Plain Talk Doing Wrong Won’t Get Right Results By Rob Buksar Most of us re- maining in this indus- try are old enough to remember different times and circum- stances. We used to be a nation that gov- ered its behavior out of principle rather than legislation. Doing the right thing was preeminent over whether the deed was legal or profitable. As a matter of fact, many American com- panies still exist today via agreements consummated with nothing more than a handshake between men with integ- rity. These days, doing a deal of rea- sonable size without contracts and at- torneys is absolutely unthinkable, wildly ill advised and plain old butt-stupid. In most cases a lost sales receipt, war- ranty card, signed sales contract, etc., will get you plugged where the sun don’t shine. Sadly, for a whole bunch of reasons we’ve lost our principle and filled the gap with what’s immediate and profitable. Immediate and profit- able aren’t necessarily bad things. However, when those two elements lack principle or principle gets thrown out, it’s no different than throwing the baby out with the bath water. That’s the wrong thing to do! It is not my intention to preach a sermon. However…we all need to stop, take a pause and do a real mind- ful reality check. Life works on a “cause and effect” basis. This is irrefutable. In other words, you reap what you sow, ev- erything that goes around comes around, karma, etc. There’s no argu- ment here. We all know this to be fact. Since we all understand this why in the world would any of us think wrong actions will get us right results, and then act on that faulty reasoning? If you think I’m talking about someone else you’d better look yourself in the mirror. Ask the person you see this question: “How am I spending my parts budget and with whom am I spending my money?” Tragically, far too many rebuilders are spending the lion’s share of their parts dollars with organizations who also solicit and sell rebuilder custom- ers. You heard me right, I didn’t stut- ter. Come out of the dark and into the light and see what’s happening. Some of the same folks who you thought made you the “killer deal” on parts are “killing you” by stalking and stealing your customer base. How? They are selling your customers direct new units. The same ones you used to rebuild until they slipped in the back door. Asouthern customer of mine re- cently shared this horror story. He was shopping a large bearing purchase, looking for the best bang for his buck. Nothing wrong with that. By the time the dust settled the vendor that got the order beat out everybody by 10 cents a unit and agreed to pay shipping on the order. On the surface this appeared to be a pretty good deal and the pur- chaser was patting himself on the back over the money he just saved. Although later that month the super bearing deal lost its punch. My rebuilder friend called one of his best customers won- dering why they hadn’t been ordering. To my friend’s absolute shock and dis- may he found out the very same com- pany that made him the deal on bear- ings just took a big piece of his rebuild- ing away with their new units. The su- per bearing deal saved my rebuilder MAY, 2000 friend about $350. The business he lost to the same people cost him over $2,000 a month in sales. Some deal, ha! Some will argue that this gangster is going to sell those new units regard- less of where you purchase your parts. That being the case you might as well save a few bucks on the bearings be- cause there’s nothing you can do about it. Friends, on the surface this may ap- pear to be true. But you can take this to the bank: Ifyou and a couple of your rebuilding buddies discontinue buying from this hooligan I can assure you that darn little time will pass before he dis- continues this gangster behavior. Why? Because he will now be losing the funds necessary to fuel his wrong actions. Your right actions will net you right re- sults by stopping this Jamok from hi- jacking your customers. Most of us surviving have been around long enough to remember sim- pler, friendlier and certainly more prin- cipled times. For a vendor to “backdoor” his customer by selling his customer’s customer was almost un- heard of. Vendors didn’t behave that way because of rules, regulations or legislation. They didn’t circumvent their customers because it was unethical and just the wrong thing to do. When you did identify a butthead who boldly thought he was big and bad enough to screw everyone around do you re- member what happened? I’ll remind you. We boycotted his business. It took no organized effort to do it, e1- ther. Even folks who weren’t directly affected wouldn’t purchase from the snake-brain out of principle. People knew this guy was doing wrong and they just wouldn’t support his wrong actions by sending him money. Saving a few cents wasn’t really as important as stopping this guy from hurting all Page 1 of 2