Episode 44 The FIVE Keys to MAXIMUM Productivity
Whether we are talking Hail, Wholesale or Retail, there are many things you do to seem “busy” but they DO NOT add to the bottom line.
In this episode we breakdown the FIVE Keys to productivity. These are the five things that will 2X, 5X , or even 10X your revenue!
Resources:
NEW Blackplague Smooth Series Tabs
PODCAST TRANSCRIPT:
Keith: The time has come. The black plague smooth series tabs are a reality. They are available for you now on blackplaguepdr.com. If you’ve been living under a rock, it is time to come out. We are makin’ money out here with glue pulling. And we’re usin’ the smooth series tabs to do it. We are getting pulls out of these tabs that you cannot get from any tabs, no matter the price. These things flat hook up, strong, snappy pulls every time. These tabs along with the green glue that we have also on the site are blowing people away. If you wanna be a part of the movement, get yourself over there and get some tabs into your box at blackplaguepdr.com or deadrattabs.com. Guys, the game has changed. Don’t get left behind. Stay on the cutting edge.
Shane: I’m Keith Consentino. And he’s Shane Jacks. And this is the PDR College podcast, the only place dedicated to your business success. We spend an hour with you each week to develop the skills and mind-set necessary to grow your bank account in this game of paintless dent removal. Shane, why do you wanna grow your bank accounts? Well, Keith, bank accounts are better with money in them.
Keith: That is absolutely true, Shane.
Shane: Did you have a frog in your throat or somethin’?
Keith: If this is your first episode of the PDR College podcast, you have no idea what the heck is goin’ on.
Shane: That Keith guy sure can change his voice.
Keith: He sure can. We like to have a little bit of fun. This episode is going to be exciting. Why is it exciting, Shane? I’m glad you asked.
Shane: It’s because it’s a podcast with Keith Consentino and Shane Jacks.
Keith: We have too much fun. We gotta do all the shows in studio. I fear though that our usable information would shrink down to about 7 percent in podcast.
Shane: And your income would shrink considerably, also.
Keith: Unfortunately, at this point in my life, I do need to be home holding phones and tools to make a living. That’s how this business works. And I am across the country in beautiful South Carolina, hangin’ out with Mr. Shane here in his shop, learnin’ a few things about runnin’ a shop. I’m not opening a shop though.
Shane: I’m learnin’, but I ain’t doin’ it.
Keith: So today’s episode we are talkin’ about the five keys to maximum productivity. And we’ve talked about productivity a lot. I know a lot of the time on our podcast that we are revisiting some of our previously mentioned techniques. But there’s always room to go a little bit deeper. And this is somethin’ we both felt we could spend a little more time on. Not to mention the fact that everybody’s PDR business is just a little bit different. What’s kind of interesting about this stuff is that we’re all doin’ the same thing…takin’ dents out of cars. But it’s totally different businesses, whether you’re runnin’ a retail-based business, mobile business, fixed location, you’re heavy in wholesale, you’re a straight hail chaser, you’re a hail broker.
It’s different; even though it comes down to the same root service of takin’ dents out of cars. And the rest – all bets are off – totally different. So we recognize that. And Shane and I bring a lot of different perspective to the same table. And we’re gonna kinda go back-and-forth a little bit and talk about some of the stuff that we know better than the other guy or that we wanna talk about more than the other guy. So a lot of guys have asked me on a personal level through the show, with messages and things like that, can you tell me a little bit more about how you schedule your day? I know you have several technicians. And it’s very challenging for us to effectively book all the calls, schedule the jobs, who goes to what place, who does what.
I can talk a little bit about two different things. I can talk about scheduling yourself when you’re a one-man operation and scheduling your retail stuff when ya have multiple guys that are totally different and a different world. But we’ll talk a little bit about both. If we’re gonna talk about just scheduling for yourself as a singular technician, which is I’d say what 80 percent of our people are and probably what you are if you’re listenin’. Here are some of the things that I consider when I’m makin’ my schedule to make it as productive, and that means as profitable as possible. Remember that how we make our living is to fix the cars.
That might seem like something that I don’t even need to mention. But some guys need to remember that because you can spend a lot of time doin’ stuff that isn’t fixing the cars. Just like in our last show, we were talkin’ about make sure you invoice somebody for somethin’. You’ve got to fix somethin’ for somebody in order to make a living. Keep that in mind the whole time. Every decision you make has gotta be geared around increasing the time you can spend billin’ somebody for somethin’. Make sense?
Shane: Tons.
Keith: Okay, so keep that in mind the whole time.
Shane: To me, anyway, but I’m a really smart guy.
Keith: Only really smart guys get my points. The first thing I’m gonna consider is what area I’m workin’ in today. Like it or not, if you’re a mobile guy, you’re doin’ some driving. And if you’re driving too much, you’re not working enough. You could have the best paying job in the county. If it’s nine counties over, it’s not a very good paying job. It’s $800.00 an hour, but it takes eight hours to get there and eight hours back. It’s not $800.00 an hour anymore. It’s $800.00 for 17 hours.
Shane: I was gonna try to do the math.
Keith: Seventeen hours is a long way. So you’ve gotta consider that. Make sure that when you’re bookin’ your jobs that you book them in the same area for the same day. People can generally wait a couple of days if they’re gonna do work with you. I know you’ve heard me say in the past to schedule them as soon as possible. That is the default fallback rule. If you have time, go now. The minute you hang up the phone, you can go. If you have nothin’ else going, go now. Don’t not go because it’s far away if you have nothing else to do. First fill your schedule. When the schedule is full, now start segregating by area. If you don’t have the full schedule, disregard this tip and get there yesterday.
