Do you run a car hauling business? If YES, here are 10 steps on how to get car hauling contracts from corporate organizations & individual clients. Being in business means that you should endeavor to employ all the marketing and sales strategies within your disposal to win contracts both from corporate and individual clients.
The truth is that if you don’t have regular car hauling contracts, you are sure going to struggle to grow the business and if you are not proactive, the business may pack up sooner than you expect. The fact that the automobile towing industry plays a very important role in the economy of the world shows that there is a large market for car hauling business.
They provide essential services to the United States economy. Car hauling companies may also provide incidental services, such as storage and emergency road repair services. If you run a car hauling business, you should know that your driving skills will not be enough to keep you in the business, you must market your services or else you won’t get any reasonable contracts.
If you run a standard car hauling company, then you should ensure that much more than having reliable towing trucks, your marketing and sales team must be core professionals who know how to meet their target. Here are some of the steps you need to take if you want to continue to get car hauling contracts from both corporate and individual clients;
How to Get Car Hauling Contracts from Companies & Individuals in 10 Steps
1. Choose a Good Location for Your Car Hauling Company
The first and perhaps one of the most important thing to put in place as a car hauling company is to ensure that you position your business in the right location. It cannot be over emphasized that the success of any business lies in the location you choose to locate the business.
If you want to continue to get car hauling contracts and be very busy with your car hauling business, then you should locate your business close to places like sea ports, major highways, mechanic garages and car dealership hubs et al. Car hauling companies that are located along busy routes are expect to stay busy and experience increase in revenue.
2. Make Use of Reliable Tow Trucks
It is one thing to choose a good location for your car hauling company but another thing for you to possess the capacity to deliver on the job. If you want to continue to do well in the car hauling business, then you should ensure that you have only reliable tow trucks under your fleet.
What is the point of boasting that you offer 24 hours trucking services all across the United States or America when your tow trucks are always breaking down on the highway or spending more time the required in the mechanic garage? Running a car hauling business with reliable tow trucks will give you an edge over your competitors. In order to achieve this, you may have to go for brand new tow trucks.
It might be expensive initially acquiring brand new tow trucks, but you can be rest assured that in the long run, it will be more advantageous than purchasing cheap and used tow trucks. You will be able to cut down on maintenance and even fueling cost, your tow trucks will always be available and professional tow truck drivers will always choose to work in your company.
3. Make Your Car Hauling Business Superior to Your Competitions
Come to think of it, people and organizations will always patronize a business that appears to be superior to others. In a nut shell, in order to keep getting car hauling contracts you should project your company to be superior to that of your competitors not only in appearance, but also in your service delivery.
So also trust, honesty, good network and excellent relationship management, strong management, strong fleet operations, direct access to all Atlantic and Gulf Coast ports, your transportation network as it relates to serving some of the largest population centers in the U.S., your size advantages, cost advantages, supply chain, customer loyalty and strong reputation amongst domestic industry players will count a lot for you in this regard.
4. Build Good Business Network
Networking is perhaps one of the most effective and creative marketing ideas needed to begin to build your clientele base and you have to put plans in place to leverage on all your networks if you truly want to do well in the car hauling line of business.
In view of that, you should look out for gatherings where you can network with automobile exporters and importers, car dealership shops, and automobile garages et al. As a matter of fact, your first port of call will be to connect with the nearest seaport operators; you are likely going to get your first major deal from them.
5. Get Your Tow Truck Drivers and Other Employees Involved in Marketing Your Services
As a car hauling company, you should ensure that all your employees (not only marketing and sales executives) are directly or indirectly involved in the sales and marketing of your services. Just ensure that you create provision for your employees to earn commission when they bring in business for the organization if you truly want to motivate them to help you win car hauling contracts.
You can as well create business model that will enable freelancers to work with your organization; whenever they refer clients to your organization, they will earn a percentage of the deal.
6. Build a Car Hauling Business That Will Serve Both Big and Small Clients
Another idea that will help you get car hauling contracts is to ensure that you design your business in such a way that you can comfortably work with individuals who may want to tow their broken down cars, and also big car exporters and importers who are involved in massive movement of cars from one part of the U.S. to another.
The truth is that some car hauling companies miss out from car hauling contracts simply because they are either too big to attend to smaller clients or too small to execute larger contracts.
7. Form Strategic Marketing Alliance with Your Competitors in the Automobile Towing Industry
As a car hauling company owner, you should look towards forming strategic marketing alliance with your competitors in the automobile towing industry. Good enough, there are opportunities for car hauling companies to form strategic marketing alliance with other competitors in the industry due to the fact that some car hauling companies may lack the capacity to handle certain contracts.
So also, a car hauling company can form strategic marketing alliance with truck manufacturers or car exporters and importers et al. For example, a car hauling company can decide to form a strategic marketing alliance with a car exporter company that deals in hauling cars.
What is expected of the car hauling company is to be responsible for moving broken down cars from one location (it could seaport or car garages et al) to the seaport and also from the seaport to the location where the cars are supposed to be transported to (it could be mechanic workshop or car dealership garage et al).
8. Creating Brand Identity for Your Car Hauling Company
You will quite agree that customers go for products or service providers that are always in front of them. So, if you want to continue to get car hauling contracts from both corporate and individual clients, then you should be ready to create a brand identity for your car hauling company.
It is a fact that any business that wants to grow beyond the corner of the street they are operating from must be ready utilize every available means to advertise and promote the business. Boosting your brand awareness will a go a long way to endear you to the available market.
Make plans to work with branding consultants to help you map out publicity and advertising strategies that will help you walk your way into the heart of your target market. If your brand is visible and well communicated you will be able to work with different classes of clients in your within and outside your business location.
9. Work on Your Retention Strategies (Improve Your Customer Experience)
A company that is good with marketing and winning contract but not good with generating repeated sales from their existing customers will always struggle to maximize profits in the business. You cannot keep welcoming customers from your front door and watch them leave via your back door and expect to generate enough revenue for your business.
As a car hauling company, if you want to continue to get car hauling contracts, then you should ensure that you put in place workable customer retention strategies and also continuously improve your customer experience. Part of the retention strategies you need to adopt is to leverage on price to win over customers; your prices should be affordable and negotiable.
The fact that your business door is open to both individuals and corporations means that you should have different price range for different category of clients.
In order to improve on your customer experience so that you can create a good impression and generate repeated business deals from them, you should make provisions to give out discounts from time to time whenever they patronize our services, make available flexible payment options for your clients, make use of effective customer relationship management (CRM) software to effectively manage your clientele base and ensure that you carry your clients along when making decisions that directly affect them.
10. Visit Seaports and Auto Auctioning Sites to Source for Car Hauling Contracts
If you are interested in getting a car hauling contract, your best option is to take your proposals and marketing materials straight to seaports and auto auctioning locations (sites) where you will find businesses who will need your services.
It is simple and straightforward, if you want to fish, you go to the river, so if you want to get car hauling contracts you go to places where you can find loads of broken down cars or non – road worthy cars that need to be hauled.
In conclusion, as a car hauling company owner, if you can adopt the above tips, then you can be rest assured that you will continue to get car hauling contracts within and outside your location. Please note that there may be certain challenges unique to car hauling companies in your business location; it is your duty to be creative and improvise when it comes to tackling such challenges.