Case Study: Honda of Covington Powersports
Honda of Covington Powersports is a Honda Powerhouse Dealer located on the Northshore in Louisiana. They are a three-time proud recipient of the prestigious Council of Excellence Award. Managing Partner and General Manager Laurie McCants showcases their commitment to their customers by stating, “At Honda, our philosophy has always been centered on strong customer focus and we look forward to working with all the outdoor enthusiasts.” She leads a team of Powersports specialists with many years of expertise and knowledge, ready to assist any type of rider.
For their first Honda Demo Event on April 20th, they decided to market to 3,000 past customers and 1,000 conquest prospects who ride what they sell, live in their backyard but hadn’t bought from them. Using a nice mix of active, inactive and conquest prospects, they knew they could reactivate customers who hadn’t spent money with them in the previous year and drive some new blood through the door. The ultimate goal is to increase the number of customers spending money with them over the next year and increase how much they spend, by getting them all to walk through the door more often.
The Sharp Shooter Program uses up to 12 direct marketing touches to guarantee the marketing isn’t getting delivered just once, but multiple times. By giving customers more opportunities to respond to the marketing, we increase the amount of traffic on event day and the number of leads being generated. Bigger picture, we’ve learned Powersports dealers need to touch their Buying Base a minimum of 52-104 times per year to increase retention and grow market share. The more you touch your customer base, the more responsive they become and over the course of the year, more of them walk through the dealership’s doors more often and the business grows.
Many marketers believe in order to sell something, you have to have ‘A Sale.’ We don’t buy into that. The message we utilize is focused on inviting customers to a party. By focusing on what the customer wants (things like food, drinks, door prizes and demo rides), the dealership gets more of what they want (more P&A, service and gear sales and a few more units out the door). The reverse is also true; focus on the sale and you will alienate the 99% of customers who don’t have ‘buy a unit’ on their list of things to do this weekend. Long-term, customers never get tired of being invited to a party so they end up walking through the doors more often and when they’re there, they’re like kids in a candy store…they can’t help themselves but to spend more money.
Timing is critical with so much marketing going out the doors, so it’s extremely important to have it hit customers at just the right time to maximize the response from each media. Our marketing begins hitting customers roughly 10 days before the event and gives them a different opportunity to respond to the Custom URL (to generate leads for every department) almost every day leading up to event day.
Jason Wilson, Honda of Covington’s Operations Manager, said, “We had BIG turnout and the traffic was a little overwhelming…ended up selling 23 units between Friday & Saturday with a good number of demos on the new Honda Talon on Friday.” Jason and the team are already planning their next campaign.
Executing on all four pillars of the Sharp Shooter Program - Right Audience, Right Media, Right Message & Right Timing, really paid off. The program generated 123 responses including 108 sales opportunities in Clothing, P&A and Service, PLUS 43 responses for a new or used unit!
