Approach to getting Dealership Accounts?

S

SidewerksDetail

New member
I am in the process of starting to want dealership accounts, i have a steady client base for my mobile detailing business, but was looking to have solid income money from dealerships. And use all the mobile money for new cars/bikes etc. Do I present a powerpoint and cost of using our company to the general manager or how would one go about doing it? I just need basic ideas, i have a guy that can speak well for me in trying to get the contract but must know what to say and such to present the ideas.



Thanks so much,



-Sidewerks
 
It just depends on what type of dealerships you're looking for. If you're looking to get big dealership accounts, the usually want a shop who does it all. Paint protection film, window tint, and auto detailing. With this you will want to go in very prepared with all the information on the products that you're selling including your price list. If you're looking for some smaller dealerships, then you should just go in, bring a business card, and ask them what they're paying currently. I get dealerships calling me all the time looking for a detailer, and I don't quote wholesale prices over the phone, but I always ask them if they're price shopping, or quality shopping. If they're price shopping I tell them to find someone else.
 
You can't do retail and dealer work unless you have multiple people working for you. The dealers are pretty demanding and need you to drop everything to do their cars. Are you prepared to do this?
 
David Fermani said:
You can't do retail and dealer work unless you have multiple people working for you. The dealers are pretty demanding and need you to drop everything to do their cars. Are you prepared to do this?
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David is NOT KIDDING. They usually want everything for half price and done yesterday.
 
Yes I will be having employees, I am focused on getting bigger dealerships as I know a few companies that have accounts with some of them now, and seeing how they operate is a joke! and knowing the pricing of their services as well is a plus. Going rate around here is :



Used car/Trade in-$125 full detail-Pay employee 50

New car delivery/remove plastic/ add wax $70 -Pay employee 25

Courtesy wash-$25 Pay employee$12

Window tint removal-30 per window pay employee 10 per window.



And to sweeten the deal, offer free hand wash whenever for the Managers cars.



Northern VA rates are a bit higher i'm sure, but you can get the idea, basically a big dealership would sell 100-120 cars a month, All i would be responsible for is buying supplies and making the employees fill out invoices to be signed off when completed. I am just mainly trying to get a master plan to present the ideas/cost in the best manner to a GM of the acura/bmw/audi/etc dealerships that don't use in house people but use contractors for the detail end of it.
 
The only problem I have had is collecting from Dealerships. Sometimes 30days turns into 45days or 60days. The price per car will not be the same as reg. customers but then again you will make that up in Volume. You have a good plan Sidewerk.



Walter
 
De WALTER said:
The price per car will not be the same as reg. customers but then again you will make that up in Volume.
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Volume won't make up for low profit margin, it will only make you busier.



Dealer accounts are nice when you have holes to fill in your schedule but if you are trying to build a retail business don't let them get in the way of the more profitable work.
 
MichaelM said:
Volume won't make up for low profit margin, it will only make you busier.
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I kinda disagree. The more volume work you do, the more profit you'll have. After you hit your break-even point the profit greatly increases. If you're going to work on low-end margin, reduce your costs/processes to compensate for doing so.



3 hours / $4 material costs = $95 or $30/hr

5-7 hours / $8 material costs = $250 or $40/hr
 
David Fermani said:
I kinda disagree. The more volume work you do, the more profit you'll have. After you hit your break-even point the profit greatly increases. If you're going to work on low-end margin, reduce your costs/processes to compensate for doing so.



3 hours / $4 material costs = $95 or $30/hr

5-7 hours / $8 material costs = $250 or $40/hr
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You are so right. I would never shy away from volume aka fleet work ever again. It's steady and really easy work that you can "sub" out

This area has added about 3000 per month to my bottom line. The key is to saving every penny where you can. Like on tire dressing....or anything...even gas has to be looked at.
 
SidewerksDetail said:
Used car/Trade in-$125 full detail-Pay employee 50

New car delivery/remove plastic/ add wax $70 -Pay employee 25

Courtesy wash-$25 Pay employee$12

Window tint removal-30 per window pay employee 10 per window.
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Wow those are pretty good rates compared to what i got, i used to work at a dealership for the detail company i got paid, 9$ per standard car wash, 11$ for new car prep, 75$ max for a trade in requiring compound. This was also my first job so pulling $12ish an hr at 17yrs old wasnt so bad.
 
David Fermani said:
The more volume work you do, the more profit you'll have.
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More volume = more gross income, but at what % profit margin is the question.



I think something that gets glossed over when talking about wholesale work is that no two vehicles are the same.



I have a wholesale account that pays me $150/vehicle. Could be a black SUV that needs correction or it could be a new, silver, 2-door convertible that only needs a spiff up, either way same money. No two vehicles are the same or require the same amount of time on our part. With these cars profit will depend on how much time it'll take and how many corners we can cut while still providing a quality product.



