How to get more business

F

FrogKnowledge

New member
So I have been Mobile now since July 1st and since then I have gone to over 300 business pitching my packages and leaving flyers behind, I have posted on craigslist, and even started placing flyers on cars.



I've really only got 17 customers and most of them were just basic exteriors for $45



What else worked for you guys? I think tomorrow I am going to go back threw parking lots and pick out cars that have problems and write notes to individuals letting them know I can fix their imperfections or maintain their current shine.



Any tips would be great.
 
FrogKnowledge said:
I have posted on craigslist, and even started placing flyers on cars.



I've really only got 17 customers and most of them were just basic exteriors for $45



What else worked for you guys? I think tomorrow I am going to go back threw parking lots and pick out cars that have problems and write notes to individuals letting them know I can fix their imperfections or maintain their current shine.



Any tips would be great.
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If I catch you touching my car, lets just say you won't be getting any business. A few years back, you'd have gotten more than you wanted. Flyers on cars piss people off. Take the flyers and put them on (not in) mail boxes in a nicer neighberhood if you have to do anything with them.
 
I agree with Yakky. I know it pisses me and my wife off, as well as everyone I know when I find flyers on my car. Not only that, but when the car owners throw it on the ground, YOU may get a call from the police and be charged with littering. Attractive flyers made on Publisher or another program using YOUR photos and a professional logo. If you don't have one, you can buy Logoworks for $60 and easily make a cool looking logo. Put the flyers up in anyplace that will let you. Mailboxes and doorhangers are another decent marketing item. Things are slow all over the country but continue putting your name out there and when things start to turn around, you will be the first one they call.
 
Here is what I contribute 70% of my business to.



1) Get about 50 pictures of the work you've done. I'm talking before and afters, in process shots, afters, glamour shots, whatever looks great.



2) Have the developed in 5x7.



3) Get a simple yet elegant photo album and place the pictures in there.



4) Wherever you go, always have the album with you.



Here's how it works.



When your making the sales pitch to somebody, you can hand them the album to look through, and narrate your services and what you can do.



such as..."We do anything from the basic wash n wax to headlight restoration, extreme paint correction, and even mild swirl removal." Things along those lines.



When their looking through the album, tell them little pieces of info about the picture their looking at.



Such as:

"It took us 12 hours to do this car"

"I now do this BMW 525i every two weeks for the client. She was thrilled with how it turned out and wants it to keep looking that way"

"This client works at *insert name of local body shop or car dealership*" (Throwing out multiple names of local businesses makes you sound and look credible. Just be sure to be able to back it up)



Good Luck!
 
Do you have a website? These days 80% of my new business comes from the Internet. I use Google Adwords, specifically targeted to the county I live in. I also have listed my business in several free local online business directories. The rest of my business comes from referrals or my phonebook listings.
 
to be honest bro, what I do is whore up the local forums with detailed threads on my work. my pm box BLOWS up with people asking for pricing, and I offer them 25-30 bucks off their detail if they refer me someone first (not everyone has the money for a 3-step polish)...word of mouth is the key to any business. when I first got started, I had to charge less than 100 for 3-step polishes and do a couple for free just to build a portfolio and prove to people I was very good at what I do.





just my 2 cents. hope this helps.
 
take a plastic bag and some landscape rocks and your flier. Put them all together and go pitch them onto every lawn. My clientele consists in the hundreds now.
 
Thank you guys for the advice



I am going to start hitting houses tomorrow and see how that goes.



Forums as much as I am on them I never thought about that.



I do offer 15% off 2 or more cars but referrals I know I need to push that.
 
FrogKnowledge said:
Thank you guys for the advice



I am going to start hitting houses tomorrow and see how that goes.



Forums as much as I am on them I never thought about that.



