PowerSports Business

Powersports Business - August 17, 2015

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OPINION FROM THE EDITOR www.PowersportsBusiness.com Powersports Business • August 17, 2015 • 15 If you haven't yet viewed the lineup of free dealer training sessions at the Powersports Business Institute @ AIMExpo on Pages 24-25 of this edition, consider it a must-read. We're proud to announce the 32 sessions, fea- turing some of the top minds in the industry providing proven insight on how to make your dealership make more money and operate more efficiently. Sponsored by CDK Global Recreation and National Powersport Auctions, the dealer-focused educational program returns for its third year. We received more presentation applications than ever before, and we're confident that the lineup will present more than enough reasons for you — and some of your dealership's staff members — to attend the PSB Institute @ AIMExpo. The PSBI@AIMEXPO runs Oct. 15-16, when AIMExpo is open only to dealers, media and industry members. AIMExpo is open to the public Oct. 17-18. In addition to the premier sponsors CDK and NPA, the PSBI@AIMEXPO is thrilled to once again have four tracks: Sales & Marketing sponsored by Fisher Investments; Leadership Plus sponsored by ARI Net- work Services; Service & Operations; and Powering Profits sponsored by McGraw Powersports. Here's a sampling of feedback regarding the topics and speakers that we received from session attendees in 2014, and we look forward to meeting more of their dealership staff in the classrooms once again at the Orange County Convention Center: How to better communicate with customers and how to effectively use Facebook to engage consumers. How to target millennials. How to handle online trade requests. The best presenter I've seen and the most enthusiastic. Every member of our staff should be sales driven. Love the handout with the social media schedule. Excellent, easy to understand content on a poten- tially complex subject. Outstanding presenter. Very interesting and great handout. Great info for service and parts opportunities and room for improvement. Great insight into current online traffic and trends. Many useful pieces of data. Very valuable guide- lines for organizing and managing the dealership. This is the most information dense presentation I have attended in a long time. Great job. Hire: Attitude-Ability-Train. All of the info will be utilized immediately. Great information, need to have this presented to [OEM] corporate. Best practices opened my eyes to Google. Industry benchmarks re: GP, inventory turns, etc. Lots of specific examples. Getting involved in lifting up employees' spirit and morale. Best presentation I've seen at AIMExpo. Adding to the handbook that unauthorized dis- counting is employee theft. Best session I have ever sat through. NEW PRODUCTS GALORE There's never a lack of product introductions in our industry as summer begins to heat up. As you can see on the cover of this edition, managing editor Liz Keener was off to Augusta, Ga., to bring you the latest from Textron's lineup, including Bad Boy and E-Z-GO. Of course, I should not have been surprised when Liz told me upon returning that "Oh, by the way, I have some serious scoop from Bad Boy that our ATV dealer readers are going to be interested in." Make that story a must-read, also. I put together quite a triple play of work events that happened mostly on deadline for this edition, so we'll follow up completely in the September edition. First, an invitation from the Yamaha Watercraft Group to test the 2016 WaveRunner and boat lineup was one that I could not rightfully decline. I mean, what's not to like about a Ritz Carlton Lodge in Georgia during the summer? I managed to overcome the Georgia-in- summertime weather, and can't wait to tell you about the 2016 Waverunners next month. When Kawasaki's Jon Rall called to see if I wanted to attend the media launch of the 2016 Mule Pro-FX and Pro-FXT Ranch Edition, that query also was a no-brainer. Central California wine country — Paso Robles, to be exact — never looked so good. Some of the most spectacular and unspoiled scenery I've ever had the pleasure of viewing was witnessed aboard the Mule Pro-FX LE. The black bear I saw trotting up one of the mountain sides was awfully darn cool, too. And more on the new Mule models next month. Finally, a return trip from California via Phoenix allowed me to get a sneak peak of what will become the largest