Let’s be clear: 2020 wasn’t supposed to go down like this.
A global pandemic wasn’t supposed to bring motorsports to a grinding halt…and cause massive uncertainty and anxiety—or worse—for the manufacturers, distributors, and retailers of performance parts, equipment, and services. Let alone for the racers themselves, or for that matter their crew members, sponsors, and media partners.
Speed shops weren’t counting on restricting or closing their showrooms to customers, then feeling compelled to push hand sanitizer, require face masks, or enforce social distancing (whatever that means anymore).
Race tracks weren’t planning on having to upend event schedules, or scrap their seasons altogether, thanks to a jumble of mismatched health and safety requirements that still vary wildly by state, county, city, etc.
Nor was our team expecting to work so hard, as always, to bring the industry to Indianapolis for three days in December, only to have to reverse course and wait another year to produce the world’s premier business and networking event for motorsports professionals—the PRI Trade Show.
Truly, most of us would describe 2020 using an assortment of four-letter words.
But with all of that said, sometimes you have no choice but to play the hand you’re dealt. Hard as it may seem, it means not dwelling on the losses, the obstacles, or what could or might have been.
To paraphrase a current NFL head coach with more Super Bowl rings than fingers on one hand: “We’re on to the next game.”
For us, that next game actually began last month with the launch of our first-ever PRI Road Tour, a cross-country content blitz that will take our team, by van, to more than 85 motorsports businesses and organizations across the US over a two-month span.
And it continues in this issue of PRI Magazine, which is loaded with exclusive features and reports on the parts, cars, suppliers, and educational opportunities you’d typically find on the floor of the Indiana Convention Center in early winter.
For instance, nearly 150 top manufacturers and service providers representing all forms of motorsports are highlighted, along with their latest products and sales contact information, in our dedicated Supplier Showcase, which begins on page 26. These companies have spent months or longer developing go-fast parts and solutions to help your race operation gain a competitive edge. And we’re proud to offer you a direct line to learn more about their incredible innovations.
An all-new section in these pages, but one our Show attendees will surely recognize, is PRI’s Featured Vehicles display, which starts on page 100 and provides an up-close look at 19 remarkable race cars, including details down to the engine platform, aftermarket products used, and inside stories known only to the owners…until now.
There’s a ton more to digest in this month’s edition of PRI, so we invite you sit back, relax, and take a little time to catch up on what’s happening across motorsports. After all, it’s never too early to start planning for that next game.
Donny Schatz took the $75,000 top prize at this year’s Champion Racing Oil National Open at Williams Grove Speedway in October. Photo courtesy of World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series.
This potent combination of sponsor and race venue is a well-oiled machine, producing the Champion Racing Oil National Open that’s been refined and streamlined over its six-year run.
With a history that stretches back to 1939, Williams Grove Speedway is a legend among dirt tracks. Featuring a jam-packed roster of events—during a normal race season—this Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, venue typically attracts throngs of race fans week after week from March to October.
One of the track’s top events each year is the final race of its season, the Champion Racing Oil National Open, sanctioned by the World of Outlaws (WoO). This two-day sprint-car spectacular is a pinnacle event in the WoO season, with big crowds, big-name drivers, and a big purse (more on that later).
Playing a key role in this event is presenting sponsor Champion Racing Oil. To learn more about the partnership, we talked to Karl Dedolph of Clinton, Missouri-based Champion Racing Oil and Justin Loh, manager of Williams Grove Speedway.
PRI: How did this partnership come about?
Karl Dedolph, Champion Racing Oil: I think it was probably their thing. Williams Grove is a historic track, like Wrigley Field is in baseball. It’s old and people go to it on an annual basis. So it was a pretty good location to come up with something.
Justin Loh, Williams Grove Speedway: Back in 2015, Allan Holland from Hoseheads reached out [to inform us] that Champion might have an interest in sponsoring something at Williams Grove. So I reached out to Champion’s CEO, David Lowe, and he put me in touch with Karl. So from that point Karl and I put something together.
