SEMA News—April 2022

RETAIL BEST PRACTICES

Small-Business Hacks

14 Shortcuts for Success

By Chad Simon

Moltz advised attendees to sell an experience rather than a product when they go to raise their prices, because people will pay for value.

Barry Moltz revealed 14 of his 100 shortcuts to success at his education session—aptly named after one of his books, Small Business Hacks—during the 2021 SEMA Show in Las Vegas. The author—a three-time entrepreneur, public speaker and business consultant—kept it lively by telling jokes (often at his own expense), asking what strategies attendees used to grow their businesses and handing out $5 bills to those who played along.

Without further ado, the following is a sampling of Moltz’s hacks for small-
business owners:

How do you get more online reviews and why are they important?

Online reviews provide businesses with credibility and attract more customers, so the idea is to continuously gain more reviews wherever customers are looking.

“When you go to Amazon, you read the reviews because you believe them as much as you would believe someone who refers you,” Moltz said.

However, he advised business owners to solicit reviews in a systematic way as part of their marketing strategy by posting signs or logo endorsements and asking for them on receipts, tickets or follow-up emails. Moltz recommended using a customer relationship management system, such as Nicejob or Birdeye, which, for $20 a month, will automatically send emails and texts to customers asking for a review and whether they’ll approve putting it on social media.

How do you respond to negative reviews?

Not everyone will have a great experience, but the hope is that 95% of customers will. According to Moltz, there are three types of people who write reviews: the ones who are unhappy, those who really like you, and those you pay to write a review. How do you know if you get a bad review? Google Alerts, Buzz Sumo, Talkwalker and Yelp are free services that notify you when someone writes about you on the web.

“When you get a bad review, you can’t get angry,” Moltz said. “It’s not about you, but you can’t ignore them either. Happy people will tell five other people, and unhappy people tell 25 people. Customers just want to be heard and receive empathy. Don’t just look at the good reviews; read the bad reviews to see if management responded, because if they did, it means if I have a bad experience, chances are they will respond to me. How you respond is important. Apologize for how they feel. Ask them to contact you offline to resolve the problem in a way that’s fair to them. Follow up with them, and if they’re satisfied, ask them to remove the bad review.”

How to raise prices

Business owners are afraid they’ll sell less and lose customers if they raise their prices.

“People will pay for value,” Moltz said. “The wrong way to do it is to let them know you raised your prices at the bottom of their receipt or added a COVID surcharge. Raise your prices, but don’t give your customers a surcharge. Dropbox did it well. They raised their prices by 20%, but they added more value. Why does a Harley cost more than a Honda? It’s all about brand awareness or the idea that you’re getting more value.”

It’s inevitable that business owners must raise their prices at some point, and when they do, Moltz advised that they sell an experience, not a product.

“Trying to be a low-cost business is a straight path to the bottom, and you won’t make any money,” he said. “If you’re afraid to raise your prices, try it first on your new customers and see how that goes, or raise prices every year so people expect it. If you can add an increase on the top line, it should trickle down to your bottom line and make you more money.”

How to negotiate anything

Know what you’re worth without caring if the customer says no. You can’t want the deal too much or else you’ll lose your leverage. Be willing to walk away.

“It’s like when you’re buying your dream house and you really want it, you keep bidding up and you end up paying a lot more money for it,” Moltz said. “Recognizing dirty negotiating tactics is the key to being successful. There’s ‘Good Cop, Bad Cop’ where two people negotiate with you; one is nice and one is not. ‘Left at the Altar’ is when you go to sign the deal and they don’t show up. ‘Calling a Higher Authority’ is when the customer has to check with their wife or boss.”

How to survive a government audit

Know your rights and get help. Don’t disclose anything you don’t have to; answer questions narrowly.

How to work a tradeshow

Have a plan and know what you are trying to accomplish. Think about why you’re there and set goals for the event. Make sure to follow up, because relationships have to be nurtured.

How to read your web stats

Use Google Analytics to find out if your marketing strategy is working. It tells you who’s coming to your website, where they are coming from, how they found you, and what pages they visited once they landed on your website, among countless other statistics. Are they typing in your URL? Are they searching on Google, social media or a back link from someone else’s site to your site? In the Google Search console, you can find out what keywords people type into the search engine to visit your site.

How to get PR in the media

Try to make your public relations strategy a part of whatever current events are going on around the world at that moment.

“Cars are a hot topic right now because they’re hard to get,” Moltz explained. “You can’t get a new car, and can you believe what a used car costs these days? To get good PR, sponsor a local sports team or get involved in local charitable organizations.”

