#64 Sales Talk, Tips, & Advice
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[00:00:00] 1, 2, 3, 4.
What's up guys? Gene Fetty back at you with another episode of the All Access Podcast from Dent Repair. Now this is episode number 63. We are trucking right along we're. What is we of April, right? First week of April, actually recording on Easter. Happy belated Easter. Uh, when you can listen to this tomorrow.
Um, this episode is brought to you by me, uh, with, with, uh, my advanced glue poll. One day training at Anson on May 1st, the day before their open house to celebrate their 30th anniversary, 30 years serving. The PDR business, uh, and [00:01:00] man, it is, I'm, I'm honored to call them friends. Uh, the entire Anson crew are pretty spectacular.
Um, anyways, uh, the advanced training, uh, at Anson, uh, it's gonna be Friday, May 1st, uh, nine to four 30. Lunch will be included. It's gonna be a mix of demonstration and hands-on. Uh, we're gonna be unlocking panels with lateral tension, uh, reshaping metal, right to pull, to pull deeper, more difficult dents, uh, diving into creases, uh, utilizing.
Glue pull for sharp dense, for stretched dense, for body line dense. So combination of push and pull. Uh, and I'm gonna dive into and give you some of my best tips and tricks for cold blue, uh, which over the last few years has made me incredibly more efficient at glue pulling. You can sign up for that [email protected] slash advanced [00:02:00] Glue.
Advanced pull on dent repair. Now I will also include that link in the show notes in the description, depending whether you're watching or listening. Um, seats are limited. Uh, we're only gonna have seven seats. Uh, prices, 7 99, and. Anson in all their amazingness. Thank you. Christina, uh, is giving everybody who attends the class a $100 gift card to Anson.
So really it's like getting their class for 6 99 and some free tools. So that's that. Uh, that's the sponsorship sign up so we can keep doing this and keep putting events on today's episode. Sales. I had to go back and, and look through the archives to make sure I haven't done this. Uh, because I teach this very fairly regularly at, uh, some in-person events.
[00:03:00] Sales is so important. Sales is the really the lifeblood of your business. And I don't care whether you are a wholesale tech, right? You're selling those jobs every day to those managers, right? If you're a hail tech. You could be selling yourself to the person running the storm, selling yourself to the body shop, and then when you're in the body shop, right?
If you're writing cars and helping customers, you've gotta sell to the customer. And then of course, in retail, right? In brick and mortar shops and direct to the to customer sale or direct to customer services. You absolutely, without a doubt, are selling. You're selling all the time whether you want to or not.
Almost all of us, if not 100% of us. Look, I would say 99.9% of us got into this business, not because we like business, not because we liked sales, not because we like marketing, [00:04:00] but we are technicians, uh, by trade. Technicians at heart, we got into this because we were like, oh, I saw for me, I saw Charlie do this.
I saw Denny do this. And I'm like, well, if those guys can do it, I can do it. And if they can make money, I can make money. And when I went to Dent School, PDR training, uh, I think they may have touched on sales, like something along the lines of like, well just walk in in, give 'em your business card and tell 'em you can fix dents.
Like that was really about the extent of my sales training
because we were technicians at heart, right? And that creates a lot of struggles in this business and these businesses we run, is we don't have necessarily the mind of a salesperson or the mind of a marketer, or, you know, unless we're Matt Moore, the mind of a business, uh, person, like an all around business person.
Sales is your lifeblood. You are not. [00:05:00] A dent tech until you sell a job that allows you to fix a dent. Until then you are a marketing person and a salesperson, period, until you actually get to fix a dent. So I'm gonna go through and talk about some of my sales philosophies, some of the, give you some of the resources, uh, over the years that, that I've used.
Um, certainly go back and listen to some of those old PDR College podcast episodes. Where Keith and Shane dive into sales.
I wanna start with my favorite quote about sales, and I'll give you a little background on, on that. Um, Zig Ziglar, rest in peace. Zig, uh, has a quote that, that says. If you truly believe in the product or service that you're selling, you have a moral obligation to sell it. [00:06:00] Now, when I first heard that, I was like, whatever kind of BS that is, man.
I'm just trying to sell stuff. I'm just trying to make things happen. As I've grown as I've learned, right, I now have a moral conviction behind me to sell. So lemme tell you a little story. When I started doing retail, uh, my buddy Larry, rest in peace, Larry, uh, we, we were both just wholesale guys and I started reaching out and, and moving in, branching into, uh, retail.
He saw some of the jobs I was getting and we talked all the time and he's like, you got how much for what? You got this? You got that? And I'm like, yeah, absolutely. It works. Like I'm telling you, it works. So, you know, introduce the price guide, so on and so forth.
He went out to help me on a job. It was actually a car that I forgot to put the, uh, latch or the, the cable back on the handle inside the car. Right? So the driver's door handle inside didn't work [00:07:00] because they didn't put that, that, uh, wire in there, the cable in there, right. He had to reach out and open it from the outside.
Well, the customer called the next day. And was like, Hey, uh, my door's not working. And as soon as he said that, I knew exactly what I did wrong. I was like, oh, yep. Turns out I forgot to put that cable in. Well, the problem is. Where I was at is like the west side of my route. When I did that, well that day I was at the southern point of my route, which is like an hour away from the Western point, and then the customer lived about 45 minutes north of there.
