Mike Anderson And Sheryl Driggers of Collision advice spoke at the 2024 SEMA show to teach collision repair shops how to negotiate with insurance companies to get paid for everything they do to return a vehicle to its pre-accident condition – with a few updates.

Driggers recently contributed to “Influence and Impact,” written by Chris Vossa former FBI investigator. The book, which “redefines persuasion in modern business, emphasizing empathy as a cornerstone of success,” can be applied to the collision repair industry.

Negotiate based on facts

Before examining how emotions can affect negotiations, Anderson — who said he had to learn to negotiate when he owned several stores in the Alexandria, Va., area where real estate costs were high — in order to being able to pay your bills – talked about evidence-based approaches.

“Negotiations are a discussion aimed at reaching an agreement, not a fight or argument,” he said.

Put the customer on your side

“The first thing you can do to help you have more successful negotiations is to get the vehicle owner on your side,” he said.

This can be helpful when negotiating with an insurance appraiser. “If I can get the vehicle owner to believe that I am competent, then they will trust me when it comes to taking my side or the appraiser’s side,” Anderson said.

Anderson quoted Ryan Taylor of BodyShop Booster: “People are more afraid of making a bad decision than of spending money.”

For collision repairers, this means they must convince vehicle owners that recommended repair procedures that an insurance company might refuse to pay for are in fact necessary.

“The best way to do this is to review the vehicle owner’s manual with the customer when they enter your facility,” Anderson said.

Anderson said he shows customers what their owner’s manual says about OEM versus non-OEM parts and ADAS recalibrations.

“Every owner’s manual will say that you need to inspect the seat belt (after a collision) because failure to inspect it could result in injury or even death. I establish with them that I’m the expert,” Anderson said. “Now when I ask the insurance company to pay to inspect the seat belt and the insurance company says no, I have already put myself on the path to success with the vehicle owner. »

Anderson can then tell the vehicle owner to contact the insurance company and tell them he wants the seat belts inspected.

Additionally, stores that are not in a DRP with an insurer may ask the customer to call the insurer, to encourage them to expedite supplement reviews.

“I’ll do this every day,” Anderson said. “Not a text message, not an email. I will use my phone to call every day because after about the third call the customer will now be engaged.

Whether the insurance company approves the surcharge or the customer decides to pay the difference themselves, it’s better than waiting for the vehicle for weeks in the garage.

Trading rules

Anderson said there are four rules of trading:

1. Your opinion doesn’t mean Jack.

The only thing that matters is what you can prove, support or justify.

“Every time you write a repair plan, ask yourself if you were to go before a jury of your peers, will they think I’m charging too much or will they understand why I have to do what I say I have to TO DO ? Anderson said.

2. Don’t take the bait.

Anderson said insurance assessors are trained to tell repairers they are the only ones charging for certain procedures.

“It’s a negotiation tactic designed entirely to distract you,” he said.

3. Stick to the facts.

There are four questions to ask yourself when an insurer refuses to pay for an intervention: is it obligatory? Is this included? Is there a predetermined time? If not, what is it worth?

4. Prove it.

Repairers should ask the appraiser if they believe the procedure is necessary to return the vehicle to its pre-accident condition.

“When I get a ‘no,’ I find out the objection. This gives me the opportunity to make them believe it’s necessary,” he said, showing documentation like an OEM repair procedure, scrs.com Or degweb.orgor bulletins from various material manufacturers.

Once they agree it is necessary, ask them if it is included in any other work time. If they say it is, the repairer can now prove it isn’t.

If the appraiser says it’s not included, check your estimating system to see if there is a predetermined labor time, as that is what should be paid.

If there is no time, the final question is how much the procedure is worth in terms of labor. THE degweb.org The site is also useful here, as repairers can submit requests to have missing procedures added to estimating systems or for labor times to be adjusted.

Anderson said he already paid a professional videographer to record his shop’s technicians performing certain tasks – from preparation to cleaning – to show insurance assessors exactly how long each procedure takes.

“Do you want the easy way or do you want it to be worth it?” » he said.

Always close a negotiation request by stating the negative consequences if the repair procedure is not completed, Anderson said. For example: “If I don’t inspect the seat belt, it may not deploy in a future accident and someone could die.” »

“When you ask without calling attention to negative consequences, you are asking rather than telling,” he said.

Anderson said repairers often use the insurance company’s refusal to pay as an excuse for their own lack of knowledge.

“The real reason (they’re not paying) is we couldn’t explain (why it was necessary),” Anderson said. “No doesn’t mean no. No means they don’t know enough to say yes.

Anderson said the collision repair industry needs to stop conditioning estimate writers to expect insurers to refuse to pay for procedures.

“Never underestimate the power of 0.1 (work hours), because when you charge them 0.1, six months later it becomes three-tenths, then five-tenths or an hour,” Anderson said.

How Emotions Affect Negotiations

Driggers said emotions have an absolute impact on negotiations – negative feelings can harm the process – but research has shown there is no way to completely remove them.

When it’s clear that an adjuster, customer or employee is having a bad day, the best thing to do is acknowledge it.

“This is an issue that addresses the elephant in the room,” Anderson said. “To label is to give voice to the feelings of the other party.”

Driggers said to do so, avoid first-person statements, like “what I hear” and “what I think,” because it makes it seem like your opinion is more important. Instead, use expressions such as “one would say,” “one would say,” or “one would say.”

“When I say, ‘It sounds like you’re mad at me,’ I’m addressing their negative energy, but in a respectful and polite way,” Anderson said.

Negative labeling is also useful when asking an insurer to pay for a new position.
For example, instead of saying, “I know you’ll think I charge too much,” say, “I’m sure it’s higher than you’re used to seeing.”

Use the pause

Anderson said insurance companies use “the pause” – or dynamic silence – on estimators all the time.

“When you ask for work time on an estimate line and the insurance appraiser says nothing, it causes the estimator to second-guess themselves and reduce their request,” Anderson said.

“Use the break on them,” he said. “Let’s say I want eight hours (of work time), but they just want to give me four. I’ll say, “Will you just give me four?” And then I’ll just shut up. And now what do they do? They start to question themselves.

Staying silent also gives the adjuster more time to share more information.

Mirroring

Mirroring involves repeating one to three words that someone has just said, to encourage them to elaborate.

“The more you think about it, the more you’ll understand why they say no,” Driggers said.

For example, when an expert says, “I can’t pay for this procedure,” repeat, “You can’t pay for this?”

She said to make sure your tone of voice isn’t aggressive, as this puts the other person in a defensive position. “People always say no when they’re defensive,” she said.

Calibrated questions

Use “how” or “what” questions, as opposed to “why” questions.

“If they tell you, ‘I’ll only pay for you to remove the steering column if it turns out to be damaged,’ you might say, ‘How am I supposed to do that?’ instead of “Why don’t you want to pay for this?” “,” Anderson said.

Driggers recommended keeping emails as short as possible, using calibrated questions, and never typing in all caps because it looks like you’re yelling at the recipient.

Anderson said anyone can receive the full presentation on negotiation tools by emailing his assistant, Tiffany Driggers, at [email protected].