McCarron: Why Helping Shouldn't Hurt

As the new year begins in the tire and automotive industry, it should be understood that selling and advising in 2026 is far different than in 2025.  Last year was the transition. Customers this year will need and seek help in making tough decisions.

Debt levels for consumers are very high. As we move into 2026, it’s unlikely customers will be struggling to find resources for unexpected repairs, which is everything but oil changes, essentially.

Selling and advising on service in our space is interesting because there’s usually only two people talking and listening. There are sometimes multiple parties interested in the outcome. Having a conversation with just the person in front of you about tire sales or vehicle repair and maintenance is challenging in and of itself.

It involves registering and understanding the customer’s complaint, exploring various conditions and variables, agreeing to time constraints for a vehicle inspection, discussing desired outcomes from the inspection and the delivery of news. We haven’t even gotten to the selling or advising part!

Spending time in the forefront of presentation - whether your skill level is simply selling or more advanced, like advising - is never a bad thing. Allowing the truth to come out and uncovering hidden needs always pays off for all parties. Rushing through this part of the process almost always plants a landmine for later.

You help a customer by pacing the first half of the conversation. Allow for awkward moments. They will pass. Be comfortable with silence. Ask probing questions. All in all, it’s not hours of painfully personal questions. We’re talking barely a few minutes of dialogue, unrushed by the pressures of outside forces.

Helping a customer means knowing the path ahead, but walking it at their pace.  If you rush them to the point where they have to make a buying a decision quickly, you will encounter a reluctant shopper - someone with more questions than answers or even worse, someone who says yes but doesn’t mean it.  That means buyer's remorse or worse, the dreaded drawn-out commitment – in other words, lots of agreement on what’s wrong, but no agreement on how to proceed. Let’s not even talk about the dreaded “I have to cancel my approval of work”.

Helping a customer also doesn’t mean doing all the work. Helping shouldn’t hurt. If a customer can’t afford repairs or maintenance or a set of new tires, there are many other conversations to have regarding what they can afford while staying in the lane of price integrity. Think of brakes but no flush or new tires but no alignment. These are only acceptable, of course, when price is explained as an available resource, not just a reluctance to spend. That conversation takes time, empathy and terrific listening skills. Discounting on price is just a shortcut to satisfy the two present parties.

Your business also is not a charity. Helping does not mean doing all the work yourself.  If the customer doesn’t care enough about returning their vehicle to a safe, working condition, why are some service advisors so keen on getting there alone? “For-profit” is  not a dirty word. The people who work for you get paid from gross profit.

Since the dawn of time, price has always been an issue for customers. They never have enough money for things they don’t plan for or don’t understand. The thing about price is it means so many different things.  Price can be high in comparison.  It can simply be a shock “since the last time I bought tires.” It also can be a resource issue. It can be an inconvenience. Price can also be misinterpreted by some customers as a ruse.

Helping should feel good and you should feel proud when you help a customer in need. But no one ever felt proud about giving away someone else’s money.

Helping should be organized, thoughtful and done with purpose. Suddenly knocking $20 off to close a sale is gamesmanship. If your dealership’s overall gross profit isn’t in the upper 50% to mid 60% for tire and automotive - and 75% for just automotive - you can't afford to help anyone but yourself.