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We just completed our Spring Break Out marketing boot camp, and it was another great turnout with a lot of very smart dealers in the room. As always, the magic doesn’t just come from those presenting, but it happens between sessions, during the breaks, at the bar in the evening, etc. I want to give a special thanks to all those who attended.

Inevitably, at some point during these twice a year live events I hear two remarks. The first is, “I was skeptical about attending because I thought this was going to be a pitch fest for your products. But, now I know that couldn’t be further from the truth”.  

What many don’t realize is that I started in this industry as a rider and enthusiast turned dealer. Well, in reality, right after opening our first single line Honda open point it was more like chief parts guy, service writer, toilet washer, and customer complaint punching bag.

Eventually, as I began to take over the sales and marketing for our quickly growing four store operation in Atlanta, Ga. 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.

In reality, I was completely underqualified to be making the advertising decisions for our stores. Deep down, I knew that all I was basically doing was copycatting what my competitors were doing, which I was beginning to speculate was all wrong.  I began to realize I was an advertising victim created by my own ignorance.  It was at this point that I realized something had to change and I began to immerse myself in the study of all things marketing.

Here at Powersports Marketing™ I’m not the only member of the team who has been involved with wasting tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands on useless marketing for dealers that doesn’t work.  My entire leadership team bears that scar as well. Tory and Brad were both G.M.’s for our Atlanta based stores and have on multiple occasions felt the pain of misused marketing budgets. My current CFO, Kathy Peacock, was my controller in the dealership days and has written many checks for fruitless advertising.  And interestingly enough, Tia Robinson, our Digital Marketing Manager who I met many years ago when she was working for a certain OEM ex-client who we were doing kick ass campaigns for that were generating amazing quantifiable results. Ultimately, that client hired a new CEO and he changed from our proven direct response campaigns to a “branding” campaign and Tia was able to see and feel the painful difference between “branding” and “direct response”.    

And this brings me to the 2nd common remark that has very little to do with advertising or the actual content of the Boot Camp. “Your team is very impressive, what is your secret to recruiting such good people?”  This is obviously a loaded question, and the answer is so complex it would require a book rather than a paragraph. 

First, I’m extremely grateful for the amazing members of this team, and I do my best to let them know it every Friday in our company meeting. And second, is our company core values (powersportsmarketing.com/core-values), particularly number five: Dedication to continual improvement in business and in life.

Our core values aren’t just a poster on the wall, they are something we review, reinforce, and hold one another accountable for constantly.  I’m not the only one around here who has taken past failures of dealership marketing personally. All of the previously mentioned have also consumed mountains of information on marketing best practices.

As a team, each month we’re studying a new book together with the direct intent to learn and improve our performance. We also reward learning with incentives for certifications and other training, which is why we have more Google certified employees than all of our competitors combined. We regularly attend seminars and trade shows, and for the most part all share an insatiable desire to learn more, improve more, so we can deliver more. And we don’t just study, we practice what we preach in our own marketing.

The reason I share this is twofold. We only do these live events twice a year, and it’s not a money maker for us. We have such a strong belief that our stance on dealer marketing is in the best interest of the overall health of this industry. And, we know that there is so much clutter in the market that we’re passionate about sharing our proven system with dealers. We’re motorcycle people first, marketers second. We’re always learning, measuring, and striving for improvement, all with the thought of you the motorcycle dealer in mind. The purpose of our boot camps aren’t to pitch our products, but to share the successes and failures we’ve had as dealers, working with OEM’s, and as a marketing company who has executed thousands of motorcycle dealer specific marketing for over 700 dealers nationwide. 

And this is exactly why you should go ahead and mark your calendar for Oct. 24 to the 26th and plan to attend our next boot camp. Heck, for that matter go head and jump over to www.powersportsmarketing.com/bootcamp and get signed up now.