Power Sports Dealer Success

5 Recession-Busting Marketing Strategies to Grow Your Business

2007-09-09T10:42:00.000-07:00

Someone once said, "When the going gets
tough, the tough get going." This has
never been more true than in the
current economic climate. Unfortunately,
when the economy slows down the first
area to get hit is the "luxury goods"
sector.

In simple terms, it’s tougher to sell
Power Sports products in some areas
than just a few short years ago.

But smart Power Sports business owners
look at the economic slowdown as an
opportunity rather than an obstacle.
Instead of "laying low," they get tough
and try to gain market share, not by
spending more money, but by using
innovative low cost,high impact
marketing tactics that get results.
Allow me to share with you five marketing
strategies that are simple and inexpensive
to implement, and can bring you a flood
of new business.

Strategy # 1 - Implement a Publicity Marketing Campaign

Believe it or not, your local newspaper, television
station, and radio station desperately wants to give
you a bunch of free publicity. They are constantly
looking for great stories that they can share with
people in your community. All you need to do is
give it to them. If that sounds too simplistic,
it's not!

The trick is that you need to give them something
newsworthy to talk about, then simply call the
media up and tell them about itor send them a
news release.

For instance, after reading in my marketing
course about getting free publicity, a dealer
I know decided to write a brief "Dear Abbey"
type article. But instead of writing about
relationships, he gavetips about Power Sports
products and called it "Ask Jim." He then
approached each of the newspapers in which
he advertised and askedthem if they were
interested in publishing his column. To his
surprise, four out of the five newspapers
were very excited about it.

Jim instantly received thousands of dollars
worth of free publicity. The best part about
this is that it gave him credibility in his
market and positioned him as the local expert
in Power Sports products. He is also able to
use the reprints of his articles in his
marketing efforts (You should make copies,
frame them and put them up througout your
store). The article reprints have had
more impact than any brochure he’s ever
used.

Strategy # 2 - Develop a Referral Marketing System.

All Power Sports business owners know how
powerful referrals are but few have systematic
referral programs running in their company.
Many business owners believe that giving
great service will automatically result in
lots of referrals. That’s simply not true!
People want to give you referrals but they
are too busy or they don’t remember. That’s
why it’s important to have a referral
program that reminds and motivates people
to refer you to their friends.

The simplest and most powerful strategy for
getting more referrals is to implement a
simple "Thank You Card Program." How did
you feel the last time someone sent you
a personal thank you card? You probably
felt great inside and had an urge to do
something nice for that person. People
refer Power Sports professionals that
they (1) know, (2) like, and (3) trust.
What better way to get people to know,
like, and trust you than with a thank
you card?

To set up your Thank You Card Program
you should consider establishing a
"thank you card log" that records
all thank you cards that are sent
out and by whom. Every one of your
employees from your sales people to
your service technician should be
involved in this program. You should
send cards to prospects, customers,
local vendors and suppliers - even
the postal worker who drops off
your mail. Everyone is a potential
source of referrals.

At the end of every month, give
awards to the people who sent out
the most thank you cards or who
sent out a card to the most
unsuspecting person. Have fun
with the program and you’ll start
seeing instant results.

RESOURCE: For more information
on unique and powerful follow
up system developed specially
for Power Sports Dealers
go to http://www.increasesalesasap.com/

Strategy # 3 - Engage in Joint Venture Marketing.

It costs a lot of money to get a new customer.
Why not save your money and partner with another
business that has already spent the money to get
the customers that you want? In fact, you’ll be
surprised to know that many businesses will be
glad to not only allow you to market to their
customers, but actually endorse your business
to their customer base. This is called joint
venture marketing and is done every day by even
the largest businesses.

Here’s how to start your joint venture
marketing program.

Step 1, make a list of all the businesses
that market to the same group of people
that you do. This could be R.V.businesses,
travel agencies, boat dealers, fitness
centers etc. Yes, all those people you
thought were your indirect competitors.

Step 2, approach the owners of these
businesses and ask them if they would
like you to send a letter to all your
customers who own an ATV or Jet Ski
endorsing their products and services.
Many will say, "Yes, but what’s the
catch?" Your answer should be, "It’s
simple, I’ll send an endorsement
letter to my customers for you,
if you send an endorsement letter
to your customers for me."

