Auto Repair Shop Owners Need a PLUS ONE Mentality

Plus One Mentality by Rick White, President 180BIZ

The biggest threat to your business is your brain. It's your brain, my brain. It's the biggest threat to each of our businesses. Let me explain why.  Your brain is designed to do two and only two things. The first is to keep you alive. The second is to conserve energy. That's it. It’s a survival tool. What I want to talk to you about is an area where your brain is not your friend. I want you to think about the last time you heard yourself saying, “That's good enough.”

This is one area where your brain is keeping you from achieving everything you want. When you say it's good enough, I want you to recognize that is your brain conserving energy. Everyone has a tendency to do as little as possible to get what they want. We all do it. Think about the new employee that comes on and they start going like gangbusters. And six months later, they're not doing the same stuff. Why? Because they've figured out what the energy of the shop is, what the expectations of the shop are, and they've dialed down to match that energy. Good enough is the land of mediocrity.

It is the precursor to average. Average is the worst of the best and the best of the worst. You don't want average. How many of you have you know, while growing up, said to yourself, “I want to grow up and be average?” You don't. The threat is allowing “That's good enough” from yourself, from your team, and from your business. Think about deliver and then PLUS ONE.  It does not take much to stand out in a crowd of average.

Come to your business, your life, your relationships, and ask yourself, “How can I make it better? What's one thing I can do that makes it a little better.” People are dropping cars off. You're getting the keys. Everyone's stressed out. What if you had a bucket filled with carnations and as your clients are leaving, you hand them a Carnation and said, “Have a fantastic day today! What does that take to do? Or give them a cold bottle of water or a cup of coffee to go. I used to know what newspapers people liked and handed them the newspaper when they came in. What can you do that goes above and beyond “good enough?”

I originally picked up an idea years ago from a book titled The Sales Bible by Jeffrey Gitomer called Deliver Plus One. What can you do that goes above and beyond every single time? This is a mindset, first. This is you deciding to do and give more than you expect, and they expect. Answering the phone pleasant takes intention, but it makes a difference. There is so much indifference and uncaring in the world today. You could be a beacon, a lighthouse that just shines bright by caring by being willing to go that little bit more. So please, I'm going to ask you to step back, look at each area that you interact with your customer from a sales perspective today. How can you one-up what you're doing now?

I want you to step back as a shop owner and look at your team. What can you do a little bit differently today that's going to one-up and let them know how much you appreciate their efforts and their participation?  Now step back as a spouse say, “What can I do to one-up?” Instead of complaining about the relationship I don't have, I can create the relationship I want by fixing me, by changing me. What's the one thing you're going to do today to let your significant other know that you love them, that you see them, that you hear them, that you care for them. So, I want you to pick one area each day this week and ask yourself, “How can I go one step higher? How can I go one step further? How can I make this one step easier? Or one step nicer or one step toward more showing appreciation?”

Just remember PLUS ONE and I’m not talking about wedding invitations. I’m talking about making a difference in your business, in your life, in your community, and making the world a little bit better by doing small, random acts of kindness. It’s about making a difference. We’ve got so much negativity crushing us right now. Realize that we can make a difference. We can push back against that negativity and we can make a difference in our lives and in our community. Don't wait for a great week to happen, make it happen. And you're going to do that with this plus one mentality.

God bless, stay safe.  And go make some money.