Is opportunity knocking right now? Shall I sieze it?

[tuscarora dave]

I got a call this morning from my old boss from my last job before going full time at the shop. He just bought a new to him Chevy Trailblazer and wanted to know what I'd charge to polish, prep and apply Opti-Guard to it. So this morning I educated a potential customer on why prices on custom work can't be quoted over the phone, the Opti-Guard "Post Polishing" prep procedure, the pre-polishing paint contamination procedures and why they're important and why I might or might not be interested in doing wholesale work for the local dealership that he bought his Trailblazer from.

Apparently his Trailblazer was detailed by a local detailing outfit from the next town over, and when the topic came up he told this dealership owner all about the nice work that I do so now the dealership wants some of my business cards.

Here's how my mind works in a situation like this...

This local used car dealership sells auction cars that have around 100k miles on them, for in and around the $5000 retail mark. He has a local detailer that cleans them up for him before they're sold on his lot. A customer buys a car from him right after the dealership's detail guy cleans it up.

The very next day, the purchaser of said vehicle calls another detailer to have it "properly" polished up and protected.

This scenario says many things to me...

• The purchaser of this vehicle cares enough to contact a known high quality detailer to research what the best, most feasible course of action is to properly care for his new to him vehicle...This spells opportunity to me.

• The selling dealership already has a local detailer who cleans up his cars, yet some of the purchasers of his vehicles immediately contact their own detailer to further refine the vehicle's appearance and have the best possible protection applied. This also spells opportunity to me, but it also raises another set of questions in my mind, such as...

1. Who is this other detailer?
2. Why are the car buying customers seeking out further refinement? (If one customer is seeking a higher level of car care, it stands to reason that others may be too..)

• One or more scenarios likely exist in this situation.

1. The most likely situation (in my mind) would be that the dealership simply has a very small financial allowance for the aesthetics of the vehicles on his lot and "this is not my target market"...But there could still be some opportunity in this situation.
2. This other detailer could be limited in skill, equipment, products, product knowledge, all the above, or he could simply be serving his target market (wholesale dealer prep) and could posses an otherwise higher quality skill set that he's not marketing to this particular client, which of course would revert back to the above scenario.

• What vehicle does this used car dealership business owner drive, and who is currently caring for it? Could there be room for improvement? This spells opportunity to me and he already said he'd like to have a few of my cards. The way I see it, the door of opportunity is open, albeit ever so slightly cracked...it's still open none the less.
• If I do nothing at this point, any possible opportunities will surely disappear.

Simply put, I'm not so interested in doing cheap and fast used car dealership turnarounds but...The bills need to be paid, and this dealership is only one highway exit away from my shop. This could spell opportunity for both myself and the dealership owner. If nothing else, there could be opportunity in caring for this business owner's personal vehicles. Which of course raises a few other questions in my mind...

• Who is in his network of other business owners, friends and family?
• How do I place my principles of operation directly in front of them?
• Surely these other folks in his network own cars.
• Birds of a feather, flock together...Over the past few years I've watched this used car dealership go from having one or two "Hoop-D-Wagons" on the lot, to actually stocking some pretty nice vehicles on his lot...and lots of them.
• Perhaps this growth success has afforded the owner with the ability to have some nice toys in the way of personal vehicles...
• Perhaps his growth success has placed him in a crowd of other successful business owners who have personal vehicles that they might not let just anyone touch.
• I've achieved a great deal of growth myself in my abilities to do outstanding retail car care, which has afforded me some great milestones in the way of what car's I'm called on to care for, and what lengths some folks with knowledge of my abilities are willing to go to to get me to work on their vehicles such as...

1. Being paid to drive all the way to Maine to handle a fleet of business vehicles.
2. Having customers tell the Mercedes dealership not to allow their detailing department to do anything other than pull the plastic. These new car owners then bring the brand new vehicles to my shop for proper care from the door for their brand new high end vehicles.
3. Traveling to other cities to repair the work performed by brand new higher end dealership's detailing departments.
4. Having worked my way from the common "Hoop-D-Wagon" details to detailing a few exotic cars by way of reference.
5. Having "been offered" to operate as a temporary detailer at the Mazda Grand Prix event in Baltimore for "Mazda North America" by way of being granted a seal of approval by none other than Mr.Mike Phillips.

• These are all earned milestones that have come to me as a result of "putting in my time" doing the research, undergoing the years of practice, spending the hundreds of hours in front of the computer to learn, put into practice the learned knowledge, post the results, and most importantly help others to do the same.
• Isn't it possible that having achieved some of these milestones (And having references of such) could allow me to seize many opportunities that I see?
• Of course if I don't see these possible opportunities by "constantly looking for them" or "being open minded enough to envision them" nothing happens at all.