How to read financial statements

According to Moltz, only 75% of the small-business owners he met with before COVID knew how to read a profit-and-loss statement; only 25% could read a balance sheet; and only 5% could read a cash-flow statement.

“If you don’t know where you’ve been, you don’t know where you’re going,” he said. “If you don’t understand what these things mean, it’s okay, but you’ve got to be able to figure it out because if you don’t know your past results, you don’t know where you’re going in the future. Start small. What’s my revenue for the month, and what are my expenses?”

How to maximize profitability

Profit is why you are in business. The problem is that business owners usually pay themselves last.

“Put something for yourself into your expenses, because if you can’t pay yourself, you don’t really have a business,” Moltz said. “To maximize profitability, find customers who are willing to pay for your service or product, and don’t charge based on your time or cost. Charge based on the value you bring and what you’re giving.”

How to get your marketing email opened

You can’t sell anything to anybody; you have to be there when customers are ready to buy, according to Moltz. When they have a problem, they’ll think of you.

“Two-hundred billion emails are sent per day,” he said. “The key metric is email open rate. People don’t open them because of bad subject lines. Instead of ‘Aftermarket Service Newsletter,’ call it ‘The Hottest Car Modifications for 2021.’ Personalize the email by using your name. Use intriguing titles. Be controversial. Negativity sells. Use words such as ‘worse,’ ‘wrong,’ ‘absolutely,’ or ‘no fewer.’ Be exclusive. Use words such as ‘VIP invitation,’ ‘limited-time deadline,’ ‘only three seats left!’ or ‘once-a-year event.’ However, be careful about spam traps; don’t use words such as ‘free,’ ‘reminder’ or ‘help.’”

How to legally spy on your competitors

Sign up for their mailing lists and like them on social media. Put them into Google Alerts to find out when people mention them. Learn who they follow on social media and who follows them by using tools such as Fan Page Karma or Follower Wonk. Track their back links for their website using Moz Onsite Explorer or Majestic Site Explorer.

How to get a prospect to respond

People are afraid to tell you “no,” so send an email entitled “Please Reply A, B or C.” This works 90% of the time, according to Moltz.

I have not heard from you recently about working together. Is this because:

a) I am no longer interested.
b) I am still interested but busy, so contact me in a week.
c) I have been busy, but I am now ready to get started with your company.

Let bad employees go

According to Moltz, bad employees can bring down an entire company, and they’re stealing from you because they’re not doing their best and they’re not part of the company’s culture.

To learn more about Moltz’s shortcuts to success and for more information, visit https://barrymoltz.com.

SEMA News—April 2022

BUSINESS

Keys for Driving Internet Sales

Practical Advice for Retailers Looking to Increase Online Market Share

By Douglas McColloch

SEMA Data Vice President of Operations Gigi Ho (left) led a discussion of online sales with former Motovicity CEO Brian Lounsberry to discuss best practices for online retailers. Lounsberry’s 25 years of experience spans sales, marketing, IT, software and executive management.

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in spring 2020 and the ensuing quarantines and lockdowns it occasioned highlighted the need for companies to build and maintain a robust online infrastructure to optimize consumer outreach and leverage sales when conventional retailing methods aren’t an option. Online sales of specialty-equipment products represented more than half of all parts sales in calendar year 2020, and while that number has declined as retail stores have reopened for business, online sales still account for 40%–45% of all sales in the industry. That fact presents challenges and opportunities for specialty-equipment companies looking to expand their digital footprint to drive brand awareness and sales.

A recent SEMA Education seminar, “Tactics to Increase Online Market Share,” took a closer look at the subject, with an informal discussion aimed at diagnosing trouble spots that may arise for businesses and recommending best practices for optimizing online retail sales. The discussion was hosted by SEMA Data Vice President of Operations Gigi Ho and featured Brian Lounsberry, former CEO of Motovicity and a 25-year industry veteran with experience in wholesale distribution, sales, IT and marketing operations. Lounsberry now works at helping automotive brands achieve success by revolutionizing the way they engage with their B2B customers.

Online Sales: Still a Growth Sector

While brick-and-mortar retail has bounced back from its pandemic lows, online parts sales continue to grow. Even prior to the pandemic, online sales of automotive parts nearly doubled from 2016 to 2019, rising from $7.6 to $12.3 billion annually, according to a recent survey published by Hedges & Co. Online sales topped $16 billion in 2020 and are forecast to pass the $20 billion mark by 2023, so opportunities abound for enterprising companies that are willing to tap into this rapidly growing market.

