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www.PowersportsBusiness.com MOTORCYCLE Powersports Business • May 26, 2014 • 27 MOTORCYCLE Industry average increases in Prospect Satisfaction Index BY LIZ KEENER MANAGING EDITOR Ducati dealers took a big jump in the 2014 Pied Piper Prospect Satisfaction Index, up 7 points from 2013. The 114 score helped them surpass Harley-Davidson dealerships' score (111) and lead the industry for the first time since 2009. The change, Pied Piper president Fran O'Hagan said, was due to a shift in how Ducati uses mystery shopping as a training tool. Ducati in 2013 chose a mystery shopping method similar to what Mercedes, the top PSI-scorer on the auto side, implemented with its dealers about five years ago. "Mercedes said 'We're going to put money on the line to make mystery shopping worth your while. But we're not putting money on the line tied to scores; we're putting money on the line tied to you using this as a tool, that's all. But you have to use it, and we're going to make you sit down with your Mercedes reps once a quarter and review your mystery shop results with them and talk to them about how you're using the results to improve the way you sell,'" O'Hagan explained. "That is exactly what Ducati did. Ducati copied that approach and started at the tail end of 2013, and it's running today, so Ducati incentivizes the dealers to use mystery shop- ping. Ducati doesn't particularly pay attention to the scores; what they're paying attention to is that the dealers are actually using the results to improve the way they sell, and the Ducati reps are doing the same thing. The Ducati reps are talking to the dealers about what are you doing, and what can you do to improve. There has been huge improvement," he added. Because of that change, Ducati led the charge and improved its own score in a number of PSI categories. Ducati dealers, for example, encouraged customers to sit on a bike 84 per- cent of the time, topping its score of 68 percent of the time in 2013. "We call it — with a smile on our face — the poor man's test ride, and we know that if you encourage the shoppers to sit on a bike, you sell more motorcycles. That math is very clear," O'Hagan said. But Ducati dealers also got riders out on demos more than their counterparts, offering immediate test rides 26 percent of the time, an improvement from 14 percent last year. When it came down to encouraging prospects to sit down at a desk, Ducati dealers offered that 45 percent of the time, compared to 30 percent in '13. As for asking for contact information, Ducati dealers did that 60 percent of the time, a 20-per- centage-point improvement over a year ago. "To put it in perspective, a change from like 30 percent to 33 percent is noteworthy, so these big jumps that we see across the whole network of over hundreds of shops, that's huge, huge shift in behavior," O'Hagan said. HARLEY DEALERS ALSO SUCCEED Though Harley dealerships had to settle for sec- ond place this year, the brand still sits 7 points ahead of the industry average, and its dealers led in a number of categories. "They do very well with giving compel- ling reasons to buy from this dealership, as opposed to just selling the product," O'Hagan reported. "You know, I'm not just selling a Fat Boy; I'm selling you should buy from 'O'Hagan Motors' because of this, this, this, this and this. And every dealership can come up with good reasons why somebody should buy from them. The blessing with that approach is it makes it less about the deal, and gross profit improves." Harley-Davidson salespeople sell the dealer- ship in that manner 57 percent of the time. The industry overall does the same 47 percent of the time, and Honda dealers focus on that only 32 percent of the time. Harley dealers also focus on the completion of a sale by encouraging going through the numbers or writing up a deal 41 percent of the time, compared to Honda dealers, who do the same 33 percent of the time. "It's interesting, the stereotype of a vehicle salesperson, let's say a car salesperson, is that they sell too hard, you know they're too over- bearing, where the facts are just the opposite. The facts say that it's four times more likely that a salesperson will not sell hard enough, and I'm talking about the car business. Motorcycle busi- ness, it's even worse," O'Hagan said. "Motorcy- cle business has much more of a problem with museum curator mode, where I'm smiling, and I'm happy, and I'm friendly, and I'll answer any questions you have about this bike, but I stop short from actually selling it to you." Harley also leads the pack when it comes to suggesting sitting down at a desk and mention- ing the availability of financing options. Harley and Ducati dealers combined to lead half of all the study's questions. Ten other brands also took top spots