PRI: What came out of that initial sponsorship deal?
Loh: We were doing a two-day National Open, and we wanted to make it a little bigger. So we went to a three-day format with Champion. With their help we were able to pull that off. (Editor’s note: After expanding to three days, this year’s event returned to a two-day format on October 2–3.)
PRI: Why did this partnership make sense from a business standpoint?
Dedolph: The Outlaws are a big draw. That’s something that attracts us to it. At PRI, they list six logos of their big events of the year, and they have the Champion Racing Oil National Open at Williams Grove as one of them. So we’re pleased to be associated with that.
Loh: It was a good fit for us, because we’re both privately owned and family-held businesses. And teaming up with Champion has allowed us to expand our reach within motorsports via their marketing network that they have on their end.
PRI: Is there any relationship with World of Outlaws in this sponsorship?
Dedolph: We actually pay the money to Williams Grove, and then they offer the prize money to the winner of the event. We really don’t have any relationship with World of Outlaws in this.
PRI: What are the goals of this sponsorship?
Dedolph: It’s really just exposure and goodwill. We have distribution in New York and the Penn State area, so it’s also a way of rewarding our distributors. We have 20-plus tickets per night, and then we have two suites. We invite our distributors to come.
Loh: Champion’s marketing campaign that they do on their end, and all the racing that they’re involved with is what helps us grow the event financially. Having national brands be a part of anything in racing is important.
PRI: How do you promote the event and the sponsorship?
Dedolph: I’ll do some press releases as we get closer to the event. We also post on Instagram, Twitter, and mostly Facebook—pictures of the event and such. We try to really promote our distributors with content for them to post. We also have a tent at the race every year, and we provide the race winner with a large belt like the wrestling belts, that says “2020 Nationals.” They hold it up in victory circle. So we’re pretty happy with how we’ve postured who we are at the event.
Loh: We use all social media, from Facebook, to Snapchat, to Twitter and Instagram. And then we do press releases along with it, plus in-house videos that we do using the Champion brand to get fans involved on those platforms also. We use billboards at the race track, banners, and we work with other local events.
One of Williams Grove Speedway’s premier events, the Champion Racing Oil National Open sanctioned by the World of Outlaws draws big-name drivers for a big-time purse, and allows presenting sponsor Champion Racing Oil to promote its products and distributors through various media and trackside activations.
PRI: Do you measure the results of your promotion and publicity?
Dedolph: When I send out a press release, I can tell how many people have downloaded it, printed it, or looked at it. It can be in the 50,000 views range.
Loh: We measure on social media by the hits that we get on a post that we put out. And it seems like video is the strongest of those. We start promoting it weeks before, and we’ll monitor it through, but you’ll see the increase closer to the event.
PRI: How hands-on is Champion in running this event?
Loh: We get to work with the owner of the company and then his employees, Karl and Aric (Dell). They make it to the event every time when they do the sponsorship. So it’s nice to have them on hand with us working on making the show better over time.
PRI: How does this sponsorship affect the purse you’re able to offer?
Loh: Teaming up with Champion back in 2015, we grew from a $50,000 to win, to now a $75,000 to win, even though we’ve gone back to a two-day format again. Their involvement has allowed us to elevate the event financially. For 2020, we’re going to offer the largest total purse for a sprint-car race in the nation.
PRI: Is there anything that’s required in the agreement for when you’re at the track during the race?
Dedolph: In our rider we have tickets, booths, skyboxes, parking, tent location, media access, pit access. They’re pretty accommodating. We just go ask for what we need. Initially it had to be very clear that we were going to get certain things and how we were going to be able to move our show in. Now we keep the show pretty much in their barns and they pull it out the day of the event and put it in our location.
PRI: How has it been running this sponsorship and event during the coronavirus crisis?
