Repair Authorization Issues

I was going to tell you this. I don't know if you heard it or not. The inventor of the throat lozenge died recently. There will be no coffin at his funeral.

That's pretty good.

Thank you.

Just a little humor to lighten up the Friday. Okay, let's listen to this week's question.

Hey, Chris, it's Mitch calling here. A question I have for the service driver revolution is our dealership seems to struggle with tire sales. We can't get people on board, whether it be a service advisor or even the sales department, on the importance of having tire sales and what it will benefit down the road. Can you shed any light on any experiences you've had like this and how.

Best to move past it?

Thanks.

Have a great day.

Okay. So one of the things that I would say just in general is I think back to my career. I've had service advisors on my drive and then people that I've interviewed, mostly coming from the advisors that I've interviewed, coming from independents like your Firestone, your Goodyear, everything like that. The one thing that I notice is a difference on the selling side is, is that those people that come from the independent, they have a lot of confidence. They're really comfortable around the tires. And just kind of remembering that the time to sell tires, I know this sounds crazy, is when tires are brand new. That's when you start to talk about it and have the conversation, like you're introducing a customer to their tire and having a conversation about it. And when a car is brand new, the tires never look better than that day. So I think that having early and often conversations is probably the way to, like, really spark tire sales. Obviously, that happens on a walk around, and doing it interactively, as opposed to just administratively, is probably a really, really good little push down there. But as time goes on, mark our words that tire sales will be much, much more important than they were even 10 years ago. That's coming.

Yeah, because the cars are heavier and all that, especially electric cars. So I think, Mitch, that whatever you give energy to is going to, you know, grow. And we. There's a thing I talk about in the Irreplaceable Service Manager, the book that I just threw across the room because.

It kept falling down off camera, unfortunately.

That you use the rule of five. And I say in there, five is good, 10 is better. So if you want to sell more tires, it isn't going to be one thing. It's going to be a bunch of different things. So things that just kind of come to mind is if you have a system in the drive that every customer coming in, the advisors are measuring the tires and riding that on the ro or on the walk around. And you're documenting it, that's bringing. And the customers are there with the advisors when they're doing the walk around, not inside.

That's right.

So there's a little show and tell. You also could have the advisors ask a question when they're measuring the tires. Something about when's the last time you check the tire pressure? You know that they. We've said forever in our industry that you should check your tire pressure every time you fill up. Nobody does that, but you could bring that up. And so you're creating kind of a gap between what we should be doing and what we, what we are actually doing in the customer's mind. So creating a little doubt, little psychology. So giving it energy by measuring them always brings up tire sales. The other thing is putting it in all your marketing. Having tires out in the drive displayed good, better, best. So it's very effective to have your parts manager get, you know, a low end tire that's basically made out of concrete. It's like 1995. And then a really high end Pirelli that's like for an F1 and then a middle one which is where we want the customers to land. But doing a good, better, best in that sense.

Telling a story about tires and your marketing in a sense of, you know, personal stories about people that were stuck in a situation where they were surprised by a flat tire or the first snow or the rain and they slid all over. Go. You know, a story about somebody going on a road trip and not replacing their tires. Also alignment sales, recommending alignments is, you know, a fire starter or a tripwire to selling more, more tires. So you're marketing your parts department, displaying it like you could come up with 10 different things to give it energy that will create tire sales. But just don't expect that it's going to be one thing, that there's a magic pill. It needs to be a bunch of different things and it needs to be constant and continuous. So the rule of 5, 5 is good, 10 is better. And then consistency. Don't give up. Don't let anybody else set the narrative. You're the leader in this situation. And so, you know, tired doubters, if there is such a thing, should not be controlling the narrative. You should be. So, you know, probably the number one part is making it a part of the walk around. Like, I don't know how many times we go into Dealers and they're like talking about prices of tires at Costco and it really has nothing to do with your tire sells. You're just focused on the prices of tires at Costco and you think that you need to be competitive. But the truth is everybody coming in would rather have their tires done there and they'd pay a little more to save time. We're just not making it easy or we're not presenting it in a way that makes sense to them to do the tire. So that's what we need to focus on. It's not really we're losing them to Costco because we're not pointing it out in time.

Yeah, I, I just think get comfortable with it. Is. Is by far the, the easiest thing to do. So.

Yeah, and it is, you know, for the parts department is a little more work. You got to, you got to stock more. You know, you got to get them that same day. So you have to have some sort of relationship where if you don't have it, you can get it. The parts manager is going to do a little research if you want to do the good, better, best. But those things do pay off. And, you know, if we're doing their tires, we're going to do their alignments, we're going to sell brakes, we're going to do other things. And so only good things come from selling more tires, as you probably understand because you're asking the question. So lots of energy, create momentum and consistency, and it will, it will start to flip. But I don't know how many times we've gone from selling very few tires to being the number one tire sales for that brand or, you know, in our market, whatever it is, it's, it's an easy thing to do when you just give it massive energy in a bunch of different places.