My retail work is classified neatly into packages with pricing dependent upon the size and condition of the vehicles to assure we get paid for our time. I can't do that to that degree with wholesale work. If a job take 3 hrs, we get paid for 3 hrs. If it takes 6 hrs, we get paid for 6 and so on. My profit margin on these vehicles is steady and controlled.



Yes, you can make money with wholesale work, but you can make the same money with less time/effort with retail.
 
MichaelM said:
Yes, you can make money with wholesale work, but you can make the same money with less time/effort with retail.
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This is true IF you have a full detail to do every day with the same numbers every month.



It also depends on what the individual may need to make. If you do one detail a week for 500.00 and that's all you need to run your business, then you now have 6 days off.

I'm just staying more consistent in my numbers since taking on fleet and wholesale work. I have an account that has 20 vans that pay 20.00 per for outside onlys. I do them once a month and that's 400.00 in 1.5 hours. I pay my guys 24.00 in that time. Pretty good profit margin I think. Now add 15 more accounts like that.
 
I was contacted by the used car manager of one of the local Chevy dealerships. He was willing to pay us $150 per car for a "full detail" and $175 for the SUV's. I asked him what his definition of a "full detail" is. He said it is whatever the car needs. I responded with who makes that call; you or I. I told him I would get back to him the next day with a proposal; basically stating what we would and would not do for those numbers. The guy never called me back after several calls. He was "backed-up" with cars, and I was very busy with my retail customers anyways. Honestly, I prefer not to deal with dealerships because of their attitude. Keep in mind, when factoring in your cost, you have to consider insurance, both liability and workers compensation if you have more than 5 employees (Virginia), employment taxes, marketing etc. The dealership WILL require insurance. Make it VERY clear up front what you will and will not do for a given price for car/SUV.
 
It seems that the margins on retail type work are higher for the reasons given by Michael. If you are doing volume and achieving economies of scale and efficiencies with your operation, than yes, doing volume can bring in more sales and possible high profits. That would require lots of capital and equipment to pull off. Lets also not forget the marketing costs involved with each as well. I guess it boils down to how you position your product and who your target market is. If you position yourself as a quality and service leader and target busy professionals who care about their cars, that is one thing. You can also position yourself as one who does fast/cheap work and targets commercial/fleet type work. I concentrate all my efforts on the first strategy because it is more rewarding and in the long run, I feel is better for my business.
 
brwill2005 said:
The dealership WILL require insurance.
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To be fair, technically speaking, any job done for money requires insurance, amateurs aside of course.



If you position yourself as a quality and service leader and target busy professionals who care about their cars, that is one thing. You can also position yourself as one who does fast/cheap work and targets commercial/fleet type work. I concentrate all my efforts on the first strategy because it is more rewarding and in the long run, I feel is better for my business.
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I think that being a quality and service leader should not automatically exclude you from having some aspect of fast & cheap in your arsenal. If you can accomplish fast, cheap, and quality you'll open up your customer base to more frequent visits, more customer loyalty and a more sustainable business over the long term.



If you are a one-man operation I don't think any of this applies. Just pick the type of work you want to do and do it the best you can. If you want to own a business though, you'll need to be diverse in your services.
 
sorry to reserect a dead thread, but there is a lot of quality info here. From what it looks like, the dealership stuff requires more than a 1man crew? Do they want mobile or prefer a shop to drop the cars off with? Also, it seems like you'll alienate your retail clientele (someone said it best-the business professional who just wants a super clean car and willing to pay whatever you want). Also, why would a dealership rather payout $100+ per car to a shop when they can hire an inhouse person for $10-$15/hour? Finally, what dealerships are using shops? Is it the big retailers selling brand new cars? Or is it mid-size companies doing used sales or is it very small, corner-lot kind of companies who have 10 year old beaters.
 
tssdetailing said:
Finally, what dealerships are using shops? Is it the big retailers selling brand new cars? Or is it mid-size companies doing used sales or is it very small, corner-lot kind of companies who have 10 year old beaters.
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In my limited dealership experience since opening last year, the only interest I've got with my one man mobile crew was from "corner lot beater sellers".
 
I can shade some light on the subject of it dealerships use outside shops...some do. I was an inventory supervisor at a Carmax 3 years ago and they did have a hack job shop, that would come with 5 employees, pick up 5 cars take them back to there shop and then once finish start rotating them out through the day. When the economy went south and the dealership laid off a few detailers and only had about 12-15 detailers left full time between night and day shift...there detailing lot got as high as 200-250 cars sometimes. Each of the vehicles being full details. So they brought in a on-site detailing company and then hired the off site one to help with overflow. Paid the company somewhere from $80-150 a vehicle. Which this company could run through about 15-20 a day.
 
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