What is in your film line-up/inventory???

CaliTINT · September 9, 2016

Ok so I know that this topic has been brought up numerous times (I've read them already), but they are all several years old and like anything else, the market tends to change. For a few years I have been selling and installing a life-time warranty dyed film (as my "Good") and a hybrid life-time warranty film (as my "better") and then more recently added a ceramic film (as my "best"). This technique seems to work relatively well for me with most of my customers being upsold into the "better". I do lose out on the "cheap" price hunting customers (maybe a good thing?). I plan on switching film brands (currently use Johnson & Global) and I'd like to redo and rethink my inventory ad sales strategy.

-What I really want to know is, what is specifically in your line-up?

For example:

-What is your entry level film? No warranty film? 3, 5, 7, etc. year film? Or do you only sell lifetime warranty films?

-And then what are your next level films and how many different lines of films do you have (2? 3? 4? ...)

I was thinking of maybe carrying 3-4 lines of film.

An economy film (no warranty or partial warranty) that I may or may not advertise but just use as a last resort on the price hunting customers and dealers.

1 or 2 other films either HP, color stable etc.

And then a ceramic film.

Thoughts?

DynamicATL · September 9, 2016

IMO, do not waste time with a no or partial warranty film with a lower price. In the end, you are still making less money, dealing with pickier customers, still will have to price haggle, and risk your reputation longterm when the film starts failing. Say someone has your cheap film that is now turning purple and someone asks where they got it...no matter warranty or not, it will not look good on you. Keep the Good, Better, Best layout and make sure you are doing a heat lamp demonstration on every customer. Without a heat lamp demo, no point in carrying a Ceramic since that is what sells it. If you want higher prices or higher end customers, maybe changing to a more known brand name in film. :twocents

IMO our lineup is perfect as it handles every type of customers except cheap ones...we do not want them. We carry Llumar for our day-to-day installs which has ATC (dyed), ATR (hp), and CTX/AIR (ceramic) films. Then we carry 3M's Color Stable (carbon) and Crystalline (multilayer optical) films for people that specifically want 3M or extremely high heat rejection beyond a normal Ceramic. 3M sells itself especially Crystalline and Llumar has the 2nd biggest name behind 3M. We get tons of requests for CTX/AIR. Both come with a Nationwide Lifetime Warranty which offers the customer piece of mind with online registration of the warranties. Not to mention the availability of displays, demos, brochures, etc is awesome.

CaliTINT · September 9, 2016

IMO, do not waste time with a no or partial warranty film with a lower price. In the end, you are still making less money, dealing with pickier customers, still will have to price haggle, and risk your reputation longterm when the film starts failing. Say someone has your cheap film that is now turning purple and someone asks where they got it...no matter warranty or not, it will not look good on you. Keep the Good, Better, Best layout and make sure you are doing a heat lamp demonstration on every customer. Without a heat lamp demo, no point in carrying a Ceramic since that is what sells it. If you want higher prices or higher end customers, maybe changing to a more known brand name in film.

IMO our lineup is perfect as it handles every type of customers except cheap ones...we do not want them. We carry Llumar for our day-to-day installs which has ATC (dyed), ATR (hp), and CTX/AIR (ceramic) films. Then we carry 3M's Color Stable (carbon) and Crystalline (multilayer optical) films for people that specifically want 3M or extremely high heat rejection beyond a normal Ceramic. 3M sells itself especially Crystalline and Llumar has the 2nd biggest name behind 3M. We get tons of requests for CTX/AIR. Both come with a Nationwide Lifetime Warranty which offers the customer piece of mind with online registration of the warranties. Not to mention the availability of displays, demos, brochures, etc is awesome

Thanks for your input DynamicAppearance. It makes a lot of sense what you said about not wasting time with the no or partial warranty tint. But my thoughts were it might actually help me to sell the other films in my line-up and at the same time help me to ask for more money for those films. I always talk about how some shops offer the cheap stuff and how my film has a warranty blah blah blah but I was curious to see if offering this cheaper film would help. My hope would be to not really install it but to actually sell them into the other films. I'm constantly battling a few customers here and there asking why my price is higher than shop A & B. I kinda wanna say Oh, well we have this too for a similar price but this is better and here are the reasons why? Hope that makes sense.

We do consider ourselves more of a mid-ranged shop so we aren't that $99 shop nor are we the high-end shop with the big brand name films. We have mid -ranged products and prices for our market and are centrally located in our city. So we get more of the mid-ranged customers as well as a few from both the "cheap" side and the higher-end customers asking for the name brand stuff.

I do have a lot of time and experience as a tinter having shops and working mobile over the last 16-17 years but we just opened this shop and are relatively new so at the moment, we won't be able to carry the big name brands yet. Hopefully one day though.

But ok, I'll have to do something similar to what you are doing but with a lower end product.

Thanks again for your valuable input!