So I'm almost two hours away from this customer and I'm like, can't leave the dude hanging. Well, I happened to look and it was like, let's call it a Tuesday, and I'm like, oh, wait a minute. Larry goes to team on Tuesdays That's in the same town that this dude lives in. Let me see if like, let me take a Hail Mary and see if I can get him.
So I call Larry, I'm like, Hey dude, I need help. I here ran through the [00:08:00] story, forgot to put this cable on. I can tell you exactly what you need, what to pull apart. And he's like, yeah, just have him come meet me at the dealership. We'll get it taken care of. No problem. So he goes, fixes the door panel, starts talking to the customer, and at the end of the day he calls me and he's like, Hey, you're all good to go.
And he goes, did you really get. $800 to fix that door. And I'm like, well, yeah, all day. Like somebody, if memory serves, I think somebody kicked the door or shoved a shopping cart into it, like it was a crease through the edge of the door, maybe just touched into the back of the door. Um, I think, I think I may even have it up on my YouTube channel.
If I can find it, I'll put the link. So it was like a nothing, nothing crazy dent, but he's like, I, I could see where that dent was, you know, little, little evidence at that door edge. Um, stamping Mark, like it looked great. Customer was stoked, but it wasn't flawless. It was just a really great repair. [00:09:00] He's like, man, you gotta show me how to do this.
And I'm like, look, come on, let's do some ride alongs and, and we'll go from there. So. Larry hopped in the car with me, you know, a couple times over a couple of weeks and, and watched my process and listened to my sales process and how we're dealing with customers. And right at the time I'm still doing wholesale and retail, so I'd go knock out my dealers, then go do my retails or catch a retail in between dealers and, and work through all of that.
And he is like, man, this is amazing. I need to do this. But side note, Larry was always like that a hundred dollars dent guy. Like, ah, I don't know. How's a hundred bucks sound? I don't know. How's a hundred bucks sound? Never really sold for more than that, unless it was a, um, you know, hill car, right? So calls me up one day and he's like, listen, dude, I went out and I looked at this truck.
It's brand new Silverado, it's hitting the bedside. He's like, I quoted him 300 bucks or 350 bucks. [00:10:00] I'm like, oh man, that's awesome. Like, you gotta tell me how it goes. He's like, oh, I'm going back out tomorrow to do the job and, and I'm really stoked and the guy doesn't wanna paint his truck. It's brand new.
And I'm like, oh dude, this is great. Now, you know, I've got him using a price guide. I've got him away from that a hundred dollars dent guy mentality, I thought. And uh, he called me the next morning at like 10:00 AM Now Larry's a little bit of an early riser, uh, but I don't think he'd be done that fast.
I'm like, lair, how'd it go dude? Like, man, it went out. Like did you get it? And he is like, SI. Oh dude. Couldn't fix the dent. I just couldn't get it. And I'm like, man, everything you described to me yesterday sounds like a fixable dent. I just wasn't sure. And man, I just can't put that kind of time into it and I don't know, and blah, blah blah.
And I'm like, alright, Larry, like back to school. Let's talk about that [00:11:00] dent, because what you described to me yesterday in my head sounds a whole, like a whole lot more than a $350 dent. So we walked through and I pull out my price guide and I'm like, I go, Larry, that should be like a $1,200 dent dude. And he goes, well, if I was getting $1,200 for it, I could have fixed it.
I would've been there all day and got it done. This is the moral obligation, right where it's coming in. I go, lair you. You just sold everybody short. I said, first you let yourself down because you packed up all your stuff. You drove out there yesterday, right? You went to the guy's house, you spent a, you're a bullshitter like me.
God knows how much time you spent talking to the customer, setting it up. So let's call it an hour, right? And then plus some transit time. Then you came back, and then you drove back there today. You unpacked all your stuff and you got set up and you worked for however long you worked and then you tapped [00:12:00] out and then you had to pack all your stuff back up and drive back home.
Like you just screwed yourself out of hours and hours of productivity and money and you didn't get anywhere. Right. You let yourself down and he is like, well, kind of did. And I go, Larry, you really let the customer down like this is, this dude's brand new truck. He doesn't want it painted. I can appreciate that.
I can't stand paint work, right? He doesn't want it painted. Wants to save the truck, wants to save his paint. He might go trade this thing in now because you couldn't fix it, right? So now you let your customer down because you couldn't save his truck. And he said, well, I guess you're right. And I said, and most importantly, you let the entire PDR industry down.
He goes, well, what do you mean? I said, from now on forever. Anytime somebody happens to mention Paintless Dent repair to that customer, what's he gonna say? Oh, I tried that once. It doesn't [00:13:00] work. Oh man, that's just smoke and mirrors. They can't do anything. I had this little dent on my truck and they couldn't fix it.
So you let yourself down, you let your customer down, and hell, you left me down because I'm part of the industry. Right? You let us all down when. You go out to sell a job, or when you're out working and you're selling a job, it is your moral obligation to sell that service for the right dollars to allow you to work on the car the right amount of time, with the right amount of effort to deliver the right product that makes a customer happy.
