Friends, your greed for revenue is sacrificing the thing you think you’re securing.
This $3,540.47 is an invoice from my mechanic in Utah.
Same mechanic we’ve had for over a decade.
Found him when he was by himself, running a tiny one bay + office combo. Can’t remember specifically what we needed fixed, but he did it for a reasonable price, quickly, and politely.
The second time we went to him is when I became a lifer. It was something big, and he down-sold us on what the better fix actually was. The difference was probably a grand. But in him “losing” that thousand, he’s since made tens of thousands with us.
This $3,540.47 is a combination of a variety things, so I’ll go back a few months.
Took our SUV in for a seasonal tire swap. During the routine maintenance check every car place does they saw a suspension error light. Checked it, and $3.4k to fix. To their credit, they said it wasn’t anything crucial. So we sat on it, not fixing it yet.
Then the exterior door handle on the SUV popped off. Had been loose for a while, and just had its last day.
For some reason I thought it would make sense to take it to the dealership instead of my usual guy. I don’t know why. “It’s a specialty thing” and “not mechanical” was my reasoning. $1300 per handle. And we had two others loose that I was considering fixing before they fully broke.
The dealership, through their routine maintenance, also found three different leaks; one transmission and two oil leaks. $7,000.
Between the $7k + $3900 for door handles + $3,400 for suspension we’re at $14,300. For the last two weeks we figured we might as well trade it in for that big of a fix.
We at least needed to fix the driver door though, because the day-to-day climbing over the seats was getting real old, real fast.
Called our mechanic to ask if he could at least fix that for cheaper. $750… for ALL 3 doors.
And they did their routine maintenance check too, found all the other issues, including needing a new motor mount. $3,500 to fix it all. Everything.
Price isn’t the determining factor. Quality is. And he’s the best I’ve experienced, so price is icing on the cake. And it will all be done Monday… faster, too.
Greatness comes by doing the right thing not sometimes, but always. This is why a decade later he no longer rents a single car bay, but owns a full acre of commercial property with, I don’t know, 10 car bays that are double deep and double high with lifts.
Sometimes you think you’re good until you witness your competition that is great.
To come full circle, for my entrepreneur friends, your greed for revenue is sacrificing the thing you think you’re securing. You charging a lot for a mediocre service “because you can” is costing you more over the life of a client account if you instead held yourself to being great.
