Recently one of my readers called to ask how he could find a professional salesperson to go out and sell prospects on sending business to his shop. He had run ads for sales people and interviewed quite a few. He advertised on Monster.com and other online job sites. He may have even tried out a few applicants. But basically he couldn't find any that could effectively go out and represent his shop. I told him he would probably never find anyone who could. Why is that?

Tom Franklin

The fact is that marketing a body shop is a very specialized activity. Anyone going out and trying to talk effectively about a shop without ever having worked in one is doomed to failure. Collision repair is a highly specialized activity. I always compare it to the work of a surgeon. People only go to a surgeon when they need an operation. People generally only come to a body shop after an accident or body damage. Imagine a non-doctor going out and trying to sell surgery to the general public. Unless he was selling cosmetic surgery to celebrities, it would be laughable.

Recently one shop I work with occasionally hired its fourth lady in a row to help with the marketing. None of the previous ones had any experience in the collision industry. This one had worked with an insurance agent, and at least she had some idea of the claims process and the relative quality of some of the body shops in the area. I could see that there was some hope that she would actually be able to help the shop increase business.

I took a look at what previous ladies had attempted. There had been some good initiatives but no follow-through. If this lady stayed long enough to get some of these marketing actions completed, progress would be made. There was a cabinet filled with brochures that hadn't been distributed, and some plastic display holders to place the brochures on other business's counters but nothing had been done with them. In fact there was a car wash across the street that was a natural for referrals. All she had to do was arrange a simple exchange of promotional display items. I was pleased to find out soon that she had done it and had made similar arrangements with some other businesses in the area. This is marketing 101, but I'm stunned at how few shops do it.

The shop had some direct repair relationships that didn't use agents. A next step was getting a list of their claim offices, finding out the names of key people there, and arranging a monthly mailing to keep them informed of customer satisfaction statements and other positive news. Regular monthly letters to direct repair prospects was another simple task she could carry out.