Auto detailing vendor booth

wrb_subie

wrb_subie

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Hoping for some advise here..

There is a decent size car show coming up where I live and I got a message on Facebook from the group putting on the show if I'd like to setup a vendor booth to advertise.

I guess I'm looking for ideas on what would make an engaging booth? You're allowed a 10x10 spot for a tent and 1 vehicle next to the tent (there are more expensive options for more room but if I choose to participate this is what I'll have).

I only detail part time and the majority is paint correction and interior details (steam and extraction etc).

I have a bunch of tools I could display (flex, PC, extractor, chemicals etc) but other than people looking at them I don't see much excitement with it.

Anyhow if you've done this before or have some ideas fire away. Thanks fellow geeks.
 
I've done shows like this when I was younger to promote by detailing business...

What I did two years in a row was take a car and tape it down the middle and then buff out just one side of the car.

Then basically meet & greet people all day long and hand out business cards.

Here's the three cars I did this to,

1959 Corvette - Copper metallic paint totally swirled-out.
Mercedes-Benz - Forget the year but totally swirled-out.

For both of the above I removed all the swirls to one side of the car.


Another year I took a 1934 Chevrolet Master Deluxe 5-Window Coupe, (streetrod), completely covered with white overspray and I removed all the overspray from one side and then polished the black paint to perfection.



Tons of work for both shows and while it was good networking although I already had a good reputation among the car clubs at that time I don't think it ever really increased my business.

That was before the Internet so back then it was really hard to leverage work done in the real world and put it into the cyber-world where it can endure over time.


If you did some kind of booth I would put the emphasis on what you can offer people and use simple things like post-it notes and the baggie test to both educate your potential customer and also show them that you now what the heck you're doing.

Showcase the tools you use....


:xyxthumbs:
 
I was going to polish half a car at a local show in a vendor spot but the more I got the details together it changed my mind.


First I don't have a big enough tent second there was no electrical so I would need my generator, third I don't have a banner or large sign to use.

Then I thought back more about years past I've been to the show and most of the cars were junk rusted out dented. It's more of a get together than a show so I decided I'm going to just hand out cards to the higher end cars there and skip the 200 dollar vendor fee.
 
i was asked to do the same thing, what i ended up doing was putting together a detailing kit and donated it to the winner of best paint. saved me a ton of money and i still got the exposure.
 
"I'd like to setup a vendor booth to advertise...."

That's the only thing you'll get out of it.

I've never, and others, haven't had good responses from car shows.
The amount of time and trouble it takes to do a booth you still have to walk the show, look at their car and give a quote on the spot. And there lines your problem.
These people take care of there own cars, and it shows, their paints are all scratched up and they say "There are no buffer marks on my car because I never buff it".
Almost any response to that is an insult to them and you lose the sale.

So if all you want to do is "advertise" then that's fine but don't expect to walk away from your 16 hour day with a handful of customers.
I will never "set up" at a show again. I just walk then hand them my card, tell them to go to my website and walk away.
Out of the hundreds of people I've talked to at a show I have never got one customer. Your results may very.
 
refreshauto said:
i was asked to do the same thing, what i ended up doing was putting together a detailing kit and donated it to the winner of best paint. saved me a ton of money and i still got the exposure.
Click to expand...


If it's a club and a judged event, how about giving away a free detail to whoever has the WORST paint? You can do a write up for the club web page and advertise that way. Just a thought...


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
^^^like that idea..

Appreciate the feedback..Still undecided on what to do but leaning towards more just being in the show and talking to people.
 
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