When people call you and they pick up the phone and talk to you about their dent, that’s when they are most concerned about it. They are never gonna get more concerned than at that point when they pick up the phone to call you. It’s often an impulse buy. I mean, you guys have had those calls. They just hit somethin’ five minutes earlier. They got online, found you and called you. Right now is when they’re upset about it. And if you think I’m lying, think about it in extremes. Okay, Keith, you’re wrong. They’re gonna care about it more in the past. Oh, is that true? Or in the future, is that true? How about five hours in the future? Yeah, you’re wrong, Keith.
Okay, how about five days? Maybe wrong. How about 50 years? I’m not wrong. In fifty years, they won’t even remember what car they had. So in the future, the dent matters less. That’s what ya need to remember. So fix it now if you can. If your schedule is full and you can’t get there now, that’s a good thing. Make sure you tell them why. Ma’am or sir – however you like to address people – I would like nothin’ more than to zip right out there today and fix that car for ya. It sounds terrible. I’m sorry it happened. One of the double-edge swords of bein’ really good at what I do is that I’m really busy. But I’m really busy fixin’ cars and makin’ them perfect.
I’d love to get you on the list and make sure I get there and have enough time to do it right. But I can’t zip out there this very moment because I’d be leavin’ some other people hangin’ who are just as concerned with that dent as you are with yours. It’s pretty easy to sell around that and get them scheduled. One or two out of a hundred people are gonna hang up with you and do some more shopping. You’re gonna risk losin’ them. But if you’re busy, you’re busy. You can’t do more than you can do. So if you’ve got that kinda stuff goin’ on, find out where they’re calling from early on in the conversation. Where are they in relation to where you are and where you service?
If they’re close and you have an estimate scheduled or something and this sounds like more of a sure thing, don’t be afraid to bump somebody back a little bit and go do a sure thing. Or if somebody brings you a car, you say I’m real busy. But I’m workin’ here at that XYZ spot. If you wanna bring it on over, I’ll be happy to take a look at it. And if it’s there and they wanna fix it now but you need to be someplace in an hour, fix that car now and be late to Guy No. 2. That may sound like bad business. But remember the cardinal rule. We gotta bill somebody for somethin’. And if you got a dent right in front of ya that wants to go now, you take it. Don’t schedule them for later because it can only get worse or equal.
It can’t get better. He’s not gonna say a week from now you charge me more. The best-case scenario a week from now you charge him the same. Probably a week from now, he doesn’t even remember who you are. So fix it while he’s there. And Guy No. 2…just be a few minutes late. Just call him and communicate. Most people are fine with that if you treat them nice on the phone. One little trick that I do when I’m callin’ to break bad news to people that I’m gonna be late – they know I’m calling for somethin’ because I wouldn’t be callin’ unless they asked me to call prior. But I’ll say hey, Shane, it’s Keith from Bullseye. And you’ll say hey, Keith. I say how are you doin’ today?
Shane: I’ll be better when you get here to fix my dent, punk.
Keith: But most of the time they say I’m doin’ great. Listen, I’m calling to tell you whatever I need to say. When they just told me they’re doin’ great, it’s really hard for them then turn around and be crabby. They just said they’re great.
Shane: You lied to me, mister.
Keith: And you have a smile on your face like Shane was talkin’ about on the last show. And you’re upbeat. And you say I just need to make this dent perfect before I can leave. So it’s makin’ me a little bit late. I just can’t wrap it up until I make this thing as nice as I can make it. And then I’m gonna come and see you just as soon as I can. I’m sorry. I’m runnin’ a couple minutes behind. But if you have implemented Point No. 3, which we haven’t got to yet in my retail points, then that’s really gonna be less of an issue. So we’ll get to that in just a second. But what it’s how you schedule your times. So go to the certain areas on the certain days is what I’m getting at here. Don’t drive around.
If you’re driving all over like a pinball, you’re making less money. You’ve gotta spend the time in front of the dent tools and in front of the people. That’s how you get paid. So put everybody in a certain area on a certain day and stay with minimal driving and stay with the most productivity. And that’s how you’re gonna make money. It seems simple. Most guys are already doing it. But really, really try to stick to it if you can with the caveat that we are in a service business, and sometimes you’ve gotta move some things around to make people happy. And that’s just part of the business. But all other things being equal, stay in the same area. No. 2, the type of car you’re workin’ on matters.
We talked about this in a couple prior shows as well. But you’ve gotta ask a lot of questions and find out what type of car you’re workin’ on, not just the make and model. But what does it mean to that person. Are they selling it? Is it for their daughter or son? Is it their family heirloom? Is it a concourse car? Be engaged. Ask questions – really care about the answers because it’s gonna help you understand what you’re gettin’ into. And you’re gonna find out somethin’ about that car ya didn’t know before. But most importantly, it’s gonna tell you where the price threshold is for this particular job. If you know that it’s a concourse car, this is a whole different discussion. We’re gonna book it two weeks from now.
We’re gonna make sure you have time to get to the most current show you’re takin’ it to or whatever. If you know they’re selling the car, you can say fantastic. I know exactly what you’re tryin’ to do with this car. You’re tryin’ to make it look nice enough that we can sell it without spendin’ too much money. Am I right, Shane?
Shane: Yes, sir.
