|
I used to think the higher the price tag, the harder it is to sell And that's not entirely true, sometimes it's actually easier than selling a $200-300 service While I partially agree to that, selling a high ticket service (above $1,000+) usually has a lot less headache that comes with it What I realised with my own eyes and experience: Low ticket = low quality customers wanting less with more High ticket = high quality customers respecting the value A $200 full detail customer is going to nit pick little tiny details and complain more than the customer that paid $1,000+ In business, different prices serves a completely different demographic and segment of the same market $20 running shoes from Target vs $300 branded Nike $90 generic android phones vs $1,399 Samsung S20 Ultra $20,000 Toyota vs $200,000 Bentley $100 budget flight tickets vs $2,000 first class tickets If we boil it down to it's core - it's the exact same thing BUT each price points is serving a completely different segment of the same market Then I had an epiphany. My price points for my detail services are pretty much the $20 running shoes from target I'm in a heavily commoditized market and pricing I had to change things up - I NEED to move away from being commoditized if not I'm going to drown in a heavily saturated market No more "full detail", no more "buff and wax" or "cut and polish" (god I HATE those terms) Redid and revamped my entire business and start branding and pricing things differently When I started doing that and priced my detailing services to the 4 figure calibre, I thought I'll get less busy and probably fail.. But the opposite happened and got way busier: - High-end, newer cars (not some 10-year-old SUV soccer mum needing interior work done. Leave that to the 1.0 detail *cough* sweatshop) - Charging what I actually worth instead of trying to cut my prices pulling their teeth to get them book in something I know I'm not charging what I'm worth - No more thrashed out neglected cars - Being much respected as a specialist than a car cleaning dude - Being invited to exclusive car meets, cruises, events etc (One of my clients actually personally pick me up and brought me to Porsche dealership with him to buy his new 991.2 911 GTS and pre-booked in a $1,900 full protection package on the same day - what a good day that was)  It's 2020 and it's shocking how much 99% of detailers don't realize how much the game has changed in the last +/3 years - especially with the current world events
A surefire way to win and be laps ahead of the game is to move away from being commoditized (part of the 4 pillars of the new-age 2.0 detailers) Read the full article: The 4 Pillars of Detailing 2.0 Hope this helps! - Yikhai Wong
0 Comments
It's been a crazy week.. Finished off the week coating an E400 with GTECHNIQ Crystal Serum Ultra Many don't realize is, people are still buying brand new cars (or fairly new ex-demos) even with this whole craziness that is going on right now  Working on cars has always been therapeutic for me It allows me to clear my head, block out the noise, listen to my favourite post-hardcore bands and sift through my thoughts It's almost like I'm in my little own world doing what I do best Just this week I was reflecting what are actual pivot points for my business throughout my journey And it came down to these 4 things that changed my detailing business from your typical jim's detail to a high scale business doing 30-50 coatings/month (and no we don't have any dealership or fleet contract) **** This is going to be a long article packed with golden nuggets that clients paid me thousands to help them I just want to put this upfront in case you're in the middle of something important - save it and read later Turn off Youtube, close all your tabs, put away your phone (or close all apps if you're reading from your phone) - enjoy and take notes. If you can't sit and read an article that could potentially change your life and your business, close this window and go watch Netflix. This is not for you. Let's start with 1st pillar:  In any given market, there's ALWAYS a high buying power market vertical and there's ALWAYS somebody serving them If you're not serving that market - somebody else is. Always remember that Here are some real life examples - $35,000 Mac Pro - Bentley, Rolls-Royce, Porsche - $3-$10,000 International Airline Tickets - 5 Star Hotels All of them, they are not targeting the everyday consumer - they are serving the high buying power market vertical even though it's a small percentage of them, it makes up 80% of their profit How does it apply to your detailing business? Branding and market positioning (linking with the 2nd pillar) Here's proof:  One of my rockstar client, a private collector - doesn't blink an eye of how much I charge. Gets me in every single week to detail his cars Cars that got previously coated, he'll get me to recoat in again often. He just loves a clean, detailed cars in his private crib If I did not brand and position myself in the higher buying power market vertical, trust factor wouldn't be there and he would not have secure me in to do his cars regularly 2nd Pillar:  Long gone the days of market yourself as a "detailer" Almost every day there's a new detailer popping up every single day How many times have you go into Instagram and find out that old mate Jim just started his mobile detailing business 4 days ago and now taking potential clients from you? That Black Range Rover you quoted last week? Now Jim got the job by charging $100 less and now he's posting it all over social media flexing how now he's a paint correction specialist lol The game has changed so much in 2020 man, it's not 2017 anymore where you call yourself a "Paint Correction Specialist" and it'll grab attention of your potential clients Differentiation and client loyalty doesn't come from word of mouth, or quality of work anymore, it's not enough You need to differentiate yourself from a brand-targeting standpoint by defining your unique market you're