Right? Flip side, another story. Um, and I think I've mentioned this car on here before. If not, I should have, I think it's probably in the social media episode, right at a brand new five 40 M package. 5 45 50. Anyways, sweet BMW with a M package on it. [00:14:00] Customer calls me up at like seven in the morning, a couple calls.
In fact, I'm certain this goes back to this, the media portion of the podcast somewhere. Anyways, Jude calls me, he's totally sold. I go out, I write it. At the time it was my most, uh, valuable. Single panel repair, knotted hail ever, right? Like good deer hit on the door or on the quarter panel. And I wanna say we were high two thousands in change, 27, 28, 29.
I don't think I cracked 3000. But anyways, it was gonna be a difficult repair. Why did I set the right expectations? Went through a lot of stuff just like Larry did, right? Like I drove out, wrote the estimate, waited for the insurance, and then drove back out and then unpacked my stuff. So I get into this thing and I'm working and I'm like, four hours in access is terrible.
Like I'm sneaking through the taillight. I've got the wheel off, sneaking through some, uh, the screw holes in the, um, [00:15:00] wheelhouse. But it is hard, right? It's not glue pulling. Well, I've got a shot out at the edge, like it sucks. So four hours in, right? And that head trash starts going. And I'm like, man, I, I don't know if I can fix this thing.
This is pretty terrible. What am I gonna do with, like, if I sit here all day and I can't fix it? This is ridiculous, right? And I, you know, go through this and I've beaten myself up and beaten myself up and I'm like, wait a minute now. It's not the most exciting thing in the world, but let's, let's be reasonable here, Jean Gene, let's round number it and call it three grand.
If I fix this thing. A day. They have a pretty spectacular day, especially for not doing hail, and this is like eight, nine years ago. I don't think it was 10 years ago. Could have been 10 years ago, long time ago. Really, really killer retail day. I go, listen, if you could to come back tomorrow [00:16:00] and do this again.
They split that up. It's still two $1,500 days back to back. Not the end of the world. Right? And you can do a lot of pushing in 16, 18, 20 hours, like whatever it takes. I had that big boy conversation with myself and I put my big boy pants back on and I went back to work and I did end up finishing the car at like the eight hour mark, right?
Good. Just a good full day. Looked beautiful. Customer was stoked. Got to keep his car. I had a great day. However, it only happened to because. I took the time and I believed in my service and product, and I worked. I sold with, and then worked with that moral obligation behind me to deliver what I said I was gonna do when I said I was gonna do it for the price to the level of repair I said I could do and.
Everybody wins, right? So I didn't let myself done. I had a kickass day. This dude was literally gonna trade the car and if I couldn't fix it, right? So [00:17:00] I saved his day and saved his car. And guess what? That dude forever is a huge proponent of Paintless dent repair because this dude came out and saved his car from the body shop.
It was amazing.
If you don't. Have that moral driver behind you, you're gonna let your head trash in and you're going to panic like Larry did. And I mean, you can't tell this to 3000. Like that's gonna, oh my gosh, that's crazy. So on and so forth. You've gotta have that moral obligation behind you. So anyways, that's my long story.
I'll make favorite equipment, Zig Ziglar. Uh, speaking of which, right? I said I was gonna give you some, um, resources that I used over the years. I believe it is Secrets of Closing the Sale by Zig Ziglar. I love the audiobook. He reads it and he is got this Southern accent. And I understand it's a love it or hate accent.
I could listen to [00:18:00] Zig all day long. I love, love how that dude talks. I love how he tells stories. Uh, but that is an amazing, uh, resource of a book. Um, you've gotta, you've gotta read that for sure. So let's talk a little bit of sales theory, right? So one, I work with that moral obligation. So if I'm selling morally, man, I'm really driven to sell as aggressively and honestly as I can, right?
To make it happen. Sales, even today, has this connotation of like being sleazy. And certainly there are sleazy salespeople out there, right? Like go to a, uh, timeshare sales presentation. If you wanna see some, like selling hard sleazy sales tactics, like go check out one of those. Uh, I highly don't recommend buying one, uh, but the sales process [00:19:00] processes certainly something to see.
I like to think. Of a salesperson instead of like the sleazy car salesman from the seventies, right in the leisure suit and smoking a cigarette and drinking a coffee. Uh, I, I like to be an advisor, right? Like when I'm selling, I wanna be a trusted advisor to the customer. I wanna help educate them. I wanna help walk 'em through the process, and I wanna make it easy for them to do business with us.
When you are selling, you need to be in a positive mindset, right? So in in, in my company, right, a lot of our sales, a lot of our, not even sales, a lot of our business starts with a phone call, right? Instead of just walking in, a lot of [00:20:00] people are at least call, Hey, can I bring my car by? The number one thing I teach all of my people, and it it goes way back, is to before you answer the phone, smile, throw a smile on, right?
Just, Hey, dent River, now this is Jean. How can I help you? Hey, this is Gene You, how like the inflection comes up. Hey, this is Gene. Thanks for calling Dent Repair. Now how can I help you Smile. It will physically change your body. In fact, I think I even caught myself like sitting up a little bit higher in the chair when I smiled, even as a customer walks through the door, throw a smile on, right?
Like, Hey, how you doing? Good. Good to see you. Thanks for coming in. How can we help you today? Be positive, be friendly, and be outgoing. There are three rules or three things that need to be found before sales, before any sale will ever happen. Um, they need to, it's no like [00:21:00] in trust. And if you are missing any one of those three legs, you will not make the sale or you will struggle to make the sale.