The growing consumer transition to online purchasing isn’t likely to change soon.

“Habits have changed,” Ho said of consumer shopping preferences. “They say it takes 16 weeks to form a habit, and we’ve had 18 months to form a habit, which is searching for and buying our products online. This is where we’re going to be.”

Lounsberry recalled his years of experience at Motovicity, where he had the opportunity to interact with all aspects of the aftermarket (manufacturers, distributors and retailers) in seeing which sales and marketing strategies worked and which did not. Among his findings and recommendations were:

Don’t Try to Please Everybody: “The common thing I saw among retailers that made them struggle is that they tried to be all things to all people,” he said. “They tried to sell everything when it’s easier to remove parts that don’t sell and focus on the parts that you do sell and that you understand.”

For Inventory Management, Smaller Is Better: “We had some 760,000 SKUs at one point inside Motovicity’s engine, and we were paying a lot of money for the cloud to power all that space,” Lounsberry said. After performing a data analysis, he realized that “we only really ever sold 60,000 of those SKUs, and I could see by looking at the website that there were thousands of SKUs that no one had ever looked up! The retailers I saw that did really well were doing the same exact thing: Focus on those things you can really communicate with the consumer.”

Be an Expert, Not a Generalist: “Consumers can recognize a genuine company,” Lounsberry said. “They know if you’re a value-add or not, so when you’re all things to all people, you’re really just offering price—you’re just a shopping experience. But the person who dials down and focuses on, say, three or four specific platforms can start putting out content related to those platforms, perhaps describing how they modified a vehicle. Then that content connects with the next customer and the customer after that. You become an expert in the eyes of consumers, and that drives traffic to your site and people to your store.”

This is also important because many customers don’t simply want to go parts shopping. They want an interactive experience.

“Once you’ve become an expert, people are not only shopping when they walk into your store,” Lounsberry explained. “They want to interact with you because they want to learn.”

Pick Common Platforms That Enjoy Wide Appeal: “You could specialize in, say, a Volvo 240, but how many people are buying and modifying them? If you’re looking for decent revenues and sales, you’ve got to pick decently popular things consumers want.”

Make Your Website an Extension of Your Business: Lounsberry reminded his audience that first impressions are crucial to win over consumers.

“You take pride in your shop,” he explained. “It’s clean, the cars are clean, your staff is clean. You want your customer to have a fantastic experience. When a customer drops off his $50,000 vehicle, he wants to make sure the person who’s going to work on it looks good and that the work environment looks good. But sometimes people don’t connect that principle to their websites.

“Your website is the best salesperson you’ll ever have, and it’s got to be beautiful. Don’t just slap pictures of parts all over it so it looks like some Penny Saver ad.

“Everyone wants to increase online traction, but when people log on, what are they doing there? If you look at your bounce rate, they’re probably leaving—and they’re leaving because they’re not interested.”

Online sales of automotive parts and accessories surged during the 2020 pandemic year and show little sign of abating, with total online sales projected to exceed $20 billion by 2023.

Take Advantage of Online Analytics: Lounsberry stressed the importance of tracking metrics in assessing consumer behavior.

“I’ll ask people sometimes, ‘How much traffic do you have?’” he said. “They’ll answer, ‘I have no idea.’

“You’ve got to know your numbers. It can be daunting, but you don’t need to hire advertising companies to help you do it. If you have a website, you can just plug into Google Analytics, and there are tons of resources online that can help you with that.”

The most important metrics to watch?

“You have to look at your conversion rate, where the traffic is coming from, your buyer demographic, and take that as a snapshot. Generally, your conversion rate is the most important, because a lot of times, for a retailer, it might only be 1%. But if you get that number up to even 2%, you’re doing great.”

Lounsberry also reminded companies not to confuse data with revenue.

“You can obsess about data, but it’s not connected to revenue,” he said. “Data is a tool to get you to revenue. Better to obsess over the transaction, asking yourself: ‘How can I get to the sale? How can I make it faster? Can I do four sales in the same time I used to do three?’”

Use Your Website the Same Way Your Customers Do: In other words, go shopping on your own website to see how easy or difficult it is to close a sale.

“If you have a website where someone can make a purchase, when was the last time you made a purchase on your own website? No one ever does! Because of that, you have no idea what your customer goes through.”

Lounsberry suggested purchasing a product at least once a month and returning a product at least once a month.

“That’s how you’ll find the kinks and the problems in your site,” he said.