serving See for yourself and here's how to do it:  The term "detailing" is extremely broad. There are so many types of detailing. Wash? Clean? Polish? Correction? Coating? PPF? All fall under the umbrella of "detailing" And these "detailing" business targets a generic market with absolute no differentiation   Here's what the thriving, successful 2.0 detailers do to cut out the competition and serving high end clients choosing only to book with you at all times:  By serving a niched market segment and defined your unique market: 1) Actual differentiation and not just differentiation by different logo 2) No need to run monthly "specials" or "promos" undercutting yourself to get your through the month 3) Authority and specialist position, you're not just some dude that cleans car 4) You become your market's go-to detailer 5) Actually charging what you're worth and competition becomes irrelevant - they can try to compete with you but you are differentiated by being your market's authority. It's like comparing a general practitioner doctor and a brain surgeon. They are 2 completely different doctors 3rd Pillar:  Best marketers are the best salesmen, best salesmen are the best marketers One cannot exist without the other - first you learn how to sell yourself to book in correction/coating jobs, and then you learn your market and your client's language Reflect and mirror back in your branding & marketing messages to your market and you have a killer marketing that cuts through all the other detailers in your market circle laps around them Barely detailer I met knows how to market and sell themselves and their services Marketing is a pain for a lot of us detailers I know it well because I used to be that guy Every call ended with "Let me think about it" with absolutely no differentiation from other detailers (Pillar 1 & 2) Here's an advice that will save you the potential headache, time-wasters and $1,000/month - do not hire a marketing agency to outsource your marketing Myth: I'm just gonna pay a marketing agency to do all the marketing and I'll just do my job Fact: Works in theory but it NEVER works in real life Worked with 3 big-name marketing companies in my city Promising over the world costing me $1,000/month + ad spend out of pocket ending up with nothing but car wash leads with mummy vans Here's the problem: 1) Marketing agencies are not detailers (duh), they DON'T understand the nuanced services we offer. There's a huge difference between a car wash, detailing and paint correction/coating services - 3 of them are completely different markets Weekly report sent to me showing they generated 50 leads that week - and they are all car wash and mummy van leads which is exactly what I'm NOT after Explaining to them those are shitty leads and they can't seem to wrap their head around what I meant and kept telling me there's nothing wrong and we're good with the numbers we're doing 5 interior details a day with fried up fries and coffee with the smell of sweat is not the detailers dream 2) Most marketing work by marketing agencies are outsourced to white label contractors from 3rd world countries This is a standard practice in the marketing industry - when you're talking to a marketing agency, really they are just the middlemen They don't have a team to actually work on your marketing. Even if they do, they only allocate couple hours a week to run your ads and they priorities bigger paying projects over yours - in the end, get subpar quality marketing with the wrong message getting shitty leads (All from my first-hand experience working with marketing companies of course) 3) They are not in your business. They don't know your ideal clients. They don't know your market. They don't sell for you. And then they try to run your ads? Boi it's no wonder that they land you just a bunch of car wash leads and mummy van jobs When you, as a salesman AND a business owner write your own ads, your ads resonate 10x better than if an agency run ads for you = better leads at a lower cost without the monthly agency fee Marketing is no easy task, yes but I'll make it super simple and boil down to couple of metrics. But do take note this WON'T work if you don't have pillar #1 and #2 set in place 2 numbers that matter: Number of leads and closing conversion rate Reverse engineer your numbers and focus on the daily tasks that moves the needle. The rest like likes, reach, engagements etc its irrelevant. Figure out what's your target revenue per month: say $10,000/month (base standard of 2.0 detailers) Say the average coating job is $1,000 (basic correction and coating. If you price is lower than $1,000 for a basic correction and coating - up your prices right now, you're doing yourself and the industry a favour) You need 10 jobs x $1,000 to make $10,000 right? Say your call conversion rate (lead to booked jobs) is 20% - 1 out of 5 people that enquire you, will book it in Which means you need 50 leads per month to book in 10 jobs at $1,000 a pop That's less than 2 leads per day = $10,000/month Generating 2 leads PER day is a walk in a park - there are millions of ways to generate 2 leads per day If you have pillars 1 + 2 solid, generating leads this will be a piece of cake for you because: 1) you have positioned yourself 2) you have a strong marketing message that stands out from all the other detailers and 3) you know where they hang out Here's some proof of a marketing campaign I ran in months ago (FB ads is at best 20-30% of our business):     How would you like waking up every morning with 5-20 hot leads waiting for you to call them and book their cars in with you? Mastering sales and marketing, you might even need to turn down jobs and put them back in your schedule months ahead 4th Pillar:  Getting positioning, marketing and sales dialed in you max out at $10K-15K/month solo (at best $20k/month) Getting the job is not the problem anymore. The problem is actually getting the work done You'll be out of hands working 7 days a week 12 hours a day like I did when I first opened