how to get customers

Hey this is Brent I been detailing for about 10 years for dealer ships.. So I decide to start my own business in detailing and paint less dent repair and head light Restoration. My Question is How do I sale my business to customers what are some good lines. That could help me I want to pervade high quality product to customers….
Thanks
Brent Verrett
Brent’s Auto Care

Brent : You might wish to get hold of some books about selling. You can order them from your public library. Some are available on tape or CD so you can listen while you drive. Joe Girard's books are largely a rehash of standard sales training but generally sound . Girard holds the Guiness record for car sales. Girard advises communicating without big words so that you speak the customer's language and " assuming the sale ".

I always liked sales trainers, Jerry Bresser and Hank Trisler. I recall an entertaining guy named Don Hutson too. Bresser was big on "logic checks " or "tie-downs" such as, " Can you see how that would work ?", "Isn't it? ", "doesn't it?", "wouldn't it?", " Couldn't it?" , " Don't you agree?".

Bud Recommends the book, The E Myth Revisited, which I read and liked in spite of its repitition ( it should have been a magazine article ).

Ketch has, I recall, suggested that you " be the doctor " by first diagnosing the problems with paint depth guage and magnifier in hand before announcing what the car needs and what it will cost.

Doug

" Nothing Happens Until Somebody Sells Something "-from Twelve Master Salesmen

Brent : I'd like to add that you can rent or buy books on tape or CD from www.recordedbooks.com if the public library fails you. You can also join libraries in other locales than yours.

Jerry Bresser, the sales trainer was also the king of power closes such as, " You'll never regret that you have taken action with me today" , and " Do I seem like the kind of person who will do what I say I will do ?".

Sales trainer Tom Hopkins used to use a technique he called the, " Alternative Of Choice ", in which both answers the customer could give amount to a "yes" : Would eight o'clock be a good time to drop off your car or would nine o'clock be better for you ?

Amazon.com is a good site for books...

Doug

Brent : Follow this outline : Get acquainted with the customer, probe for needs, lead to a decision, isolate objections and overcome them, close .

Let the customer do most of the talking. Under-promise, over-deliver.

Doug

" The elevator to wealth, success and happiness is out of order. You are going to have to take the stairs-one step at a time. "--quoted by Joe Girard

Hey doug thanks so much for the tips. I will go out and bye some of the cd to leason to be for a job thats a good idea....

You guys might be jumping the gun on telling him how to sell. You cannot sell if you do not have customers to sell to.

His posting was "How to get customers?"

Not how to sell to customers.

What you need to do is set up a marketing plan. Marketing is the method by which you bring your services to the market.

You need to answer these marketing questions:

1. What am I selling? Detailing, headlight restoration and PDR are all different services that have different markets. And many people do not buy detailing, they buy protection of leisure time; protection of investment; ego gratification, etc.

2. Who will buy it and why?

3. Where are they?

4. How do I reach them? That is, what media to use.

5. What do I say to motivate them to call or come to me.

When you can answer these questions you will get more customers if you have the money to implement the marketing plan. It takes money to advertise which is a part of the marketing plan as you can see. "How do I reach them?' Is it direct mail; handbills; newspaper; radio, TV?

Regards
Bud Abraham
DETAIL PLUS SYSTEMSbrentsautocare wrote:

> Hey this is Brent I been detailing for about 10 years for
> dealer ships.. So I decide to start my own business in
> detailing and paint less dent repair and head light
> Restoration. My Question is How do I sale my business to
> customers what are some good lines. That could help me I want
> to pervade high quality product to customers….
> Thanks
> Brent Verrett
> Brent’s Auto Care



buda

Brent,

In order to be successful at operating your own detailing business, the first thing you need to do is concentrate on business principles even more than you concentrate on detailing principles.

You should focus 80 percent of your educational efforts on learning more about what it takes to own and operate a successful and profitable business. The other 20 percent should be devoted to the actual process of detailing.

What you are going to find is that many detailing businesses fail because the owners are too busy taking care of the technical side of the business. Sure, thses guys may be good detailers, however, that does not necessarily make them good business owners.

Do your homework. Plan on taking a few small business courses and get in touch with the US Small Business Administration. [www.sba.gov]

You would be smart to learn as much as you can about how to effectively market, advertise and promote your new detailing business.



*

Hey thanks alote to everyone...

Bud : You are right. I misread Brent's post and agree that what he's really after is marketing strategy. I'll attempt to correct my error by supplying some marketing tips :

Brent : A former professional detail shop owner who had, in addition to his shop, two mobile units ( vans ), told me he benefitted immensely from locating his shop on a busy street. He said he got walk-ins that way. A large used car operation that I'm sure you have heard of saw his vans around town and called him to contract with him to detail their used cars. There wasn't much money in that wholesale work but it kept his men working. He was likable and his personality made people want to do business with him.

An adult education instructor, teaching a course in restaurant operation, advised trying all forms of advertising to see what worked : handbills, pamphlets, business cards, coupons, yellow pages etc.

You might wish to make a list of suppliers you will have to buy from, including a paint shop, uniform service, locksmith, alarm company or whatever. You can attempt to trade detailing services for their products or for advertising and printing. Once you do that, these suppliers can be your word-of-mouth advertisers.

For headlight restoration, one guy suggested I obtain a pair of junked headlights, restore one and mount the two on a display board as " before and after " illustration.

PDR business can be obtained through body and glass shops. You can have them post a sign , "We Do Paintless Dent Repair " and push the service. You would show up one day a week to take all of the appointments they lined up for you.

Doug



Post Edited (09-01-06 20:49)

[www.cminstitute.net]

Brent : You must consider the basics first : a good business card and a folded pamphlet about your company and services. It pays to pick out good paper and a good printing firm for your pamphlet. Make the pamphlet look high quality because the customer will form an image of your company from it. Consider printing it in brown-on-tan.

Write a press release ( a pre-fab news story on your new venture ) and send it to all of the local newspapers-free advertising !

Doug

Brent : Here are some low-cost promotion ideas.

You can have large cards printed up with sports schedules on one side and an appearance maintenance schedule on the other side. You could have them made up with a racing schedule and a car show calendar or maybe a list of gas-saving tips, which you can find at www.fueleconomy.gov . The association of your name with car shows will lend an image of show car detailing quality. If you print ruler markings along the edges, people can use these cards as a handy measuring tool.

Doug

" The key to success : Early to bed and early to rise. Work like hell and advertise. "