was self taught. He’s never been to a school. Yet he does dents. At first he was apologetic for not acknowledging he learned from the Paintless Mentor System.
No, Mike you’re right to say you were self taught. Every tech is really. The PM system definitely gives a hand up in the way it’s filmed, but you have to practice.
The same thing happens in many businesses. Take advertising for example. Many ad reps liberally spend their client’s money. Then one day they decide to try their hand at their own business.
Their whole world changes when they put their own money on the line. Whole lot easier to spend someone else’s bucks.
The difference is accountability.
- 6. Only watching the System videos one time. Students Frank I. and Tom S. asked me to suggest to students watch the videos over and over. I agree.
The greatest value comes from seeing someone else do dents. Pretty soon your mind says “that guy’s not so special. If he can do it surely I can too.”
Exactly. This is what I was hoping you would say.
My biggest critics will tell you I make a lot of mistakes. This is true.
Fact is, those could have easily been edited out. But that would be deceiving as mistakes (still) happen daily. The lessons come from them and sometimes they are accompanied with pain. Or frustration.
Frustration + Curiosity= progress and soon enough mastery.
You will make mistakes too. Fail forward fast.
- 7. Wanting to make your own tools. The rationalization is you’re just starting and you need to save money. Really it’s avoiding practice. I’ve toured some tool companies and watched as the guys shuffle out and hit the clock at the end of the day. They’re good folks and I judge them not. But they make about 10 bucks an hour. So when the temptation to make your own tools comes on, remember you’re trading precious time spent practicing for a low value activity.
You probably noticed that all of these are not really problems at all. Rather they have to do with how one thinks. Good news is it’s easy to change thoughts. Just make the decision.
I hear about the problems folks have in their progress. But I also hear about your successes.
A year ago, a fellow in Russia stumbled onto the website and ordered the System.
Six weeks after he ordered, UPS called and asked if they should destroy the package as he had not picked it up. I figured he must have been hit by customs charges and decided he didn’t want it.
A year later he’s sending me befores and afters of his work. Till then I had not heard from him.
This makes me feel good but. How does this help you?
Find a bigger reason for learning and watch how fast you grow.
Joe Girard, the world record holding car salesman talks about the phrase that pushed him to succeed.
When he was broke and scraping together what he could his wife looked at him and said, “what are the kids going to eat?”
This became his bigger reason.
Your success is what I thrive on. One of my students told me he worked 4 months last year and made a chunk. I am proud of him and the very small part I played in his life. When he started he was earning 25,000 a year as a warehouse worker. Last year he made more than 5 times that amount working less than 14 weeks.
Another student is now a regional manager for Dent Wizard. He’s been a hail tech for 10 years. Best part, he doesn’t have to push and he makes the same money.
This business can change your life if you let it. It is just a means to an end of course. But don’t discount what opportunity lies before you. This business is bigger than just the car in you are fixing or the dealership or the one hail storm.
For those who don’t get hail in their area, here’s some numbers you’ll find interesting.
Dent Wizard did 50 million last year in hail in the US. They did 250 million in door dings. Guess which portion of the business is their bread and butter? Yes they have a large amount of market share but there’s plenty left for all of us.
Speaking of market share, consider this. 97% of all computers sold in the world are PC’s and run Microsoft Windows. Apple has less than 3 percent of the market of all the computers sold in the world. Before you feel sorry for them, they make millions and are very profitable.
They have other products dominate other niches. Heard of the Ipod?
So when you hear talk about market saturation and it makes you not want to get out of your easy chair ‘cause someone else got all the business, remember it doesn’t really matter.
To me, there can be no market saturated worse than auto collision shops. There are only a certain number of wrecks each year in each city or market. The amount will fluctuate some but not much.
So any body shop owner will tell you the last thing needed in their market is another shop. Yet, here comes another one and next thing you know they have some success. Or as in the case of two here in Tulsa, they dominate quick and have a shop full of cars on opening day. Where’d they get all that business?
No more wrecks, no new business so they took it away from all the other players.
Every established business will scream market saturation in whatever business it is.
What made the difference for these body shops and how can you copy it?
The difference is their system. Or systems.
They have a system for selling. Whether selling to insurance agents or adjusters or John Q Public, each is sold to in a systemized way.
They have a system for repairing. Benchmarks to measure how they are living up to the system and to point out areas needing improvement.
The results they get are not accidental. Rather, they are predictable. They can look forward to next year or five years and project what they’ll make. As long as the systems are in place the money will come.
How can you systematize your business?
Systemizing is nothing more than starting with the end in mind.
How much money do you want to make? Three hundred a day? Five hundred? More?
Take the desired figure and work backwards. How many door dings is that? How many cars will you have to fix?
Now what will you have to do to put that many cars in front of you?
How many phone calls does your dent business get each day? How many of these do you convert into customers?
If you get ten calls a day and five of these results in jobs, you have the beginnings of a benchmark.
Say those five cars yield about a hundred bucks a piece on average.
You have your 500 dollar a day goal met.
What if you don’t have 10 calls a day or don’t convert 5 into paying jobs? Your system is still working, but now it’s telling you something needs work.
My favorite marketing quote is the expert who was asked by a businessman what was the one thing he could do to get one hundred new customers.
“I don’t know one thing. I do know one hundred ways to get one customer and I use them all.”
The smartest businesses understand it’s not customers it’s one customer. If you can’t sell one you won’t sell a hundred.
So when you reverse engineer your systems, remember to keep your one customer in mind. Soon enough you’ll have thousands more just like him.
Till next time,
Tim Olson