When looking for inspiration of what to talk about today, all I had to do was look UP. I’m here at my home office, and all I had to was look up at this big ass fan that I have above me. And yes, that is the name of the fan. It is called Big Ass Fan, and that kind of got me on a great idea for today’s chat. I want to know what message you’re getting out into the marketplace. And, is it clear and congruent with the way you want to run your business?
Now this company, Big Ass Fan, guess what they make? They make big ass fans. This thing is about a 22 foot wide fan, because I have a big, giant empty room down below, and I need to get some airflow. So when I was looking for a big ass fan, guess what? I found a company called Big Ass Fan — that just happened to make big ass fans.
What Does Your Messaging Say About Your Auto Repair Business?
Now, what does your messaging? What does your name? What does whatever you’re getting out into the marketplace say about your company? Well, if you’re ‘Joe’s Discount Auto Repair,’ guess what? People are going to think you are the place to come for discount auto repair, and then good luck with getting any sort of premium prices or getting paid for what you’re really worth. So if that is in your name, or if you have thrifty or budget or anything like that in your name, guess what? That is what you’re getting out on the marketplace, and that’s exactly what people are going to expect when they call your shop to do business with you. So, good luck getting that average ticket up to the point where you can actually make a good, decent profit.
As a matter of fact, that’s exactly what happened. Last week I was on the phone with a perspective client who was inquiring about our million dollar shop training and mentoring program where we create million dollar auto repair shops. He was struggling getting his average ticket up over 250 bucks. Well guess what? All I had to do was look really quickly at what the message was he was getting out onto the market, and I saw exactly why he’s attracting the wrong people. He was advertising auto repair services at very low prices. His messaging and his advertising out there was all about the cheapest price, had a big bright bubble on his advertising says, “We’ll beat any competitor’s pricing.”
And I’ll bet if I called him and did a little price shopping experiment with him, that I would have seen that he was giving away low-ball prices on the phones just to get people in there. Look, I call that bait and switch. I don’t know. I don’t think there’s a better way to put it. But if you’re advertising or you’re giving away low prices on the phone only to charge them a much higher fee later on, I believe that is bait and switch, and that is totally wrong. You should not be doing that. I bet if walked into his shop it was a dirty, smelly place. Just typically, he didn’t even show pictures of his shop online, so that pretty much tells me he’s not proud of the way his shop looks. And judging by the way they answer the phone, they don’t have that professional attitude. Probably don’t have a professional appearance that’s going out as well. So, that’s kind of the message he’s getting into the marketplace.
Changing Your Auto Repair Marketing Message
There’s no way I can help somebody that has all of that going against them, and unwilling to change it. There’s no way I can get them to the million dollar shop level for their auto repair shop, and that’s really what I try to do, is help shops take it to that million dollar level and beyond. There’s no way you can do it if the message is, “Hey, I’m cheap.”
If you’re cheap, you have to be Wal-Mart, and you’ve got to be able to churn and burn through a lot of people in order to be able to get them to get that million dollar shop mark. And even if you got to that million dollar mark by churning and burning by doing a lot of low-priced, you’re not going to have a lot of profitability leftover. So, you’ve done a lot of work for very little money, and that’s just not the way this business should run.
As a matter of fact, I’m going to be taking a giant stand against those low-ball bait and switch guys that are trying to undercut everybody else, simply because they have no idea how to sell their services. We’re going to try to make a change on that.
I’d like to remind you and all shop owners to join and get more people to join the Successful Shop Owner Group because I want to grow a hell of a community here, and you get more live videos like the one above (and not just the recording!). I want to take shop owners to the next, million dollar level, and beyond.