PDR College podcast- Paintless Dent Repair / Removal Business and Marketing

What do you do when a GM looks at a crushed liftgate and tells you $65 an hour is "a really fair rate"? In this solo episode, Keith Cosentino tells the story of a quick favor at one of his dealerships that turned into an afternoon of real work, and a pricing conversation that went sideways.

Why would a used car manager ask for a different tech when the owner of the company is standing right there on the lot? What happens when three managers each type a price into their phones and compare? And how do you lose a negotiation you didn't even know you were in?

When should the price talk actually happen, and what's the right answer when a customer asks "how long will it take?" What is the locksmith's paradox, and why can getting better at PDR make customers think you're overcharging? What one move would have more than doubled the bill, and why didn't Keith make it?

Got a story about getting your face ripped off on price? Leave it on the SpeakPipe at pdrcollege.com or email [email protected]. If we use it on the show, the Blackplague tabs are on us.

A customer with a crushed Porsche Macan liftgate called Bullseye's quote "completely unrealistic." Where did he get his idea of what's realistic? Keith Cosentino and Shane Jacks go live after PDR Expo in Las Vegas, where Keith ran a panel discussion of technicians with 23 to 35 years in the business, and he puts the same questions to Shane.

First, a quick update on Shane's recovery and a rundown of the show, including the dent trials and Mac Fetty's second-place finish. Then the panel questions: what does Dent Wizard do better than every independent shop, is a perfect repair actually possible, and how important is AI knowledge to a dent business on a scale of zero to ten. Keith explains how Claude caught him bidding against himself in his own Google Ads, and why Mike Toledo thinks hiding high prices is teaching the robots that PDR is cheap.

They also cover what a two-tech shop should bring in each day, what Shane would do differently if he started over tomorrow, the "barn painting" way to build a business on purpose, what a tech has to understand before going out on their own, how much they each spent on ads last month and whether either of them knows if it paid, how one dealer dropping Keith from $75 to $55 a car is the reason Bullseye went retail, why every failed hire is the owner's fault, and whether the future of PDR is brighter or dimmer with thinner metal, autonomous cars, and a national player that's coming.

Plus live questions from the chat, including a tech who gets more calls on TikTok when he posts his prices.

Why does the smashed-up car with 300 dents on the roof pay you less than the one with 40? Keith Cosentino and Shane Jacks dig into hail: how to pick who you work for, what kind of damage actually makes money, and the one thing that keeps techs from getting paid when they chase a storm.

First, Shane meets a guy at the UPS store who exploded the same L1 vertebra in 1998 and was told he'd never walk again, and Keith explains what he's building for ClaimConnection after an insurer approved a supplement and then refused to pay a single dollar until it had photos and invoices for every part. Then Shane lays out how he picks a deal: the local guy first, by referral, then by reviews; what makes a "broker" a bad word; and why a wholesale deal on 250 Civics can pay well even at pennies on the dollar. He tells the story of a BMW stamping plant in 2017 that was hours from shutting down X3 production at $8.5 million a day, fixed with two tables, a rolling chair and one tool — and how that got him a two-week job with 32 techs around the clock.

They also cover why the sweet spot is a car written correctly at $3,500 to $5,000 (about $1,500 to $2,500 a day for an average tech), why a grand a day is the line, why "we'll do our own R&I" are the worst words a body shop can say, why a shop that says it can put on two roofs a week really means half of one, why insurers write hail cars at 10 to 40 percent of what they cost to fix, when to take the supplement and when to sit on the car, and why you should tell every customer up front that State Farm takes two weeks.

Stick around for the tip Keith says mattered most from the storm they ran together: when the first hail car pulls into your shop, don't pick up your tools. Got a storm that burned you, or one you crushed? Leave it on the SpeakPipe at pdrcollege.com. If we use it on the air, you get free Blackplague tabs.

