i just spent 3 days trying to dole up business at a performance car show that had vendors, etc, throughout the show. it is a pretty big show in the GTA www.performanceworldcarshow.com

this was my first time doing something like this. i would HIGHLY recommend anyone who does fab work to do this at a local show to your shop! i handed out about 400 business cards. the next day i had someone stop by my shop (for something small) and a couple emails about quoting very interesting jobs. a lot of those old school hot rod guys need custom work done because their cars are so unusual. a lot of them are getting interested in turbos as well since it seems to be the new thing for them to do lately. i mean, who wants to put a twin turbo setup on a 500 ci caddy motor anyway? i had guys wanting to boost their sleds to needing a manifold for their tractor!

here was my little 10x10 space:

 

Booth looks great weir. What is the cantilever suspension for?

 

thanks. the suspension is for my crx.

i'm telling you, anyone who doesn't do one of these shows is crazy not to!

 

Weir, contact me. I do it for a living.

 

Nice booth.

 

Meh, we've done the car shows with limited to no success, I found that the ar shows were full of people wanting generic stuff, cheap bolt on solutions. The weird and complicated stuff I enjoy comes from internet. Hope it works out well with you though.

 

I've entertained some of this actually. In tough times it's something anyone should look at. Diversifying is really the only solution any more, unless your one of the most established shops out there that can live on predominantly one or two makers.

Booth looks good though. Your workin it.

I, on the other hand, may be relocating due to issues with the owner.......not so fun. In addition, due to the business that came through last year, he felt compelled to raise my rent BIG time....not so fun either.

At this point, I'm looking at many options...lol.

 

the difference with this show is that it is predominantly older hot rod guys who don't know much about turbos and they want to get into it... plus they have money to spend and don't think it is out of the question to spend $10-$15k on a turbo setup. the big advantage is that most of them have such strange chassis/engine combinations that they can't find off the shelf parts.

 

Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh .....lol.

 

Not really fab related, But this was our Partners booth at salon SCP 2008

 

In my experience this is spot on

 

If you don't do well at a trade show you are doing one of many things wrong.

1) You are at the wrong show.
2) Your product isn't that great.
3) You are presenting your product in an undesirable manner.
4) Your booth is located in the wrong spot on the floor.
5) Overwhelmed by the competition.

Those are just to name a few. The best thing you can do is make the best presentation possible and get a lot of people around your booth. Take lots of leads, and then follow up on them. Our customers have a lot of success making sure their clients know they are going to a particular show. When you have customers and interest around your booth, people think you're doing stuff right. If you are sitting there doing nothing, then people think you are doing something wrong. Same thing as the kid sitting by himself at lunch. You assume they are all screwed up, but in actuality they may or may not be.

 

6)The locals want cheap crap not nice hand fabricated goods.

Every time I go to a show my booth is 20 people deep all day, and I can't talk after the show because my throat is worn out from talking 10 hrs straight, people love our stuff, but locally here in Canada, they don't build much, and if they do its all about mig welded aluminized bends with ground down welds. Guess that fits into the wrong show catagory.

 

how is that? he is a great fabricator...

 

It does actually. You should be marketing towards a different audience. You should also market your product differently so that you make the consumer understand why they should buy from you. The end result is, trade shows work. Otherwise they wouldn't exist.

I threw out generic questions. It's up to him to answer the questions.

 

I know what you are saying, trust me I do. A show I went to last year featured chip foose and some other hot rod old guy, the show was PACKED. My booth was PACKED, people were absolutely blown away by what we do, I handed out over 600 business cards, in 3 days, 10-12hrs a day. I was bagged by the time the show was done, and very convinced it was going to bring tons of work. That was about a year ago, to date I don't think it netted me over 8k. My business is quite a bit different than the average tuner performance shop though and I would agree that car shows aren't really the place for me to be marketing out services.

 

@ Dave

Trade shows do work, but it has to be targeted right. I've worked at numerous trade shows with mixed results. It's about the target audience and what you're doing to capture it. There's a lot of tire-kickers at trade shows. You need to grab attention, but grab the right attention. Why do so many booths use models, beer, giveaways, raffles? Because they are trying to attract attention to the booth. Their booth may be packed all day, but that doesn't mean it generates any good leads. Having "cool" stuff in the booth attracts attention but what good is it if you're not attracting your core demographic? Anyone will take a business card in exchange for free stuff or for eye candy! It's about getting solid leads, and then following up on their potential.

Don't give up on trade shows' potential - maybe defined goals / target demographic / leads follow-up structure will make the next one financially worth it. Because let's face it... 3 days at a trade show is 3 days you're not producing at your shop, so your costs are a lot more than paying for the booth and travel costs.


Nowtype: you've got PM!

 

I totally agree... The Canadian market just isn't what you'd expect it to be.. Our performance needs automatically brings us to the US market for higher end expensive products. All the local dudes are just looking for a cheap yet "bang for the buck" solutions.

Of course, there are guys who are into "custom builds", so I think Weirtech has it pretty good for his booth. Whenever a customer needs a custom build, then the only viable solution is to ship the car down the US. Not too ideal for them, so now there is a market for custom-only turbo/fabrication builds here in Canada.

The same goes for engine tuning. You can't ship your car down the US and get it tuned, then expect it to run the same up here in Canada. You can't bring a good tuner up here either because it is extremely difficult to have a foreign tuner familiarize at a different dyno shop each time, etc...

But to sell a merchandise or market a product up here in Canada, good luck!

 

Seems like there is an abundance of great tuners and fabricators coming from Canada lately with a shortage of customers.Its the exact opposite here it seems.