The Limos.com Forum Has Moved!!!

In the corporate world, what type of industries are more prone to using executive sedan services?

Make a master list of friends and people you do business with. Have a list of professions you wish to market to . You may be surprised at the people they know. It is helpful to have someone vouch for you when you are targeting a segment of the industry you haven't approached before. When you get your chance the rest is up to you. Another way in is to research the charities that prominent people support. Go to the functions and volunteer for a committee. To make time-you have to spend the time.

Russell Figaredo www.abcnyclimo.com
Unfortunatelay you have to shoot 100 times before 2 people will listen to you. Law firms , investment firms, anything with money, investment. Look at the buildings that haver black cars around it

quote:

Originally posted by Ankur:
In the corporate world, what type of industries are more prone to using executive sedan services?

One of the most obvious things we haven't mentioned here is product presentation. The vehicles need to look top-notch all the time, stocked with amenties, and the Chauffeur must look first rate. The Chauffeur needs to know his way around town and where all the best venues are. Simply by doing the basics correctly and consistently, business will come your way. My experience is that most limousine services don't put full effort out . One time I had a small local account of two doctors that were on their way up in their profession. I was always happy to see them and went out of my way to provide good service. I had two cars at the time and they took an interest in my career and started referring all the doctors they knew to me. It works like that. Committing to the art of service is the key to success in the livery trade.

We have a number of private "therapeutic" schools in our region whose students cannot drive themselves and travel quite a bit. These have proven to be a steady stream of work for us.

What a great thread. Limo Bill, right on the head of demanding corporate accounts. Who would beat you up over those statements? We've all been there.

I shared recently either on this forum or at Limolicious how I was played against my competition during an annual bidding process for a major oil company. I was was fortunate to have that Admin at the company that loves us and she called me and told me I was not the low bidder and "her boss wanted me to sharpen my pencil". I told her I didn't own a pencil sharpener but asked her if I could get just five minutes face time with her boss.

At that meeting, I looked him right in the eye and told him I don't expect an answer from you during this meeting but I wanted to share our perspective of our relationship. I explained that we buy gas from his company for our entire fleet. However, Arco AM/PM's are almost always across the street from your stations and are always cheaper. However, we believe that your company makes a better quality gas that extends the life of our engines and makes our cars run more efficiently. We buy it for the qaulity and we don't mind paying more for quality. I certainly hope you feel the same and place value in quality like I do. When you travel, you can get room at Motel 6 for a really great rate, but I bet you don't stay at Motel 6 properties when you travel, do you? You probably stay at a Hilton or Marriott because you enjoy quality - am I right? Our company has dispatcher on duty 24/7, not a single other limo company in this town has that. We employ our own in-house mechanic who inspects the brakes on each vehicle once a week for your safety. Our chauffeurs spend three days in a classroom training before they have see our garage. They are required to attend quarterly safety meetings and get paid to do so. All this costs money but results in a higher level of service. I certainly hope you see the value in quality as I do and understand that I cannot sharpen my pencil without sacrificing quality. That's something I just can't do for your company or anyone else. It's not who we are. We are the absolute best and I hope you see us for who we are. Thank you for your time.

Well, I have that contract for another year and I won it at the rate I bid. It involves a committment to spend $250,000 with me per year at a pre-established aret for various size vehicles. If they go over their committment so be it. If they go under their committment, they agree to pay the difference in exchange for the low rates offered.

I would also offer the advice of thinking beyond Fortune 500 for corporate work and think of recession proof business to business deals. I have five funeral homes that we do work for. They are not big corporations but they are daily work Monday through Saturday. I too do a lot of medical transplant teams. We have a contract with an organ procurement company and handle all work in California through sub-contract relations. We are a one stop 1-(800) call to set up surgeon transportation.

Pharmaceutical companies/reps are also great accounts. Lily has their own travel department and is an excellent company to work for.

Our corporate work includes agriculture companies, oil companies, manufacturing/fabrication companies, large banks such as Wells Fargo and Bank of America as well as smaller locally owned banks. We have numerous insurance companies who need patients taken to medical appointments Monday through Friday for injured workers. Think of these types of businesses that are recession proof.