Keith: That’s exactly what I’m tryin’ to do. I have a program just for that. I know we can help you. Great. That’s perfect. The only reason I get to that place is because I ask them the questions. What’re you doin’ with the car? What’s goin’ on with it? And once in a while, you get somebody who’s a little kind of a grump, and they don’t wanna answer all the questions. Chances are that those guys don’t do business with ya. When they say just how much is it? How much is it gonna cost? And you say what type of car? Why does it matter what color it is. Those guys don’t come through.
Shane: Yeah, they don’t come to fruition most of the time.
Keith: So don’t worry about that. Ask some questions. Find out the type of car and maximize your profit for that car. And if you say Keith, how do you even maximize your profit if they’re selling the car and you say you can do it for less? You’re gonna maximize your profit because everybody knows doing a perfect dent repair that 80 percent of the repair is done in 20 percent of the time. And you spend the last 80 percent of the time chasin’ the last 20 percent of the dent. They don’t need the 20 percent done. They’re just sellin’ the stupid thing. It’s just like a wholesale car. Get it clean. Get it done fast. And give them a great deal on it. You’re gonna make more money per hour than glassing out Lamborghinis.
It’s great money – ya know, $250.00 to do a dent in 40 minutes, you’re in good shape.
Shane: I had one just the other day. Real quickly, Keith – from the Nissan dealership down the road – this couple come up. A black Altima had surface scratches all over it. And the paint guy over here said he could buff it out. He said I’ve got these two dents. And I look on the left front door, and it’s apparent that there is a dent there. It is really, really minor. They said there’s one in the backdoor, too. And I looked and looked and looked and looked. He pointed it out. It was underneath a tiny little chip. You could not see the ting. And I went, “I’m gonna fix the front door.” I’m making money there. And it was smaller than a dime. I said, “Bring it in next week. I’ll do that for $100.00.
And they said, “Okay, cool. How much for the one on the back?” I said, “I’ll be honest with ya, man, just leave that alone.” I was actually tryin’ to help the guy. I should’ve tried to maximize my profits. But I was like, “Man, I’ll be honest with ya, they’re not gonna see that.” He goes, “Oh, they’ve already seen it. They’ve already dogged us for that.” This is another question you can ask, Keith, on lease cars…turn-ins. They will stick the customers a lot harder if they’re not leasing another one from them right after that. That’s what the guy said. He said that the last time they didn’t give us any trouble because we leased another car. And he was pissed, man. They’re doin’ us this way because we’re not gonna lease another car from them. So ask the right questions.
Keith: That’s the truth. What I ultimately wanna do is help people with their cars. That’s why I’ll spend ten minutes on a phone call that’s nothing for me; its’ a referral from somewhere else…and just educating people. I wanna be their go-to guy so they’ll call me when they do have a ding, and they trust me. When people bring me those lease returns, I tell them if this is that small, I don’t think they’re supposed to charge ya. Go dig out your contract and read through it. One of the things I did when I first started doin’ retail is I thought to myself, ya know what? I’m gonna market a division of my company just for lease returns. So I said I’ve never leased a car. Let me see what the contracts are and what they can have and what they can’t have.
And I got a Volkswagen, Chevy and somethin’ else…lease contract and looked them up online. And if you read all the damage they’ll allow, you can beat the car to smithereens and still turn it in. It was, like, a one-quarter-size dent per panel, a scratch up to an inch long, holes in leather as long as they’re under a certain size. I’m like, “Dude, if it had all this damage, this car’d be a roach.” I can’t in good conscience present myself as the savior to these people for their lease returns when they don’t need it.
Shane: When it’s not a reality.
Keith: Right, so I dropped that idea because of that. So when somebody brings me a situation like that, I say you ought to dig out that contract and read through it and see what they’ll really accept.
Shane: Thanks, Keith. You just cost me some business.
Keith: So we’re on to Point No. 3. And that is overlap your appointment times. This kind of sucks if you don’t have a context to understand why we do it. To give cable guy times and say I’ll be there anywhere from 10:00 to 1:00, generally, nobody wants that. They want somebody right on the money. I do that for my first appointment because that’s where I’m going first. And I tell people that. But in the afternoon or late morning or anything other than the first appointment, they’re gonna get a window of time. And I don’t just give it to them and say that’s your time. I say is your schedule flexible enough to accommodate a window of time on that day, say sometime between 10:30 and 1:30?
And if they say no, I say what are your constraints. And then we work around that. But they normally say I’m at work so yeah, that’s fine, anytime. Just call me and let me know. They wanna know sometimes. Absolutely. And if they ask me why or sometimes I just volunteer why. It’s because I’ve got an appointment this morning. But just like you’re car that we’re talkin’ about right now, I haven’t seen it. So I don’t know exactly how long it’ll take. Who can argue with that? Ya haven’t seen their car. Ya haven’t seen the other guy’s car. It’s very easy for them to understand. Well, yeah, he just talked to me about my car. He doesn’t know exactly what it looks like.
So he can’t tell me exactly when it’s gonna be done. That makes sense. So I say that as soon as I’m done with that car, I’m gonna come and see you. But I don’t know if that’s a one-or three-hour car. So that’s the reason for the window. Most people say okay, that makes sense. It’s easy to understand. And if they have a constraint, which I asked, then we deal with that. And I tell them if we need to be right on the money at this time, let’s talk about the day when I can make that happen for sure so that you’re not waitin’ around for me. It’s just a communication thing. But I can tell you that most people are okay with that. And the reason I do that is 1.) I don’t like being late.