OK...That's enough rambling on for one session..Just sharing some thoughts about "vision" that I can entertain from one simple phone call.

Maybe it's good food for thought, maybe it's me tooting my own horn..The later was certainly not my intention. Thanks for reading...TD

 

[SonOfOC]

Dave, lots of assumptions with your concerns. (experience and educated ones of course). From A-Z there is no contractual agreement in regards to duration. You can test your market and business plan for a month and see if the returns are worth it.

I can tell you if it has the word dealership, fleet, lots, and auctions; that on balance, it does not require the "perfect" detail job that many of us fanatics provide.

 

[Vegas Transplant]

I see oportunity.
But I also see frustration when trying to 'correct', or 'coat' the various cover-ups used when auction cars change that many hands in a short period of time.

 

[PAR Detailing]

Dave,
There certainly is the potential for a profit. I am in the car business now and I sell used cars. I handle taking care of all of the reconditioning to fielding calls to drafting up the paperwork. When I came on board there were a few things I brought to the table... A keen eye to the details.

You can do the same. I believe you can easily sell this guy on your "points of difference". So what are this Points of Difference? I will tell you that my philosophy is that clean cars sell. A meticulously restored vehicle is easy to sell, there is nothing for the buyer to nit pick and negotiate over except for price.

Here is an idea for you to consider and I say this because if a quality detailer came to me with this package he would have my business right away... Every car gets put on the Internet to sell. It is how people find cars plain and simple. Many dealers don't emphasize their pictures and take crappy shots In their lot and use ceappy cameras. Think about offering a picture service for him and pictures are taken immediately after the cars are reconditioned. Find a nice scenic location and on your way to return the car take high quality pictures for him to use on the Internet. This would set you far apart from the average joe shmuck detailer. I am meticulous about the pictures I take because it is my first and possibly only chance to impress potential customers enough to call and make an appointment... Can you feed off of that?

Best of luck with it and you will make the right decision

Jon

 

[rustytruck]

I must be tired. I could not read the whole post. Sorry Dave.

 

[Paul Mitchell]

Dave,
There certainly is the potential for a profit. I am in the car business now and I sell used cars. I handle taking care of all of the reconditioning to fielding calls to drafting up the paperwork. When I came on board there were a few things I brought to the table... A keen eye to the details.

You can do the same. I believe you can easily sell this guy on your "points of difference". So what are this Points of Difference? I will tell you that my philosophy is that clean cars sell. A meticulously restored vehicle is easy to sell, there is nothing for the buyer to nit pick and negotiate over except for price.

Here is an idea for you to consider and I say this because if a quality detailer came to me with this package he would have my business right away... Every car gets put on the Internet to sell. It is how people find cars plain and simple. Many dealers don't emphasize their pictures and take crappy shots In their lot and use ceappy cameras. Think about offering a picture service for him and pictures are taken immediately after the cars are reconditioned. Find a nice scenic location and on your way to return the car take high quality pictures for him to use on the Internet. This would set you far apart from the average joe shmuck detailer. I am meticulous about the pictures I take because it is my first and possibly only chance to impress potential customers enough to call and make an appointment... Can you feed off of that?

Best of luck with it and you will make the right decision

Jon

I agree with Jon. That's a great way to approach this situation. Go for it! You never know if it will work if you don't give it a shot.

 

[rmagnus]

Dave as others have said I believe there is opportunity there. Ive read a lot of your posts and follow some other regulars on the forum as well. You mentioned "bills must be paid". I agree. If it turns out not to be rewarding I'm sure you can end the relationship professionally. Your Qs are good but must be asked of the employer.

My perception is you want high end cars and detail work to do. That seems to be the struggle, most work is for daily drivers and that means usually a one step process, not multiple or your going to loose money.

Use this work to pay the bills. I'm not degrading a one step process great detailers always find a way to get great results. Then carve out a percentage of your schedule to get the high end more rewarding work.

Nice to have options.

 

[dad07]

looks like work to me Dave, Seize the moment!

 

[Cosmin]

i got lost in reading Dave , a bit confusing ,
refine your packages to meet the needs, and be upfront with the dealer.
is not thing wrong in asking what`s his budget , what are his expectations, yes you will meet resistance but find a win-win point.
i will push into having your card out tru his network/ clients, i think is more important outcome from this account. you may get long term clients from there , dealer are "temporary" , always choose the low end work/price.

 

[Hoytman]

i got lost in reading Dave , a bit confusing ,

Coming from a guy who said this below :checkit::dunno:... oke::laughing:

refine your packages to meet the needs, and be upfront with the dealer.
is not thing wrong in asking what`s his budget , what are his expectations, yes you will meet resistance but find a win-win point.
i will push into having your card out tru his network/ clients, i think is more important outcome from this account. you may get long term clients from there , dealer are "temporary" , always choose the low end work/price.