Livery is very similar to baseball-it is a skill game. The old time ballplayer Willie Keeler once said; " Hit 'em Where they Ain't ". Don't follow the crowd-they have a herd mentality and don't have a clue to what they don't know anyway. The posts here have given you some very good information. Prospect for business in a creative way. The sources of superior business are vast. Make sure to do your networking. Don't be locked into low price corporate contracts that have no profit built in. You are selling service. Once you land your first sizable account, customize your service for them. Continually look for ways to improve the service you render. Simple things matter. Our first large Destination Management Company ( DMC ) had a European account that prepaid, well in advance, all their work. The problem was that these wealthy clients always missed their departure cars-for which we were paid. The clients had a complete itinerary from their European agency but essentially blew it off as they were here to party. I don't like missed pickups so I developed an outbound ( departure ) form in a variety of languages and had it delivered to the hotel concierge the day before. The arrival chauffeur also gave the clients this form. Misses dropped to zero and my local DMC was seriously pleased. At that point I was invited to staff a small one room office at the local DMC and they began giving some leads to me directly, plus referrals that they didn't have time to handle. They were the largest local firm handling European travel and a great deal of my subsequent success came from the quality work I did with this single account. You make your own opportunities and success in this line of work.

In the DC metro, you could have your hands full of potential clients! Politicos, embassy work, etc. It is all there. If you are wanting to expand into the outer burbs of DC, meaning Viriginia, Maryland, etc., also try medical field as well. Look for the hospitals that do a lot of transplant work, they usually need to fly in doc's from all over (might be a lot of last-minute details, but worth it!), and even try the outpatient medical buildings, good example would be for lasic eye surgery, go by and ask to present a proposal. Their clients cannot drive themselves home, and whatever you charge can be put into their pricing structure for their clients. This should be steady work, but you do have to work hard at keeping this, once it starts, you should be good to go! A lot of affiliate work in DC, getting jobs farmed in from other larger companies, go around, talk to a few owner-operators and see what you need. A lot of Baltimore companies might not see much use in picking up someone in DC and transporting them to Dulles (traffic, time,and fuel are major concerns), see if you can get the work they can't-or won't do, and they'll refer you, or farm in to you!

quote:

Originally posted by limo bill:
Where did I lose you here Mark Ri. I think demanding and cheap is pretty self explainitory but I will spell it out for you. (I will not mention company names )

Demanding examples:
A) need vip pick-up at company HQ in 10 mins.
B) need vip pick up @ LAX on Friday @ 6:00pm , 1hr. notice given ( mega traffic )
C) change flight itenary for one passenger more than 3 times in 24hr. period.
D) One way transfer for 16 people on any given Saturday during prom season @ 9:00pm.

These are only examples, but do you get the point ? They think they are your only customers.

CHEAP !!! I mean these companies don't want to spend alot of money. They think because they give you repeat business they deserve a 20-30 % discount. Sometimes they complain about a built in gratuity. Very rarly do they give cash tips. Why do these billion $$$ companies think they can low ball my small family business ? Do you get a discount if you buy gas more than 3 times a day ? Do you get a discount if you eat at Mcdonalds 4 times a week ? These are examples, but once again do you get the point ? I understand this is a service industry biz, but I will not be low balled or treated like a peon.

For the record: I have been doing limos now for 18 years. Sept. 21st, 2008 will be our 15th year aniversery. We have made a profit every single year and live comfortably. We prefer to remain a small family business. We have seven vechicles in our fleet and all are paid for. I have found my nitch in this market and know where it is. For those of you who think I am wrong about fortune 500 companies, I don't want to hear it. This is only my opinion, I am happy with where I stand, and thats all that matters to me.

From just the top of your mind, those are some great examples of "demanding". I can't stand demanding clients. My old reaction used to be to pamper them and show off how good I could be to solve there problems. But like Steves said, big companies have no loyalty(usually) and try and play you against the competition. But I too love a strong, loyal administrative assistant.

I just finished a 13 hour sedan job for the U.S. Open and the contact was an angel. Instead of splitting every transfer up, she paid us for every hour we were in stand by for. Easiest 13 hour job I ever had.

Good point Steve.

Not to mention the wal mart strategy of playing of each vendor against the other one. Every year "well XYZ limo comapany ABC limo company can give us a sedan for $3.00 less per hour why cant you?" Never mind you busted your butt all year for them at an already discounted rate, always want more. It's aint like the 80's when money was flowing like water!

Best thing you can hope for is a strong adminstrative assistant on thier side that stands up and says "these guys are the best, I wont use any other, pay what they ask". Very Rare.

