Work at a dealership and take car photos or in charge of making sure they get done?

[Tony.Steen]

Hey there, I run product and GTM at a startup that's trying to help dealers instantly and consistently get the perfect car photos but doesn't remove any important imperfections that break trust when the lead shows up at the dealership.

I've only worked as a detailer at dealership decades ago so would appreciate being able to learn from anyone who either takes car photos and puts them online or is in charge of making sure someone else gets this done.

We've launched our product and have 20 dealerships signed up through a distribution partner with an exclusive in a few countries. However we need to understand our customers and users much better so we will build something useful for people like you.

Since you all are experts in the car selling game your opinion and advice would greatly help.

I'd love to know what you're using now for car photos and how you feel about it.

Thanks

 

[dealerdata1]

I'd say the only way to learn is to do.

Go to a handful of dealerships and say you will handle their photos for free for the day/week or shadow the photo person to understand the flow

Everyone is a tad different in process

We used DSLR's and processed photos through lightroom for color enhancement and touchups (not removing damage) but other dealers will be out taking photos on their iPhones and what not

We also did a decent amount of high line or exotic cars, so that required a different level of care and attention to detail in photos thus using the DSLR

 

[Tony.Steen]

Jake, it sounds like you were shooting some top flight cars.

You're right about making the offer to do it for them or shadowing. It will be the best way to learn and I've added it my to-do list.

So you used high end digital cameras and adobe lightroom.

How did you determine whether your pics were any good? Did you just look at them and say, "Yep these look great" or did you have some marketing or quality numbers you looked at?

 

[dealerdata1]

How did you determine whether your pics were any good? Did you just look at them and say, "Yep these look great" or did you have some marketing or quality numbers you looked at?

Can you define this further?

I originally went to college for fine art where I specialized in ceramics and photography, so as far as "Yep, these look good" is 100% accurate in how I determined the quality

But if it concerns attaching metrics to the quality of photos, that is hard to judge but time to sale was typically an indicator for us.

It was not out of the realm that once I posted the pictures of the car it would sell within the week, and the fastest was same day. Yes, these aren't fleet cars or rental bombs as they are 911's and corvettes, or other desirable sports cars, but at the same time, we weren't the only dealer in the Country stocking these cars

 

[Tony.Steen]

Can you define this further?

I originally went to college for fine art where I specialized in ceramics and photography, so as far as "Yep, these look good" is 100% accurate in how I determined the quality

But if it concerns attaching metrics to the quality of photos, that is hard to judge but time to sale was typically an indicator for us.

It was not out of the realm that once I posted the pictures of the car it would sell within the week, and the fastest was same day. Yes, these aren't fleet cars or rental bombs as they are 911's and corvettes, or other desirable sports cars, but at the same time, we weren't the only dealer in the Country stocking these cars

I know about the rule of thirds and think I'm a creative genius...okay maybe not so much. Any other advice that's a rule of thumb to up my creative game?

Sounds like you guys tracked how long it takes to sell a car. You'll probably think this is a dumb question but when did the clock start running and when did it end? How did you keep track of those numbers?