Galesburg, Ill. -- Masters School of Autobody Management is offering its Advanced Marketing course in Sydney, Australia, for the first time this November. Masters, which provides collision repair management education services, has been working with partners in Australia for three years. The marketing course will be held Nov. 27-28 at the downtown Marriott in Sydney. The company offers courses in collision repair shop management, estimating, and production management, as well as consulting services. The marketing course, first developed in 2002, is designed to help shops "turn need-based customers into want-based customers," says David Dunn, managing director and co-founder of Masters. "We help our students understand how to market to each of those types of customers," says Dunn. "There is a process called relational marketing that is valuable in a need-based industry like collision repair. Nobody wants to have their car repaired. We help people understand ho to take those transactional customers and turn them into relational, want-based customers." This is important in the collision industry, because this type of marketing can create long-term customers. "A lot of repairers think their road to marketing heaven is to make a discount deal to become a DRP shop," Dunn says. "We're not against that practice, but a customer who can be steered to you can be steered away from you. Once a customer becomes a relational customer, they are difficult to steer away." The course is targeted at collision repair shop owners and shop managers. Masters first went to Australia at the request of Stephen Gumley, of Target Body Works in Melbourne, who had attended one of Masters' programs in the U.S. Masters has offered other courses in Australia in the past, but this will be the first time the marketing course has been conducted there. Gumley will be presenting along with Dunn at the Sydney program. According to Dunn, the Australian market is a bit more adversarial than the U.S. in terms of the relationships between repairers and insurers, and there are fewer consumer protections. There is also less consumer awareness, which Dunn says will make the marketing course an even more valuable tool in that region. The course is open to 50 students, and registration must be completed by Nov. 15. Dunn says that attendees from the U.S. will be able to tour several Australian repair shops. For more information, visit www.masters-school.com, or call 1-800-563-1883. | 
