Articles

Don't Pull The Trigger Too Quick!

Closing the Sale isn't magic, and of course there isn't one 'closing technique' that works all the time. However, this Quick Takes video focuses on how to avoid a misfire! 

Click the video to watch... 

FATHER'S DAY IS JUNE 18TH

This is the one holiday of the year that dads everywhere have permission to do whatever they want.  So, invite the dads in your market down to celebrate their special day with a Father's Day Party with a few hundred of their closest friends.

Click the image to request a FREE Quote for your 'Father's Day' celebration...

The Ad Industry’s Dirty Little Secret

"Customers move away, some are stolen by competitors, and some die. These are just a few of the reasons for lost customers. Most dealers just accept these losses as inevitable and beyond their control. Heck some even blame those damn disloyal customers. The nerve of those ungrateful SOB’s. Few lost customers actually leave kicking and screaming, most gradually depart due to a lack of interest or affinity. They silently wander off with a feeling of apathy; we call these quiet migrators. ."

Click the image to find out what the dirty little secret...

Don’t Trust Me.

"I used to think that TV and radio were pretty disingenuous, and to be fair, I still think to a large extent that they are. They adopt a “spray and pray” mentality. You broadcast your message out into the world and hope for the best. And, while I believe that both media methods are EXTREMELY inefficient and ineffective for our niche, you can at least say they are up front about what they are doing."

Say what?! Click the image to read more....

ASK TORY: What Are Your Thoughts on Branding Advertising?

"Many years ago, I heard a quote by Dan Kennedy, who is the direct marketing guru I often mention, and it’s really stuck to my ribs. He said, “Branding is for cattle.”

Click the image to read Tory's story...

Is Your Search Engine Marketing Pointing To A Lousy Web Site?

Rod's talked about the importance of having a good search engine marketing plan in place to drive customers to your website. But, have you stopped by your website lately to see if it's up to par? After all, it won't do you any good to have the best search engine marketing campaign in the world if it drives customers to a website that hasn't been updated since it was created.

This month, Rod is going to give some pointers about how to make sure your customers stick around on your web site instead of just breezing through and never coming back.

Click the video to watch...

ARMED FORCES DAY IS MAY 21ST

Show you patriotism and gratitude for the men and women who protect our great country by celebrating in their honor at your dealership next month.

Click the image to request a FREE Quote for your 'Armed Forces Day' party...

The Strength of the Foundation Determines How High the Skyscraper Can Rise

"I wasted more money on lame advertising that didn’t work than I care to admit. And often times, I was throwing away tens of thousands of dollars, and then sweating when the floor checker showed up asking for a hefty check. Those are the experiences that make you truly disgusted with any wasted cash outflow, and left searching for answers."

Click the image to find out what Rod means...

ASK TORY: What's So Bad About Focusing Our Marketing On Creating New Riders?

"To put it bluntly, the biggest challenge with focusing your marketing on creating new riders is that you’ll get little to no response, and therefore little to no R.O.I.  Ultimately, you’ll simply be wasting your money instead of investing it. There is a way to create new riders, but it’s not directly through marketing, believe it or not. To prove a point, let me share a related story."

Click the image to read Tory's story...

Asking how much something costs is a natural question that's usually derived out of simple curiosity.  In fact, when most of us go shopping for something, don't we want to know how much it costs?  Of course we do!  So, when our customers ask about price it doesn't mean they are looking for our best deal; they're just curious, and there's no reason to invite unnecessary negotiations!

This month's Quick Takes video focuses on how to improve margins by staying off price on the showroom floor.

Click the video to watch...

 APRIL SHOWERS BRING MAY HORSEPOWER!

April brings motorcyclists out on the roads in droves. Make sure you give your customers a reason to ride by the shop and check out all the in-stock goodies they'll want to get this riding season.

Host a dyno competition, put out the newest line of rain gear, or host a bike wash at your dealership to get folks in the door and get the sales 'pouring' in.

Click the image to request a FREE Quote for your 'April Showers Bring May Horsepower' event.

