12 minute read
PERFORMANCE
By Alisa Clickenger
CARRYING A TORCH
A Decade Of Exploring Boundaries With Women’s Motorcycle Tours
Anniversaries are Important. Whether we are marking years, decades, or centennials, these ticks of time remind us of significant events, bringing to mind something that otherwise might pass unnoticed. Anniversaries put a mark on the calendar to not only make us stop and remember, but also to pause and reflect on a particular event that has shaped us. Maybe even serve as a concept that should be revived? For a business, anniversaries are a good business strategy. Anniversaries are something everyone can relate to, and they have the ability to cut through the noise and carve a sharp focus for us to get our message across.
This year is my 10th Anniversary of starting Women’s Motorcycle Tours. I have been empowering women and building confidence for women through motorcycling since 2011, when I led my first motorcycle tour under my own banner, the Women’s Empowerment Motorcycle Tour. It was a brand new concept for touring at the time: teaching women to tour on motorcycles… while touring. We offered pre-tour coaching and instruction, on-tour demonstrations every day and post-tour inspiration to keep riding.
The name might feel a bit dated now, but whatever I chose to call it back then, every time I see my 10th Anniversary logo it gives me a little tickle. It skips over the ten years of toil and brings me back to the very reasons I set out to start exploring boundaries… and pushing past them! The goal of inspiring more women to ride while empowering and encouraging them to ride more. I started Women’s Motorcycle Tours with that one tour ten years ago when there weren’t nearly as many female riders as there are now. In fact, we were somewhat of an anomaly. I wanted to reinvent the way women motorcycle riders came together and give a voice to all women riders on all brands of bikes and from all disciplines of riding. Novel concept!
As far as I know, Women’s Motorcycle Tours was the first motorcycle tour and event company that focused exclusively on women motorcycle riders. From our modest beginnings, Women’s Motorcycle Tours has evolved into a motorcycle experience company offering life-changing motorcycle experiences, moto-mindset coaching and bespoke motorcycle tours around the world. We’ve added epic events like the 2021 Suffragists Centennial Motorcycle Ride (July 31 - August 22 of this year), Women’s Motorcycle Festivals & Conferences — both virtual and in-person — and we’ve survived a year of nobody attending in-person events.
Can you see how easy that was? That 10th Anniversary gives me a new narrative in my marketing. Anniversaries stand for something strong and powerful, and signal to our previous customers that they were part of something great. The 10th Anniversary also adds credibility for our future customers, so they know that they are part of something enduring and strong.
You’re not limited to just your brand anniversary in your marketing. In fact, you’re probably already been using them a bit in your Memorial Day marketing and in your Labor Day marketing. Reach into the archives of your community and commemorate the positive things that stand out. Get creative with your research and spice up your marketing.
Bottom line: Create a new narrative that helps you leverage public sentiment, capitalize on emotions, and helps you draw customers in. Anniversaries can be a really powerful tool in your marketing toolbox when you leverage them correctly.
If still you don’t think anniversaries are important, just ask your partner or spouse. No doubt they’ll confirm my point.
Alisa is a two-wheeled world traveler, author, tour operator, and event producer. She has been featured in a variety of media outlets as a woman pursuing a life of adventure and helping others to access their inner wisdom and be free to lead lives they are passionate about. Her book Boost Your
Confidence Through Motorcycling: A Woman’s Guide to Being Your Best Self On and Off the Bike
became an Amazon.com #1 Bestseller. In 2019 Alisa was also named to Dealernews TOP 100 People in Powersports. Her personal mission is to empower women through motorcycling and adventure while being a strong advocate for the powersports industry at large. Alisa’s motorcycle touring company is www.WomensMotorcycleTours.com.
THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK:
By Mark Rodgers
I’m not sure this qualifies as religious text, and I’m certainly not making any parallels, but what follows is wisdom curated and best practices created during my 30 odd years in the business. From the book of Mark:
1) When it comes to interest rates, down payments, monthly payments and really anything dollar related, close business using reasonable and realistic ranges. This way you won’t overpromise and under deliver.
