Ultimate Lead Guide - Finding Car Dealerships

Car dealerships are our 6th installment in our Ultimate Lead Guide series. Aside from our Winning With Marketing series, be sure to also check out:

The Introduction
Schools
Places of Worship
Medical Offices
Government
Office Buildings
Banks
Gyms (coming 8/14/24)

According to AutoNews, there are over 18,250 car dealerships selling new cars through 2022. IBISWorld reports that there are 130,150 used car dealerships in the US. That brings the total of car dealerships to just under 3,000 per state, averaged out. That's a lot of square feet that needs to be cleaned on the daily and weekly basis. Just within a two mile drive from my old office, there are a dozen car dealerships that need cleaning services, and many of those need daily cleaning, based on their size. 

It doesn't stop at new/used cars. Certainly consider other dealership-like facilities like boat dealerships, truck dealerships, fleet dealers, RV/campers, manufactured home, motorcycles, and even aircraft. There are millions in square feet that could use your services right now. The opportunities to clean these places are everywhere, and the first step to growing this niche are finding these leads.

Cleaning dealerships aren't that much different than cleaning for any other niche. It's been my experience that these locations tend to need more TLC on their showroom floors, which means more buffing in many cases, and they need more care in their windows, which is a highlight for that natural light on their shiny new/used vehicles. About half of the car dealerships we bid on did want in the scope of work to include their repair or service areas. Our contacts through these opportunities often were from the general manager or office manager, though not exclusively.

Dealerships weren't a niche that we chased after, though we bid on and proposed to several after they reached out to us. Our top sources for new leads included, 1) Google, 2) Networking, 3) Associations, 4) State Databases, 5) Referrals, 6) Driving Around, 7) LinkedIn Outreach, and 8) Inbound Marketing.

Google

Simply google "car dealerships near me" (or boat dealerships, RV dealerships...you have the idea). You'll get a wealth of information including the phone number, address, and website. With some crafty searching, or using third parties like Hunter or Seamless, you can find emails too.

Networking

Networking has been a top way to pull in new business. Car dealers are all about connections and building relationships. They always join networking groups. Google around for local chamber of commerces near you and you're likely to find some examples, like in the screenshot below. Next to that is a simple search using BNI as a lead source where you can find contact names, emails, phone, and other info. They have their members listed. BNI is a great organization to join to find other leads for your cleaning business. 

              


Associations

Associations are another great way to find dealer leads. They'll form member associations to keep each other apprised of new laws and regulations, public advocacy, and share information that pertains to dealerships. While there are likely groups for RVs, motorcycles, fleet sales, etc., here is a link for nationwide auto dealer associations. Some of the links have member dealers in there and you can pull in more information and more potential for leads.

State Databases

Queue in the used car salesman stereotype. There have been some shady dealers out there in the past with inflated pricing, unfair sales tactics, lemon law violations, and more, and to help combat these challenges, many states regulate car sales. In preparing for this blog post I happened to stumble upon Virginia's database to track dealers. Within Virginia's, you can find contact information, addresses, phone numbers, and more. I'm not sure how other states have their database, if at all, but worth looking around.

Referrals

I've mentioned before that referrals have been the #1 source of new business for us over the years. We did happen to pull in one dealership based on a referral. We cleaned a Dodge dealership back in the day and that came about because that dealer's landlord was our property management client. They asked around for cleaning business recommendations and we came recommended.


Driving Around

Dealerships are not hard to miss. They occupy a good chunk of land. In a prior post, I talk about organizing leads and we kept a lead list on car dealerships. Many of those leads I simply found by driving around. Notes were taken and the lead added later on. By seeing it in person, you can get a great sense of the scope and scale. You can also accomplish this by using Street View on Google. Below is a screenshot example.

LinkedIn Outreach

The screenshot above comes from LinkedIn's mobile app with a simple "auto dealer" search. I could have refined it further by location and by degree of connection. We used this method to pull in a local independent auto dealer that used to be a Chrysler dealer. The property was big. We built a relationship with the GM through LinkedIn and that eventually led to a walkthrough opportunity, though we ultimately didn't win that bid.

Inbound Marketing

Finally, the last tactic that has produced the most opportunities is through inbound marketing, namely SEO. We kept a dedicated page on our site just for car dealerships. It's from that SEO tactic that we pulled in car dealers and even a boat dealership. We offered resources for them including a cleaning guide targeted for car dealerships only.

Hope this helps in your quest to win dealerships. They're a great niche to serve.