Using the “Benjamin Franklin” method for paintless dent repair.
Tool Quest
Have you noticed how many of our dent repair tools were meant for something else in a former life?
Gotta hand to the ingenuity of the tool makers. My adjustable handled tools were originally electrical grounding clamps.
I recently needed to replace a piece for the 12 volt light we use. Used to be you could go to a local Radio Shack and pick up whatever you needed. I remember walls and aisles of components in bubble packs. Once a hobbyists dream and a fixer’s go to place for repair items, now its all cell phones and toys and batteries.
Don’t get me wrong, I love googling whatever I need and having it at my fingertips. I can order anything I need… but then I have to wait. And what about the feeling of going to the store and getting the right part? That felt like an accomplishment. Ordering online feels like a few keystrokes and the beginnings of Carpal Tunnel.
Remember when you first started paying attention to dents? How you began to see them everywhere on any car that passed you by?
Here’s a new way to shift your focus. Next time you’re in an auto parts store, department store, any kind of store, try looking for things you could use as dent tools or accessories.
You might just discover the next great tool.
I just saw a guy using a 12 volt glue gun. See if you can find it before I do.
A word of warning. Distraction is the enemy of progress and accomplishment. Save these tool quests for when you truly have time.
It is far too easy to trade the feeling of accomplishment for true progress. It happened to me. Before long I would get frustrated with a dent and suddenly take off on a tool quest. Or some other task I would rationalize as work. Really, it was all to avoid the pain of the frustration.
I know you will recognize pain avoidance and cut it off right away.
“Tim, you are really focused on selling. I just want to fix dents.”
Me too. When I started, that’s really all I signed up for.
I was once in a room full of dent guys when someone asked the question, “How many of your estimates turn into paying customers?”
Hmmm. Never thought about it. For sure I would now.
Every customer that came in from then on was a chance to study the outcome. Why did they buy or not buy, or in this case schedule their car in? What could I have done to make a difference?
Even if you’re buried in a back room and they feed you dents while someone else sells the job, you still are selling something to someone every day.
If you have kids, you know that getting them to do what you want sometimes requires different methods of persuasion.
If you are married, think about all you did to win the affection of your spouse.
Courtship is the art of selling one’s affections.
If you have a job, you sold yourself to the boss at some point. Hopefully you do it everyday.
I recommend reading a book by Frank Bettger, “How I raised myself from failure to success in selling”
Frank was minor league baseball player who made it to the major league when he made just a couple of adjustments in his thinking.
His first breakthrough was being fired as player in 1907. He was young and ambitious, yet he was fired. Smartly, he asked why. “You’re lazy.” his manager told him. “you go around like you just don’t care”.
From that experience, Frank decided to be the most enthusiastic player he could be. Every one would know by the way he played he was not lazy and that he wanted to be there.
The progress came quickly for him and soon enough he was in the major leagues.
How did he trick himself into being enthusiastic? No trick really, he just started to “act” as if he was already enthusiastic.
Somehow, when we want to have something the mind has to be prepared for it.
Often, we set goals that are the end result of what we really want. Most of us can easily picture a goal that is material in substance. Like a new car.
“I want to have a new Chevy Tahoe by January”.
This goal is specific and quite possibly achievable. The trouble is its far too shallow.
To effect a true life change, a goal must go deeper.
What will I do to earn the money to make this purchase?
“I will implement one of the ideas in Tim’s ”Retail Business Building System“ per week.
Each of these will help me achieve 1500 per week in dent dollars.”
Excellent. Now you have gone deeper in your goal by making a specific action plan.
I suggest going even deeper.
In this self questioning, you started at “What do I want?” this led to “What will I do to get it?”
Now you arrive at, “Who do I have to become to be worthy and ready to accept the outcome of this goal?”
See, that’s what Frank did. In fact its where he started.
“They think I lack enthusiasm. I’m going to do the opposite and act enthusiastic all the time.”
By acting enthusiatic, he became enthusiastic.
Be – Do – Have
This is the true formula for change in our lives.
How many times have you heard the story of a lottery winner whose life hits the skids very quick after winning?
There’s a whole book about it, outlining the negative changes winners experience.
Why?
The problem lies in focusing only on the winnings. Those who buy lottery tickets are excellent visualizers. Every one of them know what they would buy if they won. They’ve dreamed it. Envisioned it.
What’s lacking is the necessary mental, emotional preparation that must precede the getting of the thing.
I don’t play the lottery, nor do I stand near trees holding a golf club during a thunderstorm.
But the lesson is clear. Any change, any progress made begins with changing one’s thinking.
