Need advice on Dealerships pricing.

A

AutoNova

New member
I am getting ready to spread my wings and hit small dealerships (1-50) cars and try and win some business. I need advice on how some of you have set up your dealership and business pricing and if there are any threads already available to read?



What is a good way to divide up the dealers and business packeages? Would a few basic packages work better than 5-6 choices?
 
I'd stick with privately owned vehicles if at all possible. Dealers want you at their beck and call and at least here, don't pay squat. The new car dealers have their own detailing staffs and the tote the note lots pay about $50 tops for details.
 
I have found some small lots recently that have about 14-20 cars and currently pay around $100 for a full detail. That is the business I would like to find. By no means do I have the equipment at this point to do 20o cars a day, although that would be a nice money-making subsidary at some point. Getiing lots that supply 2-3 cars a week and pay for full details would be the way to go. I know what your saying, I will run into some knuckleheads.
 
Scottwax said:
I'd stick with privately owned vehicles if at all possible. Dealers want you at their beck and call and at least here, don't pay squat. The new car dealers have their own detailing staffs and the tote the note lots pay about $50 tops for details.
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I totally agree. I tried my hands into that market, and I will never attempt to again. It may sound like a good market if you think about it quickly, but you will soon find out once you look into it, it's not as good as it may look.
 
I'd try to get the dealer to agree to having you come out on a certain day each week rather than at their whim.
 
Dealers need detailing and it pays when selling a car and I think, like alot of you have discussed, if you set your price and stand your ground than it would be a win-win. If a dealer wants things that are not on the price list it will be quoted. If the car is in below average condition it will cost xtra. I would prefer to work more in the area of prepping cars than re-conditioning like the local auction, which I have heard nightmares about.
 
AutoNova said:
Dealers need detailing and it pays when selling a car and I think, like alot of you have discussed, if you set your price and stand your ground than it would be a win-win.
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Good luck with that. I get calls from the local tote the note lots and when I tell them I charge a minimum of $125 for dealer cars with no discounts, they either hang up or cuss me out then hang up. Why the heck should I give them a discount? I'd have to turn down full price privately owned vehicles to do the work for them for less. I don't think so.



If they pay more in your area, then fine. Down here, there are a lot of hacker detailers using illegals for help and are willing to work for next to nothing.



If the car is in below average condition it will cost xtra. I would prefer to work more in the area of prepping cars than re-conditioning like the local auction, which I have heard nightmares about.
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Uh, where do you think used car dealers (not new car dealership's used cars) get their cars? Mostly from auctions.
 
AutoNova said:
What is "tote and note", same as "buy here pay here"?
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Yeah, those guys. I did cars for a few of them when I started out and as you can probably tell, it wasn't a pleasant experience. Not only did they not pay squat, but they if they wanted a car done, they expected me to cancel my other appointments and get right on their cars.



If you can find a decent dealer who is willing to have you set aside a day for him and pay you what your work is worth, it could be a really good deal. Just make sure you get everything in writing first.
 
AutoNova said:
Dealers need detailing and it pays when selling a car and I think, like alot of you have discussed, if you set your price and stand your ground than it would be a win-win.
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AutoNova,



Listen closely to the valuable information that Scottwax and ajbarnes have offered. Try to realize that they are speaking from their own experience and they certainly know what they are talking about.



Here's a story I'd like to share.

One day while I was detailing a customer's car a delivery man stopped to drop off a package. We got to talking and he told me that he had also been a detailer too. He said he recently had his own business and that he did work at local auto auctions and dealerships. I asked him how much he charged. And he told me $5.00. I said no, you must have mis-understood my question. I mean; like how much did you get paid to detail a car? He again said $5.00. So I asked; well, how much time did you spend working on an average car? He replied; about one half hour. [I thought to myself, hey that's $10 per hour. It's better than nothing.] At that point I asked him one final question; how come you're not still doing the detailing? He simply said; oh they got someone else to do it for less. That's a true story.



Now there's nothing wrong with doing that kind of detailing work. After all, somebody's got to do it. And for some people, making $10 per hr is a lot better than making nothing. That's for sure. It's just that there are a lot of other ways to make a lot more money. It's all about working 'smarter' not 'harder'.



Just something to think about...



P.S. Since I started my own detailing business in 1986 I continue to service only 100% 'retail customers'. No wholesale dealerships or auctions.
 
I've been to a few dealer auctions (Manheim) and all had their own detailers on staff prepping cars for dealers.



One quick story:



I was at an auction in FL with a friend and he was talking to another dealer who was selling 5-6 cars that day. There were a couple of guys "cleaning" cars for dealers. They had this total beater van filled with all sorts of crud (I did see a few Auto Magic bottles but who knows what was in them?).



The guys would come over to your cars and bring a bucket of DIRTY water and a chamois and start rubbing down the car. They'd dunk the chamois in the bucket, wring it out a little, then go back to rubbing. Paint, glass, trim, wheels, tires... everything got the Dirty Chamois Treatment.