Dedolph: Pennsylvania seems to be pretty open in terms of having so many races. And they’re going with no social distancing from what I hear.
Loh: It was challenging. We opened the season with one race, then we went through a stretch where we weren’t able to race. But honestly, the fans have been the backbone of this. And I think the drivers saved a lot of equipment from the races they missed. So we’ve had great car counts and great turnouts. We just want to make sure everything’s safe for people to enjoy the racing. We look forward to finishing the year on a strong note.
PRI: What else besides promotion do you get out of this partnership?
Dedolph: Because of this sponsorship, we also have a relationship where we sell the track commercial products. They buy our diesel oil for their trucks, skid loaders, pavers, graders, backhoes, and Bobcats. We’re their partners in lubricants and chemicals for everything the track uses all year long.
PRI: Where do you see this sponsorship going from here?
Loh: We want to build on it every year. And this year, I think we’re fortunate that we’re able to stay with our purse that we had, with Champion’s help. So after this season, we’ll see if we’re able to increase stuff for the drivers, and also put on a bigger event for fans.
PRI: What’s the duration of this sponsorship agreement?
Dedolph: We’re in negotiations right now for an extended contract. I think they feel we do a good job, and I would think they would want to continue with our relationship.
Loh: It’s yearly. We have open communication throughout the year. From Champion’s side, they’ve been very happy. And we’ve been very happy. So I don’t think we’ve needed to sign anything long-term. But if they felt they needed something like that, it’s definitely something we would look at.
It’s safe to say there is one race that none of us likes—the race to the bottom. After all, your company has invested millions into engineering, R&D, marketing, sales support, tech support, and more into bringing your product to market. Not only that, but you have poured your heart and soul into making incredible performance products for racers, only to see them devalued in the eyes of consumers.
Should you consider a pricing policy to protect your brand? If you think it’s too hard or too much to deal with…think again.
Following are a few tips on how to get started, or at least get you thinking about establishing a pricing policy for your product.
1. IDENTIFY THE PROBLEM
It is said that a well-defined problem is half solved! So first, identify if you have a pricing issue with your product in the market. Shop a handful of your top-selling products. If a reseller is selling your brand really cheap, then more than likely they are using your top sellers. Google Shop your product and identify the average percentage that your product is being discounted below Manufacturers Suggested Retail Price (MSRP).
2. STAGES OF IMPLEMENTATION
Now that you know the average percentage that your product is being discounted off MSRP, you are ready to figure out your stages of implementation. First, determine what is the lowest net price you want your product to ultimately sell for. What determines this price? You need to think about what the average gross margin is that a reseller of your product needs to make in order to offer the type of customer service, sales, and tech support their customers are accustomed to receiving.
Also, you should consider releasing different stages of pricing over a period of time so that you don’t create sticker shock for consumers. It doesn’t matter if it takes you three, five, or more years to get there. Only you will know when to implement these changes. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and your products’ devaluation did not happen overnight, either.
3. NO BOILERPLATES
You are going to need a policy. But do not go and find another company’s policy and copy it. There are no boilerplate policies. You need to have a policy written that works with your company’s infrastructure. What works for Sony or Nintendo might not be what you are looking for. Instead, seek out an attorney who specializes in brand protection. They are seasoned and experienced in this type of work, and they can ask you the right questions about your company in order to create a pricing policy that fits your specific needs. If you do choose to write your own policy, however, be sure to run it by your legal team before publishing it.
4. THE STING
Once you decide on a policy, it is critical that it contains a strong “sting” to the reseller(s) found to be non-compliant with your policy. However, be careful here: Whatever the penalty is to the reseller, you must imagine your best, number-one customer will violate your policy (because it can happen) and how that will affect your business. While the policy needs to have a “sting” to the violator, it cannot be so strong that you cripple your company when it comes time to enforce it. Some examples of the penalty phase could be:
Three Strikes Policy
First strike (violation) of your policy equals a warning. No harm no foul.