2) Practice MENSA: minimize extraneous non-valueadded sales activities. If it doesn’t directly pertain to selling motorcycles, don’t have your salespeople do it. E.g., trade evaluations, calling for payoffs, and heaven forefend, taking credit applications.
3) Understand MP3, Mark’s Performance Three. Salespeople really do just three activities: prospect for business, present for business, and persistently follow up for business.
4) Practice freedom with fences. Give your sales team the freedom to operate, but within boundaries. 5) Be able to create and articulate your inimitable marketplace superiority. When the customer goes to several stores before buying, understand that the customer is primarily shopping you. If you don’t know why I should do business with you, neither will your customer.
6) You sell the bike, first. No exceptions. You don’t go visit F&I to explore interest rates, you don’t go talk to the accessory guys to see if you can make it lower, or louder, or … bluer, you sell the bike, first.
7) To “accsellerate” your sales, you should sell out of stock (SOS). Do not end your product conversations by saying things like, “… and I think it’s also available in blue and red and cosmic orange.” The bike you should sell is the bike you can see.
8) Understand the power of the present moment. Now is all that matters. Be present with your customers.
9) You can’t think in secret. Whatever is going on in your head will reveal itself in what psychologists call “micro expressions.” So get your head on right.
10) Adopt the “good deal” mentality. Customers need to be treated well, and you need to be well compensated. Otherwise, the relationship doesn’t work.
11) When business is not coming to you like “manna from heaven,” there are two areas to increase your activities: prospecting and referrals.
12) Arrange your showroom floor to help you sell. Leverage your store’s traffic zones. You have a dead spot. Put your fast-moving motorcycles there. You have an active spot. Put slow moving bikes there. And face the attractive side of the motorcycle to the traffic patterns (hint: it’s the right).
13) Use two-for questions as an alternative to the awful, “May I help you?” Rather, “Day off?” “Running errands?” “Lunch break?” “Come far?”
14) Use an “amazing fact” to start the conversation off right. “Did you know this drive system has the lowest parasitic drag of any manufactured today?”
15) Step one of any sales progression is to get the person’s name and contact information. By the way, “Bob” is not good enough. It’s first and last name here.
16) It’s imperative to find out where the customer is in terms of buying cycle. “Are you looking to ride this month?” or “Are you hopeful to be burning gas by Sturgis?”
17) Today’s customer is better researched than ever before. Find out how well. “Sounds like you know what you’re talking about! May I ask, where have you done your research?”
18) You need product knowledge horsepower. Be able to cite at least five significant technical aspects of the motorcycle not found in the brochure, and knowledgewise, you’ll be in the top five percent in the county. Anyone can look in a brochure. Prove how they can be better off by spending time with you!
19) Do me a favor, involve the customer. “Please do me a favor and throw a leg over this motorcycle.” Or “Do me a favor, tell me what you think about this paint job.”
20) Get great at test rides. We’ve written and spoken about this extensively.
21) Set the stage for referrals up front. “Our objective is singular: We want to make you so deliriously happy that when we’re done, you’re going to want to tell others. Fair enough?”
22) Take your customer’s picture with your smart phone, then email it to them. It’s a great way to capture their contact information and stay in touch. Plus, you can put in your CRM and recognize them when they come in again!
23) Be able to handle the big five objections: no need, no money, no hurry, no desire, and no trust.
24) Be able to answer this question: “The dealer down the road is cheaper, why should I do business with you?”
25) Leverage the principle of ingratiation. “Great question!” “Excellent insight!” “That’s a really smart decision!”
26) Use the rule of three for more persuasive arguments. “There are really three reasons why you should at least consider financing your side-by-side with us as opposed to paying cash.” 28) Don’t let customization questions throw you off course. “If you can dream it, we can do it. Here’s what I recommend. First, let’s make sure you’re on the bike that’s right for you. Then we’ll introduce you to our accessory expert who will make your dreams a reality.” Then get back to selling the motorcycle. You sell the bike first.
29) Also, don’t let financing questions throw you off track. Questions about interest rate, down payment, or monthly payment often derail some salespeople. Solid responses here position you well and get you back to talking about the bike. I may have mentioned this, you sell the bike first.
