Originally Posted by
hills
The other advise in this thread sounds better i would offer a few suggestions to think about in regard to building a customer base.
4: Be an innovator not a copycat.
5: Try to treat everyone with dignity and respect.
6: Try to provide cheerful service if you can. Be the guy that's easy to talk to and get along with.
8: Try to be a good listener.
Innovation is the unorthodox way of doing things and it works.
The other three points fit in with another of the ways I have always worked. My rule for scrap business has been to 1) spend one third of my time talking to my customers, 2) spend one third of my time driving, and 3) spend one third of my time actually getting the job done. Multiple times I have had customers tell me that I am the ONLY one they know, even though they dealt with many others.
One particular customer, now dead, had two scrap dealers call on him every week, me and another one. I came on Thursdays, he came on Tuesdays. I ALWAYS talked to Ben for at least 10 minutes EVERY time, sometimes for an hour. The other scrapper was in and out in 5 minutes and seldom took the time to find Ben and say 'hi' to him.
Since this was a refrigeration shop all that was ever available were old refrigerators. Sometimes I would only get one or two every week. Sometimes a full truck load (21 refrigerators). One Thursday I got 3 truckloads in ONE day. Another time Ben told me about a barn full of appliances 40 miles out of town. I hauled over a HUNDRED appliances from that barn. If I had never taken the time every week to talk to Ben, I would have lost out on a lot of scrap.
When I started buying from wrecking yards, I heard a sob story from a scrapper that had just returned from a yard. Forrest was upset because Richard (stupid censor censored D**k's name) would not sell Forrest his scrap at a HIGH (for the time) ten cents per pound. Further, he said that NO ONE would ever be able buy scrap from Richard.
Well, I did not know Richard and had never been to that yard. Half hour after listening to the sob story I was a Richard's yard. I went into the yard via the back gate, found Richard and started talking about anything and everything, mostly not related to scrap. Eventually, around an hour later, scrap became the topic. Next thing I knew we were talking about me buying his scrap which was basically a bunch of aluminum, steel, transmissions, etc. scattered in a large area near his back gate. I already knew Richard would not take ten cents per pound and there was no way I could piece it out, so I offered Richard $500 for everything in that area. He took it. I loaded it. Went back to my shop, sorted and cleaned it all, then sold it. End result? I actually paid Richard EIGHT cents per pound.
Over the years, before he retired, I hauled many many many tons of scrap out of Richard's yard. Over the years he has bailed me out of several breakdowns basically for the price of fuel and refused to take any more. He is 80 now and every now and then I still see him, all because I ALWAYS MADE SURE TO SPEND TIME TALKING TO HIM, like I did all customers.
And Forrest said that NO ONE would EVER be able to buy from Richard.
Even today, when I can get out to bird dog transmissions I will spend hours talking, hours driving, and hours working even if I never find any transmissions to buy. As a result I have NEVER been denied entry into a wrecking yard to poke around, and I have been in HUNDREDS of yards ONLY ONE TIME.
As you say, one MUST treat EVERYONE the same, MUST be amiable, MUST be cheerful, and MUST be able to LISTEN as well as COMMUNICATE to those one deals with.
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