Second strike puts the reseller on a do not sell (DNS) list. This means they can’t buy any product from your company or any of your distributors for a period of time that you set.
A third strike puts the reseller on the DNS list for a longer period of time, which you determine.
All Advertising Funds Are Cut
Perhaps your co-op funds for advertising are very healthy for your product brand. Taking away these funds is another type of penalty for violating your policy.
Specific SKU Blocked from Reseller
This penalty blocks the reseller from being able to purchase only the specific SKU that they violated policy on. It leaves the balance of your products available. This works well for some manufacturers. Bear in mind that if you offer many SKUs, keeping track of them one by one, by violation, could be very difficult to manage.
No Product Warranty
Some companies choose to not offer product warranty on product that was purchased from an unauthorized reseller. Some manufacturers post these unauthorized resellers directly on their website to inform consumers.
Whatever you choose for the “sting,” make sure the reseller knows you mean business...but don’t cripple your company in the process. You might think several months on the DNS list is effective for a strike-two offense, but could you weather that kind of sales drought?
5. THE FOUR C’S
If you are going to utilize a pricing policy to protect your brand, you need to keep in mind a critical piece to the success of brand protection. It’s called the “Four C’s,” which are:
Confidence: Customers/resellers must feel confident that the manufacturer will enforce the pricing policy, and the manufacturer needs to have confidence that their customers or resellers can follow the policy.
Commitment: Do they want to do it? Are they consistent? Do they just want to sell whatever they can and not manage it? Anybody can sell on price. If a reseller doesn’t care, they never will, and they shouldn’t be an authorized reseller of your product. If they do not respect your brand, then find resellers that will. Contrary to popular belief, you do not want every reseller on the planet selling your products.
Controls: Do your customers/resellers have the controls in place to execute your policy? Do they have a way to not sell to resellers found on your DNS list, etc.?
Conduct: How do they do business? Are they honest about compliance or are they looking for ways to get around the system?
If these four criteria can be met, then the chances of your pricing policy being successful are highly likely.
ADDING VALUE
By way of review, the resources you have invested in your company to get it where it is today are truly extraordinary. While it is the right of resellers to sell at whatever price they want, it is your right not to let your company be devalued in the eyes of consumers. Therefore, you have a say in who is, and who is not, an authorized reseller of your product/brand.
You may very well need to adopt a pricing policy to protect your brand from major price erosion in the marketplace. If you are going to do this, you must commit. You must execute your policy no matter the reseller. You must treat everyone the same…no favorites. It is a “yes” or “no” question, and nothing personal when it comes to customers. Are they compliant, yes or no? If you cannot do this, then do not move forward. The worst thing you can do to your company’s reputation is to say you have a policy and never enforce it.
The goal here is to get you thinking about potential strategies that will add value to your brand, and to your distributors as well.
Rich Barsamian is the Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Advanced Clutch Technology. He was the SEMA Person of the Year in 2014, and was recently inducted into the SEMA Hall of Fame Class of 2020.
Officials from Ollie’s Bargain Outlet All Star Circuit of Champions presented by Mobil 1 have announced that its 2021 schedule will begin with six nights of non-point competition stretched across Georgia and Florida.
The schedule begins at the Screven Motor Speedway in Sylvania, Georgia, on January 29-30. A total of $18,000 is up for grabs--$8,000 on Friday and $10,000 on Saturday.
The competition then heads to East Bay Raceway Park just south of Tampa, Florida, on February 1-2. Set during the track’s annual Winternationals schedule, the doubleheader will award back-to-back $6,000 top prizes.
The stretch continues at Volusia Speedway Park in Barberville, Florida, on February 3-4. Continuing a tradition of All Star action opening the five-day sprint car segment of Volusia’s DIRTcar Nationals, the midweek appearance will award another pair of $6,000 top prizes.
The complete 2021 schedule is expected to be published in November.
If your business made it this far into 2020, congratulations!