Local Web Dominator Case Study: Loess Hills Harley-Davidson®

Objective:

Loess Hills Harley-Davidson® is more than a name.  It has a history as unique and resilient as the local landscape and the customers who are family to the Loess Hills H-D® team.  The dealership is founded in the interesting and deeply woven history of the local bluffs that were created by untamed forces, shaped by ancient winds, and left a connection that goes beyond just a single person in a single place.

The Loess Hill H-D® family represents a strength that has withstood the test of time.  And, one of the goals of Bill Fisher, the Inside Marketing Team Leader, is to make sure that the customers who have felt this strong connection have a way to share their thoughts with others who may not have had the chance to yet feel the difference of being part of the Loess Hills H-D® family.

Solution:

Bill and the leadership team at Loess Hills H-D® met with Account Executive, Josh Rapplean, to review how the Local Web Dominator program would give a voice to their customers through the review acquisition system.  They discovered that by linking up their DMS into the Local Web Dominator program, it makes the system for growing reviews from happy customers automatic and ongoing.   Plus, once their customers left a review on their custom review site (www.loesshillshdreviews.com), they were then asked to share it on Google.  Again, automatically, so there are no awkward conversations done in the dealership or unique codes for customers to remember.  It’s just a quick, automated request that guides customers to quickly and easily share their review on the top ranked search engine in the world.

Results:

The results have been unprecedented. Bill linked up his Lightspeed account to his Local Web Dominator program.  Within the first two weeks, they received 127 positive reviews on their review site from very happy customers.

But, even better was that they grew their already pretty strong Google listing from 16 reviews with a 4.2 star rating to 55 reviews with a 4.6 star rating (at the time this article was written).  Y’all, that’s 39 new, authentic Google reviews in two weeks.  

This kind of success doesn’t just come from having a program that makes it easy for your happy customers to leave you a great review, but it also a testament to how well the Loess Hills Harley-Davidson® team treats their customers.  It’s a powerful combination of implementing a high quality S.Y.S.T.E.M. into a high quality team.

Want to give your customers a voice to share how great your team is in a way that helps grow your online reputation, attract new customers, and increase customer retention?  Give us a call for a FREE demonstration or to get a FREE quote on the Local Web Dominator program: 877-242-4472.

We've discussed the importance of having a good search engine marketing plan in place to drive customers to your website. But have you stopped by your website lately to see if it's up to par? After all, it won't do you any good to have the best search engine marketing campaign in the world if it drives customers to a website that hasn't been updated since it was created. 

Rod is going to give some pointers about how to make sure your customers stick around on your website instead of just breezing through and never coming back.

Click the video to watch...

SPRING HAS SPRUNG!

The first day of spring is March 20th. That's only 3.5 weeks away.  Hallelujah! Don't miss an opportunity to ring in the start of the riding season and kickstart your 2nd quarter sales.

Click the image to request a 'Spring Has Sprung' event quote today.

Sharp Shooter Case Study: Harley-Davidson® of Macon

Objective:

Increase market share from competitors and generate more quantifiable leads from the dollars being spent in marketing.

Challenge:

Traditional marketing had always been a challenge for H-D of Macon. In the past, the dealership had depended on radio, billboards and some print advertising to reach new riders. Like many dealers, Brett Sassaman, Marketing Manager and son of owners Greg & Lisa Sassaman, struggled with quantifying the effectiveness of this style of advertising and wasn’t convinced it was working. 

Solution:

To help Brett begin carving off new market share, we identified all the Harley owners who lived within 30 miles of his dealership, but haven’t bought from him. We combined that list with past customers from their Talon who spent money with the dealership in the past four years and also lived within 30 miles of their store. 

Once we identified their ‘Right Audience’, we went after them with the ‘Right Media’. We utilized 12 direct-marketing strategies including direct mail, a recorded call blast, email blasts, social media updates, in-store fliers, in-store signage, a web banner, lead magnet and even more to guarantee the target audience was reached multiple times leading up to the event. We’ve proven through executing thousands of campaigns with over 700 dealerships that this drastically increases response rates. To generate leads, each piece of communication incentivized folks to go online and complete a survey to tell the dealership two pieces of information: 1) First and Last Name, email address and phone number & 2) What they want to buy from the dealership. This typically generates hundreds of leads for not only unit sales, but also parts & accessories, MotorClothes and service as well. Combine this formula with consistency and we are systematically carving off new market share and generating more leads for Brett and the team at H-D of Macon. 