I do offer 15% off 2 or more cars but referrals I know I need to push that.
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How about a deal where if an existing customer refers a new customer you give them a big chunk off? If you told me you would give me 1/2 off if I brought you a customer, I'd work pretty hard to con a friend.:chuckle:
 
Don't give them a chunk off. If they are returning customers they already value your service at your set price. Why screw yourself out of hard earned cash.. And detailing is very labor intensive so it's definatly hard earned. Instead of giving away money left and right give them a free upgrade on the next level of service or a free upgrade to a higher end product. etc etc... Don't take away your bread and butter when you already have a client that thinks your serivce to price value is a good one... So good in fact that they have told others and have recommended you. It's like tossing money out the window then.
 
One of the things is marketing the correct packages to the correct people. My clientele consists of basically 4 groups with a couple offshoots.

The enthusiasts who love their enthusiast cars who are floored everytime with paint correction and fall in love again, expensive car drivers who can say what I do and what they paid which is helpful to me because they all want that guy doing their cars, the value group who are maintained with mild 1step(AIO), wash and wax and a thorough interior once or twice a year, and the new vehicle preparations(from fantastic referrals that continue)



You have to see what the market will give you and you need to tailor your packages or services to what people want. Some areas may look at your 200 dollar package and say I "well i dont need that and that(which may only be priced by you as something 30ish dollars) soooo im not interested eventhough at 200 dollars its still a killer value. Its a tricky game but keep trying if you are stagnant. Give them what they want
 
MaksimumAuto said:
Here is what I contribute 70% of my business to.



1) Get about 50 pictures of the work you've done. I'm talking before and afters, in process shots, afters, glamour shots, whatever looks great.



2) Have the developed in 5x7.



3) Get a simple yet elegant photo album and place the pictures in there.



4) Wherever you go, always have the album with you.



Here's how it works.



When your making the sales pitch to somebody, you can hand them the album to look through, and narrate your services and what you can do.



such as..."We do anything from the basic wash n wax to headlight restoration, extreme paint correction, and even mild swirl removal." Things along those lines.



When their looking through the album, tell them little pieces of info about the picture their looking at.



Such as:

"It took us 12 hours to do this car"

"I now do this BMW 525i every two weeks for the client. She was thrilled with how it turned out and wants it to keep looking that way"

"This client works at *insert name of local body shop or car dealership*" (Throwing out multiple names of local businesses makes you sound and look credible. Just be sure to be able to back it up)



Good Luck!
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Great Idea! Im fixin to do the same for my business, Create a simple brochure they can take with them, with the basic services you offer as a detailer, make sure to include your name and number.



brwill2005 said:
Do you have a website? These days 80% of my new business comes from the Internet. I use Google Adwords, specifically targeted to the county I live in. I also have listed my business in several free local online business directories. The rest of my business comes from referrals or my phonebook listings.
Click to expand...



Best way to inform your customers of your talents, also good for listing all your services, along with recent pics of cars you have done.



ReLoaDeD BuLLiT said:
to be honest bro, what I do is whore up the local forums with detailed threads on my work. my pm box BLOWS up with people asking for pricing, and I offer them 25-30 bucks off their detail if they refer me someone first (not everyone has the money for a 3-step polish)...word of mouth is the key to any business. when I first got started, I had to charge less than 100 for 3-step polishes and do a couple for free just to build a portfolio and prove to people I was very good at what I do.





just my 2 cents. hope this helps.
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Same here and still doing it! Ive noticed a lot more customers by doing this, when you start getting bigger, start to increase your prices for everything and tell them you are in the process of increasing production, and you will need to start investing in better equipment and materials to better meet customers needs and wants. Something along those lines, Also try hitting the hotels in your area with simple fliers or give them a few business cards, check in with local car dealers when you have a good bit of experience under your belt. Good luck! :buffing:
 
what if i offer $10 gift card (starbucks) for every reffered customer or would a car wash be better ($30 value)
 
This question, as I have come to realize, is 100% market-dependant. What works for one person won't nescessarily work for another. Anything you learn here in terms of marketing you will have to take with a grain of salt, because your particular market area may not react as other market areas will.



