How to justify prices to new clients?

As the title suggest, how do you guys convince, justify the prices of polishing for potential clients?

So far all the people who have asked me about polishing have said my prices were too expensive. For a 1 step polishing I am charging $275 which includes engine bay, interior clean up and leather conditioning as well. Yet people still think it's expensive. Is there something I am doing wrong?

 

where is Some where?

also where are you sourcing your potential clients?

 

Some where = Vancouver, Canada

Clients are mostly friends and friend referrals.

 

(i can't help but those are the things that came to mind if i could have helped) i'm sure more will chime in.

 

price seems good to me.
tell them how many hours it takes, cost of products you use and such.
if they say too much then sent them to $75 car detail place and let them screw everything up and they will be back to you to fix what $75 detail did.

how do Layers justify charging $300 per hour?

 

What/Who is layers?

 

lawers? i dont know how you spell that. what we dont have bad language sensor on here?

 

I think you meant lawyers ... the administrators are the ones monitoring the offensive language.

 

Take out the engine detail and maybe interior, thus dropping your price.... Just a thought

 

Ask the client what they want done and tell them of the cost prior to doing the detail. Some people don't know what to expect when you do a detail job, just break it down for them.

 

Its easy, do 1/2 the hood of the car, get them to have a look. If they cant see the difference you walk away and they dont pay, if they want you to do the other side they pay your asking price. At worst you did 1/2 a hood.

 

I'd say look at vehicles they are driving...if it's a Camry, or a Cobalt, then you are not going to have much luck with selling them a $275 1 step polish detail, but if it's a Porsche or BMW you will have more luck...some might dissagree with me, but I never seen $1000 Camry detail...

 

It's hard, trust me.

It really depends on the customer. What I do is just have a basic 1 step polish which includes an interior clean up. Anything else is extra since most people don't want it or don't need it.

Based on my experience, you need to adjust your prices according to customers. I did a lot of work for rental car companies, they obviously want to pay next to nothing, but at least their expectations are a lot lower.

For example. I polished a Dodge Ram for $100. I didn't need to do the roof because they didn't care, and all they expected out of job was for the car to be shiny.

Simple, just wash, get an old pad out, get my old Meguairs Polish, and just glaze the car. 3 hours later, car is done.

 

Totally agree with you ... and I won't touch a high-end vehicle until I feel comfortable tackling most daily drivers. I have noticed that a lot of people that own ordinary daily drivers are more concern about having an immaculate interior than a swirl-free finish. Most ordinary people wont even try to use the two-bucket method because it's time consuming. People tend go to the regular "swirl" wash to get cars washed. One advice I give customers is to avoid car washes with brushes, even though the most "no-touch" car washes recycle water around my area.

 

People are just used to getting something for nothing. Thats why Walmart and Costco are so popular. My basic package ( Protection Detail) is $295 and includes wash, clay, sealant x2, interior vac, wipe and windows and leather conditioner. To add a single stage polish pushes it to $495. You have to remember its taken me 17 years to build up the client list that will pay for these services. A lot of guys think they should be getting huge money for polishing when they start. Not so. You earn the right to charge that rate after you build a name for yourself. $25 hr is $200 /day. Start at that and as you get busier, you can raise your rates.

 

I'll normally break it down by the number of hours to be spent on each aspect of the car. Have a firm hourly rate to justify the pricing AND if they want to lower the cost ....... you can tell them what service you could drop or modify to get within their budget.

 

maybe somebody will ask you do to their dayly and if you do good job then its good advertisement and who knows, maybe they got ferrari at home.
some ppl cant justyfy spending 300-400 on dayly but it doesnt mean they are cheap and dont have good weekend car

adjust your rate on what they drive. dont charge much right now like 911 said, built up your client list and then you can charge more.
you think Paul started charging 5000 punds when he started out, no i dont think at least.

 

Thanks for all the helpful advices.

For now I'll keep doing the wash, clay, wax since thats what most clients want to be done. I'll also adjust the polishing setup accordingly per customer.

 

maybe use one step polishing products. maybe APO60 sinc eits polish with wax so it will eliminate some steps and probably will be good enough for your cliends. and i think its pretty cheap as well. i had nice result with it on my moms white civic, she was suprised how good car looked.

 

What I was thinking was using Menzerna PowerFinish PO203 then topping it with 2 layers of sealant.

I once polished my family's heavily swirled acura with PO203 alone and it took 8 hours of polishing alone. The car was severely neglected since it was washed with a brush for a good 7 years of it's life and never had a coat of wax on it if i recall. Heck, i even used a brush to wash it, sometimes 3 times a week before i discovered a thing called swirl marks.