How to sell and more importantly: Close the Deal!

[Mike Phillips]

Hi, my name's Jesse Aquino. I've been reading on this forum for a long time now

Hi Jesse,

Welcome to the forum, we love seeing lurkers transition to active members. Interesting first post, looking forward to your future posts...

I've been a Fortune 100 Executive and Consultant for my entire career. As such, I've spent or recommended hundreds of millions of dollars worth of purchases in businesses I've been involved with.

Best regards,
Jim

Wow Jim!

I love reading posts like this that share the background of our members. Very interesting and congratulations on what sounds like a successful career built on years of hard work and dedication.

So is detailing cars your hobby and escape from the corporate world?

I think this is an awesome write up except for one caveat.

The first tip: Using edited photos. If you truly believe in your work, you should be able to go away from the hacks that use edited photos.

I think it is deceiving and lowers the standard of the industry as a whole to use edited photos.

I agree.

For example, take a look at ANY of Mike Phillips' photos. In not A SINGLE ONE, is there an edited photo. That is because it truly lowers the standard of the industry if you must rely on edited photos to make your work look good.

Keen observation. Except for cropping out the fluff, (that means removing the portion that surrounds the actual focus of the shot using the cropping tool), and resizing gargantuan photos to 800 pixels wide so they will fit on the vast majority of computer screens in the world, I don't edit my photos.

To date, my favorite photo set is actually of my own truck that we buffed out last week and that's because I tried really hard to capture the before and after by putting in "controls" that are as simple as taking the before pictures with the truck parked in a specific location, at a specific time for the sunlight at that time. Then when I took the after pictures I parked the truck back in the same position and took the pictures at the same time for the sunlight at that time. The truck truly looked like it did in the before pictures and now it truly looks like the after pictures.

1987 Chevy 4x4 Monster Truck "Before & After" Pictures


Takes a little extra work and time but I when I can I think I'll use the same process for some future projects. The biggest problem is too often you don't have the car the next day to frame up the after shots.

[hofiveo]

Very useful and just what I was thinking and researching about. I recently found an old book at my Dad's house called "How to win friends and influence people" by Dale Carnegie, what a coincidence. I am about half way thru and then start on Renny Doyle's book I just got a couple days ago. Will look into the Sandler Institute also. Thanks, this forum and the men and women here are just priceless.

[vet]

Welcome!

[Kevin Cullen]

Welcome!

Subcribed for sure

[BradsDetailing]

great info!

[thebamboo23]

sub ffr

[hernandez.art13]

Welcome!

Thank you,
I love all useful information.

The other day I was at home. I went on FB and decided to post a "Free Exterior Detail" just cos I was bored. And a few minutes later I got a call and did a quick wash and even applied some wax for my female friend.

After i was thinking to myself. Wow it worked!!!

[jgg85234]

Wow Jim!

So is detailing cars your hobby and escape from the corporate world?

Yes, a hobby. I don't know about an escape.

My wife's accident with her 1989 Pathfinder and her strong desire to keep it rather than replace it got me to looking around at the state of the art in car maintenance.

Now that my detailing skills are back to current, one of these days I have to get the 1989 Pontiac TTA Pace Car out from under the covers and get it ready for show. It's one of only 15 that came without T-Tops and has a cloth interior. And, other than driving it a little to make sure it didn't have any major problems, it's been under wraps since it was new.

I always look for ways I can help people. I had been intending to start a discussion in the How to Make Money detailing cars section, and just never got around to it.

Jesse's excellent post got my brain cranking about how I could help people in this forum.

Among the members, there are many hobbyists. But, there's also serious business people trying to figure out how to grow their businesses.

If you're young, and are self-employed, you feel on top of the world. In order to really make some money in the world of small business, you have to grow. You can only do so much work yourself.

Successful sales techniques apply to every industry, and even apply to your personal life. Every time you meet someone new, you're making an impression, good or bad.

The Sandler Sales Institute gave me the understanding of what made some people more successful than others.