Always love your posts Cosmin, but I have to study them for awhile to try and figure out what you're trying to say. Makes for some slow reading/translating on my part. :laughing:

 

[Cosmin]

Coming from a guy who said this below :checkit::dunno:... oke::laughing:



Always love your posts Cosmin, but I have to study them for awhile to try and figure out what you're trying to say. Makes for some slow reading/translating on my part. :laughing:

Thanks )

 

[cardaddy]

Dave,

Wow, I thought I was long winded.

Now, on to what you were thinking. I see you, in that I understand what you are trying to say/do/accomplish. I owned a flatbed towing service for 18 years and specalized in hi-line vehicles, a few DD dealerhips and several top 5 insurance companies, followed by a nationwide chain of used car dealerships (some locations sell new cars, but most are very high volume used dealerships).

I've worked with dealerships at all levels at one time or another, plus have known dozens and dozens of used car, "tote your note" types. If there is ANYONE in the business that's cheap, it's the "tote your note" guys, followed by the nationwide chain. Then those woulld be followed by aNyThInG from an auto auction environment.

There is no money to be made with those guys unless you want to do this; 1: Work high volume, 2: Forget about high quality, 3: Put everything aside BUT the high volume, low profit stuff and 4: Never get to do your bread and butter jobs, high paying, time intensive, hi-line jobs.

Now if you can find a hot rod shop, hi-line repair shop, (the hi-line dealerships will usually have a decent detail department but BEWARE that maybe only one guy is one you would trust with a buffer). Getting work from them isn't that easy.

Now this is where it gets tricky.... if you can deal directly with the SALESMEN at a luxury / hi-line dealership and especially the Service Writers you may be able to get work that way. Those guys are all freaking about a kickback. If you do a $300 detail job and throw them $40~$50 they'll stab their mother over it. You wont get the brand new car off the lot or showroom floor, but you'll get their regular customers and the used trades they want to turn.

Try to make connections with insurance companies to 're-con' their undamaged recovered thefts for re-marketing. The REALLY chase sports car sellers & buyers (at an auction house might be a place to look.)

Well then... THAT is where you can make some money.

I mentioned the large used dealership because although they have several hundred cars in inventory daily, and purchase auction cars 2~3 times a week, then have their own re-con departments. I would pull my normal customers and dealerships all day, then twice a week pull auction cars all night for the three locations they had here around Atlanta. Sometimes the location manager would say "hey guy, I've got 23 new vehicles I need you to deliver to Norcross. Then you'd get there and they'd have 18 that needed to be taken back to where you started. There was NEVER any detailing available from those guys! EVER!!!!!!!

Local Auction Buyers are seriously cheap sob's. Been there, done that. Hauled nothing but auction cars for almost my first 5 years. My wife has been a manager at one for 33 years now. Need to run from "tote-your-note" guys.

Oh and one other thing about car lots and dealerships. They 'age' their paper. Invoices come in, you get the PO, and maybe you get paid by the 15th of next month. The bigger they are, the longer they age invoices. It's not unusual to hav them run 45 ~90 days out. Sux when you have time, materials and labor in jobs they don't even have on the lot anymore. I finally had some that I'd give a 5% discount for payment by the 5th, 3% by the 10th and a 5% penalty if not paid by the 17th. They didn't get many discounts, but at least I started getting paid by the 17th!!!!! (Sure beat waiting 2 ~3 months for payment.)

 

[tuscarora dave]

Thanks to all of you guys who commented in this thread.

There is some great food for thought in your replies. The original post was long winded as many of my posts tend to be, and really was just thinking (or more likely, overthinking) I like to write about the things I think about in a forum of like minded people because it sometimes leads to great replies for all members to consider.

I've been detailing long enough now to have had experienced the pitfalls of chasing dollars through the used car dealerships. It simply doesn't fit the plans and goals I have in my life. However...I still think these opportunities through, as there is a great benefit of looking at the experience of other business owners. One slight tweak in thinking or perception can often spark a new or different idea, and possibly a new or different opportunity.

I probably will stop in at this guy's dealership and introduce myself as a local detailer who does retail only details on special interest cars. While I'm there I'll surely hand him a few of my commercial wheelchair lift service/repair fliers in addition to some of my auto detailing fliers as I explain to him that the high quality detailing simply fills the gaps between the commercial wheelchair lift service/repair jobs. I'll extend an offer to care for his personal vehicles or a vehicle for an exceedingly picky client that he wants to impress.

I simply don't want a high volume in wholesale auto detailing, but perhaps some other members here at AGO might want this volume work. While some of my threads are all about me, a lot of the threads I post are meant to be for AGO as a whole. This is one of these threads that are just for the community here at AGO.