At CONEXPO, the world’s leading construction conference, Caterpillar dealers were struggling to have meaningful conversations with current and prospective customers. The show floor was crowded, loud, and full of distractions, making it difficult to discuss Cat Certified Rebuilds—a service that strips, cleans, repairs, and rebuilds equipment customers already own. The service can double the life of a machine, starting at around $200,000, compared with the million-dollar-plus cost of buying new.
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The challenge: sell the value of rebuilding existing equipment in an environment designed to showcase shiny new machines.
With more than 2,000 exhibitors, 150 educational sessions, and 130,000 attendees competing for attention, the dealers’ biggest competition was the conference itself. While rebuilds offered customers a significantly more cost-effective alternative to purchasing new equipment—and created a strong profit opportunity for dealers—they were a hard sell in a noisy convention center filled with the latest models and technology.
My team proposed a more focused, high-touch approach: an exclusive VIP event held after conference hours near the CONEXPO venue. Dealers invited customers they believed would be most open to an equipment rebuild, creating an opportunity for one-on-one conversations in a setting with fewer distractions.
The event took place at a private racing facility where guests could drive high-end race cars on a closed circuit. After the racing experience, a cocktail hour gave dealers time to connect with customers, answer questions, and share more information about rebuilds. At the end of the night, guests were invited to commit to an exclusive rebuild rate if they rebuilt one or more machines within the following year.
To build anticipation and reinforce the event’s exclusivity, we created a custom invitation package that dealers hand-delivered to select customers several weeks before the event. The package included rebuild information, event details, and a lanyard with a VIP badge that served as the guest’s ticket for the evening. The invitation needed to be informative, but it also needed to make each recipient feel like they were part of something special.
I focused heavily on presentation and finishes, designing a custom box with a false bottom so each element fit together precisely. The result was a tactile, premium invitation experience that helped set the tone for the event before guests arrived.
Race to Rebuild was a major success. On the night of the event, 12 customers committed to more than 20 rebuilds. Dealers also found the opportunity to speak with customers in a more focused environment invaluable, even when those conversations did not immediately lead to a sale. The VIP badges became such a point of pride that some attendees wore them throughout the rest of the conference.