I had interviewed last year in December for a service manager position for a auto dealership that the family owned and they owned, like a Ford dealer and a Kia dealership. Long story short, like I said, I interviewed for a service manager position and I was basically offered a service advisor position. And then I was told that basically once I learned, like their system, how they do things there, they would basically start training you to be service manager. My question is, you know, I have friends that are in the field too, and I'm just trying to, you know, figure out, is this something that's legitimate, you know, in your experience, Is this something that you've come across before?

Yeah. So it's basically the question, basically the path is learn how they do their System, learn how things work, and then I would be trained for that serious manager position. Sound like something you've encountered before? Do you have any feedback? Thank you so much for your time.

You can't really control what other people are going to do, right? So they might with, with all the best intentions, be leading you down the path of thinking you can be a manager in that business. But things can change. Like, I remember one time I took a gig with the intention that we were going to buy dealerships and I was going to be a partner. And I did my part, but that never happened because the situation changed. And it wasn't that their intentions were bad, it's just the situation changed because somebody passed away and no longer were they in the mode of buying more businesses, they were just in the mode of actually exiting and getting out. And so I wouldn't really worry too much about what they're promising you. What I would worry about is your performance, your ability to create value and what you bring to the table and get really, really good at that. Because the one thing I know.

Is that if you are really, really good with customers, you are somebody who brings a lot of energy and results and enthusiasm to the table. It won't matter if you're a porter, service advisor, manager, whatever it is, your trajectory is going to be, be up. So concentrate on the things that you can control. And so whatever, you know, job or position you take.

Create incredible results. Be. Be the person that outshines, outworks out, hustles everybody else. And you can't put a jar on that. You just can't.

Yeah. I think the one thing that I would ask for if I was going into that situation and a contract, not a contract. Well, it's not a terrible idea. But the first imagine if you, like.

Were talking to an advisor and they're like, could I get that in writing?

Yeah. Could we draw that out a little bit?

Could you talk to my lawyer?

I'd be impressed, actually. So I've seen this happen a lot where people come in with a promise of the next job and everything like that. So I would say that the way to approach it is that if you come in, and that's the premise, it's your job to lose. So if you don't get the job, it's because you didn't meet some expectations. But the mistake that I see a lot of people make when they go into this kind of situation is they don't ask for the measurables. They're like, okay, so you say that if I write service for this long, then I'll be ready for the manager job. What are those things that tell you that I'm ready for the job? So I'd want to know that kind of stuff. And what are the things that I'll be measured on? What do I need to learn in order to be the manager? The other thing that's kind of confusing to me a little bit is that knowing how much turnover there is in the manager job, like there's probably manager jobs out there that people give him a shot at so he doesn't have to do it this way. But it's weird that.

Well, you took that route.

I just find over and over again.

That people concentrate too much on the title and not on actually building a case study of your habits and results.

Right.

And oftentimes, how often do we see that an advisor is making more than a manager regularly? And so why, why is being a manager more appealing than being an advisor? Like, what you want to do is you want to really shine where you're at, and then those opportunities come. But they will come on your terms, not somebody else's terms. I would rather take a manager's position when I have equity and I can dictate terms than falling in love with the title and the position. And I mean, how many times do we see it's just another guy going through there that's going to get burned up?

That's right.

You really, when you accept something, I want to hedge my bets in every direction and I want to have as much control, as much influence as I can if I'm going to be the manager. The worst thing is to be a manager with no influencer control.

Oh, that's purgatory, isn't it?

But that's. I don't know, what is that, 60% of the managers out there.

High percentage, for sure. Yeah. I think that that's probably a really important thing, is to say that the system and the environment that you're working in is way more important than the title.

I mean, it's, it's, it's, it's a tribute to the people in our industry. And we've, we've said this for a long time. There's just so many great managers out there that just haven't been given the training.

And when dealers call us and they're like, hey, I want you guys to come in, but I want to get rid of my manager first. We're always like, why? Like, let it. What training? You know, most of the time we can, we can save somebody like let's give them a chance, you know? Yeah, yeah. I don't know. I think focusing on your own results and building a case will give you more, more control. But. Oh, the thing I was going to say is how many times do we see it that a manager is paying for our on demand on their own and out of their own pocket. Like that blows me away that you would work for a company that won't invest in training. So you have to do it yourself. Now. It's a tribute to you character, you're gonna do it. But also it does kind of bring into question.

Like, why are you working for somebody who doesn't believe in training? And you gotta, you gotta pay for it yourself, which is nuts.

Yeah.

Crazy. Good question. Thanks for watching this week's Drive By. I hope we gave you something to think about over the weekend. We're uploading new stuff every day, so make sure you subscribe and click the bell icon so you don't miss out. If you have a question you'd like us to answer on the show, call 8333 Ask SDR and we'll answer your question on the show. That's 8333 Ask SDR. For special deals on our books and training, head over to offers.chriscollinsinc.com now that's offers.chriscollinsInc.com I'm Chris Collins and I'll see you in the next video.