So if I give them a window, I’m not late, 2.) I have flexibility. If something pops up or I upsell a job, I’ve got the time to capture that. If you book them back to back to back based on what they tell you, you have no room to do an extra repair, which could pay you wonderfully. The worst thing is to look at a car, have a dent and say I can’t do it. I’ve gotta go see Mr. Johnson because I’m gonna be late. I can’t even give you the same deal if I come back because the deal was me bein’ here. it sucks. And your upsale can be sometimes 25 percent of your daily income. So that’s really important.
So give yourself that window so you have some options. And like I said, if somebody calls you and they happen to be close by and it seems like a gravy job, you can sneak it in between the two jobs. That happens to me all the time because I give myself that flexibility. So that’s Point No. 3. Point No. 4 is in reference to one of my favorite TV characters. You need to be Jack Bauer. You know who Jack Bauer is, Shane?
Shane: Yeah, 24 – Kiefer Sutherland.
Keith: Yes, Jack Bauer is the ultimate bad A. He’s got a plan for everything.
Shane: All 5’3” of him.
Keith: He could sneak in and out of very small spaces by bein’ that size. You can’t hang onto him.
Shane: I love how your heroes are fictional.
Keith: Who’s yours, Napoleon?
Shane: Dynamite.
Keith: So Jack Bauer would never be caught in a situation without an exit strategy, without a plan to get outta there. He doesn’t walk into a building without havin’ the schematics uploaded to his phone. And he knows where he can get out. That’s what I want you to do with your schedule: have a plan B for everywhere you’re goin’. If you’re goin’ somewhere weird or somewhere far away and you have an idea somethin’s fishy about it, have a plan for when it falls through, and plan on it fallin’ through. And when it does, you’re not just standin’ there holdin’ the bag. And ya end up at Dairy Queen on Facebook. You gotta make a plan for what you’re gonna do when that job shoots craps because it happens semi regularly.
It’s either too far away or somethin’ like that. Just the process of thinking through what you’re going to be doing will enable you to come up with a better plan in case something falls through. So that’s what you’ve gotta do: be Jack Bauer.
Shane: So a major hailstorm has affected your area. What do you do now? Your phone is ringing off the hook. Dealerships are inquiring about your services. And retail customers and body shops are eager to get in touch with you as well. You want to capture as much as possible while still maintaining your sanity. Now, how do you do this? How do you close deals, interact with customers and answer and unrelenting phone all while not losing your mind? Enter a PDR management company like the Hail Company. The Hail Company will come into town and manage sites of all sizes and kinds to maximize your profit potential from placing the correct techs in the correct positions that they fit best, to total management of wholesale operations.
The Hail Company will do whatever is necessary to make your storm experience a good and more importantly, a profitable one. So give Ryan a call today at 6363-734-5470 or email him at ryan@thehailcompany.com. That’s ryan@thehailcompany.com.
Keith: No. 5 is to dial in your personal interaction. And this is somethin’ we’ve covered quite a bit as far as your body language, posture, what you say to people and all that kinda stuff. Ya gotta dial in your personal interaction. This might be the most important of all of these five. If you blow the personal, you can’t get any of these other things. So maybe they’re out of order. But you can’t implement your personal interaction until you make the appointment and get there. That’s why it’s No. 5. But as importance, it’s kinda No. 1 because you’re not gonna make a deal if you’re a slouchy jerk – so really work on that.
If you go back and listen to a half-dozen different shows of ours, you’re gonna get a lot of tips on that. We don’t have the time on this show to go deep down into that. But dialing in your personal interaction is paramount to any kinda service business. And that’s who we are. We’re dealin’ with people. We’re makin’ people happy. So we’ve got to make sure we’re presenting ourselves with good body language, good tone. We’ve got canned responses that we’ve memorized for the most part to explain what we do, how we arrive at our pricing. Just the basic 20 questions that people are gonna ask you, you’ve got answers already in the holster for those. And they’re presented in a way that instills confidence.
And you look clean-cut. And you look the part. So those are my five key points for maximum productivity in your mobile retail business. I’m gonna send it over here to Shane for the wholesale side of the business because Shane had a lot of years of that before he opened his shop.
Shane: You still do some wholesale also, Keith, not a ton. I don’t do a ton myself but enough as fill-in, mainly. I do have one big wholesale dealer that I do a ton of work for. And they send me a ton of money. The five things ya need to know as far as wholesale: No. 1 is know your manager or decision maker if it’s not the manager. Sometimes, honestly, with this big wholesale operation I’m talkin’ about right now, Keith, the manager is the decision maker between he and I. I take him the list. He says go do it 90 percent of the time. I believe you were in there today when he said, “Man, he walked the lot with us today.” It’s the first time he’s walked the lot with us in 10-12 weeks.
He looks at the list and goes, “Ya’all go do them.” He understands that we’re helping him make money. But he’s not the the decision maker. He is the decision maker on a day-to-day basis. So yes, I do need to know him. So you need to know that decision maker. But oftentimes, those decision makers are not managers. In this case, he makes the day-to-day decisions. But there are three guys above him. And I know the very top guy in this organization that runs all of the shows. And he and I are tight. We are very tight.
Keith: That was on accident, though, right? You just met him at some park or somethin’.
Shane: No, I met him at this dealership. A hailstorm had come through. Have I told you this story before, Keith?
Keith: I don’t think so.
Shane: A hailstorm had come through this dealership. And the gentleman that did the service work here, they called him to do the hail damage. It was three different makes of cars that they have that were damaged with this hailstorm. There was some heavier damage on one model and a little bit lighter damage on the other two models. He called me. He said, “Dude, I have no idea what I’m doin’ with this hail stuff. Please come down here.”
Keith: The other dent guy did.
