That Won’t Work Here!

You know the old saying, “if I had a dime for every time I heard that”? Well, I’m here to tell you, we’d be RICH!! And the almost funny part is that we could have retired early, and been sitting on a beach right now if we had that dime every time we heard, “that won’t work here”!

So, “it” won’t work? Ideas, thoughts and proven methods have worked in countless numbers of other facilities around the country, but won’t work in your shop? What makes your facility so unique that it won’t work? Maybe the bigger question you may even be asking yourself right now is; what is the “it” that I am referring to? The “it” is irrelevant, what is relevant is if you have ever said the words, “that won’t work in my shop” or “that won’t work here”!

Those are all good questions for sure, so let’s see if there is an answer, or a common theme. Let’s look at the differences in your facility from others around the country… so;

• You’re a specialty facility and only work on a specific make or makes of vehicles.
• Your facility is only open 4 days a week, or 6 days a week?
• You have a lot of facilities around you “forcing you” to price your parts lower than targeted.
• “This form of marketing”, whatever it is, “may work for some, but my area is different”!
• You’ve never made money on parts; you don’t need to because that wouldn’t be fair to your customers! Well if this is you, you might want to put this article down and walk away right now. Most professional businesses that sell Parts & Labor MUST make money on parts as a means keeping the business open.

These are just a few examples of what we hear almost daily, and in almost every case we have facilities that have proven results from the very suggestions we’ve made elsewhere, sometimes within miles. So if this is the case, what is the difference between them and your facility?

The short answer, which is also the best answer… is you need a willingness to listen and implement! Sounds too simple you say? The next time someone qualified wants you to change, try or do something different, implement it and then track the results. Plan and believe it is going to work and then give it time to work, a minimum of sixty days, maybe longer. Whether it is a new type of marketing to you, and new way to pay your employees or even more simply a new or different policy within the facility, try it!

One of the biggest failures we see is when an owner says they will try and then consciously or sub-consciously causes it to fail because they don’t “really” put forth the effort, or believe it can be successful. You become the biggest issue to success. All too many times we get push back from owners when we suggest changing this or that, and again, remember it doesn’t matter what we’ve asked for! So, is there a common denominator here? There absolutely is, it is not that it won’t work in my; Town, County, State, it is generally speaking the inability to believe that anyone could make a suggestion outside of your comfort zone that might work!! And, in most cases by simply thinking outside of the box, or by having someone help you that has experienced it working in many, many facilities across the country, you too could succeed the way you thought you could when you opened your business.

Find someone you can trust to help you with these decisions! Someone who can look at your business without the emotional attachments that causes good businessmen to make poor business decisions. Please understand that this inability I am speaking of is most likely a subconscious act and not one of you knowingly understanding. What I mean by this is that everyone, even the best owners find themselves with blinders on after working their businesses for years. This is where the statement; “you don’t know what you don’t know” came from. This statement was not meant to be cruel or mean, it is a simple fact that most people lose perception of what is going on around them because it is the same thing every day. By looking for a company that has Automotive experience and history, not just coaching or trainiing history, you should find someone who will look at your business more globally (BIG picture) and advise you accordingly.

Remember when you’re looking for these types of companies, research them, ask for references, see if they offer classes that you could sit in on and ask others attending those classes about the companies and what they think. Above all, listen to them! Will everything they recommend work? Probably not, there may be very slight variations in the demographics of the specific areas. But the majority should and that should transfer into additional money, soon. A good coaching and training company will have many ways to accomplish the same things, so if one doesn’t work another will. This transformation process may take up to 90 days, so be patient AND listen! See a common theme in the last couple paragraphs……I hope so!