Bragnara: The first thing you're going to want to evaluate is your wash quality. Wash quality is not only the looks of the vehicle that's being washed, but also the quality of the location and the facility itself - whether it's clean, if there's enough lighting inside the carwash and the overall quality of the place.

You really need to make a conscious effort to make the necessary changes that will make your carwash marketable. This may include major rehabilitation of the facility itself.

You've got to give your people something to sell. You have to make the place where you'll offer your service presentable to the person who wants to buy it.

People don't want to bring their families to places that look like industrial parks to have their cars washed. You want to make them feel as at home as possible.

Hopkins: Your place has to look good. Sometimes one of the best enhancements to a property is clean, easy-to-read signage. Probably the key to doing signs is making them clear, concise and consistent.

If you're an oil-related site and using pump toppers, make your pump topper the same as your change mat, and make your change mat the same as your perimeter pole. It just makes it easier for the customer. It really validates your whole wash program.

Bragnara: The attitude of the cashier represents the attitude of your entire business. First impressions are lasting.

So, are your cashiers positive? You need to be asking this, because they're going to make or break you if you're depending on them to be selling your carwash.

If they're not positive, if they're not up on the program, if they're not even knowledgeable about the packages you offer, you're not going to sell carwashes. People are going to buy from people - that's basic sales.

You need to develop a training session with your employees to get them knowledgeable of what they're selling, knowledgeable of what your carwash is capable of doing. They need to be able to answer questions customers may have. It's very frustrating when a customer has questions and the cashier doesn't know.

There's a lot of turnover with cashiers, but if you have an ongoing program of training and incentives, you're going to find the cashier and you making more money.

Hopkins: For almost seven years now, I've used a book of product knowledge that is accessible to your attendants or your cashiers.

Product knowledge accounts for about 20 percent of your sales presentation. Sales schools around will tell you that it's 80 percent time and effort and listening skills, and about 20 percent product knowledge.

Have some brochures ready - some handouts you can give the customer. It takes a lot of heat off your cashier or attendant when you can hand the customer a piece of literature that they can read. It just kind of validates the whole process.

Every sale has an opening, a body and a close. The body of the sale contains that split second when the customer decides.

Overcoming objections will be a key point of your staff's sales process. If your cashiers understand the objections and have prepared responses, the chances are the customer is going to believe them, and your chances of selling an upgrade just got better.

Bragnara: There's one really easy way to maintain good quality control. Somebody should be delegated the duty of going in the wash every morning and washing their own vehicle and making sure the facility is operating properly. If you're thinking of switching from a free to a charge, you need to give the customer something new and improved. This is going to make the change the easiest.

You should also incorporate some type of retail promotion. It lessens the blow to the customer a little bit, because they're receiving something for what they're purchasing.

I advocate the three-package carwash menu. Three packages makes it an easy decision for the customer. You want to make this decision as simple as possible and easy for your cashiers or attendants to remember.

Last, remember to create a positive atmosphere and promote your best wash. Ask the customer "Would you like our Ultimate Wash today?" Go to the best wash you have. Going back to the three- package menu, this also makes it easier to sell the top wash when you only have three choices.

Hopkins: If you have cashiers or attendants, have buttons on their shirts and have them up on what your current promotions are, any cross-marketing you're doing, so they have an idea what's happening.

I like buttons. Buttons look temporary. People look at that and they think the sale is going to end soon. They may have the interest to purchase now because you may not have it later.

I'm also a big pennant, banner person. The more temporary it looks, the more urgency there is in purchasing.

Find out who's buying with their credit cards and make them a club customer. Give them a number or a code on the back of their credit card that's good for the ultimate wash. Let them buy at a better rate or give them a bulk purchase. If you have that technology, do that. People buy with a credit card what they deserve - not what they need.

Always try to use action words in your menus. "Foam," "blow-dry," that sort of thing. Use a lot of adjectives, too.

I don't think you should put your price first. If people look at the numbers first, they might have the tendency to gravitate to the lower price. I like to have people read a little bit in an itemized fashion and then tell them what it all costs.

I've done a lot of promotions with non-profit groups like the Boy Scouts and it works out real well.

A few times when I've run promotions, like the roof-top inflatables, I've fake-called radio stations. I'll say, "What's going on at that carwash? What have they got on the roof there?" Then, sometimes if you do it enough, they'll say something on the radio. It's weird, but it works.