Getting "in" with a Car Club

[Eric@CherryOnTop]

Hi all, so I'm just getting started with a part time business and I'm having some trouble "getting my feet wet" so to speak, with advertising and marketing. I think my problem is lack of confidence in salesmanship. I know I can correct a car's paint, and make an interior look like brand new again. I have trouble convincing myself that I can convince someone else that they should pay me money to do this to their car.

So I went to my local car cruise tonight, put on by a club I've actually been meaning to join up with anyway. They put this on every week, it's a nice showing, there is a DJ and probably around 150 cars. I talked to the president and the webmaster about helping me get my name out and they both seemed amenable. I gave them some cards and they said they would put a mention in the next club e-mail and up on the website. I offered to donate some sort of service for a raffle for one or two of their larger show events and they suggested I set up a table at their major event (which isn't until next June, I missed this year's event).

So my question is, does it seem like I'm headed in the right direction? I don't want to just be giving things away without also being able to get my name out there and market. What are some tips for entering the market from scratch? I should also mention that I do this part time, still have a full time job and I don't "need" detailing to keep food on the table, I just want the part time thing to be a success.

Thanks!

~Eric

 

[zmcgovern45]

Does this car club have a forum?

I sponsor 3 local car forums and get my very own "Vendor"/"Sponsor" section where I can post up my work much like the Show N' Shine section on the AGO forums. This is where the majority of my business comes from. It is a great way to meet other car guys & girls and an even better way to strike up some business for yourself.

I started by introducing myself to their online community, showing a small amount of my work, and offering to do 3 complete paint corrections at a special introductory rate to gain trust and interest from the community.

Once they see what you can do and that you can be trusted with their vehicles you will be in good shape.

Also - In my sponsor section on the site, I post a "product recommendations" thread, a "ask-a-pro detailer" thread, a list of my services, and other supportive threads to show that I am not only a business, but am a nice guy who is looking to help others out if they are interested in getting into detailing on their own.

 

[Evan.J]

Eric you need to get Renny's book. This book is packed with info. I have read it 3 times marked it up and have pages falling out. I refer back to this book often.

Renny explains how to get started what the Do's and Don'ts are of menu making, marketing, selling and so on.

http://autogeek.commerce-search.net/redirect?url=http://www.autogeek.net/car-detailing-book.html

You really need to get out there and hustle hustle hustle. You are going to be completing with other businesses in your area that already are established and have a reputation whether good or bad. You need to get you name out there. It will be lots of work but it can be done.

The best form of advertising is word of mouth. This can make all the difference but each detail needs to be your best but certainly don't give away your services just to get work. Don't do a show car detail for an express price.

 

[Eric@CherryOnTop]

Thanks guys for getting back to me so soon.

Zach, they have a basic website but no forum. They have web sponsorships for $25 a year that gets your business card design on the sponsors section of the page. Seems like a reasonable rate for that type of exposure. I actually just PM'ed you about your site

Evan, I have Renny's book and have read it. I agree it's packed with useful information. I actually told the guys from the club that word of mouth was really the only form of advertising I'm interested in, specifically among "car guys" (and gals). I'm not interested in craigslist and undercutting my prices to beat out another detailer. My price is my price, I have some wiggle room for special circumstances, repeat business, referrals, that sort of thing, but like I said, I am not doing this to put food on the table so I have no problem politely declining a job I don't feel I will be compensated fairly for.

 

[Evan.J]

Thanks guys for getting back to me so soon.

Zach, they have a basic website but no forum. They have web sponsorships for $25 a year that gets your business card design on the sponsors section of the page. Seems like a reasonable rate for that type of exposure. I actually just PM'ed you about your site

Evan, I have Renny's book and have read it. I agree it's packed with useful information. I actually told the guys from the club that word of mouth was really the only form of advertising I'm interested in, specifically among "car guys" (and gals). I'm not interested in craigslist and undercutting my prices to beat out another detailer. My price is my price, I have some wiggle room for special circumstances, repeat business, referrals, that sort of thing, but like I said, I am not doing this to put food on the table so I have no problem politely declining a job I don't feel I will be compensated fairly for.

Awesome! Then your already on the right track. I have declined jobs because people want things cheap. I stand by my prices and my work. You have great mindset already! :xyxthumbs:

Zach is certainly the person to brain pick about groups.

Don't mind me I'll be listening to Zach's feedback on this topic.

