5 Things Dealerships Get Wrong!

You want to have a successful motorcycle dealership this year, and so you pour over numbers from last year to see where you can improve. You fire that lazy salesman, you increase your profits in the service department. You streamline apparel sales and make sure you only have super-hot girls on the floor. That should help, right? WRONG. Here are five things most dealerships get wrong, and why it makes your customers walk out your door.

1. UNDER-ESTIMATE THE ATTACHMENT TO THEIR CURRENT BIKE:

When a potential customer pulls up on your lot on their bike, complimenting their ride goes a long ways in establishing trust. Discounting that bike is the first mistake many salesmen make. Trying to sell them a lower performing bike because you have a high markup on it will only push that customer away. If their bike is in for repairs, instantly trying to get them to trade it in is disrespectful at best, and very annoying at worst. Trusting that the customer knows what they want, respecting that, THEN offering any improvements or upgrades is how the better shops operate. Take a few moments to create the connection with the customer through his connection with his bike.The best dealerships have more of a 'hang-out, custom bike builder' feel to them than they do a car dealership. Bikes are different than cars, your dealership should be different than a car dealership.

2. UNDER-ESTIMATING THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE CUSTOMER:

Yes, your sales team has all of the current models and specs ready to list off the tops of their heads. But how many miles does your sales team actually ride each year? Perhaps the most overlooked aspects of the sales team is knowing the product from the viewpoint of the customer. I had just completed the Iron Butt (1,000 miles in a day) on a Harley-Davidson V-ROD, which gave me a horrible hip issue as the bike was far too wide for me. When I explained this to a salesman on a different manufacturers lot, I stated I needed to match or exceed the performance of that bike but have it in a smaller frame. Instantly I was taken to see a 500cc cruiser, which was smaller than my starter bike. When I protested, I was asked to explain 'why' I 'needed' that much power. This is infuriating to an experienced rider, and not only did that dealership not get my $22K I invested in my new bike, they did worse by my repeating of this story to my considerable network of riders. DO NOT ASSUME anything about the customer until they tell it to you, we're not all the same and your sales people need to be able to appropriately read riders who come to your lot. Or another dealership will.

3. OVER-ESTIMATING YOUR POSITION IN THE MARKETPLACE:

You are the only game in town. In fact, you are the only game for 400 miles around. You can take your time working on bikes, return phone calls when it suits you and make determinations on your customer needs for them. YOU ARE WRONG. Maybe the lower-end customers who will give you a few hundred dollars a year in profit will tolerate that, but your good, high-ticket customers will not. I have flown 300 miles to get my bike out of a shop, ride it an additional 400 miles in the middle of December in 28 degree temperatures to take it to another shop because of this. Riders who put on considerable miles and high-dollar clients care more about their bikes than they do most anything else. RESPECT THAT. Shops that have close competition tend to give far better customer service than shops without any local competition. If you don't treat your customers well, you'll end up with the lower-profit customers and your high-dollars customers will go elsewhere.

4. UNDER-ESTIMATING THE IMPORTANCE OF EARNING TRUST:

As stated above, the new shop got my initial business. But more importantly, the new shop had earned my trust. Because of that, I ended up dropping an additional $3,500 in modifications as I believed them to be qualified to do the mods without screwing me over in the shop. Trust not only brings out more cash-per-customer, it also makes that customer brag to all of their riding buddies how cool their shop is and convince other riders to visit them. Personally, I've sent new buyers hundreds of miles out of their way to visit the shop that took care of me. Trust is the gift that keeps on giving. NEVER UNDER-ESTIMATE THE IMPORTANCE OF CUSTOMER TRUST.

5. ALWAYS TEST CUSTOMER COMPLAINTS:

This is perhaps the biggest issues we riders have with dealerships. When a customer comes in for a scheduled service, and as long as it is in the shop they ask if you could check out the front end as it 'feels funny'. Unfortunately, the fact is that most shops will not test the front end, but will mark down on the service record 'no issues found' and move on in order to save time. Hunting down an elusive issue is not time-productive, you believe. WRONG. Spending the extra time to explore the customer complaints is critical to long-term relationships. Those are the ones who will buy their new bikes from you. I complained about a front-end 'clunk' over the course of 3 scheduled maintenance visits only to be told they didn't experience the clunk themselves. My front neck bearings seized up on me while riding the bike, right after the third visit to the shop. There was no way a technician would've missed the difficulties and horrible sound it was making if he had taken it for a test ride. It was extremely difficult for me to trust that shop again. Let's face it, we're putting our lives in your the hands of your technicians,so they, and you, need to respect that fact.

The bottom-line is to have your staff acting like it is their bike in the shop, and act like it is them on the showroom floor looking for a new ride. If you treat your potential customers the way you want to be treated, your dealership will shine. Riders who buy new bikes, ride so much they need service often, ride in all weather conditions so they much buy apparel and add-on products are the riders that will go out of their way to give you their business. Motorcycle dealerships are successful in the long run if they handle their customers with a long-term relationship in mind. Just as you would not want to enter into a marriage with a partner who screws you over on the first date, your customers are looking for a dealership who they can trust to have their backs. Perhaps the biggest failure dealerships make is not taking care of the customer so the customer will take care of them.

Stop looking for quarterly profits and start looking for life-long customer relationships.