This is the first in a series of SEMA News stories based on the idea of “Best Practices”—the use of reliable and repeatable methods to ensure business success.

Designing new specialty-equipment products is a laborious, time-consuming procedure, and time is not a friend, as manufacturers will attest.

These are tough times for automotive performance aftermarket companies. The entire paradigm on which many built their existence—the dominance of the internal-combustion engine—appears to be collapsing.

The automotive industry landscape is very rocky right now. A rapid sales rebound is not on the horizon, and many companies are going through radical restructuring.

Ford was the Vehicle Manufacturer of the Show for the 2009 SEMA Show, but its support for specialty-equipment companies goes well beyond that. The Ford Licensed Accessories Program offers qualified SEMA members the chance to boost sales of their products through Ford dealerships.

It may be the worst economy seen in several generations, but companies are still spending money marketing their brands in motorsports.

SEMA is continuing in its goal to help the specialty-equipment industry pave the way forward with a recently added member benefit: MySEMA, a social networking tool available on the SEMA website.

Other than powertrain components that have to coexist with vehicle on-board computers, mobile-electronics components can often be the most complex specialty-equipment accessories added to a vehicle.

Opportunity. Diversity. Confidence. Profits. Those are a few of the keys that lock in the continuing partnership between the automakers, the vehicle dealers and SEMA-member companies.

ProPledge is a program targeted to overcome the traditional barriers associated with specialty aftermarket products sold during the new-vehicle sales process—namely warranty and customer satisfaction scores (CSI).