Research – Plan – Execute
I really enjoy being able to make provocative statements. Seven years ago I sat in on a presentation detailing how to set up a Business Development Center (BDC). Got to admit, I was all in, it made a lot of
Read more
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
Read more
In 2006 when we purchased our dealership in Texas, we knew that a streamlined and transparent purchasing process would be something that would help us to be successful in the long run. We didn’t want to be one of those
Read more
During the great pandemic of 2020, more than one curve was bent. While e-commerce has been on a steady incline since 2000, the pandemic supercharged that growth. Unable or unwilling to visit stores, many consumers quickly got comfy with shopping
Read more
The folks over at IMS have an industry blog, Continue The Ride. They feature the viewpoints of different industry personnel. They recently asked me to pen an article on anything that I thought would be useful to my fellow dealers.
Read more
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
Read more
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
Read more
Marine and RV dealers (and even some powersports dealers) devote a lot of time, energy, and money at the beginning of each season to shows. I’ve always debated the value of these events. Spending long days/nights to clone our showrooms
Read more
Business has been good. Process and procedures have gone out the window. Many customer experiences are not good. As Rollick gains momentum in the industry, I asked them to dig in to their customer feedback to answer a few questions I had?
Read more
Maybe that isn’t the best title to use during a pandemic. I was having a conversation with someone today and mentioned that we were completely sold out of two lines of product in our dealership (ones we normally have plenty
Read more
This year’s survey of Motorcycle and ATV/UTV dealers shows a solid improvement over 2019, but overall I’d still say the average dealer does a poor job of responding to digital leads. I’ve now shopped over 300 dealers and speak from
Read more
My daily discussions with RV dealers have not been as promising as what I’m seeing in the powersports industry, but there are some outliers who are making it work. Regional lockdowns appear to be hitting the RV dealers in a
Read more
Almost every dealer I have talked to is seeing a massive spike in website traffic and internet leads. Have you adapted your processes to give your customers what they are looking for? Data from my friends over at Cycle Trader
Read more
A good article with some tips on retailing during the current pandemic. https://www.fi-magazine.com/360779/guide-to-digital-retailing-during-a-pandemic#.XpcWEhWEcNg.linkedin I’ve seen some colorblind advertising from dealers. With people across the country dying from COVID, it’s easy to cross a line with your customers. When this is
Read moreThe other day I emailed one of my 20 Groups. All of the return emails from one dealer ended up in my spam folder, and that got me to looking for a reason. Turns out this one dealer uses the
Read moreSomeone shared this article about Shift Digital with me and it echos a lot of my concerns about them. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/dear-shift-digital-we-dont-need-you-rico-olinger/?trackingId=O%2B0tjYvTQb2ZCL4adQIVcg%3D%3D Dealers should never– think cookie cutter programs will work for them– give up control of their domains– not own their
Read moreInteresting article discussing website sentiment. Everything I’ve been reading for the last year or so points to Google placing more emphasis on natural language patterns of text on websites, while also paying less attention to keyword packing. It’s a fast
Read more
I recently listened to a podcast detailing a study that involved Microsoft. They identified a large group of people who had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. After obtaining permission from those individuals, they analyzed the search history of these people
Read more
At most 20 Group meetings there is usually one dealer who had a bad month and often times they blame it on an internet outage. Almost every major facet of our business happens over the internet. DMS, website, credit card
Read more
It’s hard to stress the importance of maintaining ownership of all your digital assets. Many powersports dealerships have not had a clear strategy for entering the digital marketplace, letting staff members handle some of that work, and a myriad of
Read more