Where did I lose you here Mark Ri. I think demanding and cheap is pretty self explainitory but I will spell it out for you. (I will not mention company names )

Demanding examples:
A) need vip pick-up at company HQ in 10 mins.
B) need vip pick up @ LAX on Friday @ 6:00pm , 1hr. notice given ( mega traffic )
C) change flight itenary for one passenger more than 3 times in 24hr. period.
D) One way transfer for 16 people on any given Saturday during prom season @ 9:00pm.

These are only examples, but do you get the point ? They think they are your only customers.

CHEAP !!! I mean these companies don't want to spend alot of money. They think because they give you repeat business they deserve a 20-30 % discount. Sometimes they complain about a built in gratuity. Very rarly do they give cash tips. Why do these billion $$$ companies think they can low ball my small family business ? Do you get a discount if you buy gas more than 3 times a day ? Do you get a discount if you eat at Mcdonalds 4 times a week ? These are examples, but once again do you get the point ? I understand this is a service industry biz, but I will not be low balled or treated like a peon.

For the record: I have been doing limos now for 18 years. Sept. 21st, 2008 will be our 15th year aniversery. We have made a profit every single year and live comfortably. We prefer to remain a small family business. We have seven vechicles in our fleet and all are paid for. I have found my nitch in this market and know where it is. For those of you who think I am wrong about fortune 500 companies, I don't want to hear it. This is only my opinion, I am happy with where I stand, and thats all that matters to me.

quote:

Originally posted by limo bill:
Ankur,

I will try to be a little bit nicer to you this time. Target any one who is in the area you service. No job is too small, and quite often small jobs lead to bigger jobs provided you did a good job on the first one. Lets compare this to fishing. You get your best pole, your best bait and go to a place where you can catch the most fish. Don't fish for one paticular kind of fish ( i.e. customer ) any body can turn into a good ptoential customer. I think you are going into this looking mostly for fortune 500 excutives, when the best accounts can be those hidden treasures nobody else is even competing for. And besides, fortune 500 companys can be very demanding and cheap when it comes to paying for excuitive car service.

Good Luck !!!

limo bill, could you give a example of fortune 500 company being demanding and cheap? i mean what kind of things are they demanding about? we seen so many big limo sercives with big contracts of fortune 500 companies and think they got it made

Ankur,

I will try to be a little bit nicer to you this time. Target any one who is in the area you service. No job is too small, and quite often small jobs lead to bigger jobs provided you did a good job on the first one. Lets compare this to fishing. You get your best pole, your best bait and go to a place where you can catch the most fish. Don't fish for one paticular kind of fish ( i.e. customer ) any body can turn into a good ptoential customer. I think you are going into this looking mostly for fortune 500 excutives, when the best accounts can be those hidden treasures nobody else is even competing for. And besides, fortune 500 companys can be very demanding and cheap when it comes to paying for excuitive car service.

Good Luck !!!

Good question Ankur, but a hard one. With today's global business trends just about every large multinational is going to have employees flying somewhere. I would tend to say though the most business (frequency and quantity) is going to come from companies that either have a sales force , lots of engineers, lots of analysts or are in a manufacturing business.

Sales based companies you will get weekly trips of sales people going to visit potential or current clients. When they go on these trips they weight them down with like 14 hours worth of meetings a day so when they come back home they are in no shape to drive.

Engineering companies - I am talking about are companies that do like major construction jobs all over the globe. Water treatment plants, nuclear reactors, stuff like that. We had an account like that and those poor folks were traveling to every corner of the globe on a weekly basis dealing with problems in the construction process.

Analysts - This is usually in the financial industry (accounting , mutual funds, lending) they often have to go and visit their clients to do their work and look at documents. No doing stuff over the internet with them, they like to be hands on.

Manufactures - especially if they have plants in multiple states there is always a reason popping up for Senor management to come in and do something.

But of course every corporation is going to have a need for ground transportation even if it's just:
Annual stock holders meeting (bunch of VIP's flying in)
Picking up candidates for employment from the airport
Taking a group of employees to a team building day in the forest
Taking employees to the company Christmas party.

But you know it's not good to limit yourself just to corporations. Even the small business can be a good source of revenue. We had a guy that repaired and consulted on the construction of refrigeration units. Flew more than any CEO I ever saw. Found out they were like super high tech refrigeration unit and this was the only guy in the country that did this kind of work so was in high demand. Every week 10-14 orders taking him and his crew back and forth to the airport for their jobs. Consistently raking up big revenue! you may get more work from a corporation but consistency is great also!