Refinish Sales (1970)

Heat. Heat. Heat up here. Heat. Heat. What is this? What's going on? Hey, hold a minute. Will you hold it? Stop it right now. Hey, knock that off. Come on. Stop it. What are you trying to do to me? >> Why, we're trying to get your attention. >> All right, you got it. You got it. Say, who was that girl? >> Well, who she is isn't as important as what she did. >> That's for sure. >> I don't think we're talking about exactly the same thing. I mean, she caught your attention. >> I got to admit that. What's all this about? >> Well, frankly, sir, we used this little device, if you'll pardon the expression, to be sure you'd listen to us. >> You have something to sell? >> Not really. It's something you can sell. You are an automobile dealer, aren't you? >> You bet I'm a dealer, and a good one, but I didn't get that way by carrying on crazy conversations like this. Now, if you'll excuse me. You were saying >> You were saying you didn't care for pointless conversations, but I don't think you'll find this pointless. >> Well, okay. What is it you're trying to sell me? >> We're trying to sell you on an idea or a method to help you make more money out of your service department. >> Look, I run a great service department. Undoubtedly, but like a lot of other dealers, you're letting good business drive right into one end and out the other. >> Hey, that's a pretty strong thing to say. How do you know so much about my business anyway? >> Well, let's just say we've been well advised. >> You'll have to give me a better answer than that. Just where am I missing so much business? >> In your paint and body shop. >> In your paint and body shop. >> In your paint and body shop. >> Hey, who are you guys? I think I've seen some of you before. And what's all this about my paint and body shop? >> One question at a time. Perhaps you have seen some of us before or fellows like us. We represent automobile dealers all over the country. But what's really important, we represent dealers who have proved that paint and body shops and dealerships can be very profitable. >> Like how profitable? I'll answer that one. We have 15 full-fledged craftsmen in our service department, not including the sales force. Out of that 15, four men work full-time in the paint and body shop. The others are general repairmen. But the four paint and body men turn out more labor profit than all 11 general servicemen. >> I've got to admit that sounds pretty good. But you're just one dealer. >> Our operation isn't very unusual. A leading automotive publication survey proved that. Out of all the dealers they surveyed, 47% said that paint and body work is more profitable than straight service. 30% said it was about the same. >> Well, they sure didn't ask me. My paint and body shop doesn't do that kind of volume. Tell you the truth, I don't think there are enough customers to go around. Got the figures on that, too. In the first place, there are over 70 million cars on the road now. And millions of new cars are added every year. Over 16 out of every hundred families own two cars. You might say that just about doubles their chances of becoming paint and body shop customers. Look at the odds. Millions of cars on the road, congested highways, new traffic problems. Over 23 million cars will go into shops for paint and body repairs this year. You can figure that at least 15% of all the cars in your trading area are going to be involved in insurance claim accidents every year that goes by. Okay, granted this is a big potential. Bigger than I thought maybe, but most of my refinishing business already comes from insurance claims. Over half, in fact. >> That puts you right in the national average. A lot of dealerships look at insurance work as the backbone of their body shop operation. Like we said before, you're losing business. >> Yeah, there you go again. What do you mean I'm losing business? What's the matter with insurance claims? >> Nothing's the matter with them. insurance works. The first thing everybody thinks of is a mainstay of a refinishing shop. It'll always be important. But there's another source of business so big nobody will ever be able to measure it. Just think how many times a day something like this happens. Or this. or even this. Next time you walk through a parking lot, make a little survey of your own. Look for cars that have this problem or a rocker panel that looks like this or a fender in this condition. And just think of the cars that are in decent mechanical shape that won't be good tradeins because of the way they look. Sounds to me like you guys are talking about what I call ding and dent work. >> We're talking about any kind of refinishing work that's eventually paid for by the customer himself. Something generally not covered by insurance. Ding and dent works included. In fact, half the cars needing paint and body work are in this category. >> Look, we do this kind of thing. We fit these jobs in. Once in a while, we even get overall refinish jobs. We have to take them in to accommodate our customers. You guys must think I run a pretty loose operation. >> No, no. We think you run a good dealership or we wouldn't be here. But something you just said does point up your problem. >> Okay, I'll bite. What did I say? >> You said you fit in ding and dent work and other customer paid jobs. >> That's the way we have to handle it. >> Suppose we could show you a way to make this kind of work a real gold mine for you. >> That's not very likely. We're just not geared up to get that kind of business. Now, if you're talking about some kind of advertising, >> you may want to do some advertising. That's up to you. We're actually talking about refinish work on cars that come into your service department for mechanical repairs. All you have to do is take advantage of it. >> That's not as simple as you make it sound. Maybe we should get more of that business, but you know how the morning rush is. Our service salesmen just don't have time to sell it. >> It's been our experience that most people will find