Just a quick heads up to everyone, the new AEM price increase went live July 1st 2008. Below is the letter from AEM regarding this price increase.

To all AEM Customers;

As you are no doubt aware, the market for raw materials has been inflationary for the past couple of years. For the past 1 ½ years we have been absorbing these increases. In addition, we have done everything possible during that time to improve our manufacturing and operations efficiency to lessen the impact of the higher material costs. However, we are now in a position where we have to pass a portion of these increases along.

Attached please find our new Jobber Price List # 01-3021. While price changes vary by part number, there is an overall weighted increase of approximately 2.8% across the entire AEM product line. Please note that these new prices will go into effect on 7/1/08 and will apply to any order not received before that date.

We thank you for your understanding and urge you to call with any comments or questions. As always, we truly appreciate and thank you for your support.

AEM Sales Team

As always, please remember AEM does have a MAP program and RPMWare makes it easy to abide by it - just select ‘MAP’ for the Pricing Field from the Items-Pricing section of your Admin area.

Download the New AEM Jobber Sheet 01-3021

Download the AEM 2008 Unilateral Maximum Discount Policy

We just relaunched rpmware.com! For the eagle-eyed crowd, we actually released the new version on Monday, April 7th but we’ve been too swamped to blog about the redesign until today. If you haven’t seen it yet, head on over and let us know what you think.

Most of the site content is the same; however, we’re working on converting all our printed documentation to html and will have that posted to the new site shortly. We’re also working on a specific video section to keep links to all our videos as well as a few in the works.

Until the videos are ready you can check our our channels at Blip.tv (preferred) and YouTube (low-res).

We’ve got a domain and logo for sale if anyone is interested in it. The domain is speedagency.com and the logo is the one pictured here.

We’re going to sell this one auction style. If you’re interested please send your offer to kyle@rpmware.com. Whoever has the highest bid by Midnight Friday 22, 2008 will get the domain and logo. There is no reserve.

Here’s what you get:

• SpeedAgency.com domain name
• SpeedAgency Logo (.ai vector format)
• 3 Free Months of RPMWare service for any new account created for SpeedAgency.com ($897 Value)

As some of you know Matt and I used to be in the parts business before things got rolling with RPMWare. We worked for CoxImport and started a side project called TunerPartsDirect in 2006. When RPMWare got off the ground we made TunerPartsDirect one of the showcase sites and put a lot of time and effort into the design.

Today we decided to put it up for sale so someone can actually use it for something other than a showcase.

We’re asking $3,600 and that gets you:

• All copyrights and intellectual property (logo, design, name, etc.) associated with TunerPartsDirect and tunerpartsdirect.com
• The domain name tunerpartsdirect.com
• An eBay account with a 220 feedback score (100% positive).
• Free RPMWare service (for tunerpartsdirect.com and any other established accounts) until 2008.
• 10 hours consulting/support.

This is the perfect opportunity for someone looking to get started with RPMWare or for an existing client looking to add a second or third site.

Please send any questions, comments, offers to kyle@rpmware.com and we’ll go from there.

It seems like everyone is doing it, from big names like amazon.com all the way down to the smallest of shops competing online. FREE SHIPPING. It’s a great promotion and you can use it too, not only to boost revenue but also to increase profit.

Profit? Is he crazy? How can we give things away for free and earn more profit? The answer is simple: make your customers earn their free shipping! We’ll get back to this later.

First, why does free shipping work? It works because it gives the customer the feeling they are getting a good deal even if the total price is the same or even higher than the competition. It’s a mental game and he who plays the best will win.

Think of all those late night infomercials. They’re not selling based on quality or even the promise of the product. They close the deal with the FREE gift. Nobody needs an 18 piece knife set and nobody’s buying an 18 piece knife set, but once they throw in the free knife block and a pair of scissors the phones light up. The product didn’t change and the $2 in extras isn’t all that compelling, but the feeling is great. The customer knows they are getting a great deal.

It’s All Perception Your customers buy on their perceptions, in fact all customers do.

Most perceive free shipping as a “good deal” and will choose it over paying for shipping. Many will see $5 Shipping the same way and you can recoup some of your shipping expenses. Remember at this point it’s not about the final price, it is about the perception of the final price.

Every shop is different and you’ll have to experiment to see what your customers limits are. I used to run $3 shipping. When we told people on the phone they actually perceived it better than if we had told them free. Free is commonplace. Stand out.

Don’t be Shady Don’t offer free shipping then tag on a $5 handling charge. Be upfront and honest about what it costs to do business with your company.