DynamicATL · September 9, 2016

We started out with Flexfilm in 2012 and ran it for 2 years. We were decently busy since we were an existing company with a huge clientele...just new to tint. We offered 4 levels of tint ranging from $129 to $279. During that time period we were busy, but we did a lot of older vehicles and rarely got high end vehicles. Downside with this is majority of the time these are people looking for a lower price and also more picky than the high end clientele. We decided to jump to Huper Optik trying to attract the higher end vehicles. We dropped the $129 price and now started at $179. Our volume picked up around 20% and we were getting less and less of the older vehicles. I would say by 2015, 50% of the vehicles we were doing were new from the dealerships...which typically were customers wanting quality since they will probably keep their vehicle 3-5 years. In 2016 we decided to drop Huper and move to Llumar and few months later add 3M for the $400-$500 price range. Our business has jumped an additional 40% in business and we continue to get nicer vehicles and clientele looking for the "best". This is allowing us to now add PPF to the mix and ClearPlex for window protection since we have the clientele that will pay for it. Going into 2017, we will be hiring an additional full time tinter with the possibility of needing an additional part-time tinter.

Obviously this is just our experience and there are too many variables involved. The one thing I can say is never offer less...price or quality. Continue to strive to offer the best quality installation/product and you will continue to grow. Just today we did only 3 vehicles (normally 5) and we still cleared $1400.

Glass Tinting Supplies · September 9, 2016

We started out with Flexfilm in 2012 and ran it for 2 years. We were decently busy since we were an existing company with a huge clientele...just new to tint. We offered 4 levels of tint ranging from $129 to $279. During that time period we were busy, but we did a lot of older vehicles and rarely got high end vehicles. Downside with this is majority of the time these are people looking for a lower price and also more picky than the high end clientele. We decided to jump to Huper Optik trying to attract the higher end vehicles. We dropped the $129 price and now started at $179. Our volume picked up around 20% and we were getting less and less of the older vehicles. I would say by 2015, 50% of the vehicles we were doing were new from the dealerships...which typically were customers wanting quality since they will probably keep their vehicle 3-5 years. In 2016 we decided to drop Huper and move to Llumar and few months later add 3M for the $400-$500 price range. Our business has jumped an additional 40% in business and we continue to get nicer vehicles and clientele looking for the "best". This is allowing us to now add PPF to the mix and ClearPlex for window protection since we have the clientele that will pay for it. Going into 2017, we will be hiring an additional full time tinter with the possibility of needing an additional part-time tinter.

Obviously this is just our experience and there are too many variables involved. The one thing I can say is never offer less...price or quality. Continue to strive to offer the best quality installation/product and you will continue to grow. Just today we did only 3 vehicles (normally 5) and we still cleared $1400.

Excellent advice Dynamic..

Well done Sir :hat

Glass Tinting Supplies · September 10, 2016

Ok so I know that this topic has been brought up numerous times (I've read them already), but they are all several years old and like anything else, the market tends to change. For a few years I have been selling and installing a life-time warranty dyed film (as my "Good") and a hybrid life-time warranty film (as my "better") and then more recently added a ceramic film (as my "best"). This technique seems to work relatively well for me with most of my customers being upsold into the "better". I do lose out on the "cheap" price hunting customers (maybe a good thing?). I plan on switching film brands (currently use Johnson & Global) and I'd like to redo and rethink my inventory ad sales strategy.

-What I really want to know is, what is specifically in your line-up?

For example:

-What is your entry level film? No warranty film? 3, 5, 7, etc. year film? Or do you only sell lifetime warranty films?

-And then what are your next level films and how many different lines of films do you have (2? 3? 4? ...)

I was thinking of maybe carrying 3-4 lines of film.

An economy film (no warranty or partial warranty) that I may or may not advertise but just use as a last resort on the price hunting customers and dealers.

1 or 2 other films either HP, color stable etc.

And then a ceramic film.

Thoughts?

Hey there CaliTint,

You might be using the right products now, but it all comes down to marketing.

I would suggest avoiding a cheap option all together. You will just attract people who want cheap.

The quality and longevity and of your products will in turn represent your business over the long term.

Try a Good, Better, Best line up. Or if you can't afford to carry too many films, try Good and Best.

Don't allow the market to dictate what you charge. Offer products that the cheaper guys don't. Separate yourself and actively promote quality.

It's never too late to take your biz to a better level. Present yourself professionally and don't allow a job (No matter what it is) to leave the shop unless it is of top standard. Then be sure to tell the customer that the job you do is of high standard.

When was the last time you told a friend or family member about a service because they are the cheapest? You refer people to someone that is the best value for money. Cheapest is never best value for money. You want to offer value for money.

If you offer a no warranty cheap film, you are not offering value for money.

If you offer a top quality film installed to the best of your skills that has a lifetime warranty all at a price that makes you good money is value for money for the customer.

What good are you to your customers if you go out of business because you weren't making enough money?

Customers that want you to earn nothing so they get a cheap job are people you don't want as customers.

Talk the talk of good quality, present yourself as such, offer products that will allow you to ask top dollar... and walk the walk..

Good luck mate.

DynamicATL · September 10, 2016

Thanks GTS!

OP, the problem with the decisions I was making in the beginning was I wanted to have all the customers. I wanted to carry something for the cheap customers, something for the mid-grade, and something for the high-end. So no matter what you are looking for, we had it. Most of the jobs we were selling were under the $200 range with the occasional upgrade. Now for the last 6 months we sell over 50% Llumar CTX Ceramic just because we continue to show that we represent quality and we use the heat lamp demonstration with every single customer. It took 4 years to get to this level and I am looking forward to the growth in the future.