The Dealer of the Future.

This is something I wrote a few years ago. Please let me know if you think it's still applicable. Also please leave comments and rate it at the bottom if you would. Thanks in advance.

Things have changed. They told us that things were gonna change… but they lied – things have already changed. The two big changes are Harley has overstayed its welcome, and the nation’s economy is facing challenges. The doom and gloom merchants, masquerading as announcers on the evening news, are telling us out one side of their mouths that our economy is getting its butt kicked. All the while the Wizard of Oz, the advertisers behind the screen, are doing everything in their power, including spinning (pronounced “manipulating”) the news, hoping we’ll borrow more money from them than we can possibly pay back.

Good news is that things are always changing and the people here in the real world know that. We’ve known things were changing for the last eighteen years while Harley dealers have been breathing the rare air of Never-land. But alas, things have changed in Never-land and they’re gonna have to start living life like the rest of the motorcycle world. There are actually dealers devastated by the idea that they may be forced to accept offers as low as MSRP, while right across the street, there’s an import dealer who would give the birthrights to his firstborn to get MSRP.

I don’t think it’s gonna be much harder to buy a motorcycle because of what’s happened in this weird economy, I just think that it’s gonna be the best and most customer oriented salesperson that will help the customer feel good about pulling the trigger.

For every dealer wringing his hands about the coming market trend, there’s another one licking his chops at the prospect of watching the competition go the way of the dodo bird for lack of the systems and processes to do things on purpose.

I’m actually excited to see who will emerge on the other side of whatever we’re going though as an industry. I don’t know all of their names but I DO know that they operate with purpose and conviction that good people equipped with good process will produce extraordinary results during extraordinary times. And make no mistake – these are extraordinary times that we’re headed into.

Don’t take away from this rant some prediction that you can hold me accountable for one day. I have no idea what the coming weird economic adventure odyssey will be other than… well… an adventure. It will be dangerous, exciting, scary… you know… just like life itself.

Two of our clients were in the bicycle business before coming to the motorcycle business. They both told me that the big manufacturers promised they’d never sell their bikes through any other medium than retail bicycle shops; the independent guys with a profile similar to that of the average motorcycle dealer of today. Then the third world brands started showing up everywhere from Wal-Mart to the local mower shop and before you could sneeze, it was nearly over. Sound familiar?

Here are a few characteristics of the dealers that will survive the next phase of change and be positioned to capitalize:
 They’ll be very much in the used bike business. We’ve always recommended that dealers strive to reach a 2 to 1 new to used ratio. In the future, it may take a 1 to 1 or even higher ratio to both have and control your inventory. Being in the used bike business keeps OEMs honest by helping you to control your inventory based on your agenda instead of blindly letting the OEMs push their agenda. The great dealers will have a healthy at-arms-length relationship with the OEMs. They don’t swallow everything out of the mouth of the manufacturer just because the “Factory Rep said so”. If the latest greatest program makes sound business sense, participate. If it doesn’t create a win/win for you and the OEM, DON’T!
 They’ll be in 20 groups. If you’re not comparing yourself to other dealers in the business, how can you possibly know “how good ‘good’ is”? You can only know whether you’re doing better or worse than you’ve done before. It’s a great thing to have an internal yard-stick, but it won’t tell you where you can improve your operation.
 They’ll take sales training very seriously. Accommodating people don’t sell stuff. They merely accommodate people. You need to have a way to ask every single customer to buy. The more standardized your method for doing so, the more control you’ll have and the more likely you’ll be to actually get it done.
 They’ll have sales processes for every department in the dealership with Traffic Logs at every retail counter in the dealership so they can measure all the elements of each sales process.
 They’ll market differently as well. They’ll quit trying to reach people with traditional (pronounced “old and moldy”) sources of advertising such as print, television and radio. They’ll reach people who’ve shown interest in powersports products – the people on their Traffic Logs. They’ll also use what we now see as “unconventional” methods like texting, blogging, and other “viral” marketing strategies; methods that will be considered quite conventional (if not old fashioned) within another five years. Listen, my 23 year old son, our target demographic by the way, doesn’t listen to the radio, he listens to his iPod. And newspaper? That’s the stuff you line the bird cage with, right? He’s NEVER read one. With his TiVO, he skips all the commercials. And he’d rather have a text conversation with me than a phone conversation – we text each other for hours. In short, you can’t reach him using conventional means… period!

Get out in front of this thing. It’s different than most of us have ever seen. It’s scarier than anything we’ve experienced since the late 80’s. And nobody knows what the world will look like on the other side of it. To borrow a surfing illustration, you’re either in front of the wave, or you’re behind it. I can’t promise that if you paddle, you’ll catch this coming wave and ride it successfully to the beach. But I can promise you that if you don’t paddle, you ain’t gonna catch any wave.

So paddle your butts off… I dare you.

Help me out. Is this worth writing about?

The Karma of Currency

I had some thoughts about leadership; weird thoughts, but thoughts nonetheless. Here they are. I feel that there are a number of different currencies that relationships must trade in. One of those currencies is cash, but cash is by no means the only one.

If you want to employ someone to make you money, you've got to invest money in them in the form of a paycheck. Likewise, if you want someone in your company, a manager for example, to become a better leader, you must invest leadership in that manager in order to derive a return. You must be a good leader to them as opposed to being a micro-manager.

If you want believers on your team, you have to believe in them. If you invest faith, faith is what you’ll get in return.

I’m not unrealistic about my assertion; I’ve been burned by many who I’ve employed in the past. I’ve invested leadership, energy, faith, and cash in people who have taken it all and given no significant return. But the one thing that those broken relationships have in common is that they ended because of money issues, not the intangible currencies.

So tell me, is it worth the effort to develop this thought?