He also suggested that business owners use their own shopping experiences as a guide when constructing their own online stores.

“Some people like shopping at Wal-Mart, and some like shopping at Target,” he said. “Why is that? In this case, it’s really not about price. It’s about the shopping experience. Your website should be an extension of what you like to do and how you like to buy online.”

The same attitudinal approach can be extended to amplify a company’s online presence.

“Think about what gets your attention online,” he proposed. “Your eyeballs go somewhere. How did they [other online platforms] get you to notice? For instance, I love cars, but I also love a bunch of other stuff. How’d those other things get my attention? Think about what brought you to those other platforms and just push it over onto what you do.”

Set Up Your Site to Maximize Each Sale Opportunity: Lounsberry suggested recommending other parts when consumers log on to your website.

“If you can add $5 of profit to each transaction, you’ll be doing a heck of a lot better,” he said, pointing to Amazon as an example of a company that adds value at every transaction point. “When you shop at Amazon, you’ll see those three other related items on the same page. If you’re an expert in your field on a vehicle or a platform, you should know exactly what other parts your buyers will need to add on to a transaction.

“Everybody asks, ‘How can I lower my prices?’ Well, if you’re going to compete over the same exact part that I can buy somewhere else, you’re never going to win. You have to increase the value of each transaction.”

Avoid Negativity Online: “Make sure your message is always positive. Never point out the failures of others. If something’s wrong, just fix it and make it better.

“Never dog the competition, because you never know: Some day you might be working for them. Some day you might sell your company to them!”

SEMA Data: Features and Benefits

In addition to helping to make the most of your company’s product information, SEMA Data membership provides a host of other benefits that can help manufacturers to optimize business operations, including:

• Unlimited exports to approved resellers at no extra cost to the manufacturer—and SEMA Data’s permissions-based export protocol ensures that manufacturer data is shared with only approved resellers.
• Full file refreshes or “net change” updates on a schedule the member chooses: daily, weekly, monthly or whenever a supplier makes changes to its product database. This can put buyers and suppliers closer together and enable greater speed to market.
• SEMA Data is a one-stop source for all manufacturer product information, new-product announcements, digital assets, fitment info and more.

Using the Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum scales, SEMA Data can show exactly how a dataset rates. The required fields to achieve each level are based on feedback from buyers and resellers, so manufacturers can know at a glance what information their client-customers need to maximize sales.

For more information on SEMA Data and its range of services and benefits, visit www.SEMAdata.org.

SEMA News—April 2022

Coming Soon:

A Second SEMA Garage

By Mike Spagnola

The SEMA Garage in Diamond Bar, California, was conceived as a comprehensive product development center to address the needs of manufacturer members. It was equipped with state-of-the-art tools and equipment and staffed with expert personnel. Since it opened almost nine years ago, hundreds of members have taken advantages of the facility’s many services. These include access to OEM CAD data, 3-D printing and scanning, emissions testing, and measuring sessions. Even while running two shifts, the facility currently has a backlog in the emissions lab as more manufacturers conduct emissions certification procedures.

The productivity of the Diamond Bar facility and the pace of automotive technology prompted further investment, and so the SEMA Board approved a plan to build another SEMA Garage in the Detroit area. It’s been a full year since work began on that plan—an ambitious, complex build. A major milestone came in January, when riggers unpacked two semi-truck loads (nine crates in all) of emissions dynamometer equipment.

The new facility, located in Plymouth, Michigan, will offer better proximity to SEMA members in the Midwest region and create greater throughput on the emissions-compliance front. It will house equipment that will offer the ability to test both two-wheel-drive and all-wheel-drive vehicles.

Importantly, some 5,000 sq. ft. of the 45,000-sq.-ft. building will be devoted exclusively to research on advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS), the newest element in the association’s work to make technology accessible to members. In that portion of the Detroit garage, manufacturers will have access to OEM-quality equipment that will allow member manufacturers to identify and correct hardware and software that might be affected when a vehicle is modified. Dynamic testing will also be performed to confirm recalibration processes.

Even as ADAS systems are now becoming ubiquitous on new cars and trucks, specific processes to go about readjusting them after modifying a vehicle are not widely documented. Different manufacturers have developed proprietary systems independently, so testing and recalibration processes will need to be researched vehicle by vehicle.

The collision and repair industry is working on identifying how to put an ADAS-equipped vehicle back together after a crash, but as it stands, no organization has addressed the challenge of learning how to make ADAS systems compatible with newer vehicles after different tires, modified suspensions, custom bumpers, mirrors, grilles or other modifications are made.