Results:

H-D of Macon has executed three events in three straight months; Black Friday & Chrome Saturday in November, a Naughty List Party in December and a Resolve to Ride More in January. The results have been immediate. Their Black Friday Event was one of the best days at the counter in memory and a record for the dealership! During their Naughty List Party they broke another record with 7 bike deals in one day. As this article goes to print, the Resolve to Ride Campaign has already generated 122 sales opportunities for their individual departments. Below are their last two Campaign Wrap Ups which generated over 450 combined leads including 74 new & used unit leads, 133 parts & accessories leads, 47 service leads and 109 MotorClothes leads. Out of just 2,500 records, their Sharp Shooter Campaigns are averaging close to a 10% response rate, or 10 times the national average for direct mail marketing. 

It's easy to think that closing skills is the most important ingredient in sales, but it's actually the time spent up front with the customer interviewing & investigating, establishing rapport, and building value that inevitably separates the professionals from the amateurs.  Anyone can be an order-taker for the laydown customer, but sales professionals create a sale with customers that weren't really planning to buy today.

Click the image to watch...

The Big Chill!

Host a 'Done for You' 'Big Chill' Celebration at your dealership based around the winter sledding and ATV season. This 1st quarter is this perfect time to get your customers excited about riding season.

Click the image to get more details or to reserve your spot today.

Local Web Dominator Case Study: Kissimmee Motorsports

Objective:

Jeff Lampe, General Manager of Kissimmee Motorsports, knows that he has a passionate team of Powersports enthusiasts at his dealership. And, he takes a lot of pride in making sure that Kissimmee Motorsports offers the Central Florida area the best shopping experience around. So, he wanted to find a way to ensure that potential customers knew that they could expect 5-star service every time they visited the dealership.

Solution:

When Jeff signed up for the Local Web Dominator, they integrated their Lightspeed account to allow the program to automatically request reviews from anyone who had recent transactions. And that is where most dealers stop, but not Jeff. He took a very engaged, active approach by taking advantage of the ‘Business Reply Cards’ provided in the POP Kit. He implemented a friendly internal competition among his staff and compensated the team member who got the most Business Reply Cards completed by happy customers.

Results:

The results of this active approach to review acquisition are numerous: Increased email capture, employee engagement, employee recognition, boosted morale, etc. By having customers complete the business reply cards, they also provide their email address which Jeff can download as a spreadsheet and add to his future marketing efforts. Not to mention, the critical employee engagement and ownership of the review acquisition efforts. In less than 3 months, Kissimmee Motorsports has earned 378 reviews on their custom review site: www.mykissimmeemotorsportsreviews.com and his Google + page increased from a 3.9 star rating with 16 reviews to a 4.5 star rating with 43 reviews.

Now it’s much easier for potential customers to see that Jeff and his team are committed to quality customer service from a passionate, knowledgeable staff.

Want to generate additional unit sales from a steady stream of leads to keep your sales team busy as we close out the 3rd quarter of the year? Give us a call at 877-242-4472 and we’ll show you how to get started.

SHARP SHOOTER BOOK & TRAINING PROGRAM

Our FREE book program supplements the current Sharp Shooter campaign training we offer each week.  When you sign up for a Sharp Shooter campaign, we’ll train your staff to be ready for the event with our live ‘Campaign Kick-Off’ webinar.   View the training times and log in details by visiting our Training Calendar here.

In addition to getting your team motivated to provide outstanding service to your customers during your event, dealers who attend the Campaign Kick-Off Training prior to their event will receive one FREE motivating business/life book each month they attend.

Following is the list of FREE books for each month:

Host a Black Friday Event!

Consumers are eager to spend money on Black Friday weekend.  Don't force them to shop at the big box stores this year. Give them a reason to do their holiday shopping at your dealership this year by hosting a Black Friday event. Click the image above for more information.

