Soliciting Dealership Work

VP Mark

VP Mark

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For those of you out there that have dealership accounts, how did you go about acquiring them? What was your pitch, did you offer them a contract? A free demonstration? What do you recommend when pitching to dealerships?

I don't particularly like dealership work, but am looking to add some "evening" work to my regular detailing schedule just to bring in some additional revenue.

Most local dealer work is done by people that have no experience in paint correction. I regularly see cars that are freshly "detailed" and completely covered in swirls. If I did just a simple 1 step with an AIO it would blow the current work away, so the market is ripe for some above average work.
 
Your right about the sub par work but most dealership don't want to pay that much and they want it done like yesterday. I have a few dealer accounts for washes. And I take their real tough jobs that there other guys can't handle or if they get a high line car in. But the guys doing the normal work are only getting $50 a car and they are supplying the materials.

But the pitch just use is reliability and accountability. And when they use a contractor they can cut the cost of an employee and all the costs associated with that.

They are in it for profit like all of us once you show them that they will usually bite. Every area is different so ask around and get some competitive prices in your area. Hope this helps

Sent from my SGH-T999 using AG Online
 
VP Mark said:
For those of you out there that have dealership accounts, how did you go about acquiring them? What was your pitch, did you offer them a contract? A free demonstration? What do you recommend when pitching to dealerships?

I don't particularly like dealership work, but am looking to add some "evening" work to my regular detailing schedule just to bring in some additional revenue.

Most local dealer work is done by people that have no experience in paint correction. I regularly see cars that are freshly "detailed" and completely covered in swirls. If I did just a simple 1 step with an AIO it would blow the current work away, so the market is ripe for some above average work.
Click to expand...
Unless your going to get into a very high end dealership I suggest you don't waste your time.The reason that dealers have the detailers they have is due to cost.The factories don't really pay the dealer for a detail. And said but true most people really don't see all the defects the car has . The Dealership I shop foreman carries very high line cars and we use a sub contractor to detail our cars .It's cheaper for the owner too do this doesn't have to pay workman's comp or give benefits . I think the company gets about $30.00 for a new car prep . I've discussed the quality of the cars leaving the dealership and haven't ever gotten anywhere with it .When sales sells a car they want the car ready for delivery ASAP and don't want to wait a couple of hours for it. Even the car we deliver out of our Lamborghini store aren't that great .

Like I say unless you get a good contract and a set price you may want to skip Dealership's I can only tell you what I see and have experienced over the past 30 plus years working at new car dealerships
 
I'd say from experience, "most" of the the owners, managers, and anyone else dealing with customer sales at a dealership, PLUS the customers themselves, don't know the difference between a squirrel and a swirl and thus won't pay for it.


The difference between a swirl and squirrel


For clarification...

This is a Squirrel
ScottsVetteScratch011.jpg



These are Swirls
CobwebSwirls001.jpg



:D
 
I appreciate your input and I understand exactly where your coming from, but I do have a pretty good finger on the pulse of the local market. The local market pays anywhere from $100-150 for a "full detail". With a steam cleaner, ONR, and One step polish I can churn these out in 3-5 hours. I would rather have retail work obviously but $30 an hour is still good pay to "supplement" my normal intake.

I know dealers don't have extremely high standards, but that can also be an advantage to a contractor who knows what they are doing. I have done dealer work before, and am interested in soliciting some from the local market. I think any information about "selling" to dealerships would be beneficial for a lot of other guys around here too.

Harleyguy said:
Unless your going to get into a very high end dealership I suggest you don't waste your time.The reason that dealers have the detailers they have is due to cost.The factories don't really pay the dealer for a detail. And said but true most people really don't see all the defects the car has . The Dealership I shop foreman carries very high line cars and we use a sub contractor to detail our cars .It's cheaper for the owner too do this doesn't have to pay workman's comp or give benefits . I think the company gets about $30.00 for a new car prep . I've discussed the quality of the cars leaving the dealership and haven't ever gotten anywhere with it .When sales sells a car they want the car ready for delivery ASAP and don't want to wait a couple of hours for it. Even the car we deliver out of our Lamborghini store aren't that great .