The immediate plan is to conduct systematic research on two widely modified vehicles that have two completely different types of ADAS technology. As time goes on, other vehicles will be added, building a library of best-practices information that will be available to members. It’s groundbreaking work that needs to be done now, before there are more regulations, in order to stay ahead of this fast-moving technology.

Strategically located in an area where many tier-1 OEM suppliers are situated, the Detroit facility will offer a long-term opportunity to build and expand on relationships with carmakers and major suppliers, helping to create avenues for collaboration on vehicle personalization.

There will be more challenges in the future, some perhaps even more daunting. Electrification, self-driving cars and artificial intelligence are all on the horizon. When the Detroit SEMA Garage opens later this year, it will represent another step toward addressing the challenges we see now and those in the future. It will more than double the industry’s capacity to keep up with the latest technology and help manufacturers develop new, exciting products.

You’ll be hearing more about the Detroit Garage this summer. Stay tuned!

SEMA News—April 2022

SEMA HERITAGE

Utterly Improbable

By Drew Hardin

Photography Courtesy: Jack Brady, Petersen Publishing Company Archive

Sixty years ago, what we know now as the Rolex 24 at Daytona began as the three-hour Daytona Continental. It was the brainchild of NASCAR’s Bill France, Sr., and was intended to bring the world’s best sports and road-race cars to his Daytona Speedway.

The Daytona Continental was sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) as the first race of the 1962 World Sportscar Championship season. As such, it drew an entry list that read like a who’s who of mid-century racing talent, from Phil Hill, Stirling Moss and Jim Clark to A.J. Foyt, Fireball Roberts, Jim Hall and Roger Penske.

Hill, sharing a Ferrari with Ricardo Rodriguez, finished the race in second place. Hall, driving a Chevy V8-powered Chapparal, finished third. Dan Gurney, who at the time was a Formula 1 driver for Porsche, won the Continental in a Lotus 19 powered by a Coventry Climax engine.

But that factual recounting doesn’t capture the drama of what actually happened. Jack Brady, writing in the May 1962 issue of Sports Car Graphic magazine, said that if Hollywood were making a movie about the race, its ending “would rate an immediate thumbs-down as being utterly improbable.”

Let’s set the scene: In the first half of the race, “Gurney never lost sight of the number-one spot and swapped places with Phil Hill on several occasions,” Brady wrote. “The amount of acceleration displayed by Gurney’s Lotus was almost unbelievable,” he said, crediting the “loving care lavished on the aging Lotus 19” by its chief mechanic.

All that changed on the last lap.

“With almost a four-mile lead over Rodriguez, Gurney approached the final turn riding midway up the banking.” As Gurney came through the turn, there was a “tell-tale whisp of smoke, followed by a rush of steam.” Post-race examination “showed that a piston had disintegrated, and the connecting rod and wristpin had beaten a fist-sized hole in the block.”

Though Gurney kept control of the wounded Lotus, “he still had over 1,200 feet to go for the start-finish line, with very little assurance that his lead was sufficient to wait out the clock.”

Gurney coasted to the wall under the starter’s stand, “10 feet from the white line. FIA rules no longer permit the car to be pushed on the course, so he had to get the Lotus across the line under its own power.”

The grandstand behind the finish line “went wild” while Gurney waited tensely. “The end of the three hours was signaled by a wildly waving flag, and he skittered across the finish line on the starter motor,” Brady said. “The number two and three cars were in the same lap at the finish, but not quite close enough.”

SEMA News—April 2022

REQUIRED READING

By Juan Torres, Rachel Tatum and Carr Winn

SEMA Members in the Media

Aftermarket Trendsetters

At the 2021 SEMA Show, exhibiting manufacturers voted on the best new vehicles for personalization and presented them with SEMA Awards, an annual recognition given to the top trending vehicle models in five categories. The 2021 SEMA Award Winners were the Ford Mustang (Car of the Year), Toyota Supra (Sport Compact of the Year), Ford Bronco (4x4/SUV of the Year), Ford F-Series (Fullsize Truck of the Year) and Toyota Tacoma (Midsize Truck of the Year).

The winning models were featured throughout the 1.25 million sq.-ft. Las Vegas Convention Center during the SEMA Show, each uniquely customized to highlight the many aftermarket products and accessories that are available for the vehicles. The following are some of the publications that reported on the award winners.