So no, if they get to know you and they like you. They feel like you're trustworthy. You've got three good marks going towards them saying yes to a sale. So some of the ways that I like to do the no part, uh, is content, right? Don't be afraid, and I've preached this, I preached this not long ago. Get your face on camera and get out there.
It is amazing when it's still so cool. It's weird, but cool when a customer walks in or when, when Shannon comes and grabs me, Hey, can you come out? Look at this car. And I walk out and they're like, Hey, I watched your videos. Oh my gosh. They already feel like they know you. Um, another thing is they need to like you, right?
So. Be friendly, [00:22:00] be outgoing with your, uh, hair on the shoulder kind of driving me crazy. Be outgoing, right? So don't sit there with your arms crossed like this and closed. Yeah. How you doing? What's up? Right? You look like it, like, like you don't want to be bothered with them, right? Open your arms. Hey, how you doing?
Throw a handout. I'll give a wave. Hey, thanks for coming in. How you doing? Right? Starting to make them begin to like us. Because people like friendly people. A great book, uh, Keith definitely turned me onto this book, uh, by Nicholas Boothman, uh, is how to make them like you in 90 seconds or how to convince them in 90 seconds.
So it's a lot of body language and neurolinguistic programming, uh, things you can do, body language. Um. Keith's touch of the elbow. Uh, Keith, if you listen, I caught you do that a couple times in Italy. Hey, what's up dude? How you doing? Good to see you. Caught the [00:23:00] elbow touch. Uh, just made me smile on the inside.
Learn how to build that instant rapport. Right. Tell a joke. Right. My favorite dad joke, uh, when they walk through the door is, Hey, how you doing? Oh man, you know, not so good. I'm like, yeah, nobody ever likes to come see me here. And then they kind of chuckle. They're like, yep. Like it's no fun to come in and see the dent guy, because obviously somebody dented the car.
And then finally they need to trust you, so engage with them. Right? Don't disengage. Now, I'm a little self-conscious that like. Uh, and I even have some friends. What's up, Dan Milner, uh, that will call me out on when I'm talking, and I know I do it on here. I'm trying to maintain eye contact with you right there in the camera.
Uh, but as I'm thinking and picturing things, I'm going up here in my head and I'm like, yep. You know, when Larry was doing this, he's talking about here and we're going this way, or [00:24:00] I'm up here trying to remember this. Always come back and, and pay attention. Not awkwardly, not like this.
Right. We don't need to trip anybody out, but make good eye contact with them. Uh, a little tip I picked up, and it may have even been in the Nicholas movement book, is to look them in the eye just long enough to identify their eye color. Oh, brown eyes, green eyes, gray eyes, blue eyes. Right. Just make a note and that keeps it not awkward.
Right. We're not just staring, you're staring into my eyes, right? But it's enough to make contact and then, um, really start to ask them questions, right? A person's favorite topic is themselves. Oh man. Any idea how this happened? What, like, what's going on here? Right? So we're getting them to open up and tell their story and [00:25:00] side note.
For a deeper actual class, uh, is now we're starting to get information on how that didn happened. Oh man, you know, it let my. Daughter borrowed the car and she was going out and you know, it was garbage day. The garbage can was at the end of the driveway, she's backing out and bam just caught the quarter panel.
Oh, that's terrible. And then try to connect, right? Uh, listen, I got a daughter at home too, blah, blah, blah. Like always makes me nervous when she's backing out. Thank goodness she hasn't hit our garbage. Can like just connect. If you like the car or if you can find something genuine about the car that you, that you love.
Hey man, I love this color on your Kia Forte. Like the Kia's not gonna get me excited, but maybe it is a beautiful color or it's black. Oh man, you got a black, black car too. I bought my black truck. It looks amazing for like 30 seconds after I wash it and then it's dirty again. Like I'll never do that again.
But just find ways [00:26:00] to connect.
If you open with that good greeting and you make contact and you've got good body language and we're making eye contact and we're getting them talking and getting them flowing, we're starting to build that know, like, and trust immediately, right? And that is where sales happens, right? Like that is the magic of getting all three legs of the stool together.
Some other tricks, tips. I don't really like tricks. Tricks, sounds shady, however, right? Like sales is a little bit of psychological warfare in a good way. Because remember, I'm morally obligated to sell you my service, in this case, stent repair, uh, for what it's gonna take for me to make it, right, right. So it's not tricks, it's not, uh.
Spiel, right? That like Ask Keith about his sale spiel. Uh, it's not a [00:27:00] spiel, like it's a genuine conversation Anyways, something else we do is like to educate. So when we go out and, and in retail, certainly a lot of times we're looking at big damage, right? So how did this happen? Start walking them towards like, is an insurance claim or not?
Would it be collision or comprehensive? How. Would the body shop fix this? I just had a Subaru in the other day and the guy's like, ah man, I don't, you know, I was hoping you could pop it out. And I'm like, Hmm, I don't think we're gonna pop this out. And he's like, yeah, this edge is gonna be real bad, right where it meets the bumper.
