Research – Plan – Execute
Why have many of the powersports vendors chosen to remain locked in battle with their franchised dealerships? 35 years back, when I was 20 years old, I woke up on Christmas day in snowy Germany, and that night went to
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I’ve now spent 30 years working in and around the Powersports industry. The continuing opportunities to contribute to PowerSports Business are an honor that I don’t take lightly. Giving back to the industry that has done so much for me
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A big concern among many dealers is whether or not the manufacturers will pursue a factory direct model. While there are pros and cons to this model, it’s important to recognize that dealers fulfill many roles that the OEMs probably
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Now that 2020 has wrapped up, many OEMs are beating the drums about the significant year over year growth they saw last year. Don’t believe the hype. While there was significant growth last year, a percentage of that growth was
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I see all of the memes about electric cars and motorcycles, making fun of the land and resources that are destroyed as we mine the metal to make our vehicles, the rubber for their tires, and the materials to make
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MAP – Minimum Advertised Pricing. These are the rules that limit the lowest price a dealer can advertise a vehicle (motorcycle, ATV, boat, RV, travel trailer, etc.) for. There are no constraints on what a dealer can sell something for
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Over the last couple of months I’ve had many discussions with dealers about the prospect of bringing on a line of electric bicycles. Some of this is driven by these dealers seeing more and more of these bicycles on the
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Great price for the new 660 Trident. On paper, the bike looks like a winner, and that 3-cylinder powerplant is a cherry on top. Go get em Triumph! #powersports #motorcycle #motorcycles #engine #triple #Triumph #Trident660
Read moreInteresting story I’ve always seen it as hypocritical that our suppliers want to end each month without any inventory in their own warehouses, but they are fine with dealers being jammed up with excess stock. All they have done is
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Arrgghhhhh! Every week. We don’t have enough inventory. Can’t get any. Making record margins on the stuff we can get. Here is the key fact that dealers don’t realize. If you had the ability to get all the inventory you
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Great article about some of the recent history of Royal Enfield and where they are going. The dealers I work with who stock the brand really like them. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-10-14/india-s-royal-enfield-motorcycle-is-coming-after-harley-davidson-hog #motorcycle#powersports#royalenfield#motorcycles
Read moreCFMOTO is on the gas. While other OEMs have been struggling to keep dealers stocked with even minimal quantities, most CFMOTO dealers have plenty of 21s to sell. A couple of months back I got to check out the Overland
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This is a great review of why Briggs & Stratton filed for bankruptcy. Like some of the companies we have to deal with in the powersports sector, corporate greed and short sighted thinking (placing officers and shareholders in front of
Read moreInteresting to see Zero Motorcycles and Polaris partnering up on electric vehicles. http://ir.polaris.com/investors/news/news-details/2020/Polaris-Announces-Partnership-with-Zero-Motorcycles-to-Co-Develop-Electric-Vehicles-as-a-Cornerstone-of-rEVd-upPolaris-New-Electrification-Strategy/default.aspx The posting is pretty vague about what the partnership will really mean for dealers and consumers, so you’ll just have to wait and see. We all know
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In the world of big business and acquisitions, there are many times where the value placed on the customer database is more than the rest of the business combined. Larry Bruce over at PSXDigital reminds me of this all the time. Having worked with
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Caterpillar recently released their new 2-Stroke with opposed pistons that fire when the pistons meet in the middle (no cylinder head, and one explosion powers two pistons). Koenigsegg’s new 3-Cylinder Tiny Friendly Giant can operate in 2-Stroke mode at lower
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I’ve got to admit, my familiarity lies with the laws of the great State of Texas, but I believe most of the other areas of this country have Lemon Laws that help to protect consumers. We dealers are often caught
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The cost to borrow money is essentially 0. Other than risk, there is little to prevent powersports dealers resuming their poor inventory management practices. The only thing stopping them from returning to the old days of full showrooms/warehouses and stacks
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KTM and CFMOTO announce plans to expand their cooperative production agreement in the 750cc segment. Won’t be long until we see some of these new adventure and supermotos. https://www.motorcycle.com/mini-features/ktm-is-developing-a-750cc-range-with-cfmoto.html KTM has built a new facility across the street from CFMOTO
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As industries mature, they tend to offer similar products and services. With many of our suppliers being public companies, customer experience is now secondary to shareholder profitability. With so many companies having pared costs down to the bare minimum, it
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I’ve spent most of the last week working on emergency plans for our own dealership, while also working with a multitude of other dealers on local and regional problems they are dealing with. One of the big questions is what
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Recently I’ve received lots of questions from dealers asking the best way to determine which brands they should keep and which ones should go. There’s a lot that goes into this question as it’s not only the front-side profitability that
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