Whether you operate a mobile auto detailing business or own a fixed retail location you will receive phone calls from potential customers.

They are calling you because you have paid for some type of advertising, or your good work that you do has been referred. This is what you want the phone to ring! When the phone does ring you want to handle the call with the utmost professionalism and take advantage of this selling opportunity.

The phone is a very powerful sales tool. Once you have mastered the art of "closing" the customer over the telephone you will see your sales dramatically increase.

I can't stress enough how important it is to have good phone selling skills. Salespeople at new car dealerships react very quickly to picking up the incoming call when the sales floor is paged to handle an inquiry from a potential customer. Actually more sold cars are generated from the appointment that is made over the phone versus walk-ins, also known as "ups." The reason I bring this point up is to make you aware that the interested consumer has taken the time to make the call and is a serious potential sale.

Never, ever, answer that question until you have gathered enough information from that person, and even then only offer them a price range. Anyone can give a potential customer a "price." If your price is considered too high on the other end of the call then you may get "OK thanks, I will call you back if I'm interested." If you give them a price that is too low you may book the appointment BUT you may "loose money" on the job because you did not ask the right questions over the phone. You want to "envision" in your mind, what the car looks like and possibly what condition it may be in while speaking to them. This not only helps you give an accurate "estimate" of what the cost may be to the customer but it also keeps them on the line longer and allows you to describe the features and benefits of your services for their particular vehicle.

• what is the make and model?
• what is the year?
• what is the color?
• are your seats cloth or leather?
• what color is your interior?
• have you ever had your car professionally detailed?
• how long ago?
• do you use your car to transport kids and pets?
• do you garage your car?
• how often is it washed?

The answers you get from these questions will enable you to inform the customer of how you will make their car look like new again through your "state of the art" products, equipment, industry experience and knowledge.

• Now is the time to mention that you have a heated interior soil extractor that heats the water to 210 degrees and this machine will deep-clean the velour seats and carpet to remove ground in dirt, most stains and pet odors.
• Now is also the time to mention that you will determine how much paint is on their car with your paint depth gauge and this will enable you to choose the correct polish and clear coat foam buffing pad that will be needed to correct the existing described paint condition.
• Now is also the time to educate the customer that you will use the proper wheel cleaner and wheel brush that will expertly clean their dirty, brake dust infected wheels without removing the shine or scratching them.
• Now is the time to mention that you will clean and condition their cars leather seats with the properly PH balanced leather cleaner and hide conditioner.

You see what you are doing? You are building VALUE in the services that you will be providing. So, when you finally answer their original question of "how much will it cost" and they say "is that all" you now have a buying sign! Now it's time to shut-up and book the appointment. Many sales people talk themselves right out of the sale because they have not truly listened to the customer's responses. These responses could be buying signals.

Some other buying signals could be: How long will it take to detail my car? When can you take it? How busy are you? Can you come to my office and detail my car there? Do you accept credit cards? When you start hearing some of these questions it is time to book the appointment. Remember to only give the customer a price range. You may say, "based on the information you have given me Mr.Gray the cost of detailing your vehicle will be from $150 to $175." By giving them a range you will not be selling yourself short. Once you see the vehicle and if it is in worse shape than the customer described over the phone you will not upset them or loose the sale by telling them you need $175 to do the job right. If you "quoted" them an exact $150 over the phone and it is really a $175 detail then you are not operating very profitable on that particular job. Too much of this will cause you too work hard and not make much money.

Besides seeing your bank account grow you can also gauge how well you are "selling over the phone" by getting call backs from customers that you maybe did not close on the first call. These customers have called your competition and were given a lower price maybe even up to 30% lower. However, they have decided to choose you because of your industry knowledge and the ability to convey your expertise and professionalism over the phone.

It is a good practice to write down how you actually perform your details step by step with chemical usage, brush selection, buffer and pad choices, etc. You can use this to refer to as you engage in a "selling situation" over the phone. I bet if you called your competitors as a "mystery shopper" you will see that they do not properly handle the call. They will not ask the right questions, go in-depth about the services they provide, or educate the customer with relevant industry knowledge.

Direct mail can be a powerful way to cultivate a clientele. There are many ways to execute a direct mail campaign.

One way that I really like is to "target" potential customers. You would need to decide whom you should target this mailing to. It may be a list that you have acquired or it could be to individuals that reside in an exclusive neighborhood. This mailing would be of a smaller quantity so you can easily follow-up with the people who received your mailing. Lets say you have come across a really exclusive street with large up-scale homes that have up-scale vehicles parked in their drive ways. These people are more opt to pay for your exclusive detailing services. They usually have no problem spending a couple hundred dollars per vehicle for detailing.

You probably do not know the names of the individuals who reside on the street you have decided to target, but you can easily and inexpensively find out who they are. You can access names and addresses on certain address data base web sites. I use anywho.com. Just do a search and only type in a few periods in the "name" space, then type in the street name, and the zip code. The search will return all of the residences on the street that have a phone number listed. Many of those residences have a few telephones so there is a good chance that you will have their name to mail to. You will also have phone number so you can do a follow up a call a few days after they receive your mailer.

This "target" mailing may only be 50 - 100 mailings at a time. You want to keep the size of the mailing manageable so you can follow-up with the potential customer. By following-up will increase your closing rate considerably. Usually doing a blind mailing as described above may only get you a .05% response to your offer. By calling the customer to follow up or if you are a mobile operator you can stop by and re-introduce your company and your offer face to face. If you do your follow-up within a few days your offer or services will still be fresh in your potential customer's mind and you will be maximizing the selling opportunity. You will increase you closing probability up to 30%.

Your mailing could consist of a cover letter introducing them to you and your exclusive auto detailing business printed on your company letterhead, signed by you. You may want to include a service menu and definitely your business card. The envelope should be professionally printed with your company name and address. Although you should hand address each envelope and use an oversized stamp, possibly even an automotive oriented stamp. Remember only to send out the quantity of mailings that you can efficiently follow- up within a few days of them receiving it.

You can also mail out flyers in a weekly-classified publication like the "Penny Saver." You can target to zip codes in area that you serve. Usually they will insert and mail up to 10,000 addresses at a time. Your cost for the printing and mailing could cost up to $1000. Let's say your response rate is only .05%; this equates to about 50 incoming phone calls. Wow, 50 opportunities for you're to use the phone selling skills you have just learned about.

Be sure to track the calls so you can determine how successful the mailing was. Be your best while talking to these incoming inquiries. If you get 50 calls and you spent $1000 on the mailing, each of the calls that are coming in could equate to cost you $20. Don't let that $20 bill get away. If you receive only five calls the cost of those calls could equate to $200 each.