Like I say unless you get a good contract and a set price you may want to skip Dealership's I can only tell you what I see and have experienced over the past 30 plus years working at new car dealerships
Click to expand...
 
I agree completely. I'm not trying to reinvent the the wheel or "show them what they are missing" by offering high quality work for peanuts. I'm simply wanting to pick up some dealer work for the extra revenue and income, and am looking for some input on effective ways to approach that.

Mike.Phillips@Autogeek said:
I'd say from experience, "most" of the the owners, managers, and anyone else dealing with customer sales at a dealership, PLUS the customers themselves, don't know the difference between a squirrel and a swirl and thus won't pay for it.


The difference between a swirl and squirrel


For clarification...

This is a Squirrel
ScottsVetteScratch011.jpg



These are Swirls
CobwebSwirls001.jpg



:D
Click to expand...
 
If you can extract that $150, and that amount fits into your business plan, I applaud you....rock on, for sure! My experience, FWIW, mirrors what's been described above. I've done a two details for dealerships, and I can't fathom doing another one. It was a complete PITA to get paid, and I was fighting for space with the rush-it-and-crush-it detail monkeys who were "working" on inventory cars.

IME, the high-volume dealerships - and their customers - don't value the service. Premium dealerships usually only do so when the customer insists. Just my take, but I'll at least suggest that you spend your marketing time asking sales people, service writers, and perhaps other staff to take your card and throw business your way in return for a referral fee.
 
Everyone's comments are hilarious but it's completely true. I try to avoid them at all costs but I'll do them so I keep the wash work. That is super fast and its a nice fill when your not booked all the time

Sent from my SGH-T999 using AG Online
 
Your best bet is to get friendly with the GM and the salesperson and get them to put your business card in the car they sell. You may have to share some freebies (like taking care of the GM's car, or his wife's car or....) but you will then create a customer base rather than depending on one customer (ie the dealership). It is not like it is compete business because none of them do offer onsite detailing as part of their business.

I would tell the team something along the lines of "for every 5 full details I get from you, I will take care of one of your guys!" (or something like that)

As other expressed, I would not fool with them, not really worth the hassle and the brown nosing (unless you are dealing with a high end dealership).
 
No thank you. Only if it's a high end dealer that sells high end cars then maybe I will consider, other than that, I will pass. I do wish you good luck.
 
A friend of mine just got involved with his wife's family used car lot. He called me to inquire about doing a few cars a month. I asked him what he is paying now he said $125 inside/out any size car, truck or van. I told him he was getting a good deal and to keep using him. I wanted no part of it. I like retail customers better. The cars coming from the auction are not worth it.
 
In my area dealerships are net30. $90 for full details with buffing... $15 for washes...

Honestly, a service writers are the way to go...once they see your work, maybe you can get employees as regulars.
 
Dr. Pain and John are spot on.

By making 'contacts' you'll get more business than the busy work you may create working for wholesale rates. Not that $30 an hour is bad money, BUT... once they know you'll do it for that they'll expect you to do it FOREVER, and WHENEVER. Like when they bring you their wife's car on your own time. Or WORSE they'll just slip all their cars in at the wholesale rate. (I like this idea so much that I may try it locally with some friends at local lots.) ;)

On the 'net 30' I totally agree. And that's with a small dealership. The bigger the store, the LONGER they'll age their paper. There are three CARMAX stores in Atlanta that I used to do work for. (Towing service department work at one and inventory cars at all three.) They NEVER paid in under 45 days and would sometimes go 90 days out. So much so that I had to modify my monthly statements to all my accounts to reflect discounts.

For instance I would have their statement in everyone's hands by the 2nd of each month. The disclaimer would be something along the lines of if they paid within 15 days 5% discount, 15~ 29, full amount, 30~44 +10%, 45~59 +15% and so on. Depending on which account it was, and what their payment history was like (IE CARMAX) they often ended up with a 25% late payment penalty. They wanted everything and I mean EVERYTHING done ASAP and they wanted to pay half what anybody in town did. (With the exception of the Service Department, which was paid locally rather than via corporate like their inventory, both new and used.)

