to do was show those shop owners that they could make more money and have an easier time of it if they just called him for transmission repairs. So that’s what he did… one shop
at a time. He wasn’t trying to sell the shops on dumping the remans and using him; he started out by making himself available to the shops in case they had a problem. He didn’t have long to wait. One of the more respected shops in
Zach and technician, Jay Jurgens discuss an electrical diagnosis
the area had a problem with one of the remans they installed. The shop owner called the reman company, and they asked him to perform a few tests before pulling the transmission. Those tests were a little beyond his capabilities, so he called Zach, who came right by. Zach performed the tests
for them. He quickly recog- nized the problem as a sticking pressure valve, and offered to fix
it for them. But the reman company had
its own procedures in place. They insisted on sending out a new reman. The shop owner had to pay for the sec- ond transmission, have his technicians replace the transmission for a second time, ship the first reman back to the company… and then wait for the reman company to credit his account for the price of the unit. That got the shop owner thinking:
Maybe installing remans wasn’t the easiest way to make a buck. Maybe it’d be smarter to let Zach handle his trans- mission work. And thus began Zach’s wholesale trade. It wasn’t long before that first shop
owner began talking to other repair shop owners. And they started sending Zach their transmission work, too. Today, about 60% of Zach’s work
comes from wholesale and fleet cus- tomers. Those wholesale customers come in 3 basic flavors: 1. Bench Jobs — the shop pulls
One of his first purchases for the new shop was this back-lit neon sign which provides the centerpiece of Zach’s main customer entrance.
So he came up with a plan to
address the needs of his communi- ty and the nearby repair shops. His first decision was that he wanted to build his business around wholesale and fleet accounts. His reasoning was that if he could pick up the right bal-
66
ance of wholesale versus retail work, the wholesale work would cover his expenses and give him a nice cushion. From there, any retail work he picked up would be gravy. But most of the shops in his town were selling remans. What he needed
the transmission and brings it to Zach to be rebuilt.
2. Whole Car Wholesale — the
shop takes the car from the customer and ships it over to Zach for diagnosis and repair. Then Zach returns the car, and the shop bills the customer. 3. Referrals — the shop sends
the customer to Zach. Zach fixes the car, and reciprocates with a commission
GEARS May/June 2010
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