Local Web Dominator Case Study: Kissimmee Motorsports

Objective:

Jeff Lampe, General Manager of Kissimmee Motorsports, knows that he has a passionate team of Powersports enthusiasts at his dealership. And, he takes a lot of pride in making sure that Kissimmee Motorsports offers the Central Florida area the best shopping experience around. So, he wanted to find a way to ensure that potential customers knew that they could expect 5-star service every time they visited the dealership.

Solution:

When Jeff signed up for the Local Web Dominator, they integrated their Lightspeed account to allow the program to automatically request reviews from anyone who had recent transactions. And that is where most dealers stop, but not Jeff. He took a very engaged, active approach by taking advantage of the ‘Business Reply Cards’ provided in the POP Kit. He implemented a friendly internal competition among his staff and compensated the team member who got the most Business Reply Cards completed by happy customers.

Results:

The results of this active approach to review acquisition are numerous: Increased email capture, employee engagement, employee recognition, boosted morale, etc. By having customers complete the business reply cards, they also provide their email address which Jeff can download as a spreadsheet and add to his future marketing efforts. Not to mention, the critical employee engagement and ownership of the review acquisition efforts. In less than 3 months, Kissimmee Motorsports has earned 378 reviews on their custom review site: www.mykissimmeemotorsportsreviews.com and his Google + page increased from a 3.9 star rating with 16 reviews to a 4.5 star rating with 43 reviews.

Now it’s much easier for potential customers to see that Jeff and his team are committed to quality customer service from a passionate, knowledgeable staff.

Want to generate additional unit sales from a steady stream of leads to keep your sales team busy as we close out the 3rd quarter of the year? Give us a call at 877-242-4472 and we’ll show you how to get started.

SHARP SHOOTER BOOK & TRAINING PROGRAM

Our FREE book program supplements the current Sharp Shooter campaign training we offer each week.  When you sign up for a Sharp Shooter campaign, we’ll train your staff to be ready for the event with our live ‘Campaign Kick-Off’ webinar.   View the training times and log in details by visiting our Training Calendar here.

In addition to getting your team motivated to provide outstanding service to your customers during your event, dealers who attend the Campaign Kick-Off Training prior to their event will receive one FREE motivating business/life book each month they attend.

Following is the list of FREE books for 2015:

Biker Santa Event!

Give you customers their merriest Christmas ever by hosting a Christmas party at your dealership next month.  We have dozens of creative Christmas Party designs for you to chose from to get the ball rolling. But, Hurry!  You have to sign up tomorrow for a December 19th event.  Click the image above for more information.

Local Web Dominator Case Study: Headingley Sport Shop

Objective: 

Headingley Sport Shop is no stranger to high performance and incredible service.  In fact, their dedicated team of professionals has made Headingley Sport Shop the most trusted Powersports dealer in Manitoba. Their primary goal is to ensure the highest level of service by building lasting relationships with their customers.  And, they’ve done business each day since 1969 with that very goal in mind.  Operations Manager, Mindy Cole, knows that word of mouth from happy customers is critical to their business’s success. But, she is also aware of the fact that digital marketing has now also become a non-negotiable.  So, like many other Powersports dealers, Mindy’s objective was to use her digital marketing budget to yield the highest ROI possible.

Solution:

Being an ‘operations’ minded person, Mindy isn’t wooed by fluff or gimmicks.  She’s a clever business woman who wants to see the hard facts supported by data.  So, while she was content with her previous vendor for her digital marketing solution, she met with our team and looked at the performance of her current campaigns. She then decided to give our team a chance to manage the Google AdWords PPC campaign for Headingley Sport Shop. Mindy worked closely with us to ensure the expertise we bring to Google AdWords melded together profitably with the knowledge she has of her market and her specific business details.

Results:

Through this collaborative partnership, the Headingley Sport Shop AdWords campaign has generated an average of 40+ conversions every month. Not just clicks, but conversions.  That means that someone: 1. clicked on their ad 2. visited their site 3. requested a quote, completed the contact us form, requested a demo ride or filled out a finance application.  More than forty times per month.  And even more compelling is that their average cost per conversion is only about $13 each.  That’s in addition to the 100,000+ people in her market that have seen the Headingley Sport Shop ad each month. Or the additional 12-15% of website traffic she gets each month from the professionally managed AdWords campaign.