Profit! Remember I told you free shipping could boost your profits? It wasn’t totally a ploy to keep you reading, you really can and it is pretty simple. Make your customers earn their free shipping. Most shops offer free shipping for orders over a certain amount. How do you come up with that total? I’m guessing you grabbed a number out of the air and decided it sounded good. Try this instead:

Figure out what your average order amount is then add $30-50 and round down. For instance if your average order was $260 you’d end up with $260 + 50 = $310 (round down) $300. Set that as your free shipping amount.

Why? Two reasons:

1. It will raise your average order amount. Remember people want the “good deal” and are less focused on the absolute bottom-line price. They will spend some more money to qualify for the “good deal.”
2. You’ll sell more low dollar, high profit percentage items to people trying to quality for free shipping. If my shopping cart has $260 in it I’m going to start looking for something cheap to bump me over the total. Car guys always need something so feature some high profit shop supplies, accessories or tools on the homepage.

The increased high-profit revenue will offset the cost of offering free shipping and in many cases can actually become a profit center.

Your Results May Vary There’s no one answer to any problem and promoting your business is no different. You’ll have to start experimenting with the techniques we’ve identified here and adjust as you gather data. Remember to give each technique a chance to work before you dismiss it. And always remember to talk to your customers. You’d be surprised how much insight they have. Trust them.

The weather is changing and winter projects are starting to take shape. Are you going to provide the parts this fall or be sitting around complaining about how slow it is? Follow our lead and be sure you’re phones will keep ringing thru the off-season.

1. Ensure all your products are up to date. If you’re not using a service like RPMWare make sure you get new price and application guides from all your manufacturers. New products are coming out just in time for SEMA. Make sure you’re representing your product mix well.
2. Check your pricing and adjust accordingly. Customers don’t shop 100% on price, but they aren’t going to pay an extra $50 for your service. Spend a couple hours researching the competition and make sure you’re competitive.
3. Get Noticed! Building your customer base requires a multi-part approach. No single campaign will net great results. Become active in web forums, feature project cars on your website and promote the hell out of them. Your customers want to deal with a real shop, not some kid in his Mom’s basement. Give them that confidence, show them what you can do.
4. Don’t forget Marketing 101. Flyers, Magazine Ads, Stickers, E-Mails, Press Releases and even Mailers can be effective mediums for getting your business noticed. Talk to manufactures and organizations like SEMA about getting contact lists to get the word out to your target market.
5. Get a RPMWare Account. We had to throw a plug in here somewhere. Give yourself some time to concentrate on marketing your business while we handle the boring stuff. RPMWare is a complete website solution including a constantly updated e-commerce catalog with over 90,000 part numbers. Select the brands you want to offer, set your pricing and you’re ready to roll.
6. Join the Club. Car Club, SEMA Board, BBB, whatever it is - get involved. Committing some time to committees or groups can get you some much needed market networking as well as company recognition. Most are free or very inexpensive and results can be amazing if you’re willing to expend the effort.
7. Under Promise, Over Deliver. We only advertised 5 helpful hints, but you’re getting 7. Pass on the favor and send your customers something special with their orders. You’d be surprised how far a handwritten “Thank you” on the invoice goes toward building loyalty.

I got a question this morning about our pricing and whether or not we are going to raise it. Apparently there is a rumor going around that we are raising prices to $500/mo when we hit some goal.

THIS IS ABSOLUTELY 100% FALSE. PRICES ARE NOT GOING UP.

We’ve actually lowered prices since we launched in April. The plan everyone is on was once $351 then $349 and now $299 where it is expected to stay indefinitely.

If there are any questions please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Today PayPal announced they are introducing a new payment option allowing you to offer your customers promotional financing offers. Think “No Interest for 90 Days,” “Easy Monthly Payments”; or other similar programs.

This is an excellent opportunity to sell that $3,000 turbo kit or $1,200 clutch. The program is initially only open to select merchats so contact your PayPal rep ASAP to get on the list.

Read the full press release. Visit PayPal.

Ever wonder what it would be like to be part of an industry so big? Ever wonder what you could do to ‘break-in’ to this industry? Well, I have good news for you - you already have.

SEMA just released their numbers for the 2006 year, and the industry - our industry - showed a strong 7.1% growth rate.

For the complete article, check out SEMA.org

So Kyle and I were talking about getting some new business cards made the other day, so we went out looking for some cool designs. I personally liked this one:

To see the complete collection check out this link: Cool Business Cards