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FOCUS PSB Power 50 www.PowersportsBusiness.com Powersports Business • March 17, 2014 • 19 18 • March 17, 2014 • Powersports Business www.PowersportsBusiness.com Events continue to attract customers BY LIZ KEENER MANAGING EDITOR When Neil Noble presented 2013 goals to the staff at the two dealerships for which he serves as general manager, half of the group thought he was a little crazy. Noble, who had joined Adam Smith's Texas Harley-Davidson and Texoma Harley-Davidson less than a year prior, had a vision for where sales could be, but he needed the staff to join him in his pursuit. After some training and convincing, employees bought into the new culture Noble was creating, especially as Noble and dealership owner Adam Smith showed their own commit- ment to the goals. GROWING AND IMPROVING STAFF In an effort to increase sales, the Texoma store in Sherman, Texas, added an additional 8-10 employees, while the Texas store in Bedford increased headcount by about 20. But the staff didn't only grow, it was also refined. At the Texas store, for example, a second business manager was added, and a new administrative position was created to track metrics. "It wasn't just adding people; it was adding some positions that didn't exist and moving some people here into better fits," Noble said. The results were positive. Texas' growth was 50 percent, with the sales team exceeding its once-lofty goal by 10 bikes, while Texoma grew 35 percent, just missing its goal by two bikes. "2013 was awesome," Noble reported. "2013 was a record year at both stores." The biggest growth at both stores was reported in the motorcycle sales and F&I departments. Service and general merchandise were up slightly, but Noble expects to see a big- ger increase in those areas as new buyers put miles on their bikes. The motorcycle sales increase was spurred not only by the culture change, but a big invest- ment in increasing sales staff. At the Texas store alone, a member of the inaugural Powersports Business Power 50, the sales staff grew from eight to 20. And for F&I, though only one niche product was added to the menu, new processes that F&I employees embraced have led to increased success. "They start every day off with role plays with each other, so they role play menu pre- sentations and customer objections," Noble explained. "They are much harder on each other than a customer can ever be on them." Noble had confidence that with the right support, hires and training, the dealerships could each become more successful than they had been in the past. His and Smith's commit- ment to change came from, "Just knowing what the opportunity is and being ready to capture the growth and the market potential that was out there. 2012 saw some improvement over 2011, but the potential here is still much greater than we have done, and making those leaps, you can see it in those numbers," Noble reported. Not only have employees embraced the change, but management has as well. The management group from both stores now gets together a few times a year to go over current numbers, goals, processes and more. "It's almost like a 20 Group essentially, but it's in-house," Noble said. Now that the employees at each store have seen the results of their efforts, they're shooting even higher for 2014. "This year the teams themselves set their own goals, and their goals are far more reaching and audacious than what we had set in 2013," Noble said. MARKETING WITH EVENTS Though Adam Smith's dealerships have changed their working culture, one thing that hasn't changed is the stores' focus on events. Between the two stores, major events are held twice monthly, while smaller activities are added in between. Some of the more recent large events include a Crawfish Boil In-House Fun Run, a Valentine's Shopping Event, a Cow- boy Up event and a Showdown Car Show, while smaller activities include free Mexican food every Tuesday, lunch rides and dinner rides. "Events are huge," Noble said. "We want to make it where our calendar is very full. At either store there should always be something going on that gives you a chance to engage with the store and for us to engage with the customers." Events are two-fold. For one, the salespeo- ple have a chance to meet customers and create relationships with them. But also, it keeps rid- ers on their bikes, racking up the miles, need- ing more PG&A and meeting fellow riders. Noble's goal has been to create riding com- munities ever since he attended a 20 Group at which one dealer told of a customer who bought a bike and fell in love with it but sold it after six months because she had no one to ride with. "We just don't want to have it happen where someone rides their bike… and then stops," he said. Events are designed to appeal to riders and non-riders alike, in an effort to not only serve Adam Smith's