time to do things they really want to do. That's great philosophy. It's practical advice. Why does service salesman work so hard selling mechanical service? First, because it's their job, and second, they have a good incentive. A salary plus a commission on what they sell. The incentive system will work with paint and body jobs just as well. Let the commission apply to these sales, too. In our shop, we use the poolled commission system. It has some special advantages. We give them a percentage of all the work they get, whatever it is. On labor, the commission amounts to 3% of the gross, up to $15,000 a month. Over $15,000, we make it 4%. On parts, they get a straight 2%. At the end of the month, all the percentages are added together and divided up among the service salesmen. When their commissions are added in, their paychecks average better than twice their basic salary. Since commissions are pulled, everybody profits from each other's work. So, they keep each other on the ball. They want to make sure everybody's pulling his share of the load. >> All that's very fine for a dealership your size, but what about mine? >> You're right. Every situation is different. Maybe you'd rather use a street commission idea. >> Okay, let's say the commission will make them want to sell paint and body jobs. That's still not the whole answer. As I said, we do a whale of a service business. Lots of mornings when we open up, we have customers lined up waiting to get in. When they do get waited on, they're usually pretty impatient. What they're interested in is getting their car rolling again and quick. Now, I have a hunch that trying to talk to them about body work might do more harm than good. Sure, there are plenty of mornings like that, but selling ding and death work doesn't necessarily mean selling it on the spot. This is good when you can do it, but there are other ways. The main thing is to give the salesman an incentive to find the work that needs to be done. then they can make a note of it. They don't need to mention it to the customer right then. Another way is to wait until the morning rush is over. Then have your service salesman, service manager, or body shop foreman take a little tour through the service bays looking for refinish possibilities. Later in the day, maybe about 10:00, call the customers on the phone and sell them on the work that needs to be done. Lots of times the customers will say, "Okay, right off. Might as well do that work, too, while you're at it." or sometimes we'll set up a later date with them. We also use some promotional pieces. They have spaces for a description of the bodywork and a cost estimate. We leave these where the owner will find them when he picks his car up, either on the dashboard or on the seat or attached to his repair bill. They have a couple of different mailers, too. We send these out so that the customer will get them a day or two after he's been in our place. You do these things and your sales will jump. >> I'd like to comment on that. Okay, >> go ahead. Shoot. >> Well, you fellas haven't mentioned the one thing that may be more important to paint and body shop sales than anything else. >> What would that be? >> The way your employees feel about this kind of work. Call it attitude if you want. What I mean is everybody connected with the dealership, including yourself, ought to think of paint and body jobs as just as important as general service. To help this out, you might try what we did. Get all your service people together a couple of nights a week for a while. Let the meetings be a combination of school and bull session. The idea is to lay your cards on the table and let everybody know that you're really going after this paint and body business. Even if you think they already know what's involved, give your shop foreman a chance to explain. He can use a systems wall chart to illustrate what he's talking about. This will help your service salesman especially because they'll be doing some of the estimating. These schools or whatever you want to call them will help build confidence and confidence is important where attitude is concerned. This business of attitude has a lot of angles to it. For instance, when a customer comes in for mechanical work, your salesman ought to pay just as much attention to the way the car looks as the way it runs. They have to be really interested in what's the best thing for the customer. Sometimes this isn't easy, especially when the salesman are extra busy. Just the same, they've got to be pleasant. Call the customer's attention to the bodywork in a nice way and answer his questions courteously. Actually, selling ding and dent repair is easy. You've already got a lot going for you. >> I see your point. The cars are already in there. We might as well get to business. >> Not only that, the main thing is the customer's pride in the way his car looks. Remember, he's got a big investment here, and he knows it. He ought to be reminded that refinish work is money well spent. If he delays getting the spot repaired, he may invite a bigger expense later. Rusk can set in and so on. Most customers realize it's a whole lot easier to trade a car that looks good. It doesn't hurt anything to bring this up diplomatically. Of course, >> you know, uh I had my doubts for a while, but uh you guys are beginning to make a lot of sense. >> Glad to hear you say it. That means you decided this is going to be a wise investment. investment. Just what I figured. Here comes the commercial. I knew you guys had something to sell. >> Like we said before, we're only here to sell you on an idea. The money you may decide to spend will be strictly an investment in your own operation. >> Why should I spend anything? I already have a body shop. >> Excuse the pun, but this is right down your alley, isn't it, George? >> Ally is right. Or Ally used to be right, but not anymore. You see, before we wised up to all the possibilities of paint and body work, I'm afraid we thought it was just a kind of a nuisance. The shop, if you