 

[hernandez.art13]

Subscribed

 

[Pureshine]

I have new customers all the time asking me meet Groupon prices of other production detailers in my area. I always tell them no cause I'm not loosing money for someone who is just looking for a deal. Car clubs are a great way to get customers. I have a Corvette and a VW club I do most their cars which is greats business.

 

[Eric@CherryOnTop]

I have new customers all the time asking me meet Groupon prices of other production detailers in my area. I always tell them no cause I'm not loosing money for someone who is just looking for a deal. Car clubs are a great way to get customers. I have a Corvette and a VW club I do most their cars which is greats business.

That's exactly what I'm trying to avoid. How did you establish yourself with the clubs? I imagine that once you get in word of mouth travels and people see you can be trusted to do a good job, it's just getting a foot in the door that's the challenge.

 

[minorc]

Best bet is see if you can pay to be a registered vendor on the forum, then showcase all your work on that forum. Members will see the quality of work you do and seek you out to work on their vehicle.

 

[07gtcs]

My experience to get in with Car Clubs is to go out, meet the guys and gals...show off your work and network with them. Sponsor the club to get your name in the newsletter, go to their meetings, get your car out and hit the cruise nights, pass out business cards. I have one buddy that uses the heck out of Facebook to show off his work and get business.

just my two cents worth.

 

[jayshut11]

Enthusiast meets / clubs are great too.

I find that people at your "average" car cruise may not be as interested, as they feel they know how to wash a car, as they've "done it the same way for years", and haven't updated their methods unfortunately.

However, people at the the smaller enthusiasts meets may be more interested. Cars and Coffees are a great example. Often times I find they have the money to spend to have their car done right and are just looking for a good detailer. I'd just go to a meet, find some cars that look like they need some work, and mention to them that you're a good detailer and could fix the various issues, assuming you're allowed to talk about your business of course.

Good luck on finding more business.

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Do you have access to any type of shop?

If so, put on a detailing clinic. Keep it simple, just show the basics like we did when you were here to test out the Rupes and the Flex.

Cover waterless wash for streetrods and classics because you don't "wash" these types of cars.

Show the baggie test and then how to clay, just like we did here.

Show how to use the Porter Cable, or a Griot's, or Meguiar's G110v2, use an entry level tool.

Show what I show in my how-to book,

1. Test Spot
2. The Major Correction Step
3. The Polishing or Minor Correction Step
4. Sealing the paint --> Keep it simple, show a traditional wax and machine apply it
5. Maintenance --> Spray detailers and spray-on waxes

Keep it just like the above, just the basics to you and I. To these guys it will be "new" and very eye opening.


Here's what will happen, some of the guys will want to get the stuff and do it themselves. Some of the guys will rather have you do the hard part, getting their paint back up to where it use to be and then they'll take care of it with the spray detailer, (that's all most of these guys know, "Quik Detailer).


Sign-up for my next detailing boot camp class, you can use this as credentials. A lot of these guys watch shows like My Classic Car, I've been on there for 3 years now and will be on next year too, I always meet "Car Guys" in car clubs now that have seen the show and the first thing they do is tell me about the problems they have with their car and ask how to fix it?


I had a guy call me from Canada yesterday, he paid $1700.00 to go to a "Detail Class" in Canada and he shared the horror story experience from attending that class and is now trying to get his money back so he can attend my class.

Here's the funny part, all the way through the class he kept sharing everything he's learned from either my articles or my book and it was "news" to the so called instructors.

Even the basic things like cleaning a pad and washing a car was a mystery to these guys.

This is the last class at the $750.00 price point, classes are going to $1000.00 starting in 2014


You'll love the class, I guarantee it and you'll be in good company. You never know who else might be attending one of my classes, here' s Marco D'Inca head of engineering for Rupes, he and his colleague Andreas attended my last class and help us to buff out the very cool 1940 Chevy you see us standing in front of...

Hope the above helps....

 

[57BORNTORUN]

I would take a swirl finder light to a show and maybe a list of services you offer and teach car owners about paint.Many car owners are unaware of paint correction and the steps needed.I as a long time hot rodder was unaware until I joined the GEEK SQUAD on the Thursday night Show car makeovers.Many can do mechanical work but are clueless on paint as I was.Once you get a couple of cars done with the before and after pics. the word will be out there.Just a suggestion.:buffing:

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

From experience...

The only way you get to work on Special Interest Vehicles, whether this is classic Mustangs, or modern Mustangs, whatever it is the "Car Club Members" own is to earn their trust.

That's the biggest hurdle, earning trust.


