Zach’s Transmission and 4X4 LLC.
And just like most guys walking
that same path, he had no idea how to run a business. A friend of his sat down with him and explained that he’d have to develop a new way of thinking. “You’ll need to stop worrying so much about the tech, and more about making a buck,” his friend explained. That made sense to Zach. It wasn’t
all that different from what he’d heard from the operations managers who’d visited the franchised shop where he used to work. So he went to work with one thing
on his mind: the almighty dollar. He was still just starting out, so he wasn’t making much money during those first months, but he paid his bills… mostly. And he squeaked by.
Zach Goes to Expo
As he was struggling along, he
started reading the What’s Working arti- cles in GEARS Magazine. And some of what he was reading didn’t quite jive with what he thought he knew about running a transmission shop. But he was open to the possibility that maybe there was a better way to do things. That’s when Zach made the deci-
sion to go to Expo. He really couldn’t afford it, but as the articles in GEARS pointed out, he “really couldn’t afford not to go.” So he reserved his spot, took the time off, and went to Las Vegas. What he heard at the What’s
Working management seminars really opened his eyes. According to the Expo speakers, the real key to success was to serve your customer, and not to worry about earning a profit. From what they were saying, if you address your cus- tomers’ needs, the profit will take care of itself. It was just what Zach needed to
hear. In fact, it was just what he want- ed to hear; everything they said was more in line with his nature. He went home invigorated, with a whole new game plan. And today, Zach is one of those guys who’s Making It Work; he’s become the go-to guy for transmission repairs in Longmont.
Zach’s Plan:
De-Selling the Remans
From what he’d learned at Expo,
Zach knew he needed a plan, and
GEARS May/June 2010
The crew at Zach’s Transmissions and 4X4 L-R: Del Trantham, Jay Jurgens, Risa Vandenbos, Zach, Tim Matney
Zach’s customer waiting area is adorned by framed photographs of mountain and lakescapes of the Rocky Mountains which Zach took himself on various backpacking trips to the area.
then he had to put that plan into action. One of the things Zach recognized
was that his town was a little different from many of the larger cities and towns
across the country. It was a tightly knit community; they depended more on word of mouth than an ad in the Yellow Pages or a billboard on Main Street.
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