SDR Q&A #1: Better Service or Lower Prices?

Hey Chris. I started out of the dealership and I moved into the automotive aftermarket for parts and I was there for 15 years before they moved me into sales. I have worked a lot with rll, ati, Shop Fix Academy derived, you know, as well as quite a bit of the WorldPAC WTI training on there as well. And I've always been a big follower of your system on there.

So I have a question for you and hopefully you can help me out with this. I worked with quite a few shops and I actually work with about 150 shops per month.

One of my big things, because the company I work for is the most expensive as far as the automotive aftermarket, is that I rebuilt the systems that we have in order to be able to deliver faster, provide better, quicker service for our shops in order to help with their efficiency. And that's always been my focus. Now one of the big issues I run into in the Central Valley here in California, that is a price point market and there is an idea that price is the best way to be able to build profit. Now my question for you is what are your ideas as far as service versus price? What is going to be more beneficial to be able to help a shop meet its goals, grow its overall growth? Gross profit is going to be getting the parts faster or is it going to be going for the cheapest price? It seems to be that there's a little bit of a shift in those ideas on there. I was just wondering what your idea on that was or what your answer to that question would be. And the second is, do you have any for enter any information that you could send to me because I do honestly think that if I were to get your information out to shots in my area, that your mindset is better for the, for the opportunity of shop growth for my shops and my accounts in this area than probably any of the other programs I'm seeing out there.

So yeah, I think we've talked about this before, but I think, you know, Apple's a good example, right? Like if Apple talked about hard drive space and ram, they wouldn't be Apple. They're talking about lifestyle, all that. So if I was distributing parts, I would talk about the success of the shops that use me. I would talk about how I deliver parts two times a day, how we have, you know, the inventory, what our fill rate is like 85% of the time, we have the part right there and you get it the same day. And then I would, I would have.

Workshops where I teach them how to make more money I would, you know, teach the advisors how to sell. I would offer a range of parts. I think a lot of times you can confuse people with a good, better best. So you, if you're a parts distributor, offer three different versions, right?

Yeah.

So offer different solutions for them and confuse them. Because it's not like everybody understands at a basic level that you're compromising something if it's really, really cheap. Like, I understand that if somebody calls me on my phone and they say, hey, Kris, I want to give you the new Titleist driver, but I just want you to come sit through this presentation on a timeshare. Oh, yeah. Like, I understand that the pressure and that I would be better off buying myself that Titleist. I don't know what it costs, 500 bucks or whatever. I'd be better off just buying it for myself than sitting through that presentation. I also know that if I get an oil change for 14.95, that filter probably isn't something I want on my car. It's paper. It's garbage. Right. The oil they're using probably isn't the right oil for the recycled oil. Just understand, like, if I go and buy luggage and I travel a lot for my career in my business, I know that maybe I save a couple hundred dollars buying the cheap stuff, but two months later, after the guys who don't care at the airport have hocked that thing over and over again, I'm going to end up having to buy luggage three times for one set of good luggage, Right?

Yep.

I mean, so in any scenario, just the general population understands that there is a compromise when you go so far into the price that.

It'S going to affect the quality, it's going to affect the service.

Of whatever it is you're buying. So you got to remind them of that. You got to make it about the other stuff. You have to control the narrative and make it about them being a successful service department, about them being able to collect customers because they can do it while the vehicle is there, about the technicians being more efficient, about the software and being able to locate all of that. So make it about their end.

Outcome and what they want and align it with their goals and don't make it about price. And then they won't make it about price. But I think a lot of times in our head we have that it's just about price. But the truth of the matter is, is that price is being passed on to the customer. And if, you know, if customers are going to Decline breaks over $20, if they're going to take their vehicle, leave and go somewhere else over $20. Maybe that's not a service department you want to be selling parts to. Maybe go find the ones that aren't that desperate and help them be successful and you'll sell more.

Yeah, I think so, too. The big thing to remind the clients of is that their commodity that they deal with is time, not money in a lot of cases. And I think that that's the thing is if you provide that value to the departments that you're giving parts to, that's way better than being the cheapest in town. I would never want to compete on price for parts.

Thanks so much for watching this clip of Service Driver Revolution. 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 that's offers.chriscollinsInc.com I'm Chris Collins, and I'll see you in the next video.