Ask Tory: Are other dealers across the country as slow as we are right now?
Tory Hornsby | 02/21/2019
I’ve received a few phone calls from dealers as of late asking how other dealers across the country are doing. Of course, these calls seem to happen more often in the off season. As I often joke, no matter how hard we try to avoid January in the motorcycle business it ALWAYS seems to happen, every single year.
We’re never going to get rid of January, so we must learn to overcome it. While it’s probably never going to be one of your best months (unless you’re a snowmobile dealer, or you’re located in a hot climate), you can still drive in customers and prospects, increase year-over-year sales and be more profitable.
And it’s not just January. It’s no secret that 2018 was a very lackluster year for many dealers, but many dealers DID grow. In fact, a good percentage of the PSM clients I’ve spoken with had decent growth in 2018.
What’s the difference? There are a million intricacies for every dealer, every market (and even more excuses) of why their dealership is different and didn’t grow. But if we strip away all the B.S. it comes down to having fewer customers spending less money.
On a side note, I get a chuckle every time I hear a dealership say, “But we’re different.” Of course they’re different! Every dealer has a unique market area and distinctive challenges. In fact, if you didn’t grow in 2018, I’m sure you could name the reasons why… the entire powersports industry was down; your market area is depressed; factories laid off workers; the government shut down; the price of (fill in the blank) was up/down, etc.
The list of reasons goes on and on and the thing is, your reason is probably correct! Still, my response regardless of the reason/excuse is… what are you going to do about it?
Back to stripping away the excuses… if you didn’t grow last year it was because less customers did business with your dealership and/or your annual customer value was lower than the previous year. Period. How are you going to get more customers to do business with you and increase average customer value for 2019?
PSM Marketing has the solution. We call it the Predictable Growth System, and it starts with knowing where you are. Are you a $4,000,000 store that had 2,000 customers active in 2018 with an average customer value of $2,000? Or maybe you’re a $15,000,000 store that had 5,000 active customers in 2018 with an average value of $3,000.
What is your number? You can’t improve what you’re not tracking. Heck, you can even break it down month-by-month. Divide February 2018’s revenue by the number of customers that did business with you that month. Now you have your target and it’s time to improve.
Our Predictable Growth System determines which prospects and customers are most likely to do business with your dealership, and then we go after them every single month with several different media. The end result is better loyalty and increases sales from your customer base AND an increase in the number of prospects (new customers) who do business with you.
We don’t just focus on selling units because the goal is to increase the total number of customers who do business with you, and the average value/spend at your dealership. It doesn’t take a much to have a big impact!
For instance, if the $4,000,000 store mentioned above increased by 20 active customers per month and their annual customer value by $240, they’d be a $5,017,600 dealership. (2,240 x $2,240) That’s why our system focuses on increasing sales in all of your profit centers.
Here’s what gets me excited… a good marketing plan can get more customers to do business with you, and it can get them to spend more money. For more information on our Predictable Growth System and learn how you can grow in 2019, visit www.psmmarketing.com or call 1-877-242-4472.
- Tory
