If you really want to know whether your sales system is working, take it to Las Vegas in November.
SEMA and AAPEX are not just the industries biggest shows. They are a real-tome audit of what you are made of. They are where conversations turn into deals, or into ghosts…ones that carry a heavy price tag for both suppliers and distributors.
They are also where well-planned strategies survive (or die) under pressure. And they expose something most companies do not want to admit:
That is not a theory. That is field truth.
Every year we hear the same thing on the floor:
“We had a great show. Tons of conversations. Now we need to go home and organize it all.”
Translation: we are about to lose half of what just happened. Not because the buyers were not serious. Not because the team does not care. But because we are still trying to run a relationship-driven industry using tools that were built for transactional selling.
And at the center of that failure is one three-letter acronym: CRM.
CRM was supposed to make selling more disciplined. Instead, it taught people how to survive reviews by updating fields 10 minutes before a pipeline call.
One VP of Sales said it to us straight last fall at AAPEX:
“CRM is deal-closing software. It does not help me build relationships, it just tracks data I input on them.”
He is not wrong.
Salesforce runs your reports. HubSpot runs your drip campaigns. RepFabric tracks commissions. Gong records calls you will never watch. None of them help a rep walk into a customer meeting and say, “Here is why your brake volume dropped 9 percent, here is where you are losing margin, and here is what we can do about it.”
Why? Because CRMs were never built to manage accounts. They were built to manage records.
There is a big difference.
Let us talk about Vegas. Whether you post up at SEMA or AAPEX, or run them both like a marathon, you know how fast the show floor moves.
In a single morning you can:
Those moments matter. That is where growth happens. And yet, most sales systems cannot handle Vegas speed.
So notes get split across:
By the time people get home, 60 percent of context is already gone. And good luck piecing that back together in Salesforce. CRM does not do context. CRM does not do conversation memory. CRM does not do urgency.
That is why follow-up is always late. Not because reps are lazy,
but because there is no system built for how conversations actually unfold in this industry.
Every industry believes it is unique. The aftermarket actually is.
We do not win business by closing quick deals. We win business by maintaining trust over time. By understanding program strategy, line coverage, margin pressure, and supplier performance. By showing up. Listening. Solving problems before someone asks.
This is not SaaS.
There is no monthly churn dashboard for brake pads.
But CRM treats every interaction like an entry. A field. A status.
The aftermarket runs on account management. CRM was built for pipeline management. Those are not the same sport.
And now everyone is screaming about AI
Just wait. This year at SEMA and AAPEX you will see “AI” on banners like it is casino wallpaper. Every CRM suddenly discovered it. They will tell you they now have “AI-powered insights.” They will show you auto-summarized notes. Maybe some email templates. Maybe a blue glowing icon somewhere. Tech magic.
Except it is not magic. It is lipstick on a flat tire.
Here is the reality:
When your vendor says, “we are working on AI,” what they really mean is “we added autocomplete.”
The aftermarket does not need generative noise. It needs predictive clarity:
AI does not fix CRM because AI is not the missing piece.
Account intelligence is.
This industry lives and dies by account management
The salespeople who win (I mean really win) in this industry are not the ones who hammer the most emails. They are the ones who actually understand their accounts.
They know when volume shifts before anyone else sees it. They know who inside the account is about to influence a decision. They know how to connect one line to another. They catch problems early. They track trends nobody told them to track. They follow up before someone pings them. They prevent churn before it happens.
That is not luck. That is system.
Except today, that system lives inside:
That is not a system. That is risk.
Not a CRM. Not a plugin. Not a “suite.”
Minecart is the first Account Management System built for the automotive aftermarket.
Finally, a system that:
✅ Monitors accounts 24/7
✅ Spots risk early
✅ Drives follow-up automatically
✅ Gives reps daily visibility into account movement
✅ Turns trade show chaos into clean execution
✅ Helps leaders run teams with clarity—not guesswork
Minecart learns how each account behaves. It reads category movement. It detects white space. It connects meeting notes to real revenue conversations. It keeps relationships moving.
It does the thing CRM was never designed to do: protect and grow accounts over time.
What this looks like at SEMA and AAPEX
Minecart builds auto-priority lists:
Reps capture context in seconds by voice, text, or photo:
“Turner is considering switching 25 percent of brake business if we can guarantee inventory.”
Minecart:
While everyone else drowns in badge scans:
✅ Top opportunities already ranked
✅ Follow-ups already drafted
✅ Notes already organized
✅ Team already aligned
That is what follow-through looks like when you have a system built for momentum.\
Because the gap is widening. The companies who will win the next decade of this industry will not be the ones with the loudest booths. They will be the ones who execute better than anyone else.
Distributors groups are consolidating. Data is becoming leverage. Pricing pressure is constant. Programs are changing faster. The companies that survive long-term will be the ones who create clarity in motion. The ones who finally treat account management like a system, not a scramble.
That is why Minecart exists.
Not to replace field reps. To make them lethal.
Not to replace relationships. To protect them at scale.
Not to replace how the industry works. To honor how it has always worked—and make it stronger.
Heading into Vegas
So ask yourself:
Because if we are being honest, SEMA and AAPEX will not be won at the booth. They will be won in the follow-up. In the systems we bring home. In the momentum we keep alive.
CRM will not get you there.
Minecart will.
If you are ready to see what a real Account Management System feels like, come find us before the noise takes over. We are here for the ones who actually plan to win.
Read FREE Tromml's eBook on how AI is changing work in aftermarket parts distribution.
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