Transcript of a Service Drive Revolution episode (host Chris Collins and a guest) arguing that a dealership's biggest asset is its relationship with customers, not the vehicle brands. The conversation contrasts transactional, price-driven selling (discounting as default) with relationship-driven approaches: creating value by ensuring benefit outweighs cost, asking "What can I do to become that person for you?", following up, and offering convenience. Ends with a CTA to view the full episode and follow the host on social media.
Chapters
The biggest asset that any dealership or repair shop has in the market is your relationship with your customer base. That's your asset. Not Toyota, not Ford, not BMW. That's a commodity.
Yeah.
Now they buy a BMW for a different reason. So you talk to them different.
Yeah.
Because you can buy a Kia and get to and from work for half the price.
Right.
So the Kia customer might be more focused on price.
Then the BMW customers buying for image and ego.
Right.
So you, you talk to them differently, but you still connect with both of them and understand that the car is a commodity.
Right.
Right. So that's one of the biggest things keeping them from selling to me is it's very transactional. They think the car is the star when the customer is the star of the show. Right. Then if it's transactional, if something is transactional, then your only competitive advantage is price.
Right.
And so that's why a lot of advisors are in the habit of. So you need breaks and I can discount at 20%. Yeah. Like, the next thing they're saying is discount when the customer hasn't even asked, the car is there, the truck is there, they need brakes. And you're discounting it as a, as an operating system. Your way of selling is to discount because you haven't done the other stuff. It's all transactional. And it's all about price. And you've trained yourself that. And you've lost customers and had customers complain about price, so you just automatically default and your closing technique is to drop your pants and get naked. Yeah, right.
Yeah. Yeah. And it's almost like we, we've gotten in the habit as advisors to, to speaking something into existence that's not even there yet. Like we're walking on eggshells. So much afraid of what's going to happen. Sometimes I think that, you know, it becomes our system of selling. And like I said, we end up competing on price when we could be competing on, you know, what we offer that some other place doesn't. Right. Offering some type of convenience like pickup and delivery or whatever it is, some type of customer experience or relationship with me. You know, like, listen, bro, when I.
Was an advisor, so people say, say to do this, and I think it's moronic. And when anybody says, for my whole life, I've thought that's the most moronic thing. But I didn't, like, I don't know, I didn't know what to say. But so let's say, like, you're talking about the difference between a dealership and an independent. Right? And a customer's like, well, I can get it done here for this. And you're this much, you're more. Right. And so what are we trained to do? We're trained to go, well, we have factory trained technicians and factory parts and all that. At the end of the day, does a customer really care about factory trained technicians?
No.
What do they want? They want their car fixed and they want to feel like there's value. And value is created when the benefit outweighs the cost. That's value. Not when you're cheaper than the competition. When they're shopping you against the competition, they're saying there's no value.
Right.
I always feel like my value in the marketplace is my relationship. If you feel like you're my friend and I can say to a customer, look them straight in the eye, straight in the baby blues and say, yeah, but you won't have me. You can go down there to Chucky's. Chucky's. Lucky breaks and whatever. Go to Chucky's. Look, I find that a lot of customers that try that end up coming back to me and apologizing because I'm going to take care of you. I'm going to make sure that you don't get ripped off. I'm going to make sure that it gets done. You have me. I'm the reason why you're going to pay more. Yeah, right.
Yeah.
Factory, train, tech. Give me a break. Nobody cares about that. Yeah, No, I just say, well, yeah, but then you won't have me. And I'd be quiet.
It worked like, yeah, no, that's, that's true. And your customers will even tell you that a lot of times, like, I, I can't tell you how many times I've heard, you know, a customer will say, you know, my mechanic, or something like that. Right? Like, and that's an objection to a sale sometimes. Or I'll, you know, I'll have my mechanic do it or something like that. That's what people want, is they want their guy in the car business. Right. Like your customers want it. They even tell you, sometimes they tell you in the, in their objection to the cell, you know, like, oh, well, my mechanic said, or whatever, you know, and a lot of times they don't even have that person. You know, they're just saying that.
Yeah, they're blessing.
What people want for sure is they want to have. And, you know, and even family members, if you're in the car business, I know that you have family members calling you all the time about what should I do in this situation, or, hey, I got my car over here, you know, they won't help. Everybody wants their person in the car business. And if you feel like you can do that for your customers. And one of the greatest word tracks I've ever heard of, somebody with that objection, you know, hey, my mechanic, blah, blah, blah, is to tell your customer, hey, what can I do to become that person for you? You know, like, what? What can I, you know, and because it's definitely what, you know, what your people want. Anything you can.
Do to, you know, connect with them on a level where they feel that they can trust you.
That's good. I like that. Then the last one was kind of what you said about them being victims. Like, they feel like they can't control the outcome. That's what advisors feel like. So they don't sell because they're so worried about, oh, the car wash, the cashier, and they don't understand that they still can create a relationship. They still can get things done. The things that they can control are the things that they're not doing because they have all those excuses.
Right.
They can still pet the dog. They can still follow up before somebody has to call in and check on status. Right?
Yeah.
They can still still say, what can I do to earn your business? They can do all that stuff. You're not a victim.
Right?
Thank you so much for watching this clip of Service Drive Revolution. Now you can catch the full episode on YouTube, iTunes or Spotify or wherever you consume your podcast. If you have any questions, go ahead and post them in the comments below. Make sure you subscribe and hit the bell icon so you're notified when we post new episodes. I'm Chris Collins, and you can find me on Facebook and Instagram at Chris Bulldog Collins. And I'll see you again on the next episode.