Associated Press

The Associated Press was among the media outlets that spread the news about the vehicles that won a 2021 SEMA Award. Readers also learned that the awards provide guidance on which vehicles offer the greatest opportunities for customization and the aftermarket products available for them.

Automotive World Magazine

The 2021 SEMA Show was a milestone event for Toyota, as it was the first time a Toyota model had won a SEMA Award. The article described the recognition as proof that “the collaboration between Toyota and the aftermarket has resulted in greater options for consumers.”

Muscle Cars & Trucks

“These awards seem to have Ford’s big blue oval glowing a little brighter at the 2021 SEMA Show,” read the Muscle Cars & Trucks article. The reporter also pointed out that the Ford Bronco being named 4x4/SUV of the Year put an end to the Jeep Wrangler’s stronghold on the award.

The 2021 SEMA Show was a milestone event for Toyota, as it was the first time a Toyota model had won a SEMA Award. The article described the recognition as proof that “the collaboration between Toyota and the aftermarket has resulted in greater options for consumers.”

SEMA Cares Charity Builds at the 2021 SEMA Show

SEMA News spotted all these amazing builds on the 2021 SEMA Show floor. A Factory Five 65 Coupe, a Factory Five Cobra and a classic Chevrolet 3100—all coming up for auction to benefit SEMA Cares charity partners. Visit www.sema.org/semacares to make a donation today.

’22 Toyota GR86 Walk-Around with Chelsie Lesnoski

Top 12 Battle of the Builders finalist Chelsie Lesnoski (left) from Throttle Thrashers Garage got a tour around the GR86 from Toyota Spokesperson Dan Gardner.

Sana Dadabhoy Scans Toyota GR86 at SEMA Garage

Influencer Sana Dadabhoy (@ladyzla_) collaborates with SEMA Garage Mechanical Engineer Luis Morales (right) to scan the ’22 Toyota GR86.

Faces in the Crowd

Anatalia Villaranda
@anataliav

Anatalia Villaranda is a social-media content creator personality who incorporates her talents (such as her professional singing background, dancing and positive attitude) to the automotive industry. She has starred on multiple TV shows and worldwide performances and has been active on the social-media side of entertainment. Villaranda is currently building and prepping her ’94 Mazda Miata and getting it ready to hit the track for some unique content coming this year.

Cole Marten
@cole.ttg

Cole Marten specializes in fabrication, mechanical and business operations and is the co-owner of Throttle Thrashers Garage in Penticton, British Columbia. Marten started his automotive journey restoring Nissan Skylines and has slowly evolved into building custom cars for customers throughout Canada and the United States. Marten’s AWD 2JZ R32 GTR earned him a Golden Ticket to the SEMA Show through the Young Guns program, and he finished in the Top 3 of the Young Guns category of the “Battle of the Builders.”

Craig LoPresti
@thecraig909

Craig LoPresti is a 22-year-old automotive videographer who owns and operates TheCraig909 YouTube channel, specializing in buying, building and driving classic cars. LoPresti does everything from engine building to paint and bodywork and documents his projects with in-depth videos covering specific topics or parts being installed/used. He posts almost daily to 16,000+ followers on Instagram and 100,000+ subscribers on YouTube.

Sana Dadabhoy
@ladyzla_

Sana Dadabhoy is a mechanic turned mechanical engineer with a passion for race cars, and she is the proud owner of ‘15 Nissan GT-R “Ladyzla.” Over the years, she has built it into the 9-sec. stock-engined street car it is today. Dadabhoy shares her adventures in tuning, power mods and drag racing on her social channels. SEMA has partnered with Dadabhoy on key industry initiatives, including the RPM Act, SEMA Individual Membership and SEMA Garage Measuring Sessions.

HEARD ON SOCIAL MEDIA

“The 2021 SEMA Award finalists have been announced and it’s a great list. Which vehicles are leading the league for aftermarket customization?”—BangShift, via Facebook

“2021 SEMA Awards Winners Announced, GM Misses Out.”—GM Authority, via Twitter

“SEMA-member companies pick the GR Supra and Tacoma as the best new models to customize in the Sport Compact and Midsize Truck categories.”—The News Channel, via Facebook

“The best new vehicles for personalization were announced at the #SEMA2021 in Las Vegas, Nev.”—Racing Equipment News, via Twitter

SEMA News—April 2022

INDUSTRY NEWS

 Photos courtesy SpiedBilde, Brian Williams. Reuse or reproduction without the copyright holder’s consent is prohibited.

