Elite Checklist for Discovering Lost Sales in Auto Repair Shops

If your shop is not generating the sales you need, you may want to take advantage of this easy-to-use Elite checklist to see where you may be losing sales before you start pumping more of your hard-earned money into your advertising campaigns.

• The Proper Goals in Place – As a shop owner you need to ensure you set daily sales and car count goals. These can be easily created by simply breaking down your monthly goals. In addition to car count and sales goals, you need to ensure you have a closing ratio goal in place for bringing in those first-time callers.

• The Right People – In order to generate the appropriate sales and profits, you have to have technicians and advisors that can produce. The advisors you need will be driven, goal-oriented, quick-thinkers, good communicators, and persuasive. In addition, they’ll need to believe in your people, your services, and your pricing, and they will need to be principle-centered.

• The Right Phone Procedures – Putting first things first, you need to make sure that everyone who picks up your phone is properly trained. Also, bear in mind that what you hear when you are at your shop may not be what the callers are hearing when you’re not around. Accordingly, you may want to record all calls or have mystery calls made to your shop on a random basis.

• The Right Procedures for Handing Web Leads – When someone reaches out to you over the web, time is of the essence. In addition, you need to have a clear policy in place for how those leads are going to be followed up with, by whom, and when. Remember, the primary objective with every web lead is to get them on the phone as soon as possible so you can start building the relationship you need for the ensuing sales.

• Proper Vehicle Inspections – You need to ensure that every vehicle is properly inspected every time and that all discoveries are properly documented. Ideally, the inspections will be performed digitally so that your techs can be more efficient with their time, and your advisors can communicate with your customers more effectively. In addition to all the efficiencies, digital inspections will build customer confidence that is so desperately needed in today’s competitive environment.

• The Right Pricing Structure – In all cases you need to ensure your prices are competitive for the value delivered. By no means does this mean you need to be the cheapest shop in town, but your prices need to be competitive with other top shops in your community that offer similar value.

• Complete & Proper Disclosure – In order to provide exceptional service to your customers, and maximize your sales, your advisors need to ensure they never pre-judge or pre-qualify any customer. We have also found over the years that there are many advisors who hold back on their disclosures to their first-time customers because they’re afraid to scare the customer away. Unfortunately, this practice not only leads to a decline in sales but when the customer later discovers that there is something your advisor did not disclose to them, your reputation with that customer will be irreparably damaged.

• A Companywide Commitment to Principles – To maximize your sales and build a really great business at the same time, you need to create a list of your Guiding Principles, you need to share them with your entire team on a consistent basis, and you need to ensure everyone on your team lives by them each and every day. If you do, and apply the procedures listed above, then not only will you reach your sales goals, but you’ll do so in a way that makes you and your entire team proud. If you are looking for an example of Guiding Principles, you can visit this webpage; Elite Guiding Principles.