Larry Bloodworth

A lot of businesses invest heavily in paid search only to have the person answering the phone call to drop the ball.  The person answering the phone should have PROFESSIONAL phone training to make sure the PPC investment doesn’t get lost when they pick up the phone.  They need to be an expert in converting callers into appointments.  The pr…[Read more]

This says it all.

I wanted to pull together some of my resource material for our Candy Jar route.  The primary function of our outsides salesperson is to keep the candy jars full.  The secondary function is to drive referral work.

Outside Sales (Candy Jar) Program

A few tips:

• Don’t put your shop’s name on the jar.
• Half the shops won’t keep the jar on the f…

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We have never offered any parts person a commission, although we have offered it to other shop’s service advisors.  We are a transmission & drivetrain specialty shop.  We don’t do GR, or as Aamco calls it, TCC for Total Car Care.

We give them 5% of the ticket total, before tax.  The shops that refer work our way are not in competition with us, no…[Read more]

Watch out!

There’s a scam going on in the transmission industry where somebody calls a shop from out-of-town and wants a transmission rebuild.  -BUT- to get the vehicle to the shop, it has to be towed a significant distance.

The caller wants to pay for the entire transaction with a credit card, but needs $XXX back so that he can pay the tow t…[Read more]

Great video.  Bob Cooper and his people are awesome.

I want to point out something that either happens, or may not happen, before the caller decides to pick up the phone.  Some refer to this as a sales funnel.

We have to remember that a shop website’s NUMBER ONE PURPOSE is to generate phone leads.  That’s it.  If a website doesn’t convince a vis…[Read more]

When you say the average age DOWN, as in the average age is NEWER?

Insurance won’t buy you a new car unless you lost a new car.  If the vehicle was 5 years old, that’s all they’ll cover, the cost of a 5-year old vehicle.  If somebody wants to pay the difference and get a new vehicle, then that’s on them.

I’m a transmission guy.  I was born an…[Read more]

Wes,

What I’ve learned during the course of my career I have made a part of the SOP of my business.  What works for us is to target 10-year old and newer non-Euro vehicles.  I could extoll all the mechanical advantages of working on them, but won’t.  However, dead jobs and people with no money all but evaporate, and that’s the business reason we…[Read more]

Not being able to research a market before you go into business should have been his first clue. 🙂

Reminds me of the buggy whip story.

I did a search on the CR website on the term “haggling” and hit a treasure trove of articles like, “The Many Benefits of Online Haggling When Buying Electronics”  The article said:

>”In a Consumer Reports survey on electronics retailers, 69 percent of the online shoppers who tried to negotiate a better deal on a TV, computer, or other electronic p…

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Consumer Reports promotes haggling on just about everything.  That’s what they do.  Here’s an example on a recent rating on Telcom (internet/phone/TV) providers.

>”But It Is Possible to Bargain
One bright note is that our survey respondents were often successful when negotiating with their telecom bundle providers. While there are signs that man…

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UPDATE:

I just purchased (1/28/19) a file from the Texas DMV that has every registered car and light truck (up to 1-ton) in the state for $186 bucks.  I did it online and didn’t even have to make a phone call.  Try it for the town, county, or state that you’re in.  I promise it to be a real eye-opener.

Secondly, I have attached a file that ha…[Read more]

Here’s what I’ve done with the last 2 shops I built, BEFORE, I opened up…

First, determine the market.  The best way I’ve found is to build a “vehiclegraphic profile”.  It’s like demographics, but it’s for vehicles.  Contact your state’s DMV and buy a list of every registered vehicle in every county you’ll draw customers from.  In most stat…[Read more]