The Eternal Porsche Parts Challenge: What to Sell

It’s been a busy week here at TwinSpark’s UK outpost. As the latest addition to the company furniture, I’ve been settling into my shareholder chair, and swapping Skype calls with my partners, looking at what we’ve got and considering what we’d like to have. Top of the want list is the same as any retailer: more customers.

Steve Ballmer, the CEO of Microsoft (a company whose founders are renowned for Porsche enthusiasm) once said: “We can believe that we know where the world should go. But unless we’re in touch with our customers, our model of the world can diverge from reality. There’s no substitute for innovation, of course, but innovation is no substitute for being in touch, either.”

Now, if you asked me as a long-term Microsoft user, was Windows 2000 in touch with customer needs and the relationship we users wanted with our PCs? No it was not. Neither was the next Windows iteration – that’s why I abandoned Microsoft and bought a Mac. As someone who still has to dip in and out of Windows software every now and then, has anything changed in the way that software works? Yes: it’s an even worse kludge to use. So much for staying in touch!

Thus I am disinclined to buy a Windows laptop, or to try the new Windows phone. As a satisfied iPhone and iMac customer, there is simply no point in taking a step backwards in the way I am served by the products I buy, and the affinity I feel with the company that sold them to me. The near impossibility to winning back disillusioned customers is an important lesson for all product developers and retailers.

Now, twenty years after leaving my family’s music retail business, and ten years after leaving the retail motor trade, I am back in retail with two good friends. Like Steve Ballmer, each of us thinks we know where our Porsche world should go. But we are equally aware that what Porsche people are looking for is a changing quantity. As our company gathers pace, we’ll be using tried and tested methods to keep in touch with customers, and keep up to date with what it is you’re after.

We already have the European distributorship for the number one brand in aftermarket early 911 parts: WEVO. Hayden Burvill has designed and manufactured some of the best products any early Porsche enthusiast could hope for, and we are proud to represent his business on this side of the pond. With Zuffenhaus RSR brakes and steering wheels, we also have a product range with a high design pedigree and a beautiful feel in use. Also with our Francis Tuthill Porsche line, we have a tried and tested competition brand, with products that withstand the ultimate test on rally courses across the world. If a picture says a thousand words:

Now we have reached the next stage in our evolution: what more can we offer our customers? On the verge of a big step forward, we are casting our nets for inspiration within ourselves, and also from our customers: past, present and future.

You’re all Porsche people. What’s missing in your Classic Porsche lifestyle that TwinSpark could supply? Is it a part that can’t as yet be bought? Top notch early Porsche merchandise? A place on a classic Porsche adventure? I’m up for any and all suggestions. Somewhere out there is the classic Porsche world’s ideal product line up, and I want to know what you think it looks like.

Tell me where you see the future for your classic Porsche! Email me at john@twinsparkracing.com. One thing you can trust with TwinSpark is we’ll listen to your opinions – I mean really listen.

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