In January, you thought you understood your customers, markets, and opportunities, and how to grow your business. Then, seemingly overnight, the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted all your plans for the year.
How have your customers changed since then, and what can you do to serve them and expand your business? What we can see of 2021 is still murky. What further disruptions await?
Against that backdrop, there are some basic steps you can depend on as you figure out where and how to grow your business in the year ahead.
DIRECTIONS TO GROW REVENUE
Start developing your growth plan by thinking through your best and most likely ways to grow. In general, there are three ways to grow your business. You can work on creating and developing opportunities in the marketplace with current and new prospective customers. That’s called market development. Alternatively, product development focuses on what you sell. Finally, over the last several months we’ve all heard about the importance of pivoting your businesses. Those major changes to what your business is and does fall under a third set of growth options: business transformation.
Using these three categories, you can begin developing one or more of nine potential directions for growth in 2021.
MARKET DEVELOPMENT
Target current customers. Sell more of what you currently offer to those already buying from you.
Grab share from your competitors. Take business from prospects who are currently doing business with competitors.
Open new markets. Begin selling what you currently offer to new industries, markets, and geographies.
Convert those who use alternative products/services. Incentivize potential customers to switch to your offerings.
Sell through new channels. Introduce your offerings into new sales channels, whether they’re external or internal to your organization.
PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
Enhance existing products. Increase sales by offering a modified version of what you currently sell.
Create new products. Grow your sales by providing new marketplace offerings.
BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION
Acquire growth. Purchase a competitor to grow your customer and revenue base.
Change the business model. Revamp your go-to-market approach to fundamentally change the nature of what you offer and how you take it to market.
As you consider these growth options, which ones seem most realistic for your business? Do you play to the strengths that your business has always demonstrated and do more of that? Is it time to shift to areas with greater opportunity that push you to develop new capabilities or pursue new paths?
NEXT STEPS TO DEVELOP NEW IDEAS
After selecting one—or maybe a couple—of these potential growth directions, you can use the following steps to imagine new ideas and possibilities.
Use the growth direction you selected as a basis for imagining what your organization might do to take advantage of growth. Consider the following.
1. What initial ideas do we have for growing?
2. How do we see other companies in our industry using the growth strategy we’re considering? How can we adapt those ideas for our business?
3. What examples do we see of companies employing this path for growth outside of our industry? What could we do to develop these ideas for our business?
4. What completely unexpected things could we do to grow in this way? If they seem far-fetched, how can we make them more realistic for us?
The goal is to generate 60 to 70 ideas. You read that right! It may seem like a lot, but you can use the questions, especially numbers 2 and 3, to find examples from other businesses. Then, you can rank the ideas by the kind of impact they might have and by how realistic it is to pursue them. Narrow down your big list of possibilities so that you’re left with a handful of the strongest possible growth ideas for your organization.
WAYS TO ACCELERATE GROWTH
Within this scope, what else can you do to maximize your 2021 growth potential?
Test your ideas before you go all in. Ideally, you want to understand current and potential customer perceptions about your brand and other brands they consider, and about what causes customers to try new brands in your market. Asking customers, formally or informally, is one way to do this. Creating a pilot program or testing something is an even better way to understand these perceptions. Start developing a pilot based on the data you have available. Remember: Any trends you could depend on before 2020 may no longer hold.
Boost awareness and interest among prospects. Are you planning to target competitors’ customers and/or other non-users? If you are, it’s crucial that you create stronger awareness of your brand. You can rely on traditional methods (advertising, marketing communications, sales outreach, etc.). You should also explore online tools that can grow awareness and interest for your business. Buyers do most, if not all, of their product research before they contact you. Make it easy for them to find out about your brand as they look for information online.
Improve the experience for customers. Look at the experience you offer customers. What do they have to go through to find out about your business? To buy from you? To get a problem resolved? Wherever you find that you’re not making the customer experience both simple and wonderful, you need to take action. Determine how you can make the experience of using your brand a delightful experience that customers may not even expect.
