A marketing approach

I thought maybe I could add a piece in here. I get into marketing alot. I run my Valet company currently working on my second client.. family business.. brotherinlaw and sister own shoe stores, gas station etc. I come from lines of business.



Everything mentioned were great idea's. Marketing through mail is great, but collecting these idea's you have to single out whats best for the type of business.



Now many might disagree with what I am about to say.. but the true real way of showing off your detailing business IMO is having a potential client see a finished product. With vehicles that could be hard. Couple idea's to think about and this is where ya'll might want to put me to the stake. How about window vinyls advertising your company on a freshly full detailed vehicle. Lets say you have a nice car. Anything someone would take a second look at. On a great day where everyone is outside doing yard work etc. Park your car on that street after a full detail has been done and keep it there. Stick window vinyl banners on your windows to show off your company. That will catch many eyes. For one they are seeing the finished product, and two seeing where the finished product got done at.



If that is going extreme park it in front of your business where it can be displayed. All for the cost of the banners for your windows, and time for a fresh detail. Brochures with before and after pics. Find the worst before's and best after's of cars you have done. Have it in your shop for possible clients to review to gain confidence in your work. Sometimes I noticed just having a smile and small talk conversation will be more than enough for someone to pay extra to have there vehicle done at your place.



Personally I hate sales pitches. Detailing company works off of what you can sell though. Place a sales pitch into how you would talk to your buddy. A sales concept but in a non-sales sense. This is hard to explain, but I hope you guys can understand what I'm trying to say. Treat them as a great friend, instead of a customer. Building a relationship could mean all the differance than treating them like a client. Your real happy they came back, not to make money off them, but you can catch up since last detail. Talk about what they've done to maintain the vehicle. Crack some jokes. Just some opinions of mine. Hope it helps.
 
One thing I have been thinking about trying out is a "Virtual Carwash" fundraiser for different groups such as band groups (Middle School) or Boy/Cub Scouts.



Make up a form for a potential customer to fill out and have a portion (10-20%) of the payment go to one of these organizations. The form will do 2 things. Let us know who is getting the donation and we will have the contact information for additional followup contacts. Let's say we do it for a scouting group. All they have to do is hand out the contact form and the customer comes to us. Will everyone come to us. probably not but there is minimal effort for each scout and they will earn a good chunk of change and so will you in future details.'



Or another way to do it would be is to have the organization have the customer fill out the form, pay them and have the organization turn in everything minus thier commission. We would contact the customers for schedule thier detail services. Just an idea I have been thinking about.
 
^ ^ Sounds like it could work...

I used to live across the street from a church that hosted a BS troop. Once a month they would host a car wash in the church parking lot. I took about two months of watching them... on my day off... through my living room window just butchering and swirling paint.



You know the deal... one wash bucket for every car that came in refilling it with soap and water as needed, beach and bath towels for every car being dryed on the side walk, scrubbing the cars with old bone sponges... I couldn't take it, especially being an ex-Boy Scout myself, so I went out there to help. I brought them some extra supplies I had in the garage; a few chamois, some Megs Gold Class soap, a couple lambswool mitts and old waffle weave MFs. I showed them how to properly clean a car and spent half the day enjoying my day off with some kids then walked back home.



After having 3 of their customers knock on my door and ask about detailing I ended up just giving them a handful of business cards and got many leads from them.



:dance
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top