The PRI Trade Show is a perfect opportunity for buyers and racers to approach exhibitors with an open mind, noted one manufacturer. “If you’re looking at making a program better and taking that next step in performance,” he said, “having more of a clean-sheet approach is the best way to start.” 

Asking thoughtful and qualitative questions of exhibitors is a key ingredient to a productive PRI Trade Show experience.

“Can I have a sticker?”

“Do you know where the restrooms are?”

“Are these valve springs/pistons/shock absorbers (or insert other display product here) free?”

Those who staff booths at the PRI Trade Show are asked numerous questions. Some of them, like the three examples above, aren’t exactly conducive to getting business done. But they tend to come with the territory at any sort of trade show. 

Other questions get to the heart of what the PRI Trade Show is all about: making racers—and racing—better, faster, and more successful. We polled several experienced PRI Show exhibitors about the kinds of questions they have been asked that are the most effective and, on the flip side of that coin, questions that should be avoided altogether. 

Ask Away

“The most helpful questions are when someone comes in with an open mind and asks, ‘What’s the best thing I can do for my application?’” said Lake Speed Jr. of Total Seal, Phoenix, Arizona. “At that point we’re able to say, ‘Let’s understand the nuances of your application, and your budget, so we can work to a solution that strikes that happy balance between performance, durability, and budget.’ We can do that if we come into it from a clean sheet.

“The PRI Show is at the perfect time for this because people aren’t too locked into anything,” he continued. “It’s off-season, rebuild season. If you’re looking at making a program better and taking that next step in performance, having more of a clean-sheet approach is the best way to start.” 

“We encourage people to tell us what they’re working on or what they want to build,” said Kevin Bailey of Race Winning Brands (RWB), Mentor, Ohio. “It opens the door for our experts to explain to them specifically what they think would work best for what they’re trying to accomplish.” 

“We also invite people to ask us what we think is better about our particular product or brand versus the competition,” added RWB’s Nick DiBlasi. “That way we can outline all the features and benefits that we have that we think are above and beyond the rest of the industry. It can be hard to convey that in a magazine or other media. It’s good to be able to talk to someone and walk them through it.” 

Many of the questions RWB fields at the PRI Trade Show have to do with troubleshooting, DiBlasi added. “People are stuck. They reach out to say, ‘Hey, I’m struggling with this. What am I doing wrong?’ That’s where our experience comes in. We have an expert in pretty much every type of racing there is. Most of our guys have done it, are still doing it, or have someone in the family doing it, so we have a really good tech support team.” 

“We get application questions all the time, and they are welcome,” said Tom Dustman of Sunnen, St. Louis, Missouri. “Some really drill into specifics, like, ‘How fast can I hone an engine cylinder using super abrasives as compared to conventional abrasives?’ or ‘How do I create a plateau finish?’ We don’t just sell stuff—we know the applications, and I think that’s part of our value-add.” 

In fact, Dustman said, “We approach these trade shows not on a transactional basis but really as problem solvers, and in some instances as business advisors.” A transactional question could be, “What methods would allow me to produce my parts at the lowest possible cost?” The problem-solver question “drills down into a little more detail: ‘What machine is the best solution for my workpiece?’” And acting as a business advisor “is at a higher level: ‘How can I be more efficient in my honing operations, given the lack of workforce?’ We see all three of those types of questions at trade shows. It just depends on who the prospect is.” 

Don’t Ask

“I think the questions we would want to avoid would be related to what I would refer to as confidentiality: ‘Tell me how so-and-so does it,’” said Dustman. “That’s confidential. For any company that works with us, we won’t share whatever methods and things they work with, and we would treat you just the same, Mr. Prospect.”

“We get a lot of, ‘Do you have more stickers? Do you have more keychains?’” DiBlasi said. “Or they’ll ask us where the food is, or where the bathrooms are. We’re basically human maps.” 

On a more serious note, DiBlasi said “people on a regular basis come to our booth, grab our pistons, walk up to us and ask if they can take them. ‘Are they free?’ Right off the shelf.”

The “are you giving free stuff away?” question leads into the topic of sponsorships, questions about which can be good or bad, DiBlasi said. 

“Sometimes people will have a legitimate candidate for sponsorship,” he added. “They can provide a lot of returns, a great partnership between us. But some people just want free parts.” 

“The people who are serious about sponsorship will have some kind of documentation with them, a deck or resume,” Bailey said. “Or if they don’t, they just want to introduce themselves to the person in charge of sponsorship decisions and get their contact information so they can send their proposal through email. The people who are serious won’t ask for product up front, they’ll just ask for the opportunity to send their information, which is good. That has opened the door for other partnerships. Professional inquiries are welcome. They don’t have to be professional racers; they just need to have a professional approach to it.” 

The opposite of the open-minded approach Speed encouraged is for attendees to walk into a booth looking for an expert to give a stamp of approval to a build that’s already set. “Do your research. Have a plan. But don’t have that plan chiseled in stone,” he stated. “If you come into the booth looking for confirmation that your idea is the right thing, you’re wasting your time and our time. Unless you’re willing to accept critique of what you’ve determined is the right combination.”

Speaking of time, Speed advised attendees to use it wisely. “You have to realize that the people most of these manufacturers send to trade shows are the most experienced techs they have, people who have been doing this stuff for 20 or 30 years, who deal with the top engine builders,” he explained. “If you have 15 minutes of that guy’s time, you don’t want to spend it having a basic 101 conversation. You can learn a lot of those things by going to their websites, YouTube channels, and things like that. Educate yourself before you get to the Show, so when you take that person’s time, you can have a 201 or 301 conversation instead of a 101 conversation.”

SOURCES

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Race Winning Brands
racewinningbrands.com

Sunnen
sunnen.com

Total Seal
totalseal.com