current customers but also increase the reach to potential new riders. Reg- ular new rider events at the dealership include a Boot Camp, Ready to Ride Clinic, a Riding Gear Clinic and a Rental Clinic. The dealer- ships also host off-site Rider's Edge courses, which Noble hopes to bring on-site with a new facility in the future. Though many activities are planned for new riders, the dealerships most frequently see their customers bringing in friends and family to get them to start riding, rather than brand- new recruits. "Getting new riders in, a lot of it starts with treating our current customers really well and getting them to refer their friends in," Noble said. The variety and frequency of events high- light the key factor that makes Adam Smith's dealerships stand out from its competitors — that the dealerships' management and staff know how to have fun in an exciting business while still running profitable stores. "The thing that I think really sets us apart is we really do have fun. We take the busi- ness very seriously, but we take a lighthearted approach to it," Noble said. He added, "Adam and I plan on being in this business for a long time, so we want to have lifelong customers, and we want them to be happy." PSB developed the program, and we still do today, that that is the key to it — if we don't keep them riding, none of this is needed. They won't need new clothing, a paint job, wheels, service or most certainly a new bike." Unlike buying an automobile, Harder knows that the motorcycle buying experience has to separate itself. "An automobile is a necessary evil. I like to think a Harley is, too, but a lot of people will debate that with me! A Harley is not only a motor vehicle, it's a route to new friends," he said. "We decided that experience was so important that we wanted to make MVP a cor- nerstone in the fundamentals of the way that we conduct business every day. The concept of loyalty isn't new, but our program was the first and continues to be the best way to find, cultivate and retain customers loyal to our dealership brand, and not simply the Harley- Davidson brand." SIGNING UP Customers can sign up for MVP with a one-time payment of $89.95. The enrollments are sold in every department, with Motor Clothes and Parts typically leading the pack. The benefits recipro- cate at the 20 other MVP dealerships throughout the country. Dealerships pay a monthly franchise fee to operate as an MVP store. "When we decided to create the franchise, we went into a specific market and found the one dealer, the very best dealer that operates as close to a mirror image as we do, and we selected that dealer," Harder said. "We only allow one dealership per market. If multiple dealerships have it, it loses its panache." Still today, Harder describes the franchisee process as "highly selective. If ABC dealer calls and says 'We're interested in this,' we'll go into their market and do a retail evaluation of all the stores in that market. Then we go in and rate the cleanliness of the store and attentiveness of the staff. We'll even go so far as to evaluate the bath- rooms, because females generally speaking are the ones that give the nod to males to buy these bike, and if you have a lousy, dirty women's bathroom, that's enough to send them packing to another store. And I totally understand." Harder and his MVP staff train MVP fran- chisees, and those dealerships are visited by an MVP staff member twice a year. It's the hands- on approach that makes the program equally effective at the MVP franchisee dealerships. "We work with them very closely to help them change the face of their business by leverag- ing the Motorcycle Value Program," Harder said. There are 18,000 local members between the two stores in the Twin Cities market, and an additional 115,000 members with the 20 franchisees nationally. Associates who sell the most enrollments are recognized appropriately. "We have goals for each department," Harder said. "We recognize those that are excel- ling in enrollment of customers into MVP because through that enrollment, we get the opportunity to direct market to individuals with specific product offerings. The informa- tion we get from a customer from MVP is not the information we get at the point of sale." MVP allows the dealership to quickly separate the casual customer from the loyal customer, monitor their buying habits and build program benefits that are tailored specifically for them. With MVP customers, the dealership knows: what they buy when they buy how much they spend their visit frequency their spend per visit their residual and add-on purchases MVP CONTINUED FROM PAGE 17 Changing culture leads to growth at Adam Smith's dealerships Employees of Adam Smith's Texas Harley-Davidson celebrate the dealership's 2013 Power 50 award, presented by Powersports Business. P16x25-PSB4-Focus.indd 18 3/5/14 11:43 AM