Shane: The other dent guy called me. Can you handle it? I jump in and tread water. The older I get, the worse I get. I jump in. I give him a price, X if you take the headliners down and Y if I take the headliners down. Well, he wanted X price for Y service. He wanted this amount per car with us takin’ headliners down. We just had it written out. I didn’t have it typed up. I just wrote it to him. And, “No, that’s not what we talked –” And I calmly told him, “Look, it was a bluff. Every body shop in this town wants me to work for him. I don’t have to be here. [Inaudible][27:07:40], he was yellin’ at me. I said, “I wanna do your work. But I really don’t have to do it. What would you like me to do?”
He just stares at me. “Get out there and work. We’ll talk in a little while.” He comes out; he shakes my hand. We have been absolutely tight ever since. He come out and said, “I respect the way you stood up for yourself, and you didn’t cuss at me.” I said, “You’ll never hear me cuss at you. That’s just not the way I am.” I will cuss if I’m repeating what somebody’s saying. But I’m just not gonna cuss. I’ve gotta be really angry. I brown nose a few, too.
Keith: You do have to.
Shane: You’ve got to.
Keith: You’ve gotta know the guys you’re talkin’ about. That particular guy, if you brown nose him, he’ll hate ya. I guarantee there’s a bunch of guys in that dealership who hate workin’ for that dude. He’s a bully. I don’t even need to know him, but he’s a bully. And when you stand up and punch bullies in the face, they have no choice but to be your friend because they don’t know what to do anymore. Their bully power is useless. So when you stood up to him, he’s gonna look stupid otherwise. So he just goes I like ya. You’re on my team.
Shane: The current building that my shop is in now, he had been courting me for three years to get in here. He’s like, “Come on, man, move over here.” I just didn’t do it. And I think he kinda respected that. He’s like, “Nobody tells me no.” So No. 1 is know your manager or your decision maker. No. 2, Keith, this one’s important. If you don’t know your decision maker or your manager, see No. 1. Know your manager or decision maker. Keith, we’re talkin’ about body language and all this stuff. Even on a wholesale, those guys see you every day. Sometimes they think here comes that freakin’ dent guy again. He wants some more money. That’s what some of them think, especially the salesmen over there. They are like man, I just saw him run through 15 cars in a day.
Keith: That’s what you think they think. But they’re not payin’ attention.
Shane: I used to walk in, Keith, and I just straight passed all the salesmen. Go in to the used-car manager, you’d flop the list on his desk. I now go in, and I go, “Hey, guys, what’s goin’ on?” I know 9 out of 10 of them by name. I’m terrible with names. The used-car manager is an elderly gentleman. His brother had a stroke about four weeks ago. Every week I go in there, “How’s your brother, Elmer?” “Man, he’s doin’ a lot better. I appreciate ya askin’.” It doesn’t take much to be not a jerk. It doesn’t take much.
Keith: And if you’re a halfway decent guy, just openin’ these conversations, you’re gonna find things that you like about these guys. And you’re gonna make pals with them to some degree. I mean, some guys are just weird, and you’re not gonna like them. But you’re gonna find a lot of guys that are pretty nice guys. In general, people are nice. And you speak the same language already. You’re both in the car business. By default, you already have a lot in common.
Shane: So No. 2 is get to know those guys if ya don’t know them. No. 3 is walk the lot early, walk the lot often because the power of being there can’t be overstated.
Keith: It’s crazy important.
Shane: Yes, it is. One of our big lots, we walk that thing – this shop again is sort of an albatross at times. And I typically clean the shop on Sunday afternoons or evenings. I’ll come in and sweep, mop, clean the bathrooms, all that good stuff. And I’ll hit the lot. Monday morning when the used-car manager gets in his office, I’ll give him about 20 minutes because you don’t wanna hit him right away. He’s a guy that respects hard work. He’s just one of those guys. And you go in. And I’ve told several times, “Yeah, we walked the lot yesterday afternoon.” And he’s got that little twinkle because he’s an old-school guy. That little son of a gun’s gettin’ after me.
You can tell that’s what he’s thinkin’ when you say I walked the lot yesterday. That has nothing to do with this point, mind you. But walk the lot early, walk the lot often because some of these dealers are running through the cars. I’m not capturing all their cars. I mean, they’re sellin’ 100 to 150 used a month. And they will repair dang near everything. I’m only capturin’ 40 or 50 of them a month…maybe 60 on a good month.
Keith: And if you’ve got a manager like that who wants to represent nice vehicles, they’ll do 90 percent of them. That’s 130 cars or whatever the number is. So you’re kinda doin’ half of what they’ve got. And that’s there once a week. You can imagine what they’re sellin’ that the minute it hits the lot, you never even see it.
Shane: It happens all the time. We get a ton of we owes. I haven’t seen this car. Well, it was basically sold before we got it out of service.
Keith: So what does that tell ya? It tells me that you could use another technician at that store once a week. When you’re there a lot, make sure you tell these guys why you’re there. And I’m sure you’re gonna get to somethin’ like this.
Shane: That’s No. 4, actually.
Keith: Let’s hear it.
Shane: No. 4 is remember why you were there. And why are we there, Keith?
Keith: We are there to help them make money.
Shane: In the retail business, what’re we there for? We’re there to make people happy. We’re really there to make people happy here, too. Making their customers’ happy makes them money. So that’s why we’re at a wholesale lot. That’s why we’re doing wholesale work. We’re there to make them money. And you’ve got to get that through their heads that you’re not there just to take money from them. You’ve got to get them to see that you’re making them money.