And he's like, well, you know, if it needs painted, what? What are they gonna do? And on that particular car, I think it was a legacy, right? Like the dog leg down to the rocker cover. Up the quarter and then at the uni side all the way up to the fender. So I'm like, oh, listen, if, if the body shop's gotta paint this, they can't just spot it in here.
Like they're gonna do [00:28:00] all this. And he's like, oh, well that is a big panel. I, I really, I don't want it painted. He goes, then it's not gonna match and everything, because I'm taking that educational approach and walking him through and showing him, he already knows. Through that process, that, man, if I can do paintless dent repair and save this from the body shop, I'm gonna be so much better off.
I won't have to worry about color mats. I won't have to worry about this. But by taking that educational approach, right, we're there, instead of getting all hung up on, he thought this dent was gonna like pop out real quick, hard shop through the edge, right where the, uh, bumper meets the quarter. Like somebody backed into his daughter while she was in a.
Parking lot like she was driving down the aisle, dude. But like, to give you an idea of the dent, definitely not a popper, but it took that educational approach and walked 'em through. Um, a lot of times I had another, oh, right, brand new atlas just [00:29:00] the other day. And those body lines are stupid sharp. Like they're stupid sharp.
And then they've got a real subtle concave underneath. The guy came in and he's like, man, I've only had this thing for two weeks. He goes, I haven't even made a payment on it yet. And this happens. He is like, I'm just sick. And he's like, well, how long is it gonna take you? I'm like, well, at least a couple hours.
Like, it's a pretty good dent. I'm like, we're not popping anything out. Well, in my shop, uh, the customer waiting area has a big picture window that they can look through into the shop. I've got the light set up, I've got a K power on there, pulling tension this way to help me, um, in, and we're doing a little bit of crown work and we're pushing and moving lights and got the heat gun going.
And uh, I brought him out to show it and he's like, dude, that's a lot of work. I'm like, well, I, I understand that's a lot of work. Like I do it all the time. And he's like, man, I thought you guys used magnets or just, you know, sucked it out. He goes, I had no idea [00:30:00] that Paintless Dent Repair was so involved.
He goes, I even called my buddy to tell him, you know, like, Hey, they're not just popping this out and using magnets. He couldn't believe that we don't use magnets, but, you know, whatever. Um, because he got to see the process and watch what walked through. Like didn't question price, obviously he was all in and, and was just absolutely amazed at not what we could do because I think his expectations were like, I want my new car to look new again.
But what it took to get there, right, walked him through the process and bringing him out and showing him, um, was pretty, pretty fascinating stuff when we're selling. Right? Like, here's a great tip. Use a price if you have to be. So when we were in Italy, like nobody's using software to do it. Like, I don't know if Mobile Tech RX hasn't penetrated or anybody hasn't penetrated, or maybe it's just a culture thing, but nobody over there is using software.
[00:31:00] Like when Bryce was talking about pricing, we're like, who uses software? Like literally three people's hands went up. Obviously you here in the States, the right software has been adapted, adopted very well, and and is working. The perception of the customer is they've got a little dent and they can, they want the dent popped out and it like went in fast, so it obviously comes out fast.
You can't get mad at them for that because they don't know what it takes. Right. Just like the dude with the atlas I was just talking about. I've got paper price guides that match my mobile tech RX price guide. I've got Mobile Tech rx. When we go out in price, right, I'll say, Hey, our price starts at X for one inch of damage and then it's X for each additional inch.
And then we look at things that might make it more difficult to fix and they're like, oh, that makes sense. A little psychological warfare trick. Is [00:32:00] when I've got this out right And we scan the van or scan the van and we're punching it in and we're going, I'm not like this to them on my phone, right? We discover the price together.
So I come over and I can't do this for like stand next to each other. And I'm like, all right, so here we go. We're on the quarter panel. Ah, you can see up here. And I'll have my tape measure out. I'll be like, this is, this is like nine inches. Kind of picturing that Subaru event. I said, but we know that this drops down below.
Uh, where the bumper is, 'cause that's hidden probably another inch or two. So let's go, you know, we're gonna call it 10 inches. Oh yeah. Okay. And man, that is really deep. Like, you can see where that was deep and the, oh yeah, that's, that's definitely deep. So like the deep button. And I'm like, and here's this body line, right?
This body line. We're gonna have to rebuild this. Oh yeah. I see the body line. And they're watching, not me tell them this, but we're walking through the process on here and it's. Okay. Yep. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And listen, we're gonna have to take the rear bumper off, right? We go to here, we're doing [00:33:00] this. And honestly, if we, if we're unplugging these things, we're gonna do some scans, gotta give you back a safe car.
You've got all these sensors here in the bumper. Oh yeah, that makes sense. So we gotta do a pre-scan, be a post scan to we're walking up. And now, instead of me telling them, you know, this is a $1,400 repair. The, the software told them it was a $1,400 repair. It's no longer arbitrary, right? It's no longer Larry being the, the ah, a hundred bucks sound, right?
Like it's a process. We walk through it. Body shops have figured this out a long time ago. When you walk in there, you end up with this six page or eight page book on how they're gonna fix your car. That's written in some foreign language and, and you don't even understand. And at the end you're like, okay, it's, I guess it's 10,000 bucks to fix my car.
