During the beginning of the pandemic in March, ABRN spoke to a number of repairers (see Business During a Pandemic) who already were suggesting repairers begin looking for ways to build business. With money tight and the future uncertain, the question is: Where should you put any investment dollars.

One of the best answers is into your own people, specifically with management training that can provide your shop leaders with the tools to make the most of the business at hand and draw in more where possible. Management training is available from a variety of sources, including formal institutes and I-CAR. This article will focus on those provided by paint vendors. Consider the options being suggested most strongly by paint companies at this time. Plan your options accordingly.

AkzoNobel

Rick Fifer, Central Business Services Manager for AkzoNobel Automotive & Specialty Coatings, says when choosing management training, shops must first look at addressing reductions in sales due to COVID-19. Specifically, they need to focus on closing sales. Fifer explains, “Many shops have become complacent and have not worried about where their next meal was coming from. Whether it’s a result of their stellar reputation, an effective marketing campaign, insurer programs, or just because there are fewer shops than previous years, work has just ‘shown up to the door’ with minimal effort on the shop’s part.”

He recommends AkzoNobel’s recently-overhauled Increasing Closing Ratios course that has been renamed Collision Repair Selling Skills and designed to help shops capture more work using “time-proven selling skills.”

When combined with the company’s also-newly-overhauled Estimating Consistency – Documenting Damage course, Fifer says the duo offer powerful one-two punch since they captures both the repair itself and then all the parts and labor operations needed to properly repair the vehicle to OEM standards.

While looking to boost sales, Fifer also recommends shops use this slow time to improve their operations. “The best operators are taking advantage of this downtime to make improvements that will pay off when the market picks back up,” he says, noting that COVID-19 has been an industry “equalizer” since it has affected everyone - big shops, small shops, independents, dealers, MSOs and SSOs. “The shops that make the best of this challenging situation are positioning themselves to come out of COVID stronger than ever,” he says.

He recommends AkzoNobel’s Cycle-time Processing Reduction (CPR) course, designed to help shops identify and act on opportunities to improve production flow and decrease cycle time. Another brand-new course, Managing Parts for Continuous Flow and Cycle Time is intended to help shops design a part process and scorecard that will support their repair process to optimize production flow.

Axalta

Steven Trapp, North American Strategic Account Manager, similarly says shops need to refocus on their closing sales ratio. Trapp believes many estimators have become “DRP lazy,” giving most of their attention to managing DRP work instead of refining their sales skills. Axalta has a cure for that, its Effective Selling Skills course.

“We are big on teaching people to listen to the customer’s need and selling to that need and not simply because the DRP sent them there,” says Trapp. He also recommends Effective Negotiations, taught by Mike Anderson, and designed to create scenarios where skillful negotiations allow everyone to win – shops, customers and insurers. Trapp believes there might be an even greater interest for improved negotiating skills than better closing ratios right now.

He also encourages shops to look at the complete list of Axalta’s 11 management training class, which includes two estimating courses and four general management courses (hiring, managing people, process improvement and quality control), among others.

BASF

Alan Lukens, Global Head of Business Solutions for BASF, recommends shops position themselves for the potentially rich period following the end of COVID-19 by: maximizing the revenue generated by each repair, measuring and increasing performance KPIs, and delivering complete customer satisfaction. He recommends three BASF courses:

Estimating for Profit (VPU-002)

This one-day interactive collision center workshop is intended to increase a shop’s closing ratio by

selling first, estimating second and increasing the average repair order through a thorough damage appraisal, effective use of the P-pages and professional negotiation with insurers. The course also demonstrates how to streamline the estimating and/or the repair order process and reduce cycle time by eliminating reactive supplements. Further potential benefits include creating more profitable repairs, increasing productivity, along with improving technician compensation and insurer relationships.

Measuring and Improving Performance (VPU-003)

Another one-day interactive course, this class focuses on measuring and improving a shop’s performance by asking participants to utilize and develop the data streams needed for both financial and nonfinancial reporting used to calculate the 24 critical key performance indicators (KPIs). These KPIs are then compared to benchmarks to help attendees understand what positively or negatively affects the performance.

Get the Keys! - VPU-038

This one-day interactive course provides “highly effective and powerful sales techniques” designed to increase a shop’s closing ratio and top-line sales. This course aims to realign attendees’ sights away from the estimate and on the “real target,” getting the keys.

Key points include:

·      Preparing for the sale

·      The importance of a company-wide sales culture

·      Creating distinction to clearly separate you from your competition

·      Identifying the needs of the customer

·      What you really need to do when the customer first contacts you

·      Creating a motivated, inspired buyer

·      Choosing the right closing technique.

BASF says participants should be able to improve closing ratios by a minimum of 10 percent.

PPG

Instead of focusing on a small set of management classes, Mike Gunnells, PPG senior manage of MVP Business Solution, believes shops are best served by completing a full slate of coursework that targets specific areas of an operation, which can then be combined to raise overall performance. He recommends these PPG offerings: 

·      Green Belt Training

·      Advanced Estimating Training

·      Administrative Process Improvement Training

·      Business of Parts Training

·      Refinish Area Optimization Training

He also recommends managers and employees take advantage of PPG’s hour-long Virtual Learning Sessions that provide focused training on critical topics taken from these classes. Gunnells says key skills to take away from all of PPG’s offerings are analyzation, planning, process improvement and implementation.

SWAF

Ted Williams, Global Director of Business Services at Sherwin-Williams Automotive Finishes, declares that “Success in collision repair is driven first by repair order accuracy and then the proper management of resources through the repair cycle. The industry challenges created by COVID-19 has placed additional focus on profitability. He recommends three courses he says focus on areas where shops can experience the greatest improvement and provide demonstrable performance. Estimating Solutions for Profit, Damage Analysis, In-Process Quality and Coaching for Performance.

Currently, all are available free due to COVID-19 at www.ecoleanuniversity.com.

Williams says the courses deliver the necessary understanding that a complete and accurate repair order begins before the vehicle enters production. From there, the courses improve labor efficiency and workshop utilization to drive cycle time performance. They also provide other benefits, he says, since “having the right process and communicating it in real-time creates a workspace that is less stressful, more focused and rewarding to all involved.”

Making your investment pay

Obviously, no amount of management, or other, training will help a shop if the lessons learned aren’t put to work. Paint companies have become increasingly savvy when it comes to helping their instruction pay off.

For example, Trapp says Axalta has replaced its 150 – 200-page student guide with a much shorter implementation guide that participants use to prepare an action plan for implementing lessons. In virtual classes, students discuss how they plan to put their new skills to work. He also suggests that shops ask returning participants to produce a “few paragraphs” on what they learned from a class and how they plan to put that knowledge to in place. 

PPG recommends students disconnect from all distraction during the training, which includes phones, tablets and laptops. Gunnells stresses that participants need to keep an open mind and stay focused on “How You Can” instead of “Why You Can’t.”

Williams suggests a three-step plan for the best results:

1.     Commit to Change. Many shops fail to see the restraints inside the business or worst accept them.

2.     Make a plan. As you attend the course, think though your own situation and challenges; make an action plan and hold yourself and your team accountable.

3.     Involve your team in designing the solution. If they have an ownership interest, the likelihood of success grows.

Regardless of which company your shop does business with, any of these strategies could pay important dividends. Find one or several that work and put them in place.

The bottom line is your bottom line will need some assistance to weather the current economic storm battering the collision industry and the rest of the nation. Whether your goal is to pump up your revenues now or prepare for brighter days, or both, the help is there if you want it. All you have to do is commit to being smarter now to make your shop stronger tomorrow.