Case Study: How a Custom Quote Tool Turned a Food Festival Into a $81,000 Sales Event
Client: Anderson Power Services
Service: Marketing Technology Development & Event Marketing
Timeline: Mid–Late 2025
Result: 6 generator installation sales from a single non-industry event, generating approximately $81,000 in revenue
The Problem: Losing Customers in the Conversation
Anderson Power Services regularly participated in home shows and community events across the Southeast as a lead generation strategy. These events put salespeople face-to-face with homeowners, but they consistently produced underwhelming results, typically yielding one to three sales per event at best.
The root problem revealed itself during one of these shows. I watched one of the company’s top sales team members walk a curious homeowner through a rough cost estimate on the spot by calculating their home’s square footage, fuel source, desired power output, and other factors. The customer listened, got a number somewhere in a wide range, said they’d think about it, and walked away.
That type of interaction happened repeatedly. Interested prospects left without a concrete number in hand, provided no follow-up mechanism, and little more than a few promotional items. The conversation that should have moved them toward a decision was instead leaving them with more questions than when they arrived.
My goal was to develop a viable answer to the most common question Anderson heard at every event: “How much would a generator installation cost me?”
The Solution: Build a Customized Tool
I had never built anything in Jotform before. But after researching various cost-effective options, this became the most sensible format to create a functional solution. The goal was simple: provide our sales team with a customized tool that would deliver an accurate price range while also capturing the customer’s contact information.
I integrated the tool directly into Anderson’s Salesforce CRM, which the company had recently implemented, ensuring that every lead generated at an event flowed automatically into the sales pipeline without any manual entry required.
Building it required close collaboration with Anderson’s sales team. I worked directly with them to pressure-test the accuracy of the estimates, refine the user experience across each card, and ensure the output matched what the sales team would actually quote in the field.
The Shrimp & Grits Festival: An Unlikely Proving Ground
Anderson Power Services drew a clear line between two types of events. Industry-related functions and home shows were prioritized. These events involved homeowners actively shopping for exactly what Anderson offers, and the sales team considered each one to be a legitimate sales opportunity which would typically produce one to three installations per event.
The company also participated in community events such as food festivals. These functions were viewed in stark contrast as merely beneficial for brand awareness at best, while most sales team members considered them to be a waste of resources in many cases. The sales team had little to no interest in staffing community-centered events due to the scarcity of qualified leads in years past.
I was confident that the Auto Quote tool could change the equation entirely. If the core problem at events was the inability to give prospects a concrete number on the spot, then the audience mattered less than the tool. A curious homeowner at a food festival with a personalized quote in their inbox was far more valuable than a vague conversation at a home show that ended with “I’ll think about it.”
I insisted on attending the Shrimp & Grits Festival in Brunswick, Georgia. The sales team didn’t share my confidence, which is why I worked the entire three-day event alone. Despite having no backup and only minimal support from the Brunswick office’s manager, the event became a new benchmark for the company.
I handled every aspect of Anderson’s presence myself for all events: booking the booth with event organizers, purchasing and managing all promotional materials, handling logistics and transport, setting up the display, working all three days of the festival, breaking down the booth, and personally ensuring that the leads were cleanly handed-off to the sales team when it was over.
The audience was not primed for a major home purchase. This event featured a unique opportunity for food, music, and entertainment. Our booth placement was poor, being located along the walkway that connected the parking lot to the main event area. Attendees were simply passing by on their way to or from all the fun. By every conventional measure, this was exactly the kind of event the sales team had written off as a waste of time.
I captured more than 30 leads over the course of the festival using the Auto Quote tool, with those leads converting into 6 generator installation sales, each averaging approximately $13,500, for a total of roughly $81,000 in revenue from a single event.
That was double the high-end result from industry shows where Anderson’s ideal customer was actively in the market. This was accomplished with a single employee working a food festival. At several points during the event, I had multiple couples or groups waiting for their turn to access the Auto Quote tool at the booth.
Results Across the Event Season
The Brunswick festival was the standout result as the tool proved its value consistently across multiple home shows and community events throughout the Southeast in the second half of 2025. Each event where the tool was deployed outperformed the same show from the prior year in both lead volume and sales conversions.
The Auto Quote tool was also successfully used to increase sales across social media and email marketing efforts throughout this time period.
The strategy proved to be a resounding success. Providing each prospective customer with a personalized, accurate number — immediately, on their phone, delivered to their inbox — fundamentally changed how they engaged with the brand.
It moved the conversation from “I’ll think about it” to “How soon can you do the installation?”
Key Takeaways
Solve real, observable problems.
This tool was developed after watching an actual sales conversation break down in real time and exploring what system could fix it. Field observation is one of the most underutilized sources of marketing insight.
Technology doesn’t have to be complicated to be effective.
The Auto Quote tool was built in Jotform, which was a platform I had no prior experience with. The emphasis was not placed on a sophisticated, expensive means of delivery, but rather on providing a clear answer to the customer’s most pressing question through a cost-effective and functional solution.
Capture intent at its peak.
A prospect standing at a booth inquiring about cost is a major indication of maximum buying intent. Time is of the essence and it is vital to dispel any hesitation and doubt with accuracy and expertise. The Auto Quote tool met customers during the purchasing process while providing a means of maintaining connection for future contact.
One person can run a complete operation.
From logistics to lead delivery, the Brunswick event was planned and executed entirely by one person. A larger team will not always result in a greater amount of meaningful leads. When marketing strategy is devoted to preparation, the right tools, and a clear process, positive growth is the most likely outcome.