Free up salesperson time and improve productivity. If direct selling is important for your growth, streamline the processes and steps salespeople use. Challenge anything that wastes time or presents problems. Is each step necessary for delivering value for customers, or are salespeople handling unimportant tasks that limit time with new prospects? Consider using technology for qualifying prospects, and doing some follow-up to create more sales time.
GROWTH IS IN YOUR GRASP
Now’s the time to identify your best opportunities to grow in 2021. Use the approaches highlighted here to focus your direction, expand your thinking about innovative opportunities, and enhance your customer interactions. All of those are vital to making 2021 a success for your business.
Mike Brown is the founder of The Brainzooming Group and a frequent keynote presenter in marketing best practices, innovation, strategy, branding and building brand awareness, and social media. Additionally, he authors the daily Brainzooming blog (brainzooming.com) on strategy, creativity, and innovation, reaching readers in nearly 200 countries.
NASCAR has announced the 2021 schedule for the NASCAR Xfinity Series, which will mirror many of the changes in the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series schedule announced earlier this year.
The Xfinity Series will join the Cup Series for 32 of its 33 weekends, including running for the first time at Circuit of The Americas (May 22) and for the first time since 2011 at Nashville Superspeedway (June 19). The series will return to Mid-Ohio on June 5 for the only event at a venue apart from the Cup Series.
“As was the case with the Cup Series, we’re thrilled to have worked with the industry and our broadcast partners to deliver an exciting Xfinity Series schedule for our fans,” NASCAR Vice President of Racing Development Ben Kennedy said. “We saw phenomenal Xfinity Series racing in 2020, and this schedule allows us to build on that momentum by adding compelling new venues to an already fantastic mix of traditional race tracks.”
The Xfinity Series will make its lone Sunday appearance in Pocono on June 27 as part of an action-packed NASCAR Cup Series doubleheader weekend in Long Pond, Pennsylvania.
After a pair of off weekends in late July, the series returns to action for back-to-back road course racing in Watkins Glen (August 7) and on the Indianapolis Road Course (August 14). Those events will kick off 14 consecutive weekends of racing, including seven straight Playoff races culminating with the crowning of an Xfinity Series champion in Phoenix (November 6).
Bristol Motor Speedway will again host the regular-season finale (September 17), while Las Vegas Motor Speedway will open the Playoffs (September 25). The Charlotte ROVAL (October 9) and Martinsville Speedway (October 30) will once again serve as the cutoff races, trimming the Playoffs field to eight and four, respectively.
Broadcast times and networks will be announced at a later date, as will the 2021 schedule for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series.
For the complete 2021 schedule, visit here. For more information, visit nascar.com.
Officials from the Trans Am Series presented by Pirelli West Coast Championship have released its most extensive schedule yet for the 2021 season.
Visiting iconic tracks in the Western half of the US, the Trans Am by Pirelli West Coast Championship will stage seven events, with six running in conjunction with the SportsCar Vintage Racing Association (SVRA) SpeedTour.
The calendar is highlighted by three combined event weekends with the Trans Am Series presented by Pirelli National Series and an all-new venue--The Ridge Motorsports Park in Shelton, Washington.
“We are so happy to see the growing interest in the West Coast Championship and to grow the calendar to seven events for 2021,” Trans Am Race Company President John Clagett said. “It’s a great exposure opportunity for the West Coast Championship to be able to travel with the SpeedTour and include three combined National and West Coast events. As of now, all the events will be open to fans, which is an element we really missed this season.”
The 2021 Trans Am West Coast Championship season will kick off alongside the National Series, debuting at Sonoma Raceway on April 24-25. The series then moves down to the home of the Corkscrew at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca on May 1-2.
A return to Thunderhill Raceway Park with Classic Sports Racing Group on May 15-16 will close out the Trans Am West Coast California tour.
