Changing of the guard at Optimum

The Guz

The Guz

Mike
Optimum appears to be going through a restructuring. First Yvan and now Dann Williams. There are a few others that have left their team as well.
 
Pie in the sky, but it sure would be nice if they lowered their price on some of their items especially Opti-Coat.
 
Not sure why people are leaving.

Yvan was supposedly retiring but then Lake Country pulled him in. He’s pretty active for them on social media and is now pushing training classes. So it looks like he is not retired.

Dann hasn’t shared what he will be doing but he had other aspirations he is chasing and left in good terms.

The others are probably jumping ship because of these two guys.
 
I know I left their camp when the Opticoat vs Glosscoat thing happened. :-D Glad I did, I love McKee`s.
 
I like Optimum Polymer Technology (OPT) products and I find their price and performance are a good value (at least for me). BUT, as a hobbyist, I not exactly keeping them in business, either.
Like Dan above said, there are a lot of car care product manufacturers out there and it offers both professional and hobbyist detailers choices and options as to what to use, and, hence, were to spend their detailing product dollars.

What exactly did Dann Williams DO at Optimum and why is this such earth-shattering news to the detailing community at large? It makes it sound like Optimum`s "personnel restructuring" is signalling its business collapse.
 
This is about the usual. Dr. G isn`t a sales and marketing guy, he`s a lab geek. I remember a video he did with Mike Phillips some years ago and Mike asked him a question about how to apply the product and the answer was "that`s why I have you detailers, Mike" (or something like that).

Dr. G never had a full time sales and marketing person, he always relied on pro detailers that had their own businesses to rep for him...Anthony Orosco, Chris Thomas, and Yvan and Dann started like that too...but then they both seemed to go full time with Optimum. It always seemed like Dr. G was swayed by these semi-official "employees" into doing things like dropping OC 2.0, etc.

I`m not sure if Yvan "retiring" was a way for Optimum to save face, or if that`s just what he told Dr. G he was doing when LC offered him that job. I know Dr. G run a very lean company, but maybe it`s time for him to bring someone on board in the sales/marketing area who isn`t located remotely from Memphis running another company. I know he has a guy who runs the PPF part of the business, unless he`s gone too.
 
With new coating companies like SPS, SB3, Gyeon etc... making the onboarding process for new installers pretty straightforward, I was a bit turned off by some of their requirements. I hope for their sake, that part changes.
 
Billy Baldone said:
With new coating companies like SPS, SB3, Gyeon etc... making the onboarding process for new installers pretty straightforward, I was a bit turned off by some of their requirements. I hope for their sake, that part changes.
Click to expand...

Yeah, there was a lot of backlash from part-time pros here on the forum like Rasky when Optimum imposed stricter requirements like minimum buys that effectively forced them out of the program. Perhaps it was simply an attempt to have a more structured and professional industry by only having full-time installers, in kind of the same way the IDA has been trying to add structure and professionalism to the industry in general.
 
Billy Baldone said:
I’m all for structure. But the minimum buys was kind of ````ty.
Click to expand...

I`m not disagreeing, I`m just playing devil`s advocate and suggesting that perhaps Optimum`s longer/larger view was that most people get their car repaired at a garage or a dealership, not at someone`s house or from a mobile service, so if they are getting a warrantied coating applied to their paint maybe they should be getting it at "detailing shop", so they were trying to encourage that.

As we all know from this forum, many of these part-time guys (Rasky, Zach, Richy, I`m sure I`m forgetting some) do phenomenal work, so it was unfortunate that they got discriminated against by Optimum.
 
Setec Astronomy said:
Yeah, there was a lot of backlash from part-time pros here on the forum like Rasky when Optimum imposed stricter requirements like minimum buys that effectively forced them out of the program. Perhaps it was simply an attempt to have a more structured and professional industry by only having full-time installers, in kind of the same way the IDA has been trying to add structure and professionalism to the industry in general.
Click to expand...

That never forced me out of the program. I left on my own after the 3rd price increase in less than 2 years. Meeting the minimum is pretty easy, even doing 2-4 cars a month. ;)
 
So...I asked over on the Optimum Forum what is going on, and they posted a quote from Dr. G from the Optimum pro installer Facebook page. Apparently Dr. G has spent a lot of time out on medical leave (I hope he`s OK), and the company drifted more towards dealerships, etc. and now that he`s back he`s refocusing on detailers, which I guess caused a rift with some of the "reps", resulting in their departure.
 
Dr. G is a brilliant chemist and much of what detailers have today in terms of selection and new formulas is in part to Dr. G and his innovative approach. I wish him all the best, he had some health issues but seems to be on the rebound and if anyone can come back and re-invent, it is Dr. G.

In life we can always look back and say...would of, could of, should of.

Anthony
 
"Changing of the guard" to me would mean Dr G is no longer running the show.
Those that chose to leave were just employees that can easily be replaced. Everyone thinks they are so special in this industry.
Prayers whatever health issues he was having are behind him.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top