Don’t Be Afraid To Reinvent Yourself
By Jamie Werner
This year I’ve been traveling a lot more, but for less days on each trip. I’m finding it’s hard to manage the additional travel with a four-month old and a wife who is now back at work. I still remember the days before and during her pregnancy. I had more personal time to play in sports I loved and flying out on trips to drum up business.
Late last year I evaluated my approach in order to push through and develop something I could realistically manage with a baby on the way. Looking back, I should’ve reevaluated my approach years back, but I was too resistant because it was the way everyone does what I do in paint protection film (PPF) and it would require change. Needless to say, I have been so much happier and should’ve implemented these things a long time ago.
Acknowledge Change
I bring this example up because I see so many shop owners doing the same thing across the country and wondering why things haven’t changed for them or why they can’t get more money for the work they do. On the flip side, I’ve seen some cool ideas play out in real time that truly get minds racing.
For example, one installer I met had done a couple of car club tech sessions to help teach people about maintaining cars. The goal was to be more informed on proper cleaning methods and other types of products on the market that can help them if they’d rather do it themselves. This installer saw the possibility of approaching two different ends of the spectrum and found common ground with both. He can schedule services with the individuals that require more of a professional’s expertise and sell products to the do it yourselfers (DIY). This ranged from tools to use, chemicals to pick, along with techniques to help improve the quality of their finished product. He even sold them DIY pieces to their cars that were simple enough for anyone to take a stab at installing, but were functional in the areas applied. It was astonishing to see how diverse the offerings were. He was able to see an opportunity through different lenses which allowed him to not rely on one way of doing business.
Price Wisely
I met another installer who sought to adapt to larger coverage offerings but wasn’t sure why his customers weren’t committing to the upgrade. He didn’t know why they were sticking with the same old bra. We went over his pricing model and found that he was overcharging what his market would be willing to pay in order to increase from a bra coverage to a full front-end.
After a discussion on costs and installation time, he adjusted his pricing model and instantly started converting his normal bra customers into full front-end installations. He was pricing the service too high and striking out … something had to budge. I think the saying goes, “a percentage of something is much better than 100% of nothing.”
The price he was charging was above the national average and it was not yielding the results he was looking for. Once he adjusted his price his success rate changed drastically.
Branch Out
I have one customer who branched out of automotive coverage for PPF and started doing other surfaces like boats, bicycles, recreation vehicles, and even display cases in jewelry stores. He felt he needed to expand this type of product so when the automotive side slowed down other areas would fill the gap.
For me, it was mainly how I trained people— once I changed my strategy they found much more success bringing on PPF. It’s proof that sometimes change is needed in order to see if what you’re doing is the best option. It’s why every Jan 1st, people think about New Year’s resolutions. Most don’t stick to them or they fail at some point early on in the journey.
It’s never too late to reinvent yourself or your business. You need to be willing to adapt and make changes, because there’s plenty of work out there for all of us and then some. This business isn’t slowing down, so we need to exceed expectations every day!
Jamie Werner is the national sales manager and head trainer for PremiumShield.
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