Dealership Networking with Certified Collision Repair Centers for Mutual Gain

Micki Woods discusses a huge Car dealership opportunity rarely explored

nKelly Kleinman: Well hello and welcome to the market motivators podcast report. I’m Kelly Kleinman. My guest today has found a unique niche in automotive marketing on the body shop side of things. Her work in sales, marketing, profit loss analysis, and business development is extremely noteworthy so much that she’s just won the Most Influential Woman Award for the collision industry. Congratulations, Micki.n

nMicki Woods: Yay. Thank you. n

nKelly Kleinman: By the way, thatu2019s Micki, Micki Woods is joining us. Now, with all that said, she’s also celebrating her first full year with her Body Banginu2019 Podcast focusing on the collision repair business. So congratulations on that. Thank you for jumping on.n

nMicki Woods: Of course, I’m happy to be here.n

nKelly Kleinman: So we’ll start cranking away right now. I know you’ve been in the body shop biz since 2007. So you’re clearly an expert in the subject. I’ve been focusing mostly on automotive retailing. With that said, we’re hooking up here. n

nMicki Woods: Yes. n

nKelly Kleinman: So how can dealerships that don’t have an in house collision repair service, and there’s a lot of them, market themselves to local body shops to develop and create an incremental lead gen base in a number of areas? And why should they?n

nMicki Woods: For the most part, now, as everybody’s seeing, these vehicles are so technologically advanced, that the body shops are not just banging on metal anymore. I mean, these guys, some of them are like IT tech, you know, technicians, it’s their software, its software, its programs, its technology. So first and foremost, that’s a huge thing to remember. And I think there’s a lot of respect that the collision industry has gotten over the course of time, because we realize how complex this stuff is, it’s not just go pop this one out. It’s so much more than that with calibration and all this Adas equipment and things like that. n

nSo I wanted to come on today and talk with you, Kelly, because there’s so much benefit for the dealerships hooking up with the body shop. Like you were just saying there’s so many benefits to taking advantage of that relationship. And dealerships are missing the boat, honestly. And what does that look like? Well, they should be reaching out to your local body shops because most body shops don’t want to do the mechanical work, they just want to do the body work. That’s what they’re good at. So for the clients that I have, I recommend to all of them, find a local dealership and send all of your mechanical work there. n

nSo they’re subletting all the mechanical? Well, that’s work for you. But we know that the service drive generates a massive amount of profit for a dealership. So why not get that service work, get the service work, then send it back to the body shop for them to do. That’s another huge profit margin for dealerships. n

nSo you know, there are a lot of great ways that the dealership can start to make more money by partnering up with somebody that’s already in the automotive space. I mean, you kind of feel like it’s a no brainer, but for some reason, it just kind of hasn’t really crossed the minds of dealerships yet. For a lot of them, some not all, but I think there’s a big opportunity there.n

nKelly Kleinman: When you think about it, here’s somebody who’s bringing in a slightly or majorly damaged vehicle. Perhaps it’s mostly cosmetic. So the question to be asked after the work is done is; Hey, do you want to keep the car? Why not go see Hal over at Subaru in Thousand Oaks or Westlake where I got mine and see if you can’t trade it in? So right there is a source of inventory. n

nMicki Woods: Yep.
nYeah, absolutely. We see that happen in body shops all the time. Or somebody’s like, oh my gosh, I don’t even want this anymore. Because now it’s tarnished in their mind because it’s gotten into this accident. Even if our goal on the collision side is to repair something to pre-accident condition, there’s always going to be some sort of loss after you’ve crunched something like that. There’s some sort of what we call diminished value to that vehicle. So some of our guests want to get out of that vehicle, or if it’s a total loss, they have to get out of that vehicle. n

nSo they’ll ask the body shop for advice, you know, they’re frustrated, they’re emotional at that moment, and then they build that trust with the body shop. So if the body shop already knows like you said, go see Hal at Subaru, go see Jay at Jaguar, you need a new Jaguar this thing you know this thing’s totaled. It’s a great way to get referral work too.n

nI do marketing for shops across the country and Canada and I always tell people, it’s relationship you have, marketing is built on relationships, just like for people that are on the call listening right now whether you’re working on the service drive, or you’re a salesman, you need to build that relationship with people to get them to trust you. Same with the body shop that builds a relationship with people at the body shop. There’s trust there in the relationship they have with their guests. They are mutual customers of the dealerships and the body shops. Ideally, so why not?n