’23 Hyundai Ioniq 6

’23 Ford Bronco Raptor

The Bronco Raptor will launch for the ’23 model year, where it is expected to join the F-150 Raptor and Ranger Raptor. Expect an official debut in the first quarter of 2022.

’23 Corvette E-Ray

The Corvette E-Ray is expected to mate the 6.2L V8 from the Stingray with a hybrid configuration, adding a new model to the Corvette family. Expect a launch toward the end of the 2022 calendar year as a ’23 model.

SEMA News—April 2022

INDUSTRY NEWS

The newly created High School Racing Association (HSRA) named Jonathan Eckelberg as its first director. In his new position, Eckelberg will help grow the association, increase driver participation, and manage race schedules and point rankings. HSRA features high-school-aged drivers in competition throughout the summer race season. The group’s goal is to provide young adults with an economical way to enter stock-car racing and keep younger generations interested in the sport.

Lubrication Specialties Inc. (LSI) announced the expansion of its warehouse footprint with the addition of a 24,000-sq.-ft. facility located in Mt. Gilead, Ohio. The new distribution and shipping hub will help accommodate the 50-plus SKUs of Hot Shot’s Secret products and LSI Chemical products developed and shipped in bulk for international sales.

MW Industries completed two new acquisitions that expand its precision spring and fastener manufacturing capabilities. They include Fox Valley Spring Co. (a supplier of springs, wire forms and flat springs) and Ideal Fasteners (a global manufacturer of threaded fasteners). These additions expand MW’s U.S.-based manufacturing locations and broaden its custom and stock component capabilities.

Christine Bowser has been appointed president of Pinnacle Media, a full-service marketing communications agency serving clients in the global automotive, commercial vehicle, industrial and financial services sectors. The agency’s founder, Drew Shippy, will remain with the firm as chairman and CEO. Bowser most recently served as vice president and director of account service, overseeing the company’s relationships with clients throughout North America.

Holley acquired substantially all of the assets of Arizona Desert Shocks, Baer Brakes, Brothers Trucks and Rocket Racing Wheels. Holley completed the acquisitions for approximately $56 million during the fourth quarter of 2021. For 2022, Holley expects these acquisitions to contribute net sales of approximately $30 million, the company stated.

Covercraft announced the acquisition of Lloyd Mats, a manufacturer of custom-fit carpeted floor and cargo mats for cars, trucks, vans, SUVs and RVs. Since 1978, Lloyd Mats has developed a comprehensive library of vehicle-specific patterns in the custom floor mat category. The company offers multiple branded, licensed and personalized versions of its floor mats across dozens of colors and carpet styles.

Kahn Media made several recent strategic hires and staffing changes. Jeff Dillow, a PR agency leadership veteran with two decades of experience in outdoor, automotive, CPG, CSR and crisis communications, joined the team as an account supervisor, leading one of Kahn’s three account teams. Russell Stacey was promoted to director of
digital marketing, following his six-year track record of continual growth of the company’s digital marketing capabilities and team. Heather Buchanan was appointed to the newly created position of creative project manager.

The Automotive Content Professionals Network (ACPN), a community of the Auto Care Association, named Jonathan Briseno of SEMA Data as the 2022 ACPN Scholarship winner. The ACPN Scholarship is awarded to one individual who has the passion and determination to pursue professional and personal growth. The scholarship provides the opportunity to attend the 2022 ACPN Knowledge Exchange Conference—a gathering of content professionals and service providers in the aftermarket.

VP Racing Fuels Inc. announced the promotion of Ben Dolan to vice president of marketing. Prior to joining VP, Dolan was director of sales and marketing at holding company UGGM LLC, where he was responsible for the marketing and sales of the company’s five largest divisions, ranging from signage fabrication to diesel mechanics. He has more than 20 years of marketing and sales experience across a broad range of industries.

Arnott, a provider of air suspension products, announced the acquisition of JRi Shocks, based in Mooresville, North Carolina. JRi Shocks will continue to serve its existing markets and customers, “but will now be better positioned to grow those markets even further while also expanding into new ones,” according to Arnott. Customers should see no change in the day-to-day operations of the business.

Quadratec Inc. announced the promotion of Eric Ammerman as the company’s director of creative content. Ammerman will oversee Quadratec’s print catalog as well as its digital product pages, its highly successful YouTube channel and its Torque editorial section. Ammerman recently celebrated his 10-year anniversary at Quadratec and formerly helmed the company’s video department and YouTube channel. Additionally, he headed Quadratec’s YJL project vehicle build that was a Battle of the Builders nominee at the 2021 SEMA Show.

