Three Ways to Gain More Business (Featuring Liberty Fleet Solutions)

In our July Shop Owner Roundtable webinar, Fullbay CEO Patrick McKittrick and Peter Cooper of Ascend Consulting sat down with Bobby Chambers, President of Liberty Fleet Solutions in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Over the course of an hour, they learned about the company’s origins as an equipment maintenance shop, how it ended up pivoting into fleet work, and how hiring is going.

That’s not all they covered, of course. As always, we think you should watch the entire webinar (it’s freeeeeeeeeeee) and learn everything you can from it. But since you’re here now, kick back for a while and keep on reading! We’ve got some interesting takeaways to share. 

First, let’s learn a little bit about Liberty Fleet Solutions

THE ORIGIN STORY

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away…okay, it was more like 1988, and Bobby’s father started Liberty Equipment. While the shop primarily focused on Caterpillar equipment at first, his father — described as a “serial entrepreneur” — tried a lot of avenues with it, including becoming a dealership for John Deere and Bobcat, among others. 

As they explored different avenues, Bobby said, something began to stand out: “We discovered that what we were really good at was the service side, fixing things [and] providing solutions for customers.” 

Bobby joined the company in 2015 and took on several roles as he learned about the business and how it ran. He officially took over in 2020 — which, as most of you know, was a very interesting first year to run a business.

PIVOTING FROM EQUIPMENT TO TRUCKS

As you’ve no doubt noticed, at some point the Equipment in the name got changed to Fleet Solutions. It represented a substantial — and necessary — pivot in the business, one that Bobby said happened over time.

One of the largest factors behind the shift was the industry itself changing. In 2008-2009, the construction market in their area crashed; on top of that, the equipment dealerships in their area managed to retain a lot of the service work that otherwise might have gone to Liberty Equipment. 

The marketing team* isn’t great at math, but even we can see the potential reduced workload and revenue. Much of the equipment that did still come in was off-brand and just frustrating to work on. 

But as this was going on, Liberty had started hiring quite a few technicians and managers who had experience and connections in the trucking world. “When I took over [in 2020], we were probably 80% trucks and 20% equipment,” Bobby said. 

We’re condensing the conversation into a few paragraphs for brevity, but as a result of all of the above, the team slowly phased out equipment over the next few years. They’ve been very happy with that decision. 

“Don’t stay stuck in the past with something that’s not working well anymore,” Bobby advised. 

They also branched into a new line of work: fire trucks. 

CERTIFICATIONS CAN LEAD TO MORE WORK

If there’s one thing a shop appreciates, it’s steady work. Heck, we’d argue that anyone would appreciate that! After riding out the pandemic and the booms and busts that it caused in different parts of the industry, Bobby began searching for niches that could weather anything.

One day, a member of the local fire department came into the shop looking for someone to help him fix a fire truck. The caveat: they wanted to work with shops that were certified to work on emergency vehicles.

Fire trucks and emergency vehicles represented a revenue stream that would remain steady. “I don’t care what the economy looks like or what’s going on in the world,” he said, “they’re gonna take care of those trucks.” 

Beyond that, there was a personal element to working with the fire department. If his parents’ house caught fire, that truck (or one like it) would be the one dispatched to help. And there’s just something…meaningful about working on such a vehicle. “That truck is necessary for the well-being of this town and my family and friends,” Bobby said. 

That, friends, is what we’d call some solid motivation. 

So four of Liberty’s technicians went to Florida and became F-3 certified. That number has increased; when the webinar was filmed, 12 of their techs held the certification, and Bobby planned to send three more people to obtain the certification in August. 

“ASK THE CUSTOMER IF YOU CAN HELP THEM”

Once the necessary certifications were in hand, Bobby and the Liberty team went looking for more work. Fire departments, much like police departments and emergency medical services, comprise a niche market. “You’re not going to post a Google ad and entertain them and get them to show up at your shop,” Bobby said. Generally speaking, you have to go to them.

And that’s what they did. The team visited various departments and said, “We got the certification. Can we help you? And they all showed up.”

Emergency vehicles can provide a steady stream of work, but not a lot of shops have the training to handle said work. “It’s a big commitment,” Bobby told us. “These trucks are critical machines, and they want somebody who knows what they’re doing to be working on them.”

If you only take away one thing from this Roundtable, we hope it’s this: Ask your customer how you can help them.

“So many people don’t really think that way,” Peter remarked during the webinar. “They never go to the community and ask, what can we do for you? How can we help you?” 

Take it from the Liberty crew: Asking that one question can open a lot of doors. 

TRANSPARENCY AT WORK IS KEY…BUT SO IS EDUCATION

Most of our roundtables end up discussing hiring and shop culture at some point. And why not? Skilled techs continue to be in short supply, and hanging on to the ones you’ve got has become priority #1 for many shop owners. 

The trio conversed quite a bit about building and maintaining a good shop culture, but we wanted to highlight Bobby’s focus on transparency. 

“If I was an employee, I’d want to know if I was working for a successful company … [or one] on the rocks,” he said. “It would empower me as an employee.” 

What does that look like?

Monthly meetings with all the shop’s employees, for starters. Sometimes they discuss processes or shop values; sometimes they just share the numbers. There’s also a heavy focus on helping employees understand where all the money the shop brings in is going. 

We’ve probably all been there: an employee knows they’re making $40 an hour, but they see a customer being billed a much higher hourly rate and don’t necessarily understand where all that money is going. They just see what’s being billed — which seems like a lot — and what’s on their paycheck — not as much — and the resentment can start there. 

This is where some education can help. 

Bobby handles it this way: 

1. Create a bill for $100 worth of customer work, and break the information into percentages (for example: 12% labor, 5% rent, and so on). 
2. Take $100 in cash and break it up based on those percentages (so $12 for labor, $5 for rent, and so on).
3. Place each amount of money in its own envelope and label them.
4. Pass them around the room and let everyone see the way the money is broken down. 

Honestly, the above exercise is likely useful for any shop to run through every now and then. Lots of us don’t immediately realize where the revenue goes, or how many other bills an owner has on their plate. 

BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE!

We’ve covered some interesting information in this article, but Bobby and the guys covered a lot of other topics, including:

• How often they examine and change their billing rates.
• Some of the challenges around changing a name and logo.
• How to hire someone who will last.
• Discouraging situations that can accompany being a business owner.

It really was a fascinating, far-reaching conversation. You should probably just watch or listen to the whole thing, and hey, if you’re a good tech in Fredericksburg looking for a job, Liberty Fleet Solutions is hiring! 

Want to see some more Shop Owner Roundtables? We have you covered. Here’s the full playlist! 

*OK, some members of the marketing team.