Keith: And you really need to believe it. I believe it. I know Shane believes it. The purpose of me existing in that environment is to help them make money. It’s not for my company to bill dents and bill money. That’s a byproduct. If I help them sell cars, I make money because they’re happy to have me there. Fantastic, Keith’s here. We’re gonna get these cars clean and get more money for them and get them out sooner. They need to be excited about seein’ me there. I make sure when I’m havin’ that conversation with them that I talk about that, and I bring it up. I’m engaged. How many did we sell this weekend? Not you, we. We’re the team. I’m on this team. How many did we sell?
Hey, I’m gonna come by Friday afternoon just to make sure we’re good for the weekend and make sure ya look good. Hey, I’m gonna be here Tuesday to make sure I catch all the trades that you guys got over the weekend so they don’t hit the lot before Friday. Engage with them and let them know that you’re concerned with their performance as a dealership and be part of their team. And I really mean that. It’s not jive. I know that’s gonna be an awesome account if I can help them double the number of cars they sell. That’s optimistic. But if I can make their inventory 50 percent faster because it looks super clean, why would they ever fire me? I’m there anytime they need me plus 10 percent. I’m engaged.
I’m helpin’ them sell cars. They bring me somethin’, and I say that I can make this perfect. But I think if we spend $100.00 on it, I can make it nice enough that we could sell it; nobody will notice. Let’s do that so we can just get this thing outta here. We’re sendin’ this car out to the body shop. It’s gonna be gone four days. Why don’t you let me do what I can; we’ll get it up for sale for the weekend. And if you still wanna body shop it after I’m done, then send it on Monday. But let’s make sure this thing’s out there this weekend. Ya know what? Shane, you’re right. Let’s get it up front. That’s their world. How quick can a car come up front?
Shane: How quick can I turn it? Turning it quickly is a big deal to wholesale customers.
Keith: If ya don’t know that language and ya don’t understand what we’re saying, take a little bit and ask them. Just be honest and say I’m kinda new to this business. I really wanna learn how it works. Help me understand when a car gets up front. I wanna be able to help ya the best I can. How long is it in recon? If you don’t know anything, just start listening and listen intently and start to understand. You’ll pick it up. Every dealership pretty much runs the same all over the company, more or less. So just start listenin’ and ask some questions and ask how you can help, how you can be more effective for them.
Shane: If you make them money, a natural consequence of making them money is you will make money. What does Zig Ziglar say?
Keith: Help enough other people get what they want; you’ll get everything you want.
Shane: No. 5 is be the guy. Shake hands with everyone there all the way back to the dude that’s puttin’ tire shine on the tires.
Keith: Remember the episode with Bill Ryan? We’ve gotta find the Sherpa. And sometimes it’s a dude puttin’ tire shine on. He’s your Sherpa.
Shane: So be that guy. Be engaged with everyone there. I think we just touched on it a few minutes ago when I said I used to be that guy with head down, walk in, throw the pad on the table. Here’re your dents. Ya wanna fix them or not? And they can tell that you don’t wanna help them be successful when you’re like that.
Keith: You know what the current version of that is? Emailing them a list. I’m gonna email ya a list of cars. I haven’t heard back yet. It’s a personal business. Ya gotta shake hands and go in there. It’s one thing if ya know the guy, and he’s good with ya; and he says, hey, I’m gonna be in a meeting, email me the list. But if you’re just sending over the list because you don’t wanna go talk to somebody – ya wonder why you do 10 percent of your list every time.
Shane: All right, Keith, we’ve got a bonus here: top five things to do with hail damage. You ready to do those?
Keith: Yeah.
Shane: To increase your productivity with hail damage.
Keith: This is a big one. You can make more money on this one than just about anything else. Hail, I hate to say it, but that’s where the money’s at in PDR. And if you can increase your productivity 10 percent on hail, that’s like increasin’ your productivity 35 percent in the retail or wholesale business.
Shane: No. 1 that I’ve got on here is know the storm beforehand. If you’ve got another type of damage, can you repair this damage? Can you move through it? Is it damage that can be repaired? This is a big one. Is the body shop you’re going to – just landing – hey, man, I got a body shop – one of the biggest storms of the century in Greenville, South Carolina. More than half of it is only side panel damage like the Denver storms this year. More than half of it is only side panel damage. And they’ve gotta replace the roof, trunk and hoods of these cars on most of them. You landing that body shop oftentimes means squat if that body shop cannot handle the workflow, and that can’t do it.
Know your storm beforehand and whether you’re body shop is capable of handling it or whether your retail shop is capable. If you get a retail shop in the Denver storm, some of that you’re not gonna do anything because you’re gonna have to replace panels. You’re gonna be standing there, turning customers away going I can’t fix that. I can’t fix that. Ya need to go to a body shop.
Keith: So it just kinda ties into the retail where you need to overlap your commitments. And ya commit to maybe a little more than you could actually pull off and tread some water until ya can figure it out. If you land one shop, maybe try to land two or three. And it’s easier to say ya know what, fellas? I’m glad you’re goin’ with me. I’m overwhelmed. But I’m gonna get ten of the best guys from across the country here.
Shane: That’s what some of our mutual friends here did in Pennsylvania. They rented a big building and brought, I believe, from 15 different shops because there was just a lot of side panel damage. And it was a storm that most guys didn’t wanna go to because it was so hammered. And they were killin’ it because they were servicing for so many body shops. They had their own shop. They weren’t cloggin’ up one of the body bays or two or three of the bays for the body guys. So know your storm, know what you need to do to be productive and whether you need to rent a building and bring all the body shop stuff in there and overbook as you just said Keith, “overextend yourself and tread water.”
