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ECONOMIC DOWNTURNS CALL FOR MORE TRAINING, NOT LESS!

By Terry Greenhut

While it seems that cutting back on everything is the right way to go during a recession, care must be taken not to skimp on the essentials of doing business. With vehicles being so much more complex these days and customers so much more difficult to manage, our skills in all areas need to be the best. We must be able to sell our work at profitable prices and then produce as close to a perfect product as we can the first time.

You can’t run a successful business with untrained personnel. It starts from the owner and trickles on down to every employee. For a shop to consistently make money everyone who works in it must know, not only their own job, but also how it interfaces with everyone else’s.

The old “mushroom” management style of keeping everyone in the dark and just feeding them enough information to get by doesn’t work in the business world of today. I understand that many shop owners are under the impression that if they teach employees how to do too many tasks that they will lose them only to become their competitors. This could well have been true in the past, but in today’s world it is far more important to be able to fully utilize the people we have. We can only do that if they know enough to be able to cover for each other. Additionally the odds of anyone going out to start up a new business are slim. It costs way too much to justify the huge risk. Anyone thinking rationally will be trying to stay put and make the best of their job situation for the foreseeable future.

What we value in an employee will differ considerably from what we used to think was important. Where we not so long ago embraced the specialist we will now be impressed by the multitasker, the employee who can turn a wrench, but also sell the job, find and order the parts, and write a beautiful repair order on the computer.

A large operation will still require one or more dedicated service advisors but smaller ones will no doubt try to get by using technicians as part time salespeople. While these hybrid service writer technicians are probably great mechanics, how good will they be at selling the work? If your goal is to consolidate jobs to save money you need to be careful that the savings aren’t squandered away by techs that lose sales or cut prices in order to make them.

We know that many technicians are lacking in sales ability. It’s not their fault if they’ve been called upon to perform this task without the proper training. They can close sales if they drop the price far enough but can’t consistently get the amount the shop needs, or close enough sales with difficult customers to cover costs and maybe show a little profit.

Would be techs/service advisors without the proper training have a tendency to base the prices they charge on the amount they would be willing to pay if they were the customer, and since they know how to do the work and how much they can buy the parts for, that price will usually be way too low. Unless they have been well schooled they may not realize all the costs that go into producing a good repair or service. Every time they sell a job they could be losing money for the shop instead of making it and never realize what they are doing.

From answering the initial phone call to closing the sale, every aspect of the selling procedure needs to be executed even better than it had been in the past because the customer is tougher. So an under-trained salesperson is like putting little David up against big old Goliath and in this case I don’t think it will go well. If anything, talking callers into the driveway, playing a good game of “Capture the car,” and price objection handling skills must be stronger than ever. Since nobody is born with those skills they need to be developed, but first they must be taught.

If you decide to trim costs to save money, be sure that you aren’t trimming your opportunity to make money. Have all of your people trained to do their jobs more efficiently and have your sales force ready to take advantage of every selling opportunity. Checking cars thoroughly to find additional necessary repairs and services, then following up with customers to create loyalty and repeat business is a must.

There is a good chance that the recession will create a resurgence in the auto repair business, but the only shops that will benefit from it are the ones who stick to their values and game plan. Be sure yours is one of them.

by Terry Greenhut, Service Sales Concepts Inc.