Auto Detailing Prospecting Opportunities: 1 of 4

Country Clubs

You will find that the golf pro is usually the most knowledgeable about the club members and therefore would be able to refer to you members that would be interested in your service. The golf pro knows when members are at the club and he will be your best contact at the club. In exchange for referring members to you, you might want to wash or detail the golf pro’s car on some time up regular basis. You may want to set up in the club parking lot (if permitted) or you can also take the cars to your shop and drop them off when finished.

Flea Markets

Flea Markets are a good place to demonstrate detailing. A good way to do this is to detail half of a car (inside and out) and let people see how big of a difference you can make. You will want to use a really bad car with lots of imperfections in the paint so that the detailed side looks like a whole different car. You can also distribute service menus, answer questions, and describe the services you offer.

On-Site Promotions

Shopping centers, parking lots, car washes, large stores like Home Depot or Wal-Mart, and strip malls with lots of traffic are good places to set up and show what you can do. Like the flea markets, you should take a half-detailed car that shows a huge difference and you should distribute service menus while you are there.

Vehicle Owner Lists

Vehicle lists can be purchased in most states from listing companies. Some states (such as Pennsylvania) prohibit the sale of such lists. These lists contain people who have recently purchased new cars and you determine the criteria of what information you will receive. You can offer these people new car protection plans that will cost much less than what the dealer would have charged them (if they did not already get this from the dealer). In some states you can also get lists of leased vehicles that will show leased vehicles that are about to be returned. You can create a service to prepare these vehicles for trade-in so that the customer will not have to pay penalties when the return them. You can also work with the leasing companies to prepare returned cars for re-sale.

Income Lists

You are able to obtain income lists categorized by zip code and then target the people/areas with disposable income that would be interested in your service. You should have outlined in your business plan your typical customer demographics which is who you should target.

10:26 - 2007-Nov-20