November/December 2004
Best Practices: Paper trail
Public filings on heavy equipment financing yield rich data on qualified buyers for the Great American Truck Show
By Cathy Chatfield-Taylor

Twenty-five thousand medium-duty truck buyers within a 200-mile radius of Dallas got a postcard from a leading brand manufacturer inviting them to the Great American Truck Show (GATS), Sept. 10–12, 2004, at the Dallas Convention Center. If just one buys a $100,000 truck, it will more than pay for the company’s exhibit.

“We can pull all the people who have financed trucks in Dallas for the past three years,” says Randy Schwartzenburg, GATS General Manager. “We know that those people are buying trucks. We know what type of truck they’re buying, and we can go to those people who are buying trucks and invite them to the show.”

How does GATS know? When a company takes out a loan on a piece of heavy equipment, the lending institution files a UCC-1 (Universal Commercial Code) form in the state where the financing agreement originated. Equipment Data Associates (EDA), a Charlotte, NC-based market intelligence company, buys this data — which captures 50–70 percent of the market — then breaks it out by type of equipment, such as agricultural, construction and trucking.

For each transaction, EDA collects the buyer name, company and contact information, SIC code, date of purchase and manufacturer of the equipment. Over time, buying patterns emerge.

“If they buy one truck, they buy more over the years,” Schwartzenburg says. “So the database reveals the buying habits of the people who buy equipment.”

As the youngest show in the industry, GATS uses its exclusive access to this rich data to compete against the other, more entrenched trucking shows. The show’s owner, Tuscaloosa, AL-based Randall Publishing, purchased EDA in 1998 and has since leveraged the UCC-based market intelligence to grow circulation and advertising sales for key titles such as Equipment World, which drives attendees and exhibitors to GATS.

“We’ve used all the Randall products, including EDA, to grow the show at a faster rate than we’d have been able to, and also to bring in more quality attendees,” Schwartzenburg says. “That’s why we have a competitive advantage over other shows.”

Since its launch in 1999, GATS has grown to more than 134,000 net square feet, with 39,000 trucking professionals and 400 exhibiting companies. This year the show attracted 8 percent more attendees and 20 percent more exhibitors than in 2003.

The EDA data helps shape targeted campaigns, such as this year’s first-time promotion for trailer manufacturers. As part of their booth packages, select exhibitors each received the names of 500 buyers who purchased the type of equipment they sell, in the areas where they sell it. They could buy more names at additional cost. A postcard mailing invited those buyers to their booths.

After the show, GATS will be able to compare their lead generation data to the EDA database to determine the number of invited buyers who came and the total dollar value of the booth traffic. When the exhibitors track their leads-to-sales, they’ll know what percent of the target market they captured.

The EDA data also comes in handy for tracking down lost customers — buyers who have switched brands or distributors. Manufacturers can subscribe to monthly updates on new market activity that reveals where and when who’s buying what from whom, and for how much. 

 “The intelligence we gather is an interpretation of the data we collect,” says David Schwartz, EDA’s Director of Sales. “We can share lost customer reports with major exhibitors, identifying former buyers of a major brand and who they’re buying from now.”

In the end, the buyer benefits as well. “They understand that you have four or five companies competing for their money, so they get better service, delivery and pricing,” Schwartz says.

And the more buying activity, the better the database becomes.