The percentages will pay off if enough proposals are made, just as in every sales situation. Not every shop has a relationship with a dealership, but what about other local mechanical shops that do a good volume of vehicle maintenance business? It’s likely the mechanical shop owner will want a percentage of the profits the body shop enjoys from estimates written on his or her service drive, but that percentage is likely to be a lot less that the concessions most insurance DRPs require!
    When collision repair business is down, it’s time to get out on the street writing estimates (proposals) anywhere and everywhere.

The Good, Bad and Ugly
Once the pleasant people – like dealership principals and mechanical shop owners – have been contacted and hopefully contracted, the next opportunities for estimate writing are not nearly as pleasant. Parking lot attendants are famous for dinging and denting vehicles, but I’ve found parking lot owners a tough sell.
    Nevertheless, parking lots are a great place to write estimates (proposals). College parking lots, mall parking lots, airport parking lots, and even grocery store parking lots have plenty of damaged vehicles to write up. The estimate should be small, written on the back of the shop’s business card and placed by the driver’s side door keyhole.
    While helping one shop locate some prospects, I came across a valet parking service called “Valettes.” This service primarily parked cars at celebrity parties and was operated by a lady who was obviously an ex-showgirl or model. All of her parking attendants were lovely 20-something aspiring models or actresses.
    Unfortunately their parking skills were as unbelievably bad as their looks were good. They almost damaged more cars than they parked. On the plus side, this lady charged premium prices for parking! But on the minus side, no insurance company would cover her parking damages, so she had to self-pay all of the repairs. Needless to say, she always negotiated the lowest rate she could find.
    But when business is seriously slow, any business is better than no business.

Last Ditch Proposals
At the beginning of this article, I warned you that these suggestions are for major slow times and possibly even a recession. When all else fails, there are always damaged vehicles on the street, but no shop owner wants to send his or her estimators out writing random estimates on the street. So I have a radical proposal: Put anyone who can write the simplest of estimates on the street on straight commission. Retired shop or insurance personnel, even technicians. What can you lose? Put a unique code number for each of them on the business cards you give them to write estimates and turn them loose.
    The amount of new business coming into your shop will be directly proportional to the number of estimates written, so the volume of estimates will determine the quantity of jobs. But the quantity of estimate writers out on the street, on the service drives, and in the parking lots may also determine the volume of estimates written. It’s the numbers that count.
    When the going gets tough, the tough get going, and this approach is just about as tough as it gets!