30) Ask for the permission to move forward with a trial close. “What do you think?” If the response is affirmative, simply say, “Should we sit down and start to figure it out?”
31) Have a strategy for price negotiation. I don’t want to bog this quick hit article with too much on this, but whether you start high, no haggle, or don’t walk let’s talk, whatever it is you need to have an approach worked out and before you need it.
32) Never give a price concession without getting something in return. Use a quid pro quo. “Ok, we’ll include the freight and set-up, but there’s a quid pro quo. We’ll include the freight and set-up in the selling price, and you agree to bring two of your friends down to the store for a ‘behind the scenes’ tour. We’ll show them around and maybe get you a few new riding buddies. Fair enough?”
Continued from page 59 33) You don’t want all the business. Sometimes, with some customers, for many reasons, it’s best to part company. It’s ok, to be ok, with this idea. 34) Write up the deal using an effective tool like a deal worksheet. A credit application isn’t the right tool, here. Purchase orders sell the bike. Credit applications sell financing.
35) Overview purchase agreement documents and ask for the customer’s signature. If they are not burning gas that day, require a significant good faith deposit — $50 doesn’t cut it.
36) Pour cement on the deal immediately. “Congratulations! You’ve just purchased a great motorcycle. Here’s what’s going to happen next …”
37) My favorite way to pour cement on a newly formed decision is to let the customer write their name on the sold tag and then hang it on the motorcycle.
38) Have the customer relax and peruse accessory options for a few moments while you get management approvals. This does not mean leaving your customer unattended for half an hour to reconsider their decisions.
39) Create dealership synergy. Have an off-line conversation with your business manager about strengths, weaknesses, interests, and personality types. Just like a volleyball player sets up the ball for their partner to return, you too should set each other up for success.
40) Practice systematic sales informality. Accidentally, on purpose bump into your customer on the showroom floor. There is nothing underhanded about being in the right place, at the right time, with the right intentions.
41) Use my Name-Frame-Same model for introductions. “Lisa, I’d like you to meet Bill Dash the newest member of the ABC H-D family. He’s getting that cool, gun metal 2020 Street Glide. Bill, this is Lisa Stevens our business manager. She’s going to help you with all your important documentation …” And then the rest of it.
42) Use the age-old FORM model to guide your conversations. Ask about family, occupation, recreation, and motivation for making the purchase. 44) Don’t deliver motorcycles on Saturday. “We’re delivering bikes this week on Wednesday and Thursday, which night works for you?” This will minimize your scheduled Saturday deliveries by approximately 80% to 90% — Which will give you bandwidth for those walk-in, spontaneous purchasers.
45) Learn how to rock. Great dealerships are like great rock bands. Bob Weir always had an idea of where Jerry Garcia was headed in a song, and would musically, meet him there. That’s how your store should operate. Cues, prompts, language, all helps.
46) Involve your service department in the delivery of the motorcycle. It gets the service relationship off on the right foot and gets your salespeople back selling more motorcycles.
47) It’s all about timing. Celebrate your new dealership family member as the last action you take. The scientific research is crystal clear on this.
So, the exciting denouement is you bringing the customer back onto the showroom floor, as AC/ DC’s Thunderstruck starts to play on the sound system, “Ladies and Gentlemen, please welcome the newest member of the Hannum’s Harley-Davidson family, Cooreeey Williammmson!” Then rev the bikes, honk the horns, and bang a gong. This they’ll remember!
So let it be written, so let it be done.
Be sure to tune into: SALES SUCCESS IN 60 SECONDS OR LESS as sales expert and award-winning Dealernews columnist Mark Rodgers shares how to accsellerate® your sales. Watch Mark explain the guiding principle of how to succeed in the motorcycle business even in these stormy times. (FYI, Mark only counts the content after the whizbang video open in his time limit, so start your stopwatches then!) Mark Rodgers is an award-winning speaker, best-selling author, and sought-after consultant, who has spent 33 years working in the Harley-Davidson industry. Check out his 60-second sales tips twice a week at Dealernews social media channels or contact him via e-mail: Mark@RodgersPC.com