up my shop It's miserable like a slave to my business (but really it's better than not having jobs booked in at all, it's different place to be in) Smart entrepreneurs engineer themselves out of the business and have more fun and freedom Not so smart entrepreneurs grind-it-out holding the detailers pride wanting to put their hands on each and every cars that come through To fix this, this is what I call "Engineering Service Delivery Machine" where we hire the right team and set proper systems in place to machine your business to run it like a machine fixing the throughput of your business   With a system in place, you will shift your focus on doing the "power business tasks" which moves you to $1,000-$10,000/hour tasks instead of $10-$100/hour tasks and not having to get behind the tools every single day The secret of having the right team is to have the right vision, mission and culture in place Before even touching and building the 4th pillar, pillar 1, 2 and 3 must be extremely solid with at least $20k net cash reserves if you're mobile and $50k-100K net cash reserves if you have a shop Building a team early on without the first 3 pillars and without net cash reserves is pretty much an entrepreneurial suicide move Working with Chris on the 4 pillars down, he's averaging about $7k/week - nearly $30k/month  Working with Noah, before working together the only coating he did was a free coating job to test out. Now he have booked $2,100 worth of jobs:  Another one with Meshac, now doing high end jobs:  Want to nail these 4 pillars down and transform your detailing business? Because right now I currently have 3 more spots for detailers to work with the remaining of April and May
These spots are extremely limited on a timely basis as the work and time needed to help get you results like Chris Applications open now via a complimentary 45-minutes strategy session with me to visually map out where you currently stand and gameplan for the next 6-12 months Click here to apply for your free 45-minutes strategy session I came across this post on a detailer Facebook group yesterday I thought I'll share some golden nuggets with you guys  Every detailer on their entrepreneur journey most likely have experienced it, price battling for "full detail" Especially when someone asks "How much for a full detail on my car?" It's pretty common, right? The problem is, the term "full detail" has been heavily commoditized Every detailer and his dog offers a "full detail" Some charge $99 some charge $250... Seriously I can't tell the difference. Neither does your customer lol Here's my response on how to fix it (without lowering your price):  Next time when someone asks for a "full detail", don't forget to dive deeper into what they actually need/want
And then sell them exactly what they need and want instead of shoving your services they don't need and get price shopped   Stop looking at likes, engagements and reach Seriously, likes, engagements and reach on the Facebook page level DON'T matter They barely put food on the table They are dangerous They make you feel and think that people are checking you out and making you feel like you’re getting somewhere like this guy here:  This is what we call “vanity metrics” I have 5,800+ likes on my main FB page and 2,900 likes on my other page - I used to think those stuff matters I used to ALWAYS inviting my friends and family that I barely even had a conversation to like my page hoping they will refer their friends to get their cars booked with me Then to learn that those “engagements” I get they barely turn into high-quality customers I came to realize that having a making a booking and getting paid for it TRUMPS all likes, comments all that stuff These are some of the vanity metrics:
*I barely consider message sent to my inbox qualifies as a lead by the way - I consider a lead when someone ACTUALLY takes their time out and gives you their phone number, email address and telling you exactly what they want:   And not just a simple messaging “how much for a detail” knowing for a fact that those people will waste 30 mins of your time explaining your services with NO intention of booking their cars in Seriously I’m so over that in 2016 when i was running “boosted” posts with a “send message” button getting lookie-lous to my fb page inbox lol Chances are if you’re caring about vanity metrics (even if it’s just a little bit), something is wrong And get yourself primed to be dominated by the 2.0 detailer in your area who knows their REAL numbers down to the dollar and day booking coating jobs day in and out like a clockwork What are real numbers? Here are the real numbers that ACTUALLY move the needle of your business (both organic and running ads):
And I'm truly shocked how 1.0 detailers don't know their numbers When I ask them a simple question like: "What is your lead to booking closing rate for correction and coating jobs?" They will say things like: "erm.. I don't know actually." Ask any 2.0 detailers they will know their numbers like knowing exactly how much is their bank account to the cents Not getting as many (high end) jobs as you like? Chances are your real numbers needs to be improved It’s like the dashboard of your car. If a gauge is off like water temp you NEED to fix it if not it's going to blow E.g Link click-through rate is under 0.5%? Work on your copy/image/video Lead to booking conversion is under 10%? Work on your sales Average client value is low (under $500)? Work on your branding and pricing Low/shitty number of leads? Work on getting more (right) leads Focus on relentlessly on these numbers and your business WILL change forever If you need help with real numbers, I have few slots for next few days to conduct a free 45-min strategy session - On the session we’ll dive deep and analyze your current REAL numbers to see where you stand with other top-performing detailers in your area (I have all the data from observing +/5,000 detailing businesses over the horizon of 5-6 years in this industry) And a gameplan of what