For the first time in Trans Am history, the roar of American Muscle will travel to Washington state to The Ridge Motorsports Park, staging a 100-mile race on the 2.47-mile road course as part of the SVRA SpeedTour event.
ProMedia Events & Publishing has announced ProMedia Productions, a new division for the sanctioning body and media company. The new brand is a for-hire event production and logistics group offering complete, turnkey motorsports event management.
“Some of the best businesses are created organically and ProMedia Productions is a perfect example of that fact,” ProMedia Events & Publishing Founder and CEO Steve Wolcott said. “NMRA and NMCA national events have the reputation of being some of the most organized in motorsports thanks to the highly experienced staff—led by Rollie Miller—and some of the best equipment to keep events moving smoothly. It’s no surprise that companies have sought us out to improve and produce segments of their events. This business segment is growing, and it makes sense to add a new division to serve the industry.”
ProMedia Productions is responsible for handling the drag racing segments of Holley LS Fest and Holley MoParty and is currently in talks with other specialty drag racing events for 2021 and beyond. ProMedia Productions allows companies to focus on their core business while developing live events. The events will carry the moniker “Powered by NMCA” to let racers and fans know there will be a high level of professionalism and organization.
The division currently produces and operates 17 nationwide events with NMRA, NMCA, NMCA WEST, and more events. ProMedia Productions provides a team of experienced staff, including an SFI-certified technical inspection department, race operations, and a fire and safety group that provides trucks, equipment, and a motorsports-trained rescue staff.
Additionally, ProMedia Productions can handle gate management, racer and spectator parking, advance and same-day ticketing, marketing, and media relations.
“A global pandemic might be disrupting motorsport events, but demand for those shows is growing exponentially as companies realize the value in live audiences. Forming the division now puts ProMedia Productions in the driver’s seat for when we emerge from this crisis and get back to business in 2021,” Wolcott said.
Let’s face it: Today, we use Google for everything. It could be something as basic as directions to a restaurant, or more complex things like how to adapt a -8AN fuel line to 3/8-inch NPT pipe thread.
Gone are the days of Google being a search engine. We are now in the era of it being an answer engine.
The reason behind this is that consumers are programmed to go to Google to seek help. We pull out our phones and search for solutions to our problems, gain answers to our questions, and find the supplier closest to us that can help.
ONLINE FIRST
More than half (53% according to published reports) of people start their research process online, which means that more often than not, your customers are finding your business there. Whether you’re a local chassis builder in the Midwest or a major eCommerce speed shop, typically we are introduced to brands online, and your website is frequently their first interaction.
Google alone has an immense amount of volume and potential traffic for your brand, but it’s also a constantly moving target. Let’s dig a little deeper.
Search engines have reach. In the last year, there were well over 2 trillion searches performed, according to SEOTribunal.com. The reason why 5.6 billion searches occur online every day is trust. With Google being the leading referral source of traffic to your website—in many cases far surpassing that of social media channels like Facebook and Instagram—focusing attention on your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) efforts and how customers are searching for the products you sell can be key when looking for growth opportunities.
As customers become better educated about products or how to seek out answers, for brands it becomes increasingly important to focus efforts on not only what it is customers might be looking for, but work to understand why.
Don’t make assumptions. While hardcore enthusiasts and racers alike typically will know the brand or specific product needed, that’s not always the case, especially with younger generations.
It’s also not uncommon for parts to be used in unconventional ways across motorsports, and nowadays brands need to be conscious of where their products are being used. Having a solid understanding of these use cases can shed some light on subjects that you might not be thinking of, or content that doesn’t exist on your site.
Instead of placing every SKU under the typical products, services, and brands you offer, consider those use cases and start to provide further details to your customers. If you specialize in sprint cars, an easy step toward defining the use cases is a simple breakdown on your site by where it’s located on the race car. Chassis parts, steering and suspension, body and fiberglass, fuel delivery, engine and transmission—again, the potential use case that someone who doesn’t know the brand, but knows where the part is to be used, could be helpful to both your customers and search engines.