Frank became successful by reshaping his thoughts. Changing who he was.
How?
He followed Benjamin Franklins’ study and adoption of thirteen subjects. Each of the subjects was important to Ben becoming who he must be to have success. A quality that he deemed necessary to become who he wanted to be.
Ben would work on each subject for one week. This way he could work though them in thirteen weeks and then start over once again. Four times a year he worked at becoming and adopting the qualities he desired to have.
When he implemented this plan, he was in debt and printing for a living. History shows what he was able to do with his self taught skills.
Frank came up with his own list of thirteen subjects that were appropriate to selling and worked on them one by one in the same fashion.
He wrote each one on an index card and carried it with him for the week. This was a daily reminder as to how and why he wanted this quality to be part of his persona.
You might think this is hooey, but listen to what Frank says,
“Remember, Franklin was a scientist. This plan is scientific. Reject it and you reject one of the most practical ideas ever offered you. I know. I know what it did for me. I know it can do the same for anyone who will try it. Its not an easy way. There is no easy way. But it is a sure way.”
Our minds are strange. There is a proven link between what we write on paper and what gets done.
My wife is a dynamo. She takes care of our three boys, the household and is my personal assistant in two businesses. She’s very busy and yet she gets it all done with a smile. How?
She makes lists. What she writes down gets done. Maybe not all today, but it will soon.
I submit that making a change, reaching a goal, all happen or start to happen the minute you begin transcribing it onto paper.
I’ll tell you this, without 3 X 5 cards carried in my back pocket, there would be no Paintless Mentor System. It would have never got done.
In making your goals, may I suggest that each of the questions answered in your Be – Do – Have process be written on a card you carry with you. Put it all on there, the who, the what and the action plan as well.
Look at it each morning before you put it in your pocket and at night when you take it out. Once you see it working, you’ll be looking at it several times a day.
Keep swinging
When Frank Bettger was still waiting to go up to the majors someone told him,
“The major leagues would call you up tomorrow if you could just learn to hit.”
“How?” he asked.
“Jesse Burkett was no better a hitter than you and he became one of the greatest hitters of all time.“
Wisely, Frank studied this player and found out he was one of the few players at the time to have a batting average of .400. Yet he wasn’t always a good player? He set out to do what Jesse did to get good.
He hired some kids to pitch and shag balls for him. He practiced every day with the team, then he would take a swing at no less than 300 balls a day.
He didn’t just work on hitting, he worked on his swing and the timing of it.
It worked well and it worked fast. It was this extra practice that got him in the major leagues.
Now they call me a genius!
Bettger pointed to a story about John Barrymore the actor that fit well with this.
A reporter was waiting to interview Barrymore but was forced to wait as he rehearsed.
When the interview began, first thing he asked him was, ”Why do you still rehearse? You’ve given 56 performances of “Hamlet” on Broadway. Why, you’re being acclaimed as the greatest Hamlet of all time and a genius of the stage.“
This was so shocking to Barrymore, he doubled over laughing.
”Do you want to know the truth? For five months, nine hours every day I read, re-read, studied and recited that part. I thought I’d never get it into my head. Several times I wanted to quit. I thought I’d missed my calling, and that it was a mistake for me ever to have gone into acting.
Yes, a year ago, I wanted to quit, and now they are calling me a genius. Isn’t that ridiculous?“
Dent repair is the same, really. To get good, you have to keep pushing. At times you may want to quit. To give up.
I’m grateful your efforts, but I’m glad I wasn’t in some of your garages to hear the words leveled at me for introducing you to the biz.
Hey, I’m still working on my swing/push.
Right now I’m headed to a hail storm to work a couple of weeks with some guys much faster than I.
Their reputation is speed and I’m going to see what I can observe and of course implement.
Paintless Dent Repair is one skill that can be constantly improved. Tis’ what keeps me hanging on.
Remember, changing our thoughts and behaviors for improvement is growth and all growth begins in the mind.
How to Steal the Business Dent Wizard Totally Ignores
Last month I told you the way to compete with a big company is to do what they are unwilling or unable to do.
Retail is your chance to do just that. Aside from an insurance referral, DW is not really going after the retail market. Perhaps they like the big deals, shooting fish in a barrel. Good for them and good for you.
People really are looking for guidance before they make a buying decision.
Getting their business is really as simple as being the person who gives the information they seek and some peace of mind as well.
It will mean a little work on your part, but once its setup, you’re done. Then it mostly runs on autopilot.
In the spirit of Ben Franklin and Frank Bettger, may I suggest implementing one idea per week contained in the enclosed “Retail Business Building” audio CD.
Till next time,
Tim