Well, I've got a book here that tells me that makes sense. It's the same thing here, right? We're walking through the process. [00:34:00] You also, right, because this is a guide can use this. You can, you can work against it, right? Listen, if I go by the book here, you're actually like just over three inches, which makes it four inches.
I'll tell you what, like it's instead of four, we're gonna keep it at three. We'll, we won't worry about that extra eighth of an inch or quarter of an inch. Like we'll bring it back. Oh man. Thank you so much. That that, that's awesome. Now listen, this body line's supposed to be 25%, uh, but we've got this huge dent.
It's just touched a little bit. We're gonna slide that down a little bit. Oh really? Yeah, you can do that. Oh, that's amazing. Right? So now we're helping to work and build that know, like, and trust even better. It really is. An amazing process to go through. I, I still find sales and dealing with people fascinating.
Like it's so, so interesting
as we're walking through, [00:35:00] right? We're working through that process. It also allows us to anchor a high dollar amount, right? So, or maybe high dollar amount is the wrong word, but anchor the dropper. Dollar amount. Right? It, it's high.
When I deliver the price, this is my, when I do the training, I got a Mr. T slide. 'cause, 'cause it cracks me up. And I'm a child of the eighties. Uh, when you deliver your price, your final price, well, Mr. Smith, that's gonna be $1,572 and 83 cents. Mr. T says, shut up, fool. In this, uh, psychological warfare game we're playing Rick.
It's a game. We're having fun with it. When you deliver the price, the next person to [00:36:00] talk loses, right? So Mr. Smith, that's gonna be $1,582 and 73 cents.
Are you feeling awkward yet? Like it can feel awkward. It felt a little awkward just sitting there. I can remember one, one car, the, the guy was, he was kind of a nacho, uh, and kind of a jag off, which is a Pittsburgh word for like a pain in the ass, but like dude was a Jag. And I wasn't gonna back down. Like I was trying, trying to prove a point, uh, and not necessarily trying to sell the job, but like I wasn't gonna crack.
And I could tell he was, he was a little bit more of like the sleazy salesman kind of guy. And Shannon was out in the parking lot with me looking at this car, and I delivered the price [00:37:00] and I'd say a word. And it was longer than that pause I just gave you guys. I mean, it may have gone a full minute. You could see him like staring me down and having a conversation in his head, and I could see Shannon starting to get like antsy, but like, dude, there is no way that I'm talking next.
Like he can get in his car and leave. I ain't talking next period. Like, that's it. That should have been his place to leave and then call in and Shannon would've said Hello and then we would've lost. I guess that's how you win that, but like awkward to the point where like. Shannon standing out there was getting awkward.
Anyways, we didn't close the sale. The guy was a nacho. I think he really needed probably a body shop. He just didn't want to hear it. But anyways, we go inside and Shannon was like, oh my gosh. She thought it was so stressful. She's like, I was gonna talk. I just couldn't handle it. But then I remembered Mr. T says, shut up, fool.
And I just kept my mouth shut and I'm like, yep. Like, we're not gonna talk next. So [00:38:00] remember MRT says, shut up, fool. We need to deliver that price. Speaking of delivering price, right? Like it's exciting to talk about great money on great repairs for great dollars, you need to build up to that price. So I, I have two pictures that come into my head, right?
You can be a sledgehammer. Right, and, and instead of showing Mr. Smith how we worked up to those dollar figures, right? Like, Hey, I need to get this dent fixed. And the first mention of price is, well, Mr. Smith, it's $1,582 and 73 cents, or whatever random number I'm throwing out at you. That is like coming in and with a sledgehammer.
Wham, here's your price. They're like, whoa, whoa. What the, I thought this could have been 50 bucks. I had no, how did we even get $1,500? Oh, my Lord. Or, or my favorite [00:39:00] approach. I'd never like to sledgehammer anybody. I mean, there's some people I'd like to hit with the sledgehammer, but that's few and far between.
All right. Sorry. Little sidetracked. Uh, the other picture I like is, and I enjoy fine dining. Dave Schott. I don't know if you listen, but if you do, we need to find dining dinner, because some of the best meals ever have been with that dude. Um, when you go to a nice restaurant, right, like even just go to a a, a great local steakhouse, and I don't mean outback or Longhorn, I mean like, like a real deal.
Nice steakhouse. My favorite here in Pittsburgh's Capital Grill. If anybody's ever in town and wants to go grab a great steak, let's go to the capital Grill. I know it's a chain, but this particular location knocks it out of the park every single time. Ugh, love it. But when they come out, they bring their menu and everything is a la carte, right?
Like nothing is included anywhere, and I don't mind [00:40:00] paying. I understand that. Right. But they're like, you know, they've got their fancy napkin on their arm, not actually there, but you know, for visualization purposes. And they're like, oh, here are steaks. We prepared tonight. This is, you know, we've got a beautiful Bonin filet.
We've only got a few left, you know, and that is for $78. Oh, man, that sounds great. Oh, great. You'd like the, the, the bone in filet. Would you care for any, uh, additions to that? Would you like the Kona coffee crust or would you like the, uh, would you like to have that, uh, Oscar style with some lump crab and some beautiful sauce?
Or would you like to have it all POIs with, with the peppercorn and cream sauce? Oh, man, my mouth's water. I can't wait to go to Easter lunch. Easter dinner. I like two hours to go, dude, I'm gonna be so hungry. But anyways, like they're walking through that like, oh yeah. Oh, and for, for your side dishes, now they're big enough to share.