could call it that, was about two blocks away from the dealership. On top of that, the main door to the place faced an alley. It looked just plain shabby. Of course, we had a sign up on the street side, but it didn't help much. Customers still had a hard time finding us. In fact, the place was so far away, we had all kinds of trouble supervising the jobs that went in there. But don't get me wrong, our work was usually good in spite of all the problems. >> Say, uh, have you ever seen My Body Shop? >> Uh, no, I don't think so. Why? >> Uh, it sounds kind of like Never mind. Go on with what you're saying. Where was I? Oh, I guess I don't have to tell you we got rid of the old place. But there wasn't room in our service department to take care of the body shop. So, we picked a spot closer to the dealership and put up a new building. In this place, we have plenty of everything without being extravagant. Lots of light is important, and we have it. Daylight and artificial. We have enough bays to take care of our volume. The driveways are wide and designed to handle the heavy traffic that moves between our main building and the paint shop. It's well equipped any way you look at it. We put in the best tools we could find. We stocked it with highquality refinishing materials and supplies. And as a bow to the ladies especially, we decorated a little waiting room. It's a good idea to have a clean, comfortable place for the customers to rest and relax. Of course, it's a lot easier now to keep the whole place clean. I guess that's about all. >> Man, that's enough. It's fine. But you're talking about a lot of money. Probably not as much as you think. You may not need a new shop. Maybe it's just a case of utilizing the space you already have more efficiently. Actually, it's up to you to decide how big an operation you need to handle a business you can expect. >> Suppose, just suppose, that I do decide to go all out for paint and body work. Where do I get the crystal ball that tells me how much business I can count on? >> No crystal ball. You can make a fair estimate for yourself based on your service department volume and new car sales. If you need some help, do what I did. I talked to my car manufacturers's rep. He has the benefit of the national market dope that the manufacturer uses. He showed me how to base the size of my shop on realistic figures. This included an allowance for future expansion, too. Everything points toward paint and body sales growing faster than any other part of your dealership. So, you want to be sure your investment includes room for expansion. >> Uh-uh. That word investment keeps getting into the conversation. What kind of a return am I going to get on my money? >> George, you're our statistical expert. Answer the man. >> There are some national survey figures on this, but the return on your money is mainly going to depend on the size of your shop and how hard you go after the business. Keep in mind that ding and dent work is in and out fast. You get a terrific turnover so you don't have your bays tied up with long drawn out jobs. What I'm saying is that you get good efficiency from your floor space. All these things considered, figure about a 30% gross return on a twoman shop up to 45% gross on a 15-man operation. Do you make that on your service department? >> Man, that's great. I'm really getting steamed up about this. I had no idea. Wait a minute. I can't run a bigger shop without good refinishers. They don't grow on trees, you know. >> Glad to hear you say it. >> Thanks a lot. I think what Joel means is he's glad you realize you need top-notch craftsmen. And if you're going to stay efficient, you have to plan for future expansion of your personnel, too. One way to do this is to work out a kind of leazison arrangement with a trade school or vocational high school. These schools are anxious to cooperate, and they're a good source of trained body and paintmen. To help things along, your service manager or body shop foreman should talk to the class from time to time. Give them the benefit of his experience. explain that they're preparing for a bright future in an important profession. In connection with these talks, your people might offer to show some movies on refinishing techniques. Your paint supplier can arrange for these. Another way to get good men is to bring them along yourself. Set up a shop training system where young guys can serve as apprentices right beside your best workmen. This way, they can learn exactly what's expected of them, and they'll also find out what they can expect from you. It's important for new men to realize that skilled body and paint men are real pros. Craftsmanship is still number one on the list of qualifications because your place has to turn out work fast. Yet, it has to be the best with no shortcuts. Then you and all your people can be proud of it. The real test comes when the customer sees it. If it's done right, you'll gladly pay a fair price and you'll be making a fair profit, too. In fact, you're going to find having a good paint and body business will bring up the profit of your whole dealership. >> Yeah. How come? >> The main reason is that customers like the one-stop service idea. It's logical and handy for them to have their mechanical service and body work done in the same place. The automakers checked on this. They discovered that dealers that have good body shops get a gross service profit about 7% higher than the average. You'll find that you sell more new cars, too. It's a matter of building up the customer's confidence in your whole operation. They get in the habit of coming to you for everything. Put all these things together and you've got a fair index to the amount of money you're losing right now. >> You said it. I am losing money and I didn't even know it. Now, you guys have done me a big favor and I want you to know I appreciate it. >> You're welcome. >> Our pleasure. Don't mention it. >> And I'll tell you something else. Beginning right away, my Payton Body Shop is going to go go. Heat. Heat.