The past few years have been fairly good for most of my body shop clients. In fact, business has been so good it’s been difficult to get some shop owners and managers to get serious about marketing initiatives. They may get interested in an idea for a short time, but as soon as business picks up, that interest disappears. 

    Now conditions have changed. The nation has just about fallen into a recession and business is off significantly for many shops. Suddenly I am approached with requests for “instant marketing results.” But even if there is a big push now, it will take a while to see results.There is one approach that has a chance of seeing faster results, however, and it’s an approach that calls for a new way of looking at estimates as sales tools.

Sales 101
Most sales jobs involve making sales proposals. Typically, a paint, parts or equipment sales representative may expect to make a dozen or more sales proposals before he or she closes even one sale. In the body shop, the estimate is the sales proposal. But because of DRP steering, dealership referrals, and other sources that bring business effortlessly to the shop, estimates are often considered more of a formality. The estimate may get approved as is, or an adjuster may demand a few changes, but except for a few customer-pay situations, the sales role of the estimate and the estimator is secondary.
    But seriously slow times call for changing that point of view. When business is down, it’s time for the sales side of estimating to move way up! It’s time to crank out as many estimates (proposals) as possible! But if insurance or someone else isn’t bringing cars to the shop, how can the estimator write all of those proposed estimates?

Working the service drive
I’ve been startled to learn that some shops that are “authorized repair facilities” for a dealership don’t put an estimator on that dealership’s service drive every morning when cars are coming in for service. This is almost criminal negligence!
    Every car that comes in for a tune-up, oil change or brake job should get a quick inspection and brief preliminary estimate of repairs for dings, dents, and scratches by an estimator from the shop. One shop I visited had a rolling cart with a laptop and battery-powered portable printer on it so an instant estimate could be handed to the prospective customer.
    The best part of this is a seasoned estimator isn’t required. Most of the estimates will be superficial and noted as only approximations. An invitation is offered to come to the shop for a more thorough estimate at no charge. Here the target is volume. Many of the estimates may be ignored or tossed in the trash, so the key is cranking out as many estimates as possible every morning.