Want to generate those kind of quality leads & conversions?  Want to grow your website traffic by more than 10% each month?  Want  thousands of LOCAL Powersports enthusiasts to see your ad each month (for free…because you only pay when they click)?  If so, give us a call today at 877-242-4472 and we can tell you more about Google AdWords and how it can help grow your business, increase sales and generate a positive ROI on your hard earned marketing budget.

SHARP SHOOTER BOOK & TRAINING PROGRAM

Our FREE book program supplements the current Sharp Shooter campaign training we offer each week.  When you sign up for a Sharp Shooter campaign, we’ll train your staff to be ready for the event with our live ‘Campaign Kick-Off’ webinar.   View the training times and log in details by visiting our Training Calendar here.

In addition to getting your team motivated to provide outstanding service to your customers during your event, dealers who attend the Campaign Kick-Off Training prior to their event will receive one FREE motivating business/life book each month they attend.

Following is the list of FREE books for 2015:

 Happy Hallow-Thanks-Mas!

With up to 70% of consumer spending occurring between Halloween and Christmas, it makes sense for you to get in on the action and attack your buying base this holiday season!

Simply choose how many people you want to reach for each holiday. Then we will market to your buying base each month for Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas (the “Hallow-Thanks-Mas” Program) via our done-for-you Sharp Shooter multi-channel system.  Click the image above for more information.

Local Web Dominator Case Study: Hattiesburg Cycles

Objective:

In spite of the huge 100,000 sq. ft. show room, and the 10 major Powersports brands that they carry, the team over at Hattiesburg Cycles are more like family than employees.  They are the Mississippi Gulf’s largest dealer and happily care for customers from all over the southeast region.  While, they’re passionate about their toys, they’re also pretty passionate about their business.  That’s one of the reasons why General Manager, William Moore, signed up for the Local Web Dominator program.  He not only wanted to ensure that the Hattiesburg Cycles treated everyone like family...he wanted to grow his ‘family.’

Solution:

William put one of his right-hand guys, Marketing Manager, Robert McMorrow, in charge of the day-to-day operations of the LWD program.  And Robert knew that any good marketing generates good sales.  That’s why he activated the Lead Magnet feature of the program and selected the curiosity-driving incentive of the “Internet Value Package”.  This lead generating tool is included for FREE as part of the Local Web Dominator program.  And it’s a proven winner for generating new & used unit leads.

Results:

Hattiesburg Cycles has generated more than 500 authentic unit leads in 9 months. That’s in addition to the sales leads coming in from all the other standard sources.  With a conservative closing ratio of only 10%, that means Hattiesburg Cycles Lead Magnet contributed to about 50 unit sales over the past 9 months to the Lead Magnet!  Wow. Plus, to make their life a lot easier, Robert is spearheading an integration with Traffic Log Pro to have the leads funneled directly from the Lead Magnet into their TLP account which will enable the sales team to manage those incoming leads much more efficiently.  Those are some powerful results from a powerful tool (and one that can so easily be coupled with the current systems in place in the dealership).  Thanks to the Lead Magnet & Robert’s ingenuity in collaborating with his marketing partners, William is going to continue growing his Powersports family pretty rapidly.

Want to generate additional unit sales from a steady stream of leads to keep your sales team busy as we close out the 3rd quarter of the year? Give us a call at 877-242-4472 and we’ll show you how to get started.

SHARP SHOOTER BOOK & TRAINING PROGRAM

Our FREE book program supplements the current Sharp Shooter campaign training we offer each week.  When you sign up for a Sharp Shooter campaign, we’ll train your staff to be ready for the event with our live ‘Campaign Kick-Off’ webinar.   View the training times and log in details by visiting our Training Calendar here.

In addition to getting your team motivated to provide outstanding service to your customers during your event, dealers who attend the Campaign Kick-Off Training prior to their event will receive one FREE motivating business/life book each month they attend.

Following is the list of FREE books for 2015: