<div class="bbWrapper">Yo dude I'm a 17 y/o car detailer too, I'll give you some pointers!<br />
<blockquote data-attributes="member: 121499" data-quote="Kevinn" data-source="post: 1118714"
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Well I've been reading other threads and I've decided tomorrow I'm gonna knock on some doors and ask if people want their cars detailed. I've been doing my own interior detailing on my families cars for a while, so I have a steamer, carpet extractor, shop vac, etc.<br />
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Some questions I have:<br />
- Pricing: I am confident I could do at least 90% of what a professional detailer could do. Problem is I have no credibility. I was thinking on charging $100 for a sedan and around $150 for SUV's and minivans. Am I under/over charging? Is it better to charge low and get referrals first?<br />
- Sales Pitch: I plan on going along the lines of I'm Kevin I'm in high school, I'm trying to start a detailing business. Would you like your car cleaned? Minor thing, but would whatever I am wearing matter? I plan on wearing a t-shirt and shorts so I can quickly begin detailing but I've heard polo and khakis are more presentable.<br />
- Referrals: I plan on making business cards using index cards and creating a GMB and social media profiles to get referrals. I'll hand these out to customers that I get from door to door.<br />
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Any other pointers?
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</blockquote>1. Pricing is good. If you price low, people will think that your service sucks and that's why it's cheap.<br />
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2. I like the pitch but it lacks confidence. Don't say you're "trying" to start a car detailing business, to them it looks like you don't have a lot of experience. Instead, start out by going to your neighbors and saying "hey I'm your neighbor over on X! I go to Y high school and detail cars on the side. Do you mind if I take a quick look inside your car to give you a price? It'll just take 30 seconds." This works because it's easier to say yes to and once they open their car a lot of the time they say something like "sorry, its a mess." which you can respond with "that's what I'm here for!". It establishes that they have a need that you can solve. Only after you check their car out and explain your cleaning process should you be giving pricing details.<br />
- What you're wearing matters but not in the way you think. Scrap the khakis---look like a car detailer. I go out wearing a baseball cap, wifebeater, cargo pants, and work boots. This way when potential customers open the door they see you and think "this guy looks like he works!" not "this guy looks like he's trying to sell me something!"<br />
- Door to door is hard. Be prepared to get a lot of no's. Each one gets you closer to a yes.<br />
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3. Get on Nextdoor ASAP! You can invite previous customers to leave referrals on here and it's what the app was made for. Massive success in business doing this so far. Once you get the hang of it you can run paid ads but I wouldn't worry about it right now.</div>
