First I agree 100% about supporting the vendors. And as the market tightens it can really be more painful. But I have a unique view on this because I love the technical work and have found a way to make it a huge part of our business plan.
Because of this open tech service, it is possible no vendor on these forums deals with more tech service that goes somewhere else to buy then I do because for 2 years it is clearly in my signature
FREE PRO TOURING TECH and PROJECT PLANNING for forum members
Weekdays 8AM TO 10PM EASTERN TIME
FOUR ZERO SEVEN 832 1752
So I get inundated with calls.
I make it clear our tech service for the membership and is free with no purchase necessary. I spend literally hours a day on the phone, my cell phone, doing tech and project planning. Helping develop build plans. Helping work inside of budgets and goals, making sure my guy is not over spending or under spend in one area of another, giving away every how to secret I have learned in 27 years of building cars, and advising what I KNOW from experience what works and what does'nt. A lot of these calls are often from other shops that are not Pro Touring specialist. We work with and supply hobbyist and shops all over the world. And let me tell you, a guy 10,000 miles away needs help to be sure he gets the right thing, cause returns from overseas are a bitch!
There are 4 kinds of tech calls I deal with on our open tech line
(1) Mister loyal buyer. This is the guy that is going to buy from us because he appreciates the service, technical advice, the experience, no hard sell approach, and he trust us. He has seen our builds, he has seen our post, and he knows we know our stuff. This guys knows he is getting a good deal and will almost always come back for more stuff. I like to look at this guy as the make a little on a lot of items, instead of make a killing on one sale.
(2) Mister shopper. This is the guy looking for free tech advice and he will go somewhere else to buy at a better negotiate price. this guy can be hard to spot, he may even promise to come back and buy, but he won't because he never intended to unless he could not beat anyone else up anymore. This guy will probably throw our name out and use it for leverage, a bargaining wedge to try to get a better price from a competitor. Or maybe he goes to a pajama retailer selling on E bay or a forum from his living room. But even this guy will often times refer others to us for technical advice and those become buyers because they are not the Mister Shopper type, but are the Mister Loyal Buyer type. So even Mister shopper, however sideways, can create a future sale.
(3) Mister straight up, I am buying somewhere else. This is the guy that has the balls up front to tell you he is buying somewhere else for whatever reason. This guy will tell you he just wants to get your advice because he wants to verify the first guy advise. I appreciate this guy that tells me up front he is buying someone else same or competing product but really only trust my recommendations (I have a couple of these in a PM box today). I even had a guy call me to spec out Vintage Air system and tell me he is buying from his buddy because he is helping the buddy do a buy in to become a dealer for vintage Air. Whatever. There buddy probably won't sell radiators, so maybe this guy buys a Prodigy Customs radiator down the road. Mister straight up may also tell a friend how accommodating we are and that friend just might be a Mister Loyal type.
(4) And then there is Mister Dreamer. This is the guy that either has no money, never will have any money, or may not even have a car. This guy is easy to spot early in the conversation, but I am never rude as you never know when this guy may inherit some money, have a friend with money and tell them how helpful we are, or our dreamer might hit the lottery. It is only 6 random numbers.
So while my closing ratio of sales to hours on the phone is horrendously low, we still do a huge amount of business. And at the end of the day I feel great because I know helped some people with their dream (and these toys really are dreams for most members), I know if they bought from me I gave them a good deal, and even though I did not get every sale, I still made good money and got to live a absolute dream.
I mean come on, I get to talk about cars. I get to build and own some of the most badd ass cars on the planet. I get to make dreams come true, and I make a living doing it.
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Frank Serafine
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