So you gotta know the storm beforehand. If it’s a gravy storm, you still need to know it before you get there. That way you can book three cars a day instead of one every two days. So know your storm beforehand. Guys miss this with the body shop thing. Man, I landed a body shop. They’ve got two body guys. You’re gonna be in one of their stalls. And you’re gonna do one car a week because they can’t get the roof skin cut off and put back on. No. 2 is tools and lights. There are a lot of minimalists out there – less is more. I’m not that kinda guy. I’m a more is more kinda guy. And if a tool is three inches longer and it makes my shoulder not hurt as bad and it’s not in an uncomfortable position, dude, use that tool.
Don’t be scared to spend $150.00 on a tool that’s gonna make you $10,000.00 over a month’s period. Don’t be stupid. Buy three or four $750.00 to $1,000.00 lights. And make that up in two weeks because you don’t have to get down from your stool 400 times and move your lights. It’s really simple math, to be honest with ya. It’s really simple. I knew a guy back in ’09 who was still usin’ a mini light for hail. That’s all he did. He did nothing else but hail. What’re ya doin’ here? So don’t be afraid to buy tools and lights.
Keith: It was a rough winter for him.
Shane: No. 3 – we’ll catch some flack over this one, Keith, don’t do R&I, period.
Keith: What’re you talkin’ about now? You’re leavin’ money on the table.
Shane: You’re spendin’ an hour and a half on the car part for $300.00. And you’ve got a hail car sittin’ there that you could’ve done a quarter of the car and made a grand. The only way I’d say that you shouldn’t do this and you should do R&I is if you suck as a dent guy and you’re tryin’ to make as much money as possible and you can turn the same amount doin’ R&I, hey, man, go ahead.
Keith: I guess if you landed at one of those Podunk body shops and there’s nothin’ else goin’ on and they’ve got two cars comin’ in a week and nothin’ else on the schedule, knock yourself out and do the R&I. Chances are if they’re that slow, they want it.
Shane: Chances are you didn’t do No. 1.
Keith: You didn’t know the storm.
Shane: No. 4 is relationships. This goes across the board. We’ve talked about it with the wholesale, with the retail. No who you’ve gotta go to. Know who you’ve gotta get approval from. Some of these body shops you’re doin’ work at are huge, and the chain of command is complicated. No. 2 is adjustors. That is a huge relationship that a lot of you guys screw up because you’re so militant in your attitude towards adjustors. Build those relationships. Don’t be an idiot. It’s honestly easier to be nice to these people. You’ll get way more out of them. If you talk to these people like they’re humans unlike every other body shop adjustor and dent guy out there’ve been doin’, you’re givin’ them what they want.
You’re givin’ them a little bit of self-esteem. You’re givin’ them a little bit of confidence. And they’re gonna give you what you want? Not every time, no. There’s gonna be times where they’re just pissed. No. 5 is panel progression. I don’t care what order you go in. I have an order that I go in. And I will mixed it up some of the time. But I’ve had other guys tell me I don’t like to do it that way. I like to the harder stuff first. Me mentally, I’ll get somebody else to take the headliner down, the hoodliner down, take the hood off the car, take the trunk off the car, if need be. I’ve got all those set up. And as soon as that’s done, I move from the car I was on before the hail car.
That stuff is already for me to go by my R&I tech. So I’m ready to go. And I hit that roof. Why do I hit the roof first? This is just me. And again, it’s mental for me. The roof is the biggest panel. It’s also the most open 99 percent of the time unless you’ve got a CRV or a Honda Accord or TSX or somethin’ like that. But this is the most open area. You move through it. You know what you’ve done. You’ve made a lot of money in a day already. In my mind, I’m mentally good. I’m like okay, I’ve made a grand in three hours. Then I move to the hood. It’s the second most open area for me. Then I’ll move to the trunk. Then I’ll move down the sides. Yes, fenders are open.
It’s roof, hood, trunk, sides, worst side, then the easiest side. A lot of techs like to do the harder stuff first, the rails first. But I like to move through the money. And I feel good about myself at the end of the day.
Keith: I agree 100 percent, especially doin’ wholesale work. I’m gonna do the easy-money cars first, put some money in the bank. Then I’m not gonna be crabby about spendin’ two hours on some smashed fender for a couple hundred bucks for the wholesale guy. I’ve already got $800.00 or $900.00 in the bank. I’ve got a little time to spend on this thing. Some of my friends like to do the worst first. And that’s an actual management strategy where you take the worst thing and do it first so you’re not stressed-out about it. And that’s legit for some things but not for us. When I’m talkin’ about dollars for how long I’m holdin’ tools, let’s put somethin’ in the bank. And then let’s do the tough stuff.
Oftentimes, when you get there, they’ll say hey, Shane, glad to see ya. We’ve got ten cars. I need ya to do this Accord first. What does that mean before ya ever see it?
Shane: It’s smashed.
Keith: It’s trashed to the ground. That’s why they’re all worried about it. I’ll sometimes say ya know what? Let me get warmed up on some of these easy ones because I’m gonna blow my shoulder out on this thing.
Shane: That’s a good strategy. I’ve never thought about that. You get warmed up. You don’t want me wiggin’ out in your parkin’ lot screamin’ I’m gonna sue, do ya?
Keith: Hah-hah, as long as you can get it done by 12:00. Then you do the easy ones, and you go okay. But otherwise, you’re gonna be mad two hours later. I know you are.
Shane: So you do panel progression as more car progression. The panel progression to me is big. It’s a mental thing with me.
