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16 • April 6, 2015 • Powersports Business FINANCIAL www.PowersportsBusiness.com decision results in a disadvantageous outcome. This is exactly why it is so important to get a customer to sit down and start the negotia- tion process. If they start negotiating, then they want to go home with the vehicle. This will create agreement bias. The flip side of the coin is that I also see salespeople get agreement bias if they are allowed to make the decision on what they can sell a bike for without consult- ing with a manager. Be aware that agreement bias can work both ways. 4. LOSS AVERSION Loss aversion refers to peoples' tendency to strongly prefer avoiding losses. Most studies suggest that losses are twice as powerful, psy- chologically, as gains. Baylor basketball coach Dave Bliss tried to portray a murdered athlete in his program as a drug dealer in order to conceal the fact that he had paid the athlete's tuition — a clear violation of rules that would have caused him to lose his job. We can assume he would not have made this allegation in order to get the job in the first place, but the possibility of losing the job caused him to make this public statement. (Needless to say, Bliss was forced to resign shortly there- after.) Nobody likes losing. This is the same principle that I advocate you use when offering finance products. Give the customer ownership of everything you have to offer, and ask them to take it all. If they refuse, simply go through the rest of their options not in terms of what they are still get- ting, but in terms of what they are losing by giving up these products. You never stop learning. I do and will always see myself as a student of the powersports business. I will never know everything, and I will never stop looking for better ways to do business. I hope you do the same. PSB Steve Dodds II is a moderator, trainer and consultant for Gart Sutton and Associates with a focus on sales and finance departments. Con- tact him at info@gartsutton.com. DODDS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 14 Polaris chairman and CEO Scott Wine was compensated a total of $31,349,579 during the 2014 calendar year, the Star Tribune reported. Wine's salary was $968,654 for 2014, however he also earned more than $22.9 mil- lion in exercised stock options, realized nearly $6 million in vesting shares and received $1.3 million in non-equity incentive pay and $132,000 in other compensation. YAMAHA PLANS TO DOUBLE ITS MOTORCYCLE PROFIT MARGIN Yamaha Motor Co. CEO Hiroyuki Yanagi has said the OEM plans to double the operat- ing profit margin of its motorcycle business by the end of 2018, The Japan Times reported. Under Yamaha's mid-term plan, motor- cycle profit margin would reach 10 percent by the end of 2018. In January 2013, Yamaha announced its goal to obtain 7.5 percent profit margin in motorcycles in 2017. The new goals come as Yamaha expects pro- duction costs to drop 20 percent by using more shared components. Yanagi also said he antici- pates that the motorcycle business in developed markets will return to profit this year after seeing a deficit over the past eight years. ENERGICA PICKS UBS AS FINANCIAL ADVISOR Modena, Italy-based Energica Motor Company has appointed the Corporate Advisory Group of UBS as sole financial advisor to search for Italian and/or interna- tional investors. These investors will finance the development on an industrial scale of the first Ital- ian high-performance electric motorcycle, allowing the launch and sale of the Energica Ego and Energica Eva models on the world markets, in particular in the U.S. Following the incorporation of its U.S. subsidiary, the launch of its second model at EICMA 2014 and the continuing growth of its international network of distributors, Energica is taking a decisive step towards finding the capital that will allow it to develop its business on a global scale. EFG COMPANIES WINS AUTO FINANCE AWARD EFG Companies announced that it has been named as one of the top 125 most influen- tial firms serving the subprime auto finance industry by Subprime Auto Finance News. In the powersports space, EFG offers its Certi- fied Hide Pre-Owned Protection, a 2015 Pow- ersports Business Nifty 50 winner. "With EFG's retail automotive roots, we are uniquely equipped to successfully assist our lending partners in growing both their loan volume and their non-interest bearing income. Our custom consumer protection products also have the potential to decrease risk across their loan portfolio," said John Pappanastos, president and CEO, EFG Companies. "We plan to continue our expan- sion in this category." PSB DIGEST Report: OEM's CEO takes home $31.3 million in 2014 Yamaha Motor Co. plans to see its motorcycle profit margin reach 10 percent by the end of 2018.