Today we’d like to introduce you to Barry Steinberg.
Barry, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
When I got out of the Army in 1969 I went to work for a tire wholesaler. 4 1/2 years I decided I wanted to try it on my own and I found a building in Watertown and opened my first Direct Tire and Auto Service in November 1974. I wanted to create a business of real customer service in an industry that was always focused on price alone.
We created extended warranties, free follow up services, industry trained personnel and all the popular brands people wanted and a clean shirt and tie environment in an industry always thought of as a not white glove place of business.
I was the first in the market to offer free loaner cars for clients to use while we worked on theirs. We now have 23 loaner cars in our fleet. Alternate transportation has helped put us on the map. I was the first in the market to offer free replacement warranties for road hazard damage to your tires and still have this program. I think my biggest asset is our Team of 75 dedicated employees who work like they have a stake in the business.
I do not pay any of my Team member’s commission or flat rate. They all make a great salary with incentives based on performance not sales. I have always felt that commissions and flat rate pay puts the client at risk for buying something they probably don’t need or want. Our DNA has always been “The best sale you make is no sale at all”. I opened my 5th location last year in Medway Ma and am now looking at another location in the Metro West market. I would like to have 10 locations by 2020. Time will tell.
Has it been a smooth road?
I think our biggest struggle is that the tire industry has never thought of itself as a “service industry” but always based on price alone. The competition will do anything to make the sale and for them it is always lowest price. We have always focused on being right in the middle on price but always offering the very best service. The difficulty is getting the public to understand what we do beyond just the price of the tire or the cheap oil change or the deceptive brake repair price they may see advertised. If given the opportunity we do our best to talk about safety, quality and value. It may not be for everyone but doing $14m in sales out of 5 locations has ranked us among the top 10 tire dealers in the USA for average store sales. There are 19,850 tire retailers in this country all trying to sell the same set of tires.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Direct Tire and Auto Service story. Tell us more about the business.
In addition I have been on 5 or 6 Boston radio stations for the last 42 years including NPR, telling our message and never talking price alone. We have also two very well received slogans
“WE’LL FIX IT SO IT BRAKES”
“WE’LL BRAKE, SHOCK AND EXHAUST YOU”
Both ore trademarked in all 50 states and we use them in many of our ads.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
One of the biggest shifts is the internet sale of tires thru Amazon and the tire manufacturers selling directly to the end user. There has been a great deal of push back by the retailers but to no avail. Amazon is here forever and the tire manufacturers are convinced they will sell more tires this way. We do not think so. The other issue on the auto repair side, which is 55% of our business, is the complexity of vehicles and the ability to get the information and training to do these repairs. We spend a great deal of time and money on training our technicians and buying the latest and greatest scan tools to do this work. I was part of the Right to Repair coalition that finally got the Commonwealth to pass a law which required the car manufacturers to give us all the repair info needed. That was a big win that took 5 years of work at the State House.
Contact Info:
- Address: Watertown 126 Galen Street 617 923 1800
Norwood 981 Providence Hwy Route 1 781 255 0700
Peabody 231 Andover St 978 532 5400
Natick 321 Speen St 508 655 4455
Medway 72 Main St 508 533 1100 - Website: www.directtire.com
- Phone: 1800TIREPRO
- Email: barry@directtire.com
Image Credit:
Modern Tire Dealer of the Year
RAM Retail Innovator of the Year
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