You do that by either a warm welcome by someone that already trusts you or by somehow finding a way to show these people you really know your stuff, as in head knowledge.

Reading and learning on this forum is very good for getting head knowledge. Reading Renny's book is great, reading my book, especially the second edition as it's loaded with head knowledge, and attending as many classes as you can will get you the head knowledge you need and then back it all up by walking the walk... and that means buffing out cars.

I'd also recommend to anyone reading this that wants' to get int car detailing to learn how to take great pictures and learn how to write a "write-up" to showcase your work with text and pictures.

Go pro or don't go at all...


Here's an example... teach yourself how to do this...

Resurrection! Breathing New Life Into Dead Paint

 

[jayshut11]

I would take a swirl finder light to a show and maybe a list of services you offer and teach car owners about paint.Many car owners are unaware of paint correction and the steps needed.

Very true. I always get funny looks at the meets I go to when I mention swirl marks.

 

[Pureshine]

That's exactly what I'm trying to avoid. How did you establish yourself with the clubs? I imagine that once you get in word of mouth travels and people see you can be trusted to do a good job, it's just getting a foot in the door that's the challenge.

The VW club I have a VW GTI so that was pretty easy. The Vette club my brothers neighbor is a member and I did his Vette and he told his whole club about my work. Car show are good place to get business too.

 

[zmcgovern45]

Thanks guys for getting back to me so soon.

Zach, they have a basic website but no forum. They have web sponsorships for $25 a year that gets your business card design on the sponsors section of the page. Seems like a reasonable rate for that type of exposure. I actually just PM'ed you about your site

^Sounds like a fair price assuming the page gets decent traffic. For $50, I am able to have an entire section in a forum that I can use as a showcase for my work and a place to interact with other members that have detailing questions, want product recommendations, etc etc. It is great, but since you do not have a forum, it seems that is not an option for you.

That's exactly what I'm trying to avoid. How did you establish yourself with the clubs? I imagine that once you get in word of mouth travels and people see you can be trusted to do a good job, it's just getting a foot in the door that's the challenge.

^So everyone will try to say "don't give your services away" and I will agree with that... but sometimes you have to entice people to take a chance with you. If you are asking top dollar, some may see that as "wow he must know what he is doing" and some may see it as "this guy is nuts". If you are going to be coming in and asking top dollar for your services, you better have the proof to backup your skills. What I mean is that you need to at least have an established, professional looking website with a good selection of detailed before/after examples. If you cannot show off your abilities, you simply cannot ask top dollar right out of the gate IMO.

I joined the first car forum in my area as a total stranger, I did not know anyone on there. I offered a "special promotion" to the first 3 people who were interested... this included a 1 step correction for $150 (about an 8 hour job). While it may not be what you are hoping to get for a 8-10 hour day of work, I simply thought of it as an "advertising expense". I did not list the price on the public forum, just simply stated it was a very special price for the first 3 people who were interested and made sure to emphasize that it was NOT going to be extended past 3 people. My first 3 cars from this group was a 2008 BMW 335i Coupe, 1995 BMW M3, and 2008 Pontiac G8. After I posted the results from the 1st job, I was already getting a good response. The next 2 sealed the deal, and I officially felt like I had my foot in the door... on top of that, I had met some really cool people who were car enthusiasts like myself and enjoyed just chatting with them.

Anyways, I made sure (and still do, obviously) to thoroughly document the process to show the transformation that the cars went through. If you simply take a few after photos, you will not be doing your work justice. You need to sell potential customers on the fact that you can make their car look better than new, and the only way to do that is to really show the initial condition of the vehicles. Luckily I am pretty handy with a camera, but when I started getting into detailing, I had never done any sort of photography like it so there was a learning curve to that as well. You can see the dramatic change in my write ups from the first few that I did to my most recent ones - the quality of photos and narrative are much better now and I feel like that helps potential customers understand what it is that I am doing to these cars.

I now sponsor 3 local forums and that is where I get the majority of my business. I truly enjoy working with car enthusiasts because they appreciate the work that is being done to their cars unlike most average joe's who are simply looking for a "wash and shine". I am not afraid to politely turn down other customers who might not fall into the category of work that I enjoy doing. At the end of the day it comes down to the fact that I am only doing detailing work because I enjoy it. I enjoy working on nice, higher end, and/or modified cars so that is what I try to cater to. I enjoy meeting the owners of those types of cars because I can usually spend hours talking "car stuff" with them and it never gets old. They tend to appreciate your work much more and they tend to know other car people who they will be more than happy to pass along your information to.