I didn't ask what they charged but the dealer I was talking to gave them $20/car for about 5 mins of work each.
 
I have set up dealership pricing that offers packeages from $25-125. I have a Basic wash and a Silver, Gold, Platinum wash, then a Full Detail 1 & 2. The Full detail #2 is $125. Some detailers may want this and some may not. I have a buddy of mine who worked at an auction for $7/hr and had to be there at 4 a.m. in the morning with cars lined up the hill.



I will give the sheet to the detailers and let them know that ther are extra charges for cars that are average to below average according to review. Nothing gained, nothing loss. My hope is that I will give them 1 freebie to see the work and hopefully they will come back.
 
mirrorfinishman said:
I asked him how much he charged. And he told me $5.00. At that point I asked him one final question; how come you're not still doing the detailing? He simply said; oh they got someone else to do it for less.
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You just have to wonder why anyone would even do it. It absolutely insane. You could make more money flippin' burgers. Its guys like that, that make people think that 200 bucks is a crazy price for a real detail.:wall
 
NozeBleedSpeed said:
Its guys like that, that make people think that 200 bucks is a crazy price for a real detail.:wall
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Amen to that! Most of my new business is through referrals, but occasionally when I get a call and tell them the price range they are looking at, they will say I'm way too expensive and they used to have someone who'd do it for $XX....then they say if I'll knock a certain amount off my price, they will let me detail their car. :rolleyes: Pass.
 
Scottwax said:
Amen to that! Most of my new business is through referrals, but occasionally when I get a call and tell them the price range they are looking at, they will say I'm way too expensive and they used to have someone who'd do it for $XX....then they say if I'll knock a certain amount off my price, they will let me detail their car. :rolleyes: Pass.
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Similar thing just happened to me last week. I went to an office park two weeks ago passing out flyers. One guy said he was interested in a full detail which is $90-$115 starting price which he thought was too high, but he said he was still interested and wouldn't want it done until the following week because he was getting work done on his car. Went there last week to follow up, and he said he just got it done from someone else for $40!:eek: Went outside to go back to my car and went pass his car and what do you know.....swirls, scratches, and wax residue by the license plate......this was all seen just by me walking pass his car without looking at it up close! I think we all know what the moral of this story is.:xyxthumbs
 
The horror stories abound. One thing I have learned from being an Autopian is stick by your guns, keep your prices competitive, but know that your work is attentive and therefore we are worth the money! It will pay sooner or later and just like myself I have to work another job to avoid famine until the slow times pass and then feast.
 
I agree with the pricing. Even though im just starting up in this state, my prices will not be any lower, mabye even a tad higher than other shops. I have seen the "detail" work of these shops. I think the problem is with shops, that they have to many cars to do, maybe not complete details, but to many to spend enough time on each car. I will be happy with doing a few cars a week ,with amazing results. People wouldnt mind paying more for better quality work if they really know what detailing is. That is how come my brochure is going to lure the customers in to begin with. Then once word of mouth spreads your set, you can slow down on advertising.
 
I f I may chime in my 2 cents about dealers and my experiences over 10 years of dealing with them. Dealers for the most part suck and dealing with them sucks. That's a pretty open ended statement for sure but from my own experiences and those of many others that have posted it holds true. Anyone ever hear this one? "you can't charge me more for the hard cars because the easy cars will balance it out". How about "do the first one for free so I can accurately assess how good your work is". I have a million of them I tell ya. Thankfully for me I do actually deal with at least one high quality dealership that actually cares about fostering a positive relationship with its suplliers as they understand their importance to the dealerships overall success. Unfortunately I have also dealt with all the "typical" idiots that have been described at length throughout this thread. Dealers kill detailing businesses - period. Find one successful detailer who relies heavily on doing high quality work for dealers and you have found the proverbial needle in the haystack. Dealers don't respect what professional detailing is or how it affects their business - even in this age of supposed quality standards and such. For example, I have a good friend who is a sales executive at the Cadillac dealership. He desperately wants me to do all their work but their GM wants to stay with the current shop they use because they are closer and faster (makes sense to a certian degree). This dealer also sells a "new vehicle protection package" to the tune of around $1500. My friend sold a new cadillac DTS and the protection package and went to great lengths to make sure the customer was happy. However, the very expensive cleanup package was so bad that the customer called to complain while ON VACATION in Florida. This is normal at a dealership. How often are they going to have a problem mechanically with a brand new car? Not very often but how much money do they invest in having a highly trained technician make sure that everything is running perfectly? Now on the flip side - how much did they spend on the detailing and appearance of the vehicle even though they sold an incredibly overpriced protection package which would pay for a quality detail job 10x over? Nada - zip - zilch it's an after thought. Dealers only consider detailing quality at all when they have a complaint - never before.



Sorry about the novel here and I hope I didn't crap in anyones corn flakes but if you want the truth - you now have it.
 
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