"Joe" the detailer

Do you know this guy? I am sure we all know somebody like this. My buddy who I will call “Joe the detailer” (that’s not his real name of course) had been in business about 25 years. He makes excellent money. He is an extremely hard worker and he takes detailing very seriously. He sells himself as good as anybody I have ever seen and he could sell you beach front property in the middle of the desert. He is a mobile detailer working in the Northern New Jersey, New York area. I have personally known him for 20 years and we speak a few times a week.

So from this introduction of “Joe the detailer” you would assume that he is the most professional guy you will ever see and he does everything right. Oh….but you would be very wrong! He does many things very wrong and he STILL makes money. His old truck was very unsightly. It had scratches all over it and it was a mess. It was packed with crap as he is kind of a pack rat. If it’s free, he will take it, and he is proud to tell you that. He has a vacuum he found in the garbage, water tank, extension cords, and a hot plate to heat water for his cold water carpet extractor (all found in the garbage). He buys stuff on closeout to save money. He is one of the cheapest guys I have ever seen. Many times this is funny but it’s not a smart way of doing things sometimes.

Along with all the used stuff, there is the usual stuff that a detailer needs to get the job done. He does not use a steamer even though he has seen every one I have ever used or sold and I would sell him one at just about my cost. He does not take on the extremely challenging jobs such as wet sanding or heavy compounding. Sometimes I get those referrals. He wants the quick hitting jobs where he won’t run into problems. He does not have a paint thickness gage and does not know how to use one. He has never attended my class although he could sit in for free if he wanted to. We do talk about certain detailing problems as he has been around long enough to encounter most of them. I try to coach him and tell him how I would handle it and I am sure he uses that advice accordingly. His skills are good and he knows how to correctly use a buffer and he has an excellent eye for paint.

He did not have a website for a very long time and when he finally did get one, it was a one page very simplistic site. It is now finally being overhauled professionally. For a long time he did not have professional business cards, he printed them off the computer. I looked at many of the things he did as very unprofessional and cheap. But you could not convince “Joe” to spend any money, so we never talked about his way and my way. So it may seem like I am ripping him apart here and compared to many of us, and the equipment we have, he may seem very unprofessional. But as much as I am using him as an example of a guy that may seem to need some help, he knows how to sell detailing.

“Joe” starts work and is on the road by 6AM every day. He tells customers when he is coming and he is never late. He prices out jobs to make money and he holds his ground. He realizes that there are not many mobile detailers around here and he knows the convenience that this service offers. Most times the customer is satisfied although there are instances where they question the way some things come out. What makes him very effective and makes him money is the way he can talk to people. He can go into a place where he has never been and strike up a conversation with the owner and book a job almost immediately at HIS price. He hustles. He will visit ANY automotive related facility and offer his services. He demands to be paid on time. He never leaves without a check and is not bashful about telling people he does not offer time payments for dealers or larger companies. Many times, he asks to be paid in CASH or have checks made out to cash. These are things that make me shake my head but he has a way of getting away with it. He deals with many wealthy people, in wealthy neighborhoods, with high end cars and he has no trouble relating to them and gaining their trust. He should have been a politician. But it’s this personal touch that overshadows the unprofessional stuff I previously mentioned. Most customers don’t see the messy truck and used equipment. He doesn’t tell them that he does not use all the latest greatest tools and they don’t know anyway. This would hurt most guys, especially dealing with high end cars and customers, but he talks such a good game that all the other stuff doesn’t matter all that much.

Now the technical stuff that he still doesn’t know enough about and the lack of good equipment does hurt him a little as I think he leaves money on the table because of these shortcomings. But he makes over $100,000 a year! I have seen his house, I know the neighborhood he lives in, so I am sure he isn’t fibbing all that much. So the bottom line is that he makes money….in spite of himself!! He makes money because he sells detailing, he cares, he hustles and he does have talent. Imagine if he did a number of things differently??

The best salesman I know

“Joe” is the best sales guy I have ever met. As I said he knows what he is doing but he still doesn’t know some of the more technical aspects of many things. I have tried teaching him about paint technology and the important things to know about clear coat……but either he doesn’t care all that much or his attention span is not that good. I have tried to teach him wet sanding as his truck had numerous deep scratches and it was black, but when he brought it over, I did the work while he yapped on the phone and opened all my cabinets to see what I had. Before he came back to watch a little, I was done and he was amazed. If only he would pay attention he could make so much more money doing this. I give him prototype buffing pads that I either don’t like or will never reach you guys, but he doesn’t care. He will take them because they are FREE!

Anyway, that’s enough beating on my friend Joe. Getting back to why he makes money…..I also like to I like to trash car salesmen. Well, everybody likes to trash car salesmen. They do seem to be an easy target. The sleazy, lying, poorly dressed underhanded guys you just dread dealing with when buying a new car sometimes fits this very stereotype. While I have met and known some of these very guys, I have also known some great salesmen who knew their product, knew how to sell it but didn’t oversell it, and made a potential customer feel like they just had to have that car at that very moment. Many of us hear the word “salesman” and we cringe. We don’t want to deal with a “salesman”. We want to buy stuff on the internet with no sales pitch and shop anonymously with no pressure and nobody asking “can I help you?” But you know what? If you don’t try to sell a potential customer something, you may never get the job and you certainly won’t get it at “your” price. 

If all you do is take orders for middle of the road detail jobs, you will never make that much money. You will work on low end cars, deal with low end customers, and probably not enjoy detailing very much and soon go out of business. You need to sell the service! You can sell by educating them on what the car needs. You can sell by informing the customer how well trained you are and what kind of state-of-the-art products and equipment you use. You can sell by looking and acting professional. There are so many ways to do it. You guys probably already know this. I don’t have to tell you. I would tell “Joe” but he won’t listen anyway

We are all “detailing” salesmen, no matter if we like it or not. As much as you don’t like a salesman, to be successful in any business, we all have to be salesmen sometimes. I don’t like to be a salesman and I generally don’t like having to tell people how good I am and how much I know, but sometimes it makes the difference in making the sale or not. This is especially true when you have a product or service that is so much better than the competition but also much more money. You have to sell it to get it! And this is why my friend “Joe” makes money and he has stayed fairly busy even in the down economy. He does not know everything about detailing and he is far too cheap to buy the best equipment, but he knows people and how to deal with them. And he is quite possibly the best “salesman” I have ever met

Please visit our retail auto detailing site serving Alpine NJ and surrounding NJ areas at www.njautodetail.com or our detail training site at www.kleencarauto.com