Would you, would you care for the, the lobster mac and cheese or would you like [00:41:00] the truffle fries? Highly recommend the truffle fries and the lobster mac. But if I get to pick one, do the truffle fries at capital grill are amazing? Uh, right truffle fries. Oh, how about our wild mushroom mix? That's all stirred up.
Oh, it's so good. In fact, we just had some leftovers the other night from there. Uh. All of this. Would you like this? Oh yeah. I would love that. Oh yeah. Gimme some of that. Gimme some of this. Well now my like $78 steak dinner, which doesn't sound bad, just turned into my $200 steak dinner because I've got this and this and this, and I'll have a drink, and we'll have an appetizer and we'll do this.
And at the end of the day, right, we've got our bill. But they didn't come out and they were like, alright, you're sitting down for dinner. Here's your bill. 400 bucks for the two of you. Holy, where'd that come from? Never questioned it. I'm like, oh. Yeah, there's my $78 steak and there's the $40 mac and cheese, and there's this and there's that.
Right? They build up and they make it an experience and they get [00:42:00] there just the same way we're using Mobile Tech Rx and we're like, listen, you've got this beautiful 10 inch gent here with a little side of body line and a a little sprinkle of deep with some RNI and a little bit of pre and post scan to make sure we're giving you back a safe car.
Oh yeah, I get, I gotta have that. I gotta have that. Then we deliver the price so much better than the sledgehammer approach, even for the same dollars. But it also shows that you're not just randomly pulling these things outta your butt. Right? It's, it's a reason. It's working through, it's showing the whole process of how to get there.
Right? It is, is absolutely the best way to sell. Oh, what else can we talk about? Ooh, the closes. I'm gonna give you a couple closes. Um. Simplest one, the assumptive close, right? And, and someday, I'll tell you the, the suit story with the assumptive close. [00:43:00] Damn, that dude was good. But the assumptive close is like, of course I believe in my product or service.
I have my moral obligation to sell this to you, right? We've walked through, why would you not schedule? So I want to give them a yes. A yes option. Okay, great. Uh, Karen, uh, so look at our calendar here. We can get you in next Thursday at 9:00 AM or if Thursday's not good for you. The following. Monday the eighth.
Uh, we've got a 10 o'clock open. Uh, which one's better for you? I didn't give Karen a No. Would you like to schedule? No. Oh, okay. We move right into the assumptive closed. That especially works really well in a hailstorm, right? People come in, we don't really write estimates. Uh, we do a free assessment. Uh, we'll do the assessment.
Hey Jim, listen, car definitely needs this. Uh, we're gonna have to put a hood on it. Um, we're poking out pretty [00:44:00] far. I can get you in on the 14th. Um, if you, if you wanna go ahead and schedule now, otherwise you're right. It could be another month or so before we can get you in. Oh man, I better drop that off on the 14th.
Again. They're here. The car's got damage. We can fix it. Why would you not schedule? Why would you come in if you weren't ready to schedule? Right? So you must be ready to schedule
the next one. And it's not a, it's not, these are not in order. And these are not all of my closes. These are just a couple of my favorites. Now, I don't expect Shannon or previously Jennifer. To be able to deliver this. This is more of a technician's close. I'll call it the cocky close. Love it. I've sold so many jobs with this when it comes down to it, right?
Don't come outta the gate cocky, but when you need to be cocky, be cocky. Um, the customers like, oh man, [00:45:00] uh, I, that's a little more than I wanted to spend. Uh, I think I need to shop around a little bit and see what my other options are. Great. Like that is my trigger for this sale. Joe, listen, I understand.
Listen, it is a little bit of an expensive repair. Here's what I can promise you. You probably can find somebody around here to work on your car for less, but I can also promise you that you can't find anybody bets better in the Pittsburgh market than me to take care of this job for you. And then I, I pulled the old shut up fool, Mr.
T move when I deliver that. So many times when I've said that you, they're like in person, they're a little taken back. You can even hear a little taken back on the phone and they're like, well, man, if you're that confident, you're my answer. I gotta go. I, where else am I gonna go? I want the best. I'm already at the best.
You just told me. Now I've got the reviews, I've got the, the repair catalog, I've got the social media content [00:46:00] all to back that up, but that close. Is absolutely fire when, when it comes to that kind of person. And the last close that I'll give you for this show, because we could literally teach a class all day.
Hint, we're gonna talk about a class all day at the end of the show, stick around is the protractor close. So as I was chasing my craft, my career as a technician. I wanted to be the best that I could, the best that I could, the best that I could, and I still want to be great. And I still try to do great work and amazing work, even though Bryce Kelly makes me feel like a bad dent guy.
Um, just kid. Bryce, I love you. You're inspirational. Um. As I've grown and, and we have employees in a shop, it is now more important for me to do business and make happy customers than it is to always [00:47:00] sell the most perfect work at the highest dollars and, and clothes for like perfection all the time. It's just unrealistic.
I came up with a protractor close, which is available for sale. On Dent repair now.com, uh, I'll put the link directly to the class. I think it's like $27 for the class. Um, if the customer is like, ah, man, it really is, that's just out on my budget. It's not what I wanted to spend. The next question I'll ask them is, I understand.