Bottom line is SURE, filling time with those $150 4 hour jobs isn't going to kill you. Especially if you get 5~6 a week or more. But.... having all your expenses and time invested in the job(s) only to deal with an account that 'ages' their accounts will net you far less than the $150 job. Just my observations from doing dealership work for over 18 years.
 
Hello, I recently started doing work for luxury cars dealership. They´ve got Ferraris, Lamborginis, Bentleys and all that stuff. Firstly i did for them BMW X6, it was only about wash, clay, cleaner wax and topped it with antoher layer of wax. I got money I wanted, so it was ok. Then I had to do Dodge Viper, it was also job similar to that x6....just wash, m205 and wax. I got less money but still ok. Then they called me to polish Porsche Carrera, dealership owner didn´t have time for me to discuss what he wants to do with the paint so I did what I saw....I did two step polishing (M105+m205) and waxed it all took me around 12 hours.
But then the problem came...
car dealer from that dealership came to me when the car was finished and he said that the customer will be back soon and that he wanted to "erase" some deep scratches that were there on the back spoiler and on the hood and the dealer promised that they won´t be visible no more!
I just did few passes over those scratches with m105 but those scratches were too deep and I didn´t want to romove so much clearcoat so they were still visible, less visible but still you could see them.
And that was whole problem which made owner of dealership to end cooperation with me.

Leštění aut this is how the porsche came out, I thought that I did great work improving paint finish but they had different opinion :(
 
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Just to note...


I did send the link to this thread to my buddy Lenny but he's had some registration issues. I think they have been resolved so hopefully he'll have time to weigh in with his experience and advice.


:)
 
Great, I would love to hear it. I know a lot of AutoGeeks frown on this type of work, but a lot of detailers make a lot of money with work like this, so I think a lot of people could benefit from at least knowing the pros and cons of this type of work.

Mike.Phillips@Autogeek said:
Just to note...


I did send the link to this thread to my buddy Lenny but he's had some registration issues. I think they have been resolved so hopefully he'll have time to weigh in with his experience and advice.


:)
Click to expand...
 
DannyDetail said:
Hello, I recently started doing work for luxury cars dealership. They´ve got Ferraris, Lamborginis, Bentleys and all that stuff. Firstly i did for them BMW X6, it was only about wash, clay, cleaner wax and topped it with antoher layer of wax. I got money I wanted, so it was ok. Then I had to do Dodge Viper, it was also job similar to that x6....just wash, m205 and wax. I got less money but still ok. Then they called me to polish Porsche Carrera, dealership owner didn´t have time for me to discuss what he wants to do with the paint so I did what I saw....I did two step polishing (M105+m205) and waxed it all took me around 12 hours.
But then the problem came...
car dealer from that dealership came to me when the car was finished and he said that the customer will be back soon and that he wanted to "erase" some deep scratches that were there on the back spoiler and on the hood and the dealer promised that they won´t be visible no more!
I just did few passes over those scratches with m105 but those scratches were too deep and I didn´t want to romove so much clearcoat so they were still visible, less visible but still you could see them.
And that was whole problem which made owner of dealership to end cooperation with me.

Leštění aut this is how the porsche came out, I thought that I did great work improving paint finish but they had different opinion :(
Click to expand...

You did do great, considering how BAD it looked before! :eek:
Could have told the owner if HE would take responsibility for sanding it down to primer then you could indeed remove all scratches. Likely NOT!

This is where a good paint gauge would come into play. Even with using the tool, that does not mean all scratches can be removed however. :dunno:
 
Yes, thank you very much for the support. That paint was horrible but as Michael said, there are people who don´t see those swirls..

If I knew that they wanted to remove those deep scratches, I would just wetsand those areas, compound them and then do whole car by m205 and waxed it..

But I hate to do that when I see that the paint is in that shape!

I agre that PTG would be very helpful but it´s so expensive for me :(
 
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