Tips for Selling More Alignments

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Everybody, welcome to your drive by. This is where we answer your questions. Remember the numbers. 8333 ask STR. That's 8333 ask SDR. I am Chris Collins, and this is Chris Joan, better known as Puppy Chulo.

Hello, everyone.

I'm excited about this question today.

It's going to be a good what.

If this question is about repair authorization, what do you think is gonna happen? We're going to my head, just come off my body.

We're gonna hit pause.

Then we're gonna.

You're gonna get your car, get going about 25, and I'm gonna stand in the middle of the street and you're gonna hit me.

I won't even put my foot on the brake. I won't even cover the brake. Like, it'll just be full gas. And then you'll be like. As I'm driving over, you'll be like, thank you.

Okay, let's go to this week's question.

Hey, this is Cody. I just actually started being an advisor about. Well, shoot, that would be about 16 days ago. I think I'm doing fairly well selling alignments, but I'm only averaging about two or three a day. Service drive was a mess when I showed up and actually have a new bigwig in there fixing it up. But anyways to the question. Alignments have been been fairly easy so far, and I don't think that's a bad average for just starting out. But it should be easier to sell. I feel like I should be selling a lot more of them. How would you go about presenting them? I work at a Chevy dealership, like I said, and everybody just seems mad all the time. I don't know if this is a Chevy thing or just the way this service drive is.

So let me first start by saying the easiest way to sell alignments is to let people know they need alignments after you've made friends with them.

I thought you were gonna go into. I was walking to work.

I thought about it for a second, but you did.

But by the way, Christian told me the most terrible joke yesterday.

It. It might like, he started, I thought.

You were gonna do the Norm MacDonald thing. You're like, hey, Chris. He texts me this, hey, Chris, this is Christian. And then I thought it was gonna be, do you want. Do you like money?

That is a great question to ask just on a regular basis. That was so. I've told a lot of. Of raunchy jokes in my day. I have to tell you that when I told you last night, you were nervous. It made me uncomfortable and so uncomfortable that I told it five or six times, but before I got to you, because I wanted it to be really good. And then my response was, so I texted this joke to Chris and that my thumbs were on fire just because of the terribleness of this joke.

Yeah, you're gonna go to hell for sure. I'm gonna go to hell for laughing at it.

I'm complacent, but I do.

That is my favorite norm thing is, hey, Chris, it's Christian. When you know darn well it's me. I love to do that.

Cody, right? We're talking about Cody. Christian makes a good point.

And so the thing that he's kind of trying to say right there is.

You know, I wouldn't really think of it as selling an alignment.

Really? Yeah. Like, don't push him into it.

Like, if. If you wouldn't recommend it to your mom. Like, I. I, you know, have seen. And I believe that there is a benefit to doing an alignment on. On most vehicles every 12 months or 12, 000 miles. AAA says that a lot of the manufacturers say that, tire companies. So I believe that to be true. So if it was my mom's car, I would tell my mom, mom, you got to do an alignment. Like, so I would never, never feel like I'm selling. Selling something kind of implies like.

A push. Like, to me, it's a push.

To me, it's. It's. It's an availability. I'm letting them know that it's available to save them in the long run. Right. So.

The. The kind of. A little bit of insight into the way you ask the question.

You're trying to come up with, like some sort of phrase or some sort of approach to selling in alignment. But that really isn't the way I would ever did it or would ever do it in the sense that I get to know the customers. Everything that I. That I recommended that was approved came because of two things. One, I wouldn't sell them something I wouldn't sell to my mom. So I believed in it. Right. I wasn't.

I.

Came from, you know, more of a.

We know more about cars. And I'm gonna keep you. I'm gonna keep you on track here. I'm gonna help you be on track. Right. Then the second thing is I was genuinely interested in the customer and knowing them. And so when I'm doing a walk around at the car, I'm measuring the tread, I'm doing all that. But all of that is really an excuse for me to get to know where they work, what their hobbies are, you know, what they're doing this weekend or what they just did last weekend. Like, I'm trying to make a friend, and then when I get to the computer and I say, hey, you're due for an alignment. Like, the computer says, you're due for an alignment.

So yes or a no. But let's say, like, I'm giving them the opportunity, but I never see it. Like, I'm selling. And if they don't like me and they don't trust me, then I'm gonna get a lot of no's. That's all. You got to be genuine. You got to really be interested in people. Then it's easy.

That's pretty good. And then kind of the second part of his question about, like, is everybody angry because it's a Chevy dealership? What I would say is that it's a little bit of a mission. You're putting the world on your back a little bit. But I can tell you, if you're not the miserable person on the service drive, you'll start to attract the good customers. I believe that customers kind of sense when people hate their lives and hate their jobs. You just got to be the bright shining star and then you'll stand out.

Yeah. Also, like, there's nothing wrong with, hey, you having a bad day?

Right. And sometimes you'll get into a 35 minute conversation.

Yeah. When you do that, which you might not have the time for. Yeah. But. But that goes back to just genuinely being interested in people. Like, hey, you having a bad day?

It's about to get better because I'm gonna take care of you. I'm gonna get you out of here.

I remember always thinking that when I was writing service. But, you know, even as a service manager, when I talk to heat cases, my job was just to make their life, their day a little bit better.

I loved Heat.

Yeah, I loved Heat. Well, they were yours afterwards. That's my favorite thing.

Well, the best customers, the ones that were the most loyal were the ones that you got from Heat. Like, nobody else could take care of them. Somebody else let them down. And then, you know, simple formula.

Your five best customers come from the five goofiest situations that you've ever had as an investor.

Yeah. So thank you, Cody. Remember the numbers. 8,000, 333. Ask STR. You'll have a swag bag coming which you can wear proudly in the service drive.

I wear it.

Are you including the calculators from Top Dog? We made calculators for Christian did this incredible thing on math, which on the surface might sound odd, but it was really, really good. And he handed out old school calculators and we have a bunch of them. Are we including those in this bag?

We can because we still have some leftovers. But just know that I use that calculator every day.

Oh, I love an old school calculator.

Yeah.

Even though it's on my phone.

So much better than your phone.

Yeah. But so hurry and call in with a question if you want one of those old school calculators.

They're gonna be going fast. I have the feeling.

Have a great weekend. We'll see you next time on Service Drive Revolution. 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 all offers. Chriscollinsinc. Com. I'm Chris Collins and I'll see you in the next video.