For most cell phone repair shops, company contracts make for a great way to grow business and increase earnings. Their attractiveness stems from the fact that they are reliable. Shop owners can count on receiving repair orders in a fixed timeframe – say the end of every week or month.
Also, these agreements allow repair businesses to net bulk orders with the promise of more customers. All in the wake of a good job done, of course (which certainly helps with the word of mouth spread!).
The Importance of Working with a Winning Playbook
But like with all things business, cell phone repair shops need to follow a certain playbook if they want to score these goodies. Insider tricks that can increase their odds of:
- Convincing businesses why they need a long-term repair contract
- Ensuring that they come across as experts (trustable to get the job done)
- Growing in their local space as the go-to repair techs
- Besting their competition – and stabilizing revenue growth
An informed salesperson is a winning salesperson every day of the week, after all!
This guide lists everything you need to know to make your first big-company contract win. Its insights come endorsed by several current cell phone repair shop owners. Advice you can bet your bottom dollar on – since it works.
So go ahead and take a print…we won’t judge 🙂
What Kind of Business Should You Target?
Just a note before you step on the accelerator: Consider some types of businesses ‘evergreen’. Now there are certain qualifiers. For instance, look for businesses that:
- Have manual labor – increases their probability of breaking devices.
- Provide their employees with devices – with the company owning the devices, there’s little ownership of the devices which makes such businesses easy clients.
These are your everyday construction, electrical, and plumbing companies. All types of organizations that rely on a lot of manual labor – people working the field.
It’s a no-brainer that the workers here, mostly for no fault of their own, are always breaking things. They are your ‘Say Hello to Steady Profit Streams’ prospects. The ones you should prioritize approaching.
STEP 1: Do the Heavy Research – Understand the Field
So, first things first.
Before you put on your 2-piece and march into that first contract meeting, do your homework. Understand the river that you’re plunging into.
The cell phone repair industry (in America and elsewhere) is a support field. It provides an alternative to expensive company fixes and device replacements. Especially when the warranty period is out. Plus, its deliverables are fast (or they should be, at any rate), since they’re local.
So for the everyday Jane and Joe living on a tight budget, it’s a total lifesaver.
All good reasons for prospective repair shop owners to go all in!
Another important observation: No device is indestructible. Even the most titanium-encased phones are no match for the throwing fits of a toddler. Shattered screens and fluid-soaked motherboards are the undeniable staples of modern living. To talk about the field, there’s no construction company that we know of that doesn’t suffer from smartphone breakages.
Also, consider this: Every two seconds in America, a cell phone breaks. A statistic almost as worrying as the number of hearts broken during the same period.
So when you consider all these factors, there’s no denying that the future of the industry is bright. Or at the very least, sustainable – even the most conservative critic would admit.
The only downer when it comes to achieving success in this field is failing to meet expectations. [More on this in Step 5]
Now that we’ve established that there’s enough business out there, let’s get down to the best way to do your research.
Suppose you’ve discovered a construction company close by. How do you know they’re the right fit for your business? You visit their office.
Once there, try to get in touch with the person responsible for getting the company devices fixed. It is more often than not someone from the IT department or Administration. If you’re unable to find them, ask the receptionist for their contact details. Even if you don’t get a phone number, you’ll definitely get an email ID. And you can take your pitch from there.
While you’re at the office, try to find out how many devices the company has, what kind of devices they are, and where they get them fixed from. This information will help you build your case.
Also, when you’re trying to get your first business contract, make sure you have built your brand beforehand. A significant part of that would be getting reviews on Yelp and Google. The more the number of reviews you have, the greater the credibility your shop enjoys.
Pro Tip: Don’t just leave your contact card with them and expect them to call you back. Not until you work on making a relationship will this work.
This takes us to the next stage in our business-scoring journey: The Proposal.
STEP 2: Go Armed with the Right Proposal(s)
There are two types of businesses that require repairs – meat for our cell phone repair shops.
The smaller ones, with limited cell phone fix jobs, are easier to convince. Generally, they only ask for your service overview and pricing. A basic outline of your repair expertise and cost-tiers by quantity. However, the more picky customers in this category might ask for social proof like a customer testimonial or two.
Big businesses are more finicky. They usually request a more detailed assessment and price breakdown, sometimes even a listing of your device parts vendors and individual technician rates.
So what you need to do is to always go armed with two proposals. The ‘soft sell’ for the former and the ‘hard sell’ for the latter; covering all your service bases as needed.
But don’t limit yourself only to the outlines on paper. Be flexible and open to negotiating.
