Promoting your Business at a Car Show Client Testimonial
This is a testimonial by John Alvar, founder of GTIMotorsports.com
This is how I took my business to a whole new level by exhibiting at car shows. My name is John Alvar and I own www.gtimotorsports.com. I signed up with Shopping cart elite in December of 2009. At first I was just selling VW GTI parts, but soon realized that I needed to expand into the full VW line-up, I also decided to include the complete Audi line. Currently we specialize in VW/Audi performance/OEM/Aftermarket parts and Accessories. I advertise on a couple of VW Forums, I like forums because the customers tell you what products and brands they are looking for. I started to notice a lot of hype on the Forums over car shows and events; one in particular is located near me in NJ. I started looking more into this and it turns out that the one in NJ is the biggest one on the East coast. This event is held at Raceway park in Englishtown, NJ and is called Waterfest. I contacted the event organizers, I explained that I was interested in becoming a sponsor/vendor but this was my first time and didnt know what to expect, he immediately told me not to worry that he would be available to assist me at anytime.and he did, I asked for a lot! I asked for a high traffic booth (turns out they were all high traffic), near some of the bigger names in the VW industry.
The Planning
When you attend these events you need to have the product on hand (cash and carry). I was told by the event organizer that anything around $100.00 will fly of the racks..he wasnt bullshittin! I made a list of supplies and products That I would need and started purchasing supplies; banners, table cloths, Grid wall racks, ETC. I imported products from overseas in order to get the best deal possible, I also had other products just for display and set things up so I can take orders for them. About a month prior to the event I was contacted by a large distributor with an offer to open an account with then, so I did. I told the sales rep about the show and he told me that they would be there as well; they were representing a product manufacture. A few days before the show this distributor contacted me with an exciting offer; they needed someone to represent AEM at the show. Although AEM was going to have a booth at the show, they wouldnt be selling products and needed some since AEMs dealer bailed out the last minute. There were only 3 days before the event and we were still negotiating. The distributor agreed to give me several thousand dollars worth of products on consignment and brought them along with him from Michigan.
The Booth Car
We needed to display a car in our booth, so I contacted the event organizer again; he recommended that I announce it on his Facebook wall. They have over 13,000 Fans and within one minute I started getting emails with pictures of some awesome looking VWs.OH! And our Facebook fans started climbing, we went from 42 to well over one hundred in a couple of weeks. We choose a booth car that had quite a few Mods including an air bag setup (Air ride). Heres a picture of the car sitting in our booth early Sunday before the crowd showed up. http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.192325010822112.64441.143860799001867#!/photo.php?fbid=192325064155440&set=a.192325010822112.64441.143860799001867&type=1&theater
The Event
The morning of the event came, I looked around and told my son jokingly we have the crappiest booth here, he laughed and said, well we know what to do for next year! It turns out that it wasnt that bad. We were surrounded by some of the biggest names in the VW/Audi industry. We were there by 8am the gates opened at 12pm, we thought that we were ready but we were not ready for was about to happen!
By the time the crown hit our booth, maybe 12:01pm, and I mean CROWD! It was like swarm of bees around us. We had Badgeless grilles at 30% off of our retail prices, we had several types and they were a HOT SELLER! Shift knob lever W/boot also a very hot seller. We sold entry level Coilovers for $490.00, we sold seven sets! One guy bought a shift knob because it was only $25, his friend said but you dont need one, he replied but its only $25. Another gentleman bought a 6 spd shift knob w/boot for his 5 spd because it was only $25; itll fit, its just has the additional gear marked on it. People walked away because we didnt have enough help to handle the crowd. I was wearing cargo shorts; I have to tell you, ever pocket was bulging with CASH! People were just handing it over.like they didnt need it! There were automotive enthusiasts from as far away as Canada with cash, Credit cards and PayPal. People go there for the DEALS.and we had them! Some of our competitors were coming over to check us out!! One guy was selling euro plate holders, he told me who he was and asked about our prices, we actual had some plate holders that he doesnt carry..Well, I have to tell youpeople bought from them, then seen what we had and wanted ours instead. One guy came by three times, he tried returning the ones he bought from the other guy, when they wouldnt return them he tried doing an exchange with me, in the end he bought one from me as well. On Saturday it took me three hours to eat a sandwich, thats how busy it wasand there were three of us at my booth. Sunday started off a little slower but picked up like wild fire a couple of hours in..It must have been all of the partying the night before. I found out a week later that there were well over 21,000 in attendance, it was 700+ over last year.
I highly recommend that everyone attend a couple of these events to eye up the competition and get a feel on what theyre selling. Even if youre a general store you can still get involved. Just by going to these events and speaking with vendors you can learn a lot from them and even pick up new suppliers.
There was an event program that was given out at the gate with our advertisement in it and we were offering a free drawing for everyone that registered for our newsletter; the prize was a cat-back exhaust. We had set up a lap top computer so we can just do registrations through shopping cart elite. This proved to be very successful and having shopping cart elite on hand helped us tremendously with looking up pricing for products on our website. We were able to process a few orders and have them shipped out later in the week.