Keep in mind that you do not want to lose focus of what you need your site to be relevant for, and that you’re catering to both the customer that knows exactly what they want, down to the part number, as well as the customer that only knows what the latest copy of the rulebook is telling them they must follow for their sanctioning body. Meaning, it’s recommended that your website be laid out in a fashion that speaks high-level on what you do, then can deep dive into the nitty gritty for those individuals who need the technical specifications.
Consider the growth of eCommerce. If sales of performance parts hadn’t been growing up to 2020, certainly a global pandemic is just what the industry suppliers needed to push online sales over the edge. While I’m a big promoter of supporting your local shop, sometimes we simply order online from who has it in stock. I’m not the only one. According to Statista, from 2016 to 2019, the number of digital shoppers who actively shop online has grown by 21 million, up to 230 million people in the US alone.
The major catalogers were early adopters of selling online and have it dialed in. Here in the Midwest, I’m within two-days ground shipping from most major motorsports retailers.
Manufacturers make a push for direct sales. The selling of parts and accessories in the motorsports industry is built on layers. From warehouse to distribution to retailer. If you’re a manufacturer looking at your bottom line of the past couple of years and an increasingly competitive landscape, selling direct to the end user has probably crossed your mind a time or two. The biggest reason is not based on price; in fact, most manufacturers are selling well above their distribution channels. It’s competition, and availability, combined with trust of the manufacturer.
Consider a customer who does all the up-front research, understanding that what they want to achieve is going to be handled properly by your brand’s product. You’ve done your job developing the type of content that helps answer their “why” questions and lands them on your site, so why send them off to a site to only comparison-shop your brand’s product against the competition?
Instead, keep them engaged with your brand and the product(s) they’re set on buying. Oftentimes, customers trust buying from the manufacturer and see a higher value in doing so versus buying from someone else.
Amazon isn’t king in motorsports...yet. In the world of specialty motorsports parts suppliers, Amazon is yet to be the trusted source for many. For those who have been in the industry long enough though, you know those tables are turning and we mustn’t lose sight of the power Amazon has in its distribution. Be relentless—keep producing good content and updating your sites and depth of knowledge-sharing. Remember that here in the Midwest, three major suppliers of speed goods are within standard two-day freight to my doorstep. This makes those brands go toe-to-toe with Amazon, and their level of expertise far exceeds that of the tech-based warehouse.
Focus on amplifying your level of expertise and authority in your space, just like you would on and off the track. When it comes to the parts you sell or manufacture, or the brands you represent, be the leader in sharing knowledge around them.
Just as the person behind the wheel or turning a wrench on the crew comes to trust you to come through, so do search engines. And Google in particular pays attention to not only what people are searching for, but more importantly how they’re interacting with your brand and trusting your company enough to do business with it.
Jason Dodge is the founder and chief strategist at search marketing firm BlackTruck Media + Marketing. With 17 years of experience across multiple industries, Dodge is a regular contributor to trade publications and speaks throughout the US on the subject of human-centered search engine optimization.
Brembo, the brake technology provider, has announced plans to open a new aftermarket distribution center in the Memphis metropolitan area this November.
The distribution center will handle warehousing and logistics services for the company's aftermarket brake pads, rotors, brake fluid, and related components. The facility is located near Brembo's group of customers in the U.S. and Canada. According to Brembo, the new building aims to provide best-in-class service levels, including a substantial lead time reduction.
"Product availability, excellent delivery performance, and being close to our customers have always been our main priorities," Brembo North America President and CEO Dan Sandberg said. "This new facility will help us to substantially improve our service levels to our aftermarket partners. We've greatly expanded our line of brake pads, rotors, and brake fluid, and this new facility will ensure that our customers have immediate access to these products, which cover over 90% of vehicles in operation in North America today."
MEMBERSHIP LOGIN
