Autoclean Academy
How to structure your coating packages, and how to work out what to charge for them.
The middle one is the one you want people on. The cheap one exists to make the middle one look obvious.
Protect
The anchor
Showroom
Sell this one
Concours
The ceiling
Protect is deliberately thin. Almost nobody should pick it. Its whole job is to sit next to Showroom so the customer can see how much more they get for a bit more money. That comparison is what sells Showroom, not you talking.
Concours sets the ceiling. It makes Showroom look like the sensible middle instead of the expensive option.
Keep multi stage correction out of your main package
This is the one that catches people out. A neglected black ute can eat eight hours of correction. A near new white Corolla needs one. If you have promised "paint correction" inside a fixed price you wear that difference every time, and on the bad ones you either lose money or start cutting prep to survive the job. Single stage enhancement goes in Showroom because you can time it. Multi stage lives in Concours and gets quoted once you have seen the car.
This goes on the ad, the page and the invoice. It is the strongest part of the whole offer.
The beading guarantee
"If water stops beading on your paint inside five years, we strip it back and re-coat the car free. You keep every maintenance visit either way."
Nobody spending two grand on paint protection can tell whether you did a good job. Not at handover, not in six months. That is what is holding them back, and this is what answers it.
Only promise the term your coating supplier actually backs you for. If you are approved for three years, run all of this at three years. Nothing else changes, only the number.
Your labour rate, your product cost and your local market are not the same as anyone else's. Two bits of arithmetic and you have your own numbers.
| Input | Yours |
|---|---|
| Coating product for one car | $______ |
| Hours for the full job (prep, enhancement, coating, wheels, glass) | ______ hrs |
| What you need to earn per hour | $______ |
| Job cost = product + (hours x rate) | $______ |
| Package | How to work it out | Yours |
|---|---|---|
| Showroom | Job cost x 2 | $______ |
| Protect | Showroom divided by 1.65 | $______ |
| Concours | Showroom x 1.5, then add correction time | $______ |
Round them to something that looks like a price. $1,700 becomes $1,697.
Your Showroom price has to be at least five times what a booked job costs you in ads. If you are paying $200 in ad spend to land one coating, Showroom cannot be under $1,000. Below that the ads cannot pay for themselves no matter how good they are.
If your number comes in under the floor, the fix is not spending less on ads. Your package is too thin. Add to it.
Ring two shops in your city, ask what a five year coating with paint correction costs, and see where you have landed. If you are well under them, put your price up.
A list with a number against every line does more work than any amount of talking about quality.
The customer cannot judge a coating by looking at it, so give them something they can judge instead.
Only use numbers you would genuinely charge. If someone rings up and asks what a paint enhancement costs on its own, the answer has to match what is on your list. A list that falls apart under one phone call is worse than no list.
Then split the payment. Four payments sounds like a completely different number to one big one. It costs you nothing and it moves a lot of people off the fence.
A mobile detailer running coatings out of a home setup. Your numbers will be different. The method is the same.
| Input | His numbers |
|---|---|
| Coating product for one car | $150 |
| Hours for the full job | 10 hrs |
| What he needs to earn per hour | $70 |
| Job cost, $150 + (10 x $70) | $850 |
| Package | Working | Rounded |
|---|---|---|
| Showroom | $850 x 2 = $1,700 | $1,697 |
| Protect | $1,697 divided by 1.65 = $1,028 | $997 |
| Concours | $1,697 x 1.5 = $2,546, plus correction | $2,497+ |
Floor check. He is paying about $180 in ads for every coating he books. Five times that is $900. Showroom at $1,697 clears it comfortably, so the ads pay for themselves.
Protect
The anchor
$997
Showroom
Sell this one
$1,697
Concours
The ceiling
$2,497+
$700 separates Protect from Showroom. Put the two lists side by side and it is not a close call. That gap is what sells it, not you talking.
| What they get | Worth |
|---|---|
| 5 year ceramic coating | $1,500 |
| Paint enhancement before coating | $597 |
| Wheel faces and glass coated | $349 |
| Annual maintenance check, 5 years | $745 |
| Paint health check and report | $149 |
| Aftercare kit and wash guide | $99 |
| Written warranty that transfers if they sell the car | Included |
| Total worth | $3,439 |
| They pay | $1,697 |
Or four payments of $424.
Every number on that list is a price he charges for that service on its own, so it holds up if anyone asks.