Record Sales for Trinity Motors Costa Rica
The Trust Gap
Allison Demarsh came to Savage Marketing with a solid reputation, a winning business model, and a strong new name for her independent boutique dealership: Trinity Motors.
What she did not have was a brand or a website that set her apart. And she was selling at the high end of an industry where everyone competes on price — to expat buyers, no less, who are buying a used vehicle in a country whose used-car market they have every reason to be nervous about.
An expat buying a car in Costa Rica is not asking “who is cheapest.” They are asking “who is going to rip me off.” Price-led messaging answers the wrong question.
The Strategy
Make the invisible advantage visible.
Demarsh had spent two years building the most rigorous quality assurance process in the country: a costlier inspection and pre-sale maintenance protocol than other dealers run, odometer validation, manually verified maintenance records. Every customer took possession of a vehicle in genuinely superior condition.
Buyers had no idea. That was the whole problem, and the whole opportunity.
The 100% Purchase Protection Pledge.
Savage branded and wrote Trinity’s quality operation into a single named promise: purchase protection, risk reduction, a 30-day guarantee, real peace of mind. One clear point of differentiation that moves the conversation off price entirely and gives an expat buyer a reason to choose Trinity before they have compared a single sticker.
Brand identity and a lead-generating website.
Trinity’s first-ever brand identity, including the three-slash logo that has become a widely recognised icon in Costa Rica. Rich dark navy and bright white for a high-end, sophisticated feel that reads as trustworthy to a discerning expat making a considered purchase.
Lead magnet and funnel.
Meta video and Google ads driving calls to the dealership, plus a downloadable guide — The Guide to Buying a Vehicle in Costa Rica — and an email follow-up sequence that captured hundreds of visitors who would otherwise have browsed the inventory anonymously and vanished.
The Results
The rebrand landed immediately. Prior customers went out of their way to contact Allison about the new brand and site, and new purchase conversations came out of it. More than once, buyers who had been shopping around online arrived already sold on Trinity purely from going through the website.
What started as positioning has hardened into a market position Trinity now owns.
- The champion lead source. The Google and Meta strategy consistently outperforms all prior ad spend on leads, conversion to sale, and ROAS.
- Record leads and sales. Multiple record sales months since the partnership began.
- Proof that the ads are doing the work. An experimental two-month pause on ad spend produced a significant drop in lead volume. Reinstating it brought lead flow straight back up — direct, unambiguous evidence of ad impact on revenue.
- A lead magnet still feeding the pipeline. Nearly two years on, it is still drawing new leads month after month.
- Room to grow. With steady lead flow converting, Allison and her team have moved on to an online car rental portal (also delivered by Savage), new hires, and expansion beyond Costa Rica into Panama.
“Savage helped us with a major rebrand, online ad system and truly differentiating market messaging. Customers that contact our dealership now arrive with a high level of confidence in their decision to buy from Trinity Motors. Savage’s formula for running and tweaking online ads bring us consistent, well-targeted lead flow as evidenced by our high close rates. With their help, we have significantly increased our business revenues, including achieving record number of monthly sales. A true partner!”
This is the Selling to Expats System applied to automotive retail. See how it works — or find out where your own trust gaps are in two minutes.