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I recently read about a fellow with a master’s degree, shown on the news because he spends his days in the New York City subways wearing a “Job Wanted” sign and handing out resumes. That’s strategy is about as effective for getting hired as a construction worker howling at good looking women and getting a date. Apparently, none of his studies were in the field of sales and marketing. It’s a bit unsettling just how important sales and marketing are in the real world, yet how little respect and attention they receive from our formal education system. Conduct a little research on almost any ultrasuccessful Entrepreneur, Executive, CEO, Author, Doctor, Politician, etc. compared to ‘The Average Joe’ or the complete failure, and you’ll likely find there was a secret differentiator, but it wasn’t a master’s degree. The super successful are highly skilled at selling. That’s the difference.

Thomas Edison may have been a great inventor, but arguably he was an even better marketer. Otherwise, you may be reading this over candle light. Henry Ford may have created the Model T, but it was his creation of the dealer network (sales and marketing) that made him the dominant force in the automotive industry. Donald Trump is certainly a real estate mogul, but it’s sales and marketing skills that have made him RICH. He devised the brilliant sponsorship opportunities on his hit show, The Apprentice, which have made him a small fortune on top of his real estate empire. Bill Gates and the late Steve Jobs were both masterful at sales and marketing, in a very competitive landscape. Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, has taken suggestive selling to a new level with his ‘featured recommendations,’ inspired by your previous purchases.

In the real world of a high-performing, growing business, everything revolves around HOW to get stuff sold. It’s what the leaders of these great companies think about 365 days a year. 

It’s also what great dealers do. In fact, many of the best dealers in the country execute a year-round sales and marketing process using our Sharp Shooter system. It’s not a random one-and-done strategy; it’s a well thought out, well calculated, pro-active system designed to touch their buying base 52 to 104 touches per year. And if you ‘touch’ your buying base with the right kind of message this many times, you will eventually own your buying base.
 

There are four pillars to the Sharp Shooter program. Pillar 1 - we determine the right target audience for your dealership by focusing on people that ride what you sell and live in your backyard. Pillar 2 – we use the right media mix to reach that target audience. Pillar 3 - we utilize the right message including a compelling call to action that creates urgency to respond. And, Pillar 4 – we do it at just the right time. These components are like the four legs of a chair, take one away and you’ve got a faulty chair. 

But, Pillar 3 is where everybody gets it wrong, and ultimately breaks the chair, and then tries to blame the other 3 legs. Especially the OEM’s and their ad agencies. The magic behind our strategy of having the Right Message is to promote a monthly event. Holding an event at the dealership each month is a great excuse to market to your buying base. 

We’ve proven that focusing your message on the party, and not the sale, is the fastest way to create affinity with your buying base, turn prospects into customers, and achieve your best ROI. By focusing on the party, you’ll create many more opportunities by not alienating the 99% of folks who didn’t have “buy a bike” on their current list of things-to-do. You’ll still get those customers, but you’ll also get many additional opportunities, plant seeds for future sales, and hold higher margin since you won't be using a discount-focused message.

With this style of marketing, it’s not all about the results on the day of the event. The event doesn’t mark the end of your campaign, but the beginning of a month-long sales process working the leads that were generated through your custom landing page and promoting your upcoming event. The actual results of the event are a happy bi-product of following a system to touch your buying base 52 to 104 times per year so that you can increase customer retention and carve off new market share.

Sending out marketing messages over and over to your buying base asking them to buy a bike when they aren’t in the market is about as wise as trying to get a job on the subway wearing a sign. To learn more about how our Sharp Shooter

marketing system can help you generate hundreds of quantifiable sales leads month-in and month-out, contact us today at 877.242.4472