SCAT Enterprises announced that it has been acquired by Taglich Private Equity, which recently acquired Air Flow Research Heads, a manufacturer of cylinder heads and intake manifolds for the high-performance automotive aftermarket. The transaction includes the Procar by SCAT seating division. SCAT’s management team will remain in place along with SCAT’s production facility and employees, located at its headquarters in Redondo Beach, California. SCAT founder Tom Lieb will remain involved in the business going forward, and SCAT’s current COO, Craig Schenasi, will become CFO of the combined companies and an owner in the business.

SuperSprings International (SSI) announced changes to its leadership team. SSI restructured to establish five defined business units led by a member of its new leadership team. The units include Tom Bateman, director of marketing; Jeni Chen, director of operations; Justin Tevis, director of data and tech ops; and Ryan Dougan, controller. All members of the leadership team report to Chief Commercial Officer Adam Weisner, who reports to SSI Chairman and CEO Gerry Lamberti.

By Ashley Reyes

Two of SEMA’s leading groups—the SEMA Truck and Off-Road Alliance (TORA) and SEMA Businesswomen’s Network (SBN) are hosting a cross-council/networking mixer during Easter Jeep Safari, April 14, from 7:00 p.m.–8:00 p.m. at the Moab 4x4 Expo.

The event will bring together industry friends and colleagues for a fun evening of networking and provide TORA and SBN members the ideal opportunity to strengthen their existing connections and make new contacts.  

“This mixer is the ideal event for members at Easter Jeep Safari to expand their professional network,” said SEMA Council Director Denise Waddingham. “Current and prospective members will learn about SEMA’s resources and programs, and enjoy the camaraderie of discussing the latest industry news.”

Registration, although not required, is encouraged so that event coordinators can plan accordingly. RSVP here.

By Rachel Tatum

Garrett Reed will join SEMA Young Guns followers for an Instagram “Ask Me Anything,” Tuesday, April 5, from 9:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m. (PDT).

Reed is one of the most recognizable names on social media as @AmericanMuscleHD with more than 2.2 million followers, sharing all things automotive to connect other builders and enthusiasts to show what is happening worldwide in the automotive industry.

Garrett is focused on what the future holds and how he can contribute to the next generation to support the automotive industry.

SEMA continues to actively recruit automotive influencers for the SEMA Social Media Correspondent program. Apply now to be considered.

By Ashley Reyes

Mike Timmons is the SEMA Professional Restylers Organiziation (PRO) newest volunteer spotlight member. Timmons is the executive vice president of sales at AscendX Concepts.

Get to know Timmons in his interview with SEMA below.

SEMA: What inspired you to pursue a career in restyling/manufacturing?

Mike Timmons: I’ve worked in every aspect of our industry, from manufacturing to owning retail outlets. I’ve also worked the distribution and eCom channels. Over the last few years, I’ve learned that I love the manufacturing side of the business. Offering our distribution and retail partners a product that they can stand behind and sell, knowing their customers will be happy, is what inspires me. I’m proud of the products our brand builds and the relationships I’ve built along the way.

SEMA: Why did you decide to volunteer for PRO? How has it or will it impact you?

MT: I was a PRO committee member many years ago and believe in their message. I may not participate in all the meetings anymore, but I support the members and SEMA however I can. The biggest impact to me was the long-lasting relationships and business deals that may never have happened if I wasn’t part of PRO.

SEMA: What advice do you have for someone pursuing a career in the automotive aftermarket?

MT: My advice would be to get out there and hustle! Don’t hustle for sales but hustle for relationships. The more personal connections you make in our industry will carry you to the top and beyond.

SEMA: What is your dream vehicle? Where would we find you in it on any weekend?

MT: My dream vehicle would be a sweet ’80-ish CJ7 powered by an LS6 with a pair of Dana 60s, sitting low on 38-in. tires. And since we’re dreaming, you could find me at Pismo Beach every weekend.

SEMA: What is the best advice you have ever received?

MT: You can win with bunts; you don’t need to hit home runs every time.

SEMA: What keeps you in the industry?

MT: My love of everything automotive and the people keep me in the industry. We have the best peeps in our industry.

SEMA: Where can you be found on a Saturday?

MT: Usually in my office. Or, if I’m lucky, hiking somewhere in the Pacific Northwest with my wife and two boys.

Fill out a PRO member spotlight form to highlight how you or your company are contributing to the automotive restyling industry. Selected candidates are eligible to be featured on PRO’s social media, SEMA News and future PRO-member updates.