That said, I have had excellent luck with unaddressed ad-mail. I sent out our flyer (package pricing), to just over 800 homes. Cost of the flyers (black ink, printed on neon orange 24lbs stock) plus mailing was around $315.00 CDN. I put a "call to action" on there as well, anyone who booked by August 15th (which was 25 days from the period that the flyer went out), got 10% off any of the packages. This discount was ONLY offered on those that got THAT particular ad-mail flyer, so it made it really easy to track how many bookings we got from that marketing campaign. On top of that, normally our flyers are neon yellow, so another simple, yet effective method of picking out who got the ad-mail and is responding to it.



With that discount just ending, I can attribute a minimum of 15 complete package details to the campaign. Without looking at the numbers, I'd say we paid for the campaign about 7 or 8 times over. And now of course word of mouth will perpetuate itself from those 15 details, and so forth.



I haven't done it yet due to cost (unaddressed ad-mail is simply much much cheaper and more direct), but newspaper can be a good avenue for marketing yourself as well. However, in my opinion, newspaper needs to be an "all-out" or "go home" kind of thing. I would never purchase a small ad, I'd go for minimum half-page, ideally full page. Yes it will cost money (for some of you in larger metropolitan areas it may be complete unfeasible), but it's worth it. One single full page ad on a Friday edition will be 100 times more effective than a 1/30th page ad run over several days. Again, just my own personal opinion.



Radio can work too, but I personally haven't even looked into it.
 
A.P.D. said:
what if i offer $10 gift card (starbucks) for every reffered customer or would a car wash be better ($30 value)
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Yeah and no, If I was the customer I would not want a starbucks card, just depends on the person, some people put a microfiber towel in there seat as a thank you for their business, while I pick a couple of flowers on the way to work on the road and put them in the bug's flower holder. It may sound corny but it works! Customers remember the little stuff you did for them, such as putting all their belongings in a small ziploc bad, while other just respond to results of the car, and some customers just are grumpy all the time. Some detailing companies put floor mats in their customers car as a little added protection from the elements, some people like them while others throw them away.
 
Jakerooni said:
Don't give them a chunk off. If they are returning customers they already value your service at your set price. Why screw yourself out of hard earned cash.. And detailing is very labor intensive so it's definatly hard earned. Instead of giving away money left and right give them a free upgrade on the next level of service or a free upgrade to a higher end product. etc etc... Don't take away your bread and butter when you already have a client that thinks your serivce to price value is a good one... So good in fact that they have told others and have recommended you. It's like tossing money out the window then.
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Finding new customers is also very labor intensive as the OP mentioned. Sometimes its easier to let your customer do what he or she is good at. While you may be a great detailer, you might find your customers are much better at networking. I'm not say give away a whole detail, but a customer bringing you another customer, especially if they become a repleat customer is much more valuable than a few bucks off.
 
yakky said:
Finding new customers is also very labor intensive as the OP mentioned. Sometimes its easier to let your customer do what he or she is good at. While you may be a great detailer, you might find your customers are much better at networking. I'm not say give away a whole detail, but a customer bringing you another customer, especially if they become a repleat customer is much more valuable than a few bucks off.
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it's just bad marketing. Next thing you know they and everyone they refered to you now expect huge discounts because they told someone else. And now 90% of all your detailing is done at discounted rates. Instead of pulling in $100 for a service now that exact same service is getting done for $75 to 90% of your customers. See the logic behind it? always offer free ugrades. That's just as appreciated if not more than taking a few bucks off. Because once you start down that slope it's extreamly hard to recover and get back to getting paid a normal rate again.
 
Jakerooni said:
it's just bad marketing. Next thing you know they and everyone they refered to you now expect huge discounts because they told someone else. And now 90% of all your detailing is done at discounted rates. Instead of pulling in $100 for a service now that exact same service is getting done for $75 to 90% of your customers. See the logic behind it? always offer free ugrades. That's just as appreciated if not more than taking a few bucks off. Because once you start down that slope it's extreamly hard to recover and get back to getting paid a normal rate again.
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I don't mean a constant discount, only a one time. For example, refer a customer and get a one time discount of 50% on your next detail.
 
I have had some success with offering a free wash service for each referral I do work for. My customers call me and tell me they have referred someone and I tell them that as soon as I complete the work, I'll schedule their wash.
 
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