This world of Detailing is an up and coming business. We (at least I) couldn't do what we can do now even 10 years ago. All those bright shiny muscle cars I see at auctions certainly look a lot better than they did when they were new. Watching cars going down the road, I see some that are excellently detailed, many that have had a little work, and many that are having serious clear coat failures (I do live in the desert after all). I see new cars that are swirled beyone belief. Everyone wants to drive a nice shiny car. There's some serious opportunity out there.

Why? Better tools, better chemicals, better techniques, and a desire to make vehicles of every kind look beautiful.

But, how many people who are doing this on their own are thinking about the future? Do you still want to be putting forth the same level of physical effort 10 or 20 years from now? You'll be worn out!

I can certainly share many of the concepts one at a time on this forum. But, if people want to change their lives, the Sandler Sales Institute training will change your life in a very short period of time. It'a a very intense training. Not cheap, but not really expensive for someone who wants to grow a successful business.

My Geeks On Call franchises are gone, and I'm back to working by myself, with occasional assistance (paid) from many other people.

My phone still rings off the hook all day and night, and I have to turn away business frequently because I just can't handle all of it. That's called a referral network.

So, my next question is

When you've made a customer ecstatic over their vehicle, how many of you remember to ask for referrals? Every person you help has their own network. Don't give them a business card, give them several and ask for referrals.

Jim

[Mike@DedicatedPerfection]

Welcome to AGO.

I agree with using unedited pictures. This hobby/profession relies on showing the true work of the individual. Editing your work to make it look even better or hide defects is setting yourself up for failure. You have to strive to make your work perfect and rely on just taking the pictures showing just that. Not trying to bash at all just giving my 2 cents.

[hernandez.art13]

Wow Jim!

So is detailing cars your hobby and escape from the corporate world?

Yes, a hobby. I don't know about an escape.

My wife's accident with her 1989 Pathfinder and her strong desire to keep it rather than replace it got me to looking around at the state of the art in car maintenance.

Now that my detailing skills are back to current, one of these days I have to get the 1989 Pontiac TTA Pace Car out from under the covers and get it ready for show. It's one of only 15 that came without T-Tops and has a cloth interior. And, other than driving it a little to make sure it didn't have any major problems, it's been under wraps since it was new.

I always look for ways I can help people. I had been intending to start a discussion in the How to Make Money detailing cars section, and just never got around to it.

Jesse's excellent post got my brain cranking about how I could help people in this forum.

Among the members, there are many hobbyists. But, there's also serious business people trying to figure out how to grow their businesses.

If you're young, and are self-employed, you feel on top of the world. In order to really make some money in the world of small business, you have to grow. You can only do so much work yourself.

Successful sales techniques apply to every industry, and even apply to your personal life. Every time you meet someone new, you're making an impression, good or bad.

The Sandler Sales Institute gave me the understanding of what made some people more successful than others.

This world of Detailing is an up and coming business. We (at least I) couldn't do what we can do now even 10 years ago. All those bright shiny muscle cars I see at auctions certainly look a lot better than they did when they were new. Watching cars going down the road, I see some that are excellently detailed, many that have had a little work, and many that are having serious clear coat failures (I do live in the desert after all). I see new cars that are swirled beyone belief. Everyone wants to drive a nice shiny car. There's some serious opportunity out there.

Why? Better tools, better chemicals, better techniques, and a desire to make vehicles of every kind look beautiful.

But, how many people who are doing this on their own are thinking about the future? Do you still want to be putting forth the same level of physical effort 10 or 20 years from now? You'll be worn out!

I can certainly share many of the concepts one at a time on this forum. But, if people want to change their lives, the Sandler Sales Institute training will change your life in a very short period of time. It'a a very intense training. Not cheap, but not really expensive for someone who wants to grow a successful business.

My Geeks On Call franchises are gone, and I'm back to working by myself, with occasional assistance (paid) from many other people.

My phone still rings off the hook all day and night, and I have to turn away business frequently because I just can't handle all of it. That's called a referral network.

So, my next question is

When you've made a customer ecstatic over their vehicle, how many of you remember to ask for referrals? Every person you help has their own network. Don't give them a business card, give them several and ask for referrals.

Jim

I should have done this. Asked my customer to give referrals for my free work. It's ok, now i know.