Keith: And we’re gonna learn about that at the advanced training. You’re gonna cover that a lot.
Shane: Yep, for sure.
Keith: Hail stuff.
Shane: Well, that was good, man. We ran through 15 points really quickly there.
Keith: We sure did. Sorry we had to blast through some of them. If you’ve got more specific questions about this stuff, feel free to reach out to us either in the comments or Facebook or email or whatever and ask us your question. We’ll answer it. And let us know if you don’t want it on the show; we’ll keep it private. We’re just tryin’ to help ya. That’s what we’re about is helpin’ techs. Enjoy those tips. If you take four out of the 15, you will get better. I can promise you that. We’ve all these shows workin’ with you guys. We appreciate all your business with our products, hammers and tabs and everything. We’re excited to help you guys make more money.
And we appreciate you guys bein’ loyal and jumpin’ all over those things and helpin them be a success and sharin’ the good reviews you’ve had for them all over Facebook. That’s been awesome. We’re continuing to fill up our advanced seminar. We’re actually recording this show prior to it airing. I can’t promise you that it hasn’t even filled up by this point. It might already be filled up because it’s super close. I think there’s four or five spots left, a couple like that or somethin’ like that. There’s a couple pending right now. So if you’re interested in it and you’re listenin’ right now and the show is new, get on over there and try to grab the last spot if it’s available. It might be gone.
If ya can get on that list and get yourself a spot, do it because we are gonna have a great time learning everything that Shane spent all these years perfecting. And he might even bring the trophy so we can look at it and take pictures with it.
Shane: Pet it.
Keith: Are you tryin’ to stay on the cutting edge of paintless dent removal when it comes to your tools? Well, if so, you need to make sure you have two things in your arsenal. One is a Shane Jacks jackhammer-blending hammer. Find it at blendinghammerpdr.com. If you wanna learn blending, we’ve got an awesome tutorial to go along with the hammer right there on the site. You’re gonna love it. You’re gonna learn somethin’. And you’re gonna get better and make money. In addition to the hammer, if you are doin’ any glue pulling, you need to have the blackplague crease tabs. It’s a six-piece crease pulling set. The two largest are absolute monsters.
They are gonna pull out collision damage like nothing else you’ve got available. And the smaller sizes are gonna be for the normal, everyday kinda door edges and minor, minor collision dents and a dogleg and a bottom of a door. I’m tellin’ ya guys, it is going to change the way you do your repairs when you have the cutting-edge tools. And these are two of them: blackplaguepdr.com, blendinghammerpdr.com. Check out the sites, guys. Bring yourselves into the 21st century. Do not forget about ReconPRO, the software that we use to run our PDR companies. The stuff is phenomenal. You’re entering all the information on your device, which is an iPhone.
You’re scanning the VIN with the camera of it. Everything’s populated in there for ya. Ya buzz that little rascal off via magic off to a server somewhere. It’s all livin’ on a server. You can dunk the phone in a bucket of water as soon as you’re done; you don’t lose any data. Everything’s paperless. The invoice is delivered electronically. You can send duplicates at a moment’s notice. Guys, get off paper. Quit screwin’ around. Automobiletechnolgies.com, ReconPRO. Look into it. Get your business into the 21st century. What’s our tool for today, Shane?
Shane: Today we’re gonna talk about Druz Toolz gutter hook. I bought three of these, actually. I used all three of them at one time. I used my right hand, my left hand and something else. I bought this gutter hook for myself and each of my guys. And Keith, just looking at it, you can see it on the computer right there. Why do I like it better than the small-ring gutter hooks that most of the tools companies have?
Keith: Just judgin’ it on the looks, I would say it’s not gonna rock side to side as much as the ring ones. I think it’s gonna hang a little more solidly by itself. The ring ones, which I have one or two of are pretty good. But they’re not all that stable until you’re puttin’ a push on them. That things is more of a square set up. It has a support comin’ outta both sides. It looks a little more stable, is that true?
Shane: Yeah, a little more stable. The main reason I like it better honestly, Keith, is because the opening is so large, you don’t have to take a breakdown rod apart to stick it through. Some of the other ones do have a hook that is open on the top ground. And you can just lay the rod inside of it without havin’ to disassemble the rod. But this things here, a lot of times I like to use my hail road. And then I’ll have a circuit rod in there also. I can put both of them in there and let one rest on the headliner while I’m pushin’ with the other one instead of havin’ to pull it out, undo the breakdown bar or have another gutter hook up there, which is an option if ya wanna buy two gutter hooks.
Keith: But you’re already working in one spot.
Shane: Man, I’ll lay two tools up in there and go at it.
Keith: That’s a great point.
Shane: Yeah, that’s why I like the straps. He has the hail strap that goes in the window. I’m not seeing it right here. A lot of companies have these hail straps that hang through the windows. You can put more than one tool in there at a time instead of the one little ring where you can only get one tool in there. That’s why I like his gutter hook. I’ve been usin’ it here the last few months. And I’m really enjoyin’ it.
Keith: So we’ll have a link to that on pdrcollege.com. That’s Druz Toolz spelled with a Z, Druz Toolz with a Z, I think, too, right.
Shane: No, the S is an S. I apologize. It is a Z.
Keith: I don’t know what Dru has against S’s. You can ask him yourself.
Shane: I don’t know what it is either. He’s pissed at S’s. All right, man, good show today, Keith.
Keith: It was fantastic. Thanks for spendin’ an hour with us, fellas. We look forward to hangin’ out with ya again next week for an hour. Until then.
Shane: Get better.
[End of Audio]Duration: 53 minutes
