Putting People Before Profits
Chuck does things a little differ-
ently though: If he finds something wrong with a customer’s car that’s not transmission related, he refers them to a shop down the street. He’s also tried talking a few customers out of rebuild- ing their transmission when he thought the car wasn’t worth the cost. They usu- ally want to fix them anyway though. You see, Chuck has always looked
out for his customers’ best interests and never sold work he didn’t think was necessary. Many of Chuck’s customers have gone through the Gen II hard sale before and found Chuck’s approach refreshing. Now Chuck’s customers keep asking him to handle the general repair work he normally refers to other shops, so he’s thinking about expanding
into other services. If you questioned Fred and Chuck
about doing general repair work, Fred would most likely say, “I couldn’t sur- vive without it.” Chuck, on the other hand, would likely remark, “I have more than enough transmission work to keep me busy.” Both Fred and Chuck are thinking
about adding some general repair work to their businesses, but for different reasons. Fred doesn’t have enough cus- tomers so he needs to sell more work to each one. Chuck is considering it because of his customers’ insistence. In fact, Chuck may even consider using a reman from time to time when he gets so busy he can’t turn a repair around quickly enough.
Editor’s note: ATRA’s What’s Working program can help people like Fred understand how to turn their business into a Generation III operation. The ideas and concepts developed for the program are the result studying successful shops. Each year, ATRA brings these ideas to the ATRA Powertrain Expo and local seminars. If you’d like more information about the What’s Working program contact Rodger Bland at
rbland@gearsmagazine.com
44
Chuck is operating under a clas-
sic Generation III business model. The purpose of his business is centered on the customer, not sales. Consequently, he has more business and more sales than Fred, who struggles to get custom- ers in the door and needs the general repair work to make ends meet. At the beginning of the What’s
Working study we found a lot of guys like Chuck: They were successful, but couldn’t really explain why. It wasn’t until a few years later, as we found more Chucks — and more Freds — that the explanations for his success became clear.
It was Chuck’s customer-first atti-
tude — putting people before profits — that provided him with greater profits. Chuck didn’t go through any training to learn this; it’s who he is. That’s the bad news for the Freds out there; it’s not part of their makeup. The good news is Fred can learn
to be more customer centric. Fred can learn to run his business like Chuck’s, but he’ll have to tackle his fear of los- ing every opportunity to make a sale. He’ll have to learn to put his customers first… he’ll have to learn to put people before profits.
GEARS March 2012
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