In a lot of instances, your business clients would want a custom contract. And as a field starter, it’s important for you to deliver on this. Your ‘agreement clout’ (ability to dictate your own terms) will come later.
A neat way to go in prepared would be to build pricing templates for all possible business types – covered next.
Another thing you need to know is that when we talk about a contract, it doesn’t necessarily mean a formal, legal contract. It is usually a verbal agreement unless you’re working with a government body.
STEP 3: Do the Pricing – Baby
When doing contract meetings, nothing beats a detailed price chart of your services. This is a template that lists all your current:
- Operational Expenses: Costs of running shop (rent, federal/state taxes, utility bills), worker salaries, maintenance, etc.
- Procurement Expenses: Costs of vendor parts purchases (trackable with a powerful POS system)
- Logistics: Costs of pick-ups and deliveries (measured in distance, time, and vehicle fuel)
Check out our sample template formats below to get a good idea of what we’re talking about. These will help you to hit the ground running when you appear for that first meet.
The prices listed are NOT reflective of the going market fare – consider them dummies!
With these always up-to-date insights, you can develop targeted pricing structures. These make for easy, quick pitches to different types (sizes) of businesses. A great way to do this would be to use a good repair price calculator; a total mind-ache buster!
Not all small cell phone repair shops offer logistical (delivery) support, but for the ones that do, this amounts to a real deal maker! Something they can pat their back on.
[Note – Further Explanation: We know you must be wondering why you would put in the logistics price “FREE” when it’s anything BUT! That’s because you want to give customers the impression that you’re giving more value to them by adding this amount – discretely – to perhaps the labor cost.]
For large, timed repair orders, you can also offer bulk discounts that don’t erode your bottom line. They’re a great way for building good customer rapport and loyalty.
Remember, you’re not necessarily verbally negotiating the price. You might just be sending in an email with your price list. So, make sure it makes sense to you as well as the business you’re dealing with.
STEP 4: Dress (or rather Talk?!) to Kill
A lot of people ignore the importance of going to meetings tidy – both in cloth and mind. Think about it. If a salesperson were to show up at your door looking all mangled, would you give them the time of day? Let alone agree to take up any offer that they’re giving?
The right type of dress, fit for the occasion, sends powerful respect signals. It shows that a business treats you (its clients) seriously. What’s more, it hints at professionalism – a promise of a job well-done. A kind of an advance testimonial for your competence.
Similarly, the right type of negotiating speech is a magical thing. It offers a two-pronged line of attack.
First, being positive, empathetic, and solution-oriented, it goes right to the convincing part. Second, it helps you gloss over any minute misunderstandings in the customer psyche. Miscommunications that can arise from hastily written emails or quick phone banter.
Now even though practice makes perfect, we wouldn’t recommend you to kill yourself with prep. A surefire recipe to build panic and nerves.
Go in relaxed and natural – you’ll do great.
STEP 5: Deliver!
After you’ve done all the heavy lifting of the above four stages, it’s time to get down to the actual work part. This is where you want to make good on all the talk.
The best prescription here is to underpromise and over-deliver. A mind/work-reframing trick you can’t go wrong with. Promise to get the repair job done within seven days, and deliver in two. Repeat the same with all your gigs and you’ll always emerge a winner – with raving client reviews to show for it.
Using a powerful POS utility to automate all your repair business processes is also gold. A tried-and-tested way these days to emerge on top in your local repair space. Your old-school, manual competitors won’t be able to compete.
These tools also help you to greatly cut down on avoidable labor costs (allowing you to save on worker salaries). Think repair job status, vendor, and costs tracking done at the same time. And the best part: everyone you provide access to can see all these details in real-time.
STEP 6: Check Back
A week or two after you’re done with the repairs, it’s important to check back with your clients. Ask them if their device is working properly, and whether they were satisfied with the customer experience offered.
These kinds of feedbacks really cement your commitment to a client-first approach in their minds, making you look both competent and flexibly open. They also provide good opportunities to pitch accessories that work well with clients’ devices – making for side sales.
Since you’re also a business, you want to cash in on all these openings. Don’t ignore the long-lived psychological and emotional impacts – on your customers – of a job well done. These are investments that pay big dividends in the long run.
So that’s our take on the general rules that make for the winning cell phone repair shop contracting playbook. A good place for beginners to start hustling in the field and score. And achieve major motivation points in the process!
To the field vets out there, spinning the daily dream: We’re curious about your insights on this topic. Particularly, we’d love to know your experience tips on signing that first business repairs agreement for the rookies reading this – hoping to make it big.
Let us know in the comments below.