in at least one category each. INDUSTRY IMPROVEMENT Though Ducati dealers topped the charts this year, the industry overall experienced a 2-point improvement to a score of 104. That, and the results from a number of important categories, shows O'Hagan that the industry is paying attention to its sales skills. "It's fascinating, to me anyway, to look and see how the whole industry has changed for specific questions because there's been some huge improvement," he said. "If I boiled it all down to a headline, I would tell you that the typical motorcycle salesperson is much more professional today. They know how to sell; they're much more likely to know how to sell — the very basics." Though Ducati led the asking for contact information category, the industry's dealer body as a whole also improved in that category, asking for contact details 52 percent of the time, compared to 47 percent last year and 38 percent in 2007. Along with Ducati, Harley-Davidson (67 percent of the time), Can-Am, Victory and Triumph also scored well with that question. As for suggesting writing up a deal, the industry's score improved from 30 percent three years ago to 39 percent in 2014, with Can-Am, Harley-Davidson, Suzuki, Ducati and Triumph leading the charge. In the "attempted to forward the sale," cat- egory, which includes any action that moves the customer from talking about the product to talking about the sale, such as suggesting writing up a transaction or sitting down at a desk or asking a customer to buy today, deal- ers have seen marked improvement. When the PSI motorcycle study started in 2007, only 45 26 • May 26, 2014 • Powersports Business www.PowersportsBusiness.com See Pied Piper, Page 28 TOP MOTORCYCLE BRANDS FOR PIED PIPER PSI ® Mystery shopper title goes to Ducati dealers 43% 47% 52% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 2012 2013 2014 Percentage of Dealers Who Asked for Contact Information 18% 19% 23% 17% 15% 16% 19% 23% 0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 Percentage of Dealers Who Offered Immediate Test Rides PERCENTAGE OF DEALERS WHO ASKED FOR CONTACT INFORMATION PERCENTAGE OF DEALERS WHO OFFERED IMMEDIATE TEST RIDES Source: 2014 Pied Piper Prospect Satisfaction Index Source: 2014 Pied Piper Prospect Satisfaction Index Bankrupt Vectrix to have assets auctioned The bankruptcy trustee for electric motor- cycle maker Vectrix, LLC announced that the company's assets will be auctioned off on June 18. Paul E. Saperstein & Co. will conduct the auction at the company's former headquarters in New Bedford, Mass. Introduced in 2006, the Vectrix was the first commercially available high perfor- mance electric scooter. Following financial problems, the Gold Peak battery group purchased the company in 2009. Under new control, Vectrix expanded its product lines, launching the VX-2 and the three wheeled VX-3. However, sales failed to generate suf- ficient revenue and Vectrix LLC stopped operations in January 2014. On March 31, Vectrix, LLC filed a Chapter 7 bankruptcy petition in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Massachusetts, and Warren E. Agin was appointed as its bankruptcy trustee to liquidate the company's assets. On April 25, Agin announced in court pleadings that he was hiring Paul E. Saper- stein & Co. to auction the company assets on June 18 at Vectrix's former headquarters at 55 Samuel Barnet Blvd. in New Bedford. According to the auctioneer, the assets being sold will include 75 complete Vectrix all electric VX1, VX2 and VX3 motorcycles and scooters, about 100 new lithium ion batteries suitable for use in Vectrix cycles and more than $1.6 million worth of replacement parts. In addition, the auction will include electron- ics, office equipment, assembly plant machin- ery and an extensive selection of machine shop and manufacturing equipment. Online bidding will be provided through BidSpotter. CFMOTO NAMES TOP 5 U.S. DEALERS CFMOTO recognized its top five U.S. dealers for their 2013 sales performance last month at the OEM's Pioneer Club Dealer Conference at its headquarters in Hangzhou, China. Alaska Power Sports in Anchorage claimed top honors, unseating 2012 top-performer Leo's South of Lakeville, Minn. Dave Auringer, vice president of sales and marketing for CFMOTO-U.S., honored the group. Here's a look at the top five CFMOTO dealerships and their principals in the U.S.: 1. Tracey Harmon, Alaska Power Sports, Anchorage, Alaska (also sells Polaris) 2. Wayne and Randy Bedeaux, Leo's South, Lakeville, Minn. (also sells BMW, Kawasaki, Suzuki, Can-Am, Sea-Doo, Ski-Doo, Aprilia, Moto Guzzi, Vespa, Piaggio and Ural) 3. Steve Buttorff, Buttorff Sales & Service, DIGEST Tracey Harmon from Alaska Power Sports accepts his No. 1 dealer trophy from Mr. Lai, president and chair- man of CFMOTO. P26x29-PSB7-Cycle.indd 26 5/14/14 2:17 PM