-Zach

 

[Eric@CherryOnTop]

I would take a swirl finder light to a show and maybe a list of services you offer and teach car owners about paint.Many car owners are unaware of paint correction and the steps needed.I as a long time hot rodder was unaware until I joined the GEEK SQUAD on the Thursday night Show car makeovers.Many can do mechanical work but are clueless on paint as I was.Once you get a couple of cars done with the before and after pics. the word will be out there.Just a suggestion.:buffing:

I actually did bring my swirl finder light last night, I just never broke it out. I wasn't sure how people would respond to me shining this thing on their paint and telling them it's not perfect. How do you do this type of thing without insulting people or sounding condescending?

I joined the first car forum in my area as a total stranger, I did not know anyone on there. I offered a "special promotion" to the first 3 people who were interested... this included a 1 step correction for $150 (about an 8 hour job). While it may not be what you are hoping to get for a 8-10 hour day of work, I simply thought of it as an "advertising expense". I did not list the price on the public forum, just simply stated it was a very special price for the first 3 people who were interested and made sure to emphasize that it was NOT going to be extended past 3 people.

I like this idea a lot. I think if I sponsor the site for $25 a year and ask them to put this out in the newsletter, that could bring in some business. I'm also pretty handy with a camera, I have photo experience from college. My details are all in the show and shine here, and I do full write ups for them on my Facebook. I agree that this is paramount to showing what a professional detailer can do rather than just someone who washes and waxes their car every now and again.

 

[zmcgovern45]

I actually did bring my swirl finder light last night, I just never broke it out. I wasn't sure how people would respond to me shining this thing on their paint and telling them it's not perfect. How do you do this type of thing without insulting people or sounding condescending?

^The key is to simply find out if they are interested in the first place. As a fellow car guy, I find it pretty easy to strike up a conversation with anyone who has a car that I am interested in looking at/learning more about. I typically introduce myself with just my name, and then chat with them about their car. I usually inquire as to if they detail it or if they have someone else do it. Either way, I typically then continue to explain that I am a "detailing nerd" specializing in paint correction/restoration and ask if they mind if I check out their paint.

It is typically pretty easy to read whether or not someone might be interested in what you have to say. If they seem uninterested, thank them for their time - compliment them on their ride and continue looking around.

If they are interested, proceed to walk around their car and point out some noticeable defects in their paint. Make sure they understand what you mean when you say "swirls" or "haze" etc etc. Continue by explaining to them exactly what you do in order to restore the vehicle's appearance... starting with proper washing and drying, decontamination, polishing, and protection. They need to feel that you posses not only the ability to point out what is wrong with their car, but that you also have the knowledge and skill to fix it. Typically after this 10-15 minute brief walk around, I part ways by offering a business card and ask them to visit my website to see some examples of my work and then tell them I look forward to hearing from them.

Don't expect a call from every single person you talk to, but be sure that you have left an impression on every person. Even if they don't end up calling you, there is a chance they will tell someone else about 'that guy they met at the car meet who can fix your paint'.

-Zach

 

[Eric@CherryOnTop]

^The key is to simply find out if they are interested in the first place. As a fellow car guy, I find it pretty easy to strike up a conversation with anyone who has a car that I am interested in looking at/learning more about. I typically introduce myself with just my name, and then chat with them about their car. I usually inquire as to if they detail it or if they have someone else do it. Either way, I typically then continue to explain that I am a "detailing nerd" specializing in paint correction/restoration and ask if they mind if I check out their paint.

It is typically pretty easy to read whether or not someone might be interested in what you have to say. If they seem uninterested, thank them for their time - compliment them on their ride and continue looking around.

If they are interested, proceed to walk around their car and point out some noticeable defects in their paint. Make sure they understand what you mean when you say "swirls" or "haze" etc etc. Continue by explaining to them exactly what you do in order to restore the vehicle's appearance... starting with proper washing and drying, decontamination, polishing, and protection. They need to feel that you posses not only the ability to point out what is wrong with their car, but that you also have the knowledge and skill to fix it. Typically after this 10-15 minute brief walk around, I part ways by offering a business card and ask them to visit my website to see some examples of my work and then tell them I look forward to hearing from them.

Don't expect a call from every single person you talk to, but be sure that you have left an impression on every person. Even if they don't end up calling you, there is a chance they will tell someone else about 'that guy they met at the car meet who can fix your paint'.

-Zach

That's great advice, I'm definitely going to do this at the next cruise night I go to. I'll let you know how it goes, thanks!