Let me tell you what your truck can do: it can make or break a sale, that’s what it can do.

What, you were expecting Buzzfeed?

The appearance and condition of your truck is more important to your bottom line than you may think. Here are some tips to help it market you best.

Wrap it:

You can spend thousands on EDDM and other shotgun approaches, but reports from the trenches confirm, time and time again, the best marketing money you can spend is on a good truck wrap. It looks vastly more professional than some “rando” unmarked truck, and can even help protect the finish of the vehicle, depending on which one you get. At the very least, get a magnetic sign for each door.

Wipe it:

Keep it clean inside and out. We don’t care how you keep your house, but your truck is a mobile advertisement for the business and it needs to be as neat and tidy as your customers hope your work is. In all likelihood they will either sit in the passenger seat to sign something or at least look in while the door is open, so keep cleaning supplies in the truck and use them biweekly if not more. Jalopnik has a great article on how even lazy people can keep their truck clean. Here are the basic tools you’ll need, none of them pricy.

• a small 2.5 gallon shopvac does ten times the job of a hand vac, and you can plug it into an inverter to run off truck power
• windex and paper towels (newspaper in a pinch)
• Lysol or other general purpose cleaner of your choice.
• small hand Swiffer.
• seat covers and dirt-trapping floor mats; remove and wash regularly

Wax it:

Good old-fashioned elbow grease is the best way here. Spray wax is about as useful as spray tan. Besides, it guarantees you some close-up time with your truck, where you can note any signs of wear and look after nicks or more serious problems on a regular basis.

Here’s a good video basic that explains the process if you’ve always farmed it out before. Yes, you can do this by hand too, if you don’t have a buffer to hand.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGp-WwnRRLk

Now take it out and ride it!

Last Updated By: Rochelle Sanchirico

Last modified: January 16, 2018