Why does the $14 tube of caulk feel better than the $4.50 tube—even after the carpenter you trust tells you to buy the cheap one? Keith Cosentino and Shane Jacks dig into the power of price positioning and how the number you put on a repair shapes what customers believe about the quality of your work.

First, an honest update on Shane's recovery and the mental side of a long injury—when the hardest part isn't the pain, it's wondering whether you'll ever be the same guy again. Then it's back to where PDR College started: the old California vs. South Carolina pricing debate and the infamous S550 question. Keith shares his trip down the caulking aisle, a customer who chose the $1,700 quote because the other three were $500, and why $2,000–$3,000 cash panel repairs are real today.

They also cover why premium pricing only works when the whole business lines up behind it, why "I'm going to spend a lot of time on that" is the worst answer to a price objection, how to handle "I've got a guy who'll do it for $75," why "for what they paid" is just an excuse, and a surprise crack in an aluminum 992 quarter panel. Stick around to the very end for a hint about another advanced skill seminar.

You can deliver an incredible dent repair and still lose the customer before you ever touch a tool. In this episode, Keith Cosentino and Shane Jacks turn a hilarious story about homemade pickles into a practical lesson on how presentation builds—or breaks—trust in your PDR business.

From first impressions and shop appearance to explaining estimates, written warranties, and connecting with customers, they examine the details that help people understand what your work is worth. They also discuss turning unrepairable dents into future opportunities and share a candid lesson about underpricing a difficult dealership repair.

This week's challenge: look at your business through your customer's eyes and find the "bag of pickles" that's making a great service harder to buy.

Shane fell ten feet through a ceiling he was building and landed on a glass desk. Broken scapula, an exploded L1, a cracked L2, and titanium in his back. He's three and a half weeks out and back on the mic, so that's where we start.

Then the topic: emotion versus transaction.

Everybody teaches you to connect with the customer on the way in. Nobody tells you what to do when that same customer turns on you on the way out. Shane's got a BMW where a glue pull lifted somebody's touch-up paint out of a gouge, and a customer standing in the shop saying his guys did it. Keith's got a boat owner who left five stars, came back and brought the crew donuts, and then dropped to two stars over a $700 estimate.

Same lesson from two directions. You have to be able to switch the emotion all the way on, and then switch it all the way off. Most techs and most shop owners can only do the first half.

We get into why "you touch it, you own it" is the unwritten rule of this business, what the inside of a BMW plant taught Shane about how imperfect a brand-new car actually is, Zig Ziglar on the difference between a reaction and a response, why a one-star review is a banner ad sitting inside your own reviews, and why, if you're going to give something away, you'd better take the goodwill with it.

Plus a Jersey Mike's life hack that has nothing to do with dents and will save your bread.

Jared was the first tech trained at Bullseye dent, and had a 15 year career there. When the parents started getting older it was time to move closer to them. This is his story starting a PDR co from ZERO in a new market!

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Keith finally gets a chance to work with Guedes and see how he approaches and completes his legendary dent repairs!

Support the Show by buying the NEW Blackplague Super Straight Tab System here

Tonight on the PDR College Podcast…

Keith and Shane attempt to record an episode using the internet, which—as you'd expect—immediately bursts into flames and dies in a ditch.

Also a women's basketball team walks across a 2x4

Then there's a proper shoutout update on Paul Kordon and Jesse Brouse, a genuinely wild listener letter from a correctional facility, and a quick detour into Detroit Autorama—where million-dollar show cars are apparently still wavy enough to make a dent guy feel both smug and depressed at the same time.

And finally, insurance adjusters… confirmation bias… and the shocking discovery that if you speak to people like they're humans, sometimes they stop acting like goblins.

Buy your glue and tabs here to support the podcast

Donate to Jesse Brause's cancer fund raiser here

Donate to Paul Kordon's lymphoma treatment here

Let's talk about a trip to Disney where Keith teaches a teenager how to sell using the Disneyland evironment as a training ground.

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