Harley-Davidson dealership in the world. General manager Justin Johnson even had me decked out in Harley-Davidson-designed hard helmets as we traversed the mammoth Harley-Davidson of Scottsdale location, across the street from the current spot. You can see from assistant editor Kate Swanon's cover story that the retail trends are positive throughout much of our industry. That's extremely true at H-D of Scotts- dale, where the Power 50 dealer has seen summer sales nearly double from last summer. And the new store won't open until later this year! Meanwhile, Liz ven- tured to Tennessee to put some hours aboard the 2016 Yamaha Grizzly and Kodiak models. Details to come. It's a fun task to be able to experience all the new machines and retail experiences being brought to frui- tion by our driven industry colleagues. Kate came into the office beaming recently about her first trip aboard a Sea-Doo at a friend's lake. I'm sure she'll be equally enthused when she experiences the Parts Unlimited NVP in Madison in a few weeks. As for Liz, her Sturgis debut is likely creating some stories you won't want to miss in the September edition. Until then, don't overlook our highly informative Focus section on the Adventure Bike segment. PSB Dave McMahon is editor in chief of Powersports Busi- ness. Contact him at 763/383-4411 or dmcmahon@powersportsbusiness.com. 1. 'Turnkey' motorcycle manufacturing company for sale 2. Eicher, Polaris unveil first joint vehicle 3. Indian Motorcycles announces new custom motorcycle 4. Analyst: RZR XP Turbo tops Polaris lineup annoucement 5. John Deere updates Gator UTV 6. New Jersey Harley-Davidson dealership sold to 'biggest competitor' 7. Suzuki reveals 2016 motorcycle lineup, with GSX-S1000 models 8. Hisun making a splash in the U.S. 9. Arctic Cat reports fiscal Q1 2016 results 10. New Indian dealership is state's fourth 11. Sturgis Hall of Famer retires from Harley-Davidson 12. Polaris announces Q2 earnings with gross profit increase 13. BMW Motorrad reveals model year 2016 lineup 14. Harley-Davidson reports Q2 earnings 15. Polaris announces retirement of Malone as CFO, names replacement The headlines above belong to the most frequently viewed articles from Powersports Business' three-times weekly e-news during the June 24-July 29 period. The number is based on the percentage of e-news viewers who clicked on the article's headline. To subscribe to e-news, go to www.powersportsbusiness.com/newsletter-signup. WHAT'S THE HOTTEST INDUSTRY TOPIC? Powersports Business blog ONLINE WITH POWERSPORTSBUSINESS.COM Leading industry executives and dealer consultants are among the contributors to PSB's blog. See below for recent blogs. Sessions announced for PSB Institute @ AIMExpo Visit powersportsbusiness.com/blogs What to see at PSBI Building on a such a successful turnout last year, Powersports Business is excited to return to Orlando, Fla., October 15-18 for the 2015 Powersports Business Institute @ AIMExpo. Want to stay informed on the presentations and speakers at the PSBI@AIMEXPO? Visit www.powersports.com/institute/ for a detailed schedule. We hope to see you there! LIZ KEENER Managing Editor, Powersports Business Ever since I started my job at PSB, I've been waiting for the OK to go to Stur- gis. Already on my agenda is at least one stop at the Sturgis Buffalo Chip, a journey to the new Harley-Davidson Rally Point and, of course, some long strolls down Lazelle Street. MARK MOONEY Principal, Mark Mooney PowerSports Consulting How does your team work together? What processes and polices do you enforce to drive your business? You can have great policies and processes but, if they're not being followed, you'll see a cause and effect that was not what you wanted — ouch! LESLIE PREVISH Founder, Prevish Marketing Do your customers tell these types of stories about your salespeople? Are all of them making the best first impression and building trust before selling? Do some role playing, job shadowing or hire a secret shopper service to find out. TOMMY ADY Founder, The WriteBack Think about it. What if you single out the phone and Internet buyers? Exclude the walk-ins, be-backs, refer- rals and service customers. If you're like most everyone else in the world, those numbers suck, right? What if you could immediately improve them? DAVE McMAHON The 2016 Mule Pro-FX proved highly capable on the 140,000 acres at the Santa Margarita Ranch on California's Central Coast.

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