What were you hoping to spend. Now if they come in and they're like, oh, I thought this was gonna be 50 bucks. I thought this was gonna be a hundred bucks. We're likely too far apart. Right? It's just, it just doesn't make sense. But let's say I delivered that a a thousand dollars, uh, quote, right. Round numbers, and they're like, man, that was really, you know, it was really open to like, not go above six or 700 bucks.
Okay. [00:48:00] Well rule, not rule number one. One of my key rules, one of the biggest rules in sales is never discount for the sake of discounting. Because if I'm like, Hey, you know Jimmy, that's gonna be a thousand bucks? And Jimmy's like, man, I was hoping to spend six or 700, and I was like, I, I can use six or 700 bucks.
Okay, we'll do that back to psychological warfare. If we discount for no reason. We tell Jimmy, like, we can do this a thousand dollars repair for 700 bucks. Then we were trying to rip him off at a thousand bucks.
My favorite way to discount is to take things away. Typically, we're taking away quality, right? Like we're gonna back it down a little bit, and I'm a million percent okay with that in a good way, right? Because. I've got techs out every week doing wholesale work at the dealers, doing great work but not showroom perfect show car, perfect repairs, [00:49:00] right, that everybody's super happy with that are a whole lot easier to do than trying to gloss this thing out like Bryce does
if he comes back right and it was a thousand and then he is like, ah, I was hoping a need not spend more than six or 700. I sort of shift back to, um. A hundred dollars Larry. Not for a hundred bucks, but more like shooting from the hip. So I kind of step back and I say, okay, gimme a second and let me look at this and see what the least amount is I can do to the car and still feel good about giving you a bill.
And then I joke that I say, you know, I could just take this and pull it into the shop and give you a bill for 50 bucks, but you're gonna be like, well, what's the 50 bucks for? I'll be like, for pulling it into the shop and back out, it's 50 bucks. And then they laugh. But then I look. And, and I, I'm like, okay, if we do this, if we do X, y, and ZI can make a move here, here, and here.
I can make it look good looking straight [00:50:00] on. Okay, cool. But as you look from the side, right, it's not gonna look so good because it's not finished out. If they're, you know, a lot of times they're just like, I just, in fact, I had a dude the other day. He's like, I just need to not see this when I'm walking up to the car because I never look at the car this way.
I just like when I'm walking up, it was a self-imposed garbage can hit, I believe, or no, it was a sign, uh, uh, a construction sign he was merging in and the dude. Pushed him over whatever it was, and he, he hit a sign. Now that I think about it, that story doesn't make sense that he told me anyways. Neither here nor there.
He's like, I just need to not see it when I'm walking up. And I'm like, well, you know, I looked at it and I'm like, you know, for, for X number of dollars, I can make it look that way. And he is like, if you can do that, I'm all in. Because he was not all in on the other quote that I gave him. I said, but listen, if you come and look from the side right, you're still gonna see something there.
I don't care about that. It's fine. Great. So I'm happy to take this dude's money [00:51:00] to fix this to really nice, but not blast Bryce Kelly. Nice. Like there will not be a before and after video of this repair, but there will be a before bank account and after bank account change and there will be more money in my bank account when I'm done with that repair, if that makes sense.
Right. So that's the protractor close. Uh, I go all the way in depth in that, in my short class on that, uh, available for sale because again, this episode brought to you by me just like all of the episodes have been, but I'm actually selling and offering some classes with this one. Um, so check that out. So as we approach the hour mark, uh, and I was worried about like filling a half an hour with this.
I shouldn't doubt myself with how long I can talk, right? Gimme a microphone and look out.
Is anybody interested in a soft skills class of not like not fixing dense better or doing advanced [00:52:00] repairs or anything, but like are you interested in locking yourself in a room with me and studying sales and getting deep into the tactics and everything for a day? Does that interest you? Send me a dm, shoot me a text, drop a comment under the video.
Let me know what you think. Would you be interested in a soft skills sales training class? Because I know I would love to do that. Uh, yeah. Hit me up. Super excited to at the prospect of that. Also, don't forget the one day in-person advanced pull training at Anson on May 1st in Burleson, Texas. 7 99 with a hundred dollars gift card to Anson.
So basically it's free if you use girl math. I think that's how that works. Maybe. I'm just kidding. Anyways, it's like getting it for 6 99 Anson free tools. Uh, space is limited again, [00:53:00] it's gonna fill up. We'll be there. It'll be amazing. Little bit of demo, little bit of hands-on. Uh, super excited to walk through that.
I guess you're not really tuning in, right? You probably listened to that spiel at the beginning. Dent repair now.com/advanced Glue Pull. Advanced glue pull. That's the link. I will have it in the show notes. Follow us at tent repair. Now across the board on all social media. We were trying to grow. I'm really close to that 4,000 mark on Facebook.
If you don't like my Facebook page at Dent Repair now yet, go do it. Push me over the top. I need to get over 4,000. I'm excited. I really wanna get over the 10,000, but for now, I'll be stoked to get to 4,000. As always guys, thank you so much for watching. I appreciate each and every one of you. Uh, I am stoked for what's to come.
I will see you. The next [00:54:00] episode.
