Staying connected
Bob McCann, Director of Education - ARI
June 11, 2012
Email marketing can be a powerful tool in support of your sales efforts if it is well executed. It’s affordable; it delivers results; and you can easily measure its effectiveness. Small- to medium-sized dealerships can stand out by keeping in touch with both prospects and customers in a very relevant... Read more »
Who has it worse than rejected motorcycle salespeople?
Fran O'Hagan, President - Pied Piper Management Co.
June 5, 2012
We know that the typical motorcycle salesperson has to ask for the sale seven times to hear a customer say yes. What if there was a salesperson who had to ask for the sale 50 times to hear his first yes? Meet Jose Jiminez, who for the past year has manned a Southwest Airlines cart in the Ontario, Calif.,... Read more »
Seize your Google Places listing
Dave Valentine, National Sales Manager - PowerSports Network
May 29, 2012
We use Google every day. When we conduct research we use Google. We manage our Gmail accounts, and we socialize using Google+. We optimize our websites, so we are found on Google. We advertise on Google. We may even use the Google toolbar as a quick spellcheck tool. Google is how we find stuff. We use... Read more »
Strike while the leads are hot
Ben Borchert, Marketing Analyst - 50 Below
May 14, 2012
How quickly do you respond to leads? Does response time matter? It definitely does. If a customer is hot to buy, you need to strike quickly. When a lead is cold, it will be much harder to make the sale. Think about it, if someone calls, you need to call them back in a timely manner. If someone walks... Read more »
Harley dealers boast effective selling; what about other brands’ dealers?
Fran O'Hagan, President and CEO, Pied Piper Management Co.
May 7, 2012
2012 Pied Piper PSI results for the U.S. motorcycle industry confirm that Harley-Davidson dealerships sell as effectively in 2012 as they did back in 2008 — pre-recession — when motorcycle dealerships nationwide were still enjoying another year of solid sales. But what about the dealerships that... Read more »
Make your Web marketing dollars work harder for you
Bob McCann, Director of Education - ARI
April 23, 2012
Want to generate more leads and sales from your website? Use a simple yet highly effective best practice: Promote your Web address! The most common approach prospects use to find a dealership is still simply typing in the dealer’s URL. It is a key element of your corporate identity and the address... Read more »
Use your Facebook Timeline to better communicate with fans
Dave Valentine, National Sales Manager - PowerSports Network
April 9, 2012
If your dealership currently uses a business page for Facebook, then you’re already aware that on March 31, Facebook updated your page to its infamous Timeline format. For many businesses and users of Facebook, this update is seen as an unwelcome change. At first even I thought the format was a bit... Read more »
Are you a tour guide for your customers?
Fran O'Hagan, President, Pied Piper Management Co.
April 2, 2012
Tim Mayhew, the ringleader of Pashnit Motorcycle Tours in Northern California, reports that business is booming, and this year’s tours are nearly all sold out. Demand from repeat customers is so strong that Mayhew has had to increase the number of annual tours just to meet demand from repeat customers.... Read more »
Dial up your smartphone customers
Ben Borchert, Marketing Analyst - 50 Below
March 26, 2012
Androids, iPhones and BlackBerrys are taking over pockets and purses across the country. Look around and you’ll see people plugged in and tapping their fingers on their smartphones. The buzzing of a vibrating phone is now commonplace. Whether texting friends, connecting to social media, or finding... Read more »
Capture additional sales by capturing emails
Mark Hoadley, National Sales Manager - V-Sept
March 19, 2012
The powersports industry is maturing, while at the same time, technically speaking, its customer base is getting younger. I say “technically speaking” as I am not referring to the average age of our target demographic, but rather, to the way they communicate. Email is mainstream and rapidly becoming... Read more »