you should focus on for the next few months to make your goals a reality for the next coming months after this coronavirus pandemic Click here to schedule your 45-minute strategy session BEFORE YOU SCHEDULE: If you have no intention of improving or growing your business, and wanting to dabble around “getting more info” - save yourself from applying for the strategy session. Your application will be rejected and we won’t be a good fit. I’m only currently taking on 2 more detailers for the remaining of April to gear themselves up for what’s coming for the rest of 2020 Talk soon, Yikhai Wong Now it's not the time to chill out at home binging on netflix or youtube.. The actual detailing work is 20-30% of your business at best (Even though that's the core of it) There's an entire back end side of the business which most detailers neglect... Marketing, branding, sales, operations, admin, strategizing, long-term planning, customer experience service etc And honestly, the back end is what determines whether or not your business survives.. NOT your skills Detailing skills can be easily taught and replicated Now it's the BEST time to work on the back-end side of your business to gear up and get ready when this pandemic is over Most people's eyeballs are on the screen right now, and ad cost is significantly cheaper than normal times Sharpen your sword while you still have the time right now The ONLY 3 core things to focus to sharpen your sword and get a competitive edge: 1) Unique market with aligned branding to cut competition (foundations) Just putting yourself as "detailing service" or "detailer" is not going to cut it in 2020 anymore There are way too many detailers out there snatching and fighting for a tiny slice of the same pie with no differentiations After being in the trenches of the industry for years and observing more than 5,000 detailing business in the states alone they all look the same from a bird's eye view All the same message like "full detail", "2 step correction & coating" 2012 to 2017 you still can do that but not in 2020 lol A new breed of 2.0 detailers is coming to take your lunch Pick a niche and be that niche specialist I can tell you right now by defining a unique market you: - Won't get price shopped with the detailer down the road - Won't get filthy camrys, accords or Susan with her mummy van with 3 kids - Easily book in 4-figure correction, coating & PPF clients - Also, you will cut out from your competition because you're not aiming for the same market vertical I can show you countless examples of auto business that niche down and crushing it but here are some: - SouthernBM - Weltmeister - The Tesla Studios 2) Targeted marketing & client generation system Targeted marketing is NOT putting random audiences on facebook ads spending $50 every other week and hope it brings in jobs lmao It has to be more scientific than that Without your foundations, niche and aligned branding this won't work Think about it this way: Toyota, Nissan, Hyundai attracts a certain type of audience Mercedes-Benz, Audi, BMW attracts another type of audience Bentley, Lamborghini and Ferrari attracts yet another type of audience You can see there are 3 completely different markets and the targeting is not at the FB ads level lol It's at the branding level and that's where you want to position your detailing businesses Once you have properly positioned yourself in the market, that's where we start hitting different platforms such as FB ads or any other platform to create a system Where you know for a certain you spend $x will produce y amount of leads and you need y number of leads to close the number of coating jobs you want to be doing per month Not rocket science fellas Most detailers do at best 1-3 coatings per month. Try 30 coatings per month (this can only happen with Detailing 2.0 with solid foundations + targeted marketing & client generation system) 3) Streamlining operations Lean, lean, lean, lean - that's the key right there Good ol industry saying: You need a range of equipment, different pads + compounds and chemicals for different types of cars While I partially agree to that, it's just not necessary. I have a shelf full of pads and compounds and honestly, I noticed that I only use less than 20% of all the tools and equipment I have Remember that your clients don't pay you because of whatever fancy tools you have, your clients pay you for the results (When is the last time you checked the model of your mechanic's torque wrench or impact gun whether or not it's professional?) Why? If you have a solid foundation and a unique market defined, the cars normally get is not as neglected. Counter-intuitively, after dealing with thousands of customers over different market verticals, people who actually take care of their cars are more willing to pay a 4-figure detail job than those who don't Got rid of most nonessential chemicals and equipment, packed into the back of my JDM 01 Legnum Wagon brought me $170k in the financial year of 2017-2018, one-man band focusing entirely on correction and coatings  No water tank, power generators, trailer etc Keep your business lean and mean, focusing the power activities and generates revenue and brings your business forward - by all means cutting fat out of your business You don't need to hire any helper/staff, or build a team to be making $10k-$20k/month consistently Especially with the current pandemic, everyone is shrinking down and it's a perfect time to start streamlining your business If you need help weathering through the coronavirus (covid-19) storm, switch over to the new-age detailing 2.0 model and create a bulletproof strategy for the back-end of your detailing business, schedule a 45-minute strategy session with me and I'll help you with that, especially now as it's the BEST time to implement some killer back-end strategies that will put your competitors in shame Click here to schedule your 45-minute strategy session |
Yikhai WongHelping Detailers Scale To $50k+/month 
Archives
March 2021
Categories |