The next step is to show the business
owner both endorsement letters so that
she can see what you’ll be sending to
both her customers and to your customers.
Make the process as painless and risk-free
as possible by offering to pay for both
mailings and to do all the work yourself.
If you’ve done this process before, show
the business owner comments from other
happy business owners who have participated
with you in the same process.

To make this tactic work even better, consider
extending an extra special offer to each other’s
customers and position the offer as something that
each business owner was able to negotiate on behalf
of their valued customers. Remember to always
place a deadline on the offer.

The beauty of this strategy is that someone who
already has an existing relationship with those
whom you are targeting is endorsing you and your
business. Another benefit is that you don’t have
to worry about your customers being "stolen" from
you because these people have already purchased
your power sports product. In fact, this strategy
will probably improve your relationship with your
customers because it shows that you care enough
about them to arrange a good deal from a reputable
business on their behalf.

Strategy # 4 - Start a Continuity Program.

Perhaps the easiest way to keep customers coming
back again and again, while essentially locking
out your competition is to implement a continuity
program.

A continuity program incentivizes your customers to
keep coming back to do business with you by offering
a free or low cost reward. This strategy is also very
simple to implement but extremely powerful.

The first step is to look at what you sell that is
"continuity-based." Normally, for Power Sports
businesses, this is motor oil, cleaning products,
scheduled maintenance, etc. Create a special offer
on those products. For example, for every five oil
changes, your customer gets a free oil change.

Next, create a continuity card that you can put
stickers on or hole-punch when your customer
purchases a product. Then send out the card
to all your customers with a letter explaining
the program.

Keep track of who is using their cards and
who isn’t. You might consider extending a
special offer just to jumpstart the program.
Once your customer has used the card once,
the chances of them using it again go up
dramatically.

The side benefit of a continuity program
is that it not only moves more chemicals
but it brings back people into the store
more frequently allowing you to upsell
them and cross sell them on different
products.

Strategy # 5 - Make Targeted Offers to Your Customers

The most valuable asset of any Power
Sports business is the relationship
you have with your customer base.
In my opinion, if you were to take
away all the employees, inventory,
and building fixtures from a Power
Sports business owner, but allow him to
keep his customer list, most owners
would be able to build their business
back up to its previous status in short
order. However, most businesses don’t
take advantage of this valuable asset.

Many customers are ready and willing
to buy from you, but are just waiting
to be asked. In hard times you should
start to make frequent targeted offers
to your customers. For instance, if you
know that a customer purchased a specific
power sports product from you but didn’t
buy any complimentary accessories,
why not send them a letter with a special
offer on a specific accessory? Another
strategy would be to send an offer letter
to those people who inquired about a Jet
Ski or Golf Cart but never bought from
you. Perhaps the time is now right for
them to make the purchase.

Some guidelines to consider when making
a targeted offer are to keep good data
on your customers by recording special
information about them in a database.
Plan your direct mail campaigns in
advance so that you are sending qualified
offers on a consistent and frequent basis.
Narrow down your offers to just one item,
and then draft a salesletter specifically
for that one item. Choices confuse people,
which is why most catalogs don’t make money.
Collect email addresses and use low-cost
email to make offers. Keep track of your
response rates and compute your return
on every campaign.

Conclusion

There’s no reason not to grow your
business during the economic slowdown.
There will always be people who want
to buy Power Sports products. Your mission
is to find those people and give them what
they want. While your competitors are
hunkering down to weather out the slow
times you should be boldly moving
forward in your marketing efforts
to dominate your local marketplace.

As I’ve shown you in this article,
it doesn’t take a lot of money to
market your business. It just
takes the know-how and the
motivation to get out and DO it.

To your continued success,

David Carleton
President
Power Sports Success

First Time ATV Buyers Need Special Care & Attention

2007-05-03T21:19:00.000-07:00

According to The Motorcycle Industry Council,
ATV unit sales were down 4.2% in 2006.
So with traffic down and the future always
uncertain, making the most of every prospect
and customer that walks through the door is
critical to your success.

The strategies I want to discuss today
relate specifically to first time ATV
buyers. Why? Because, according to some
industry surveys, dealers sell almost
50% of all new ATVs to first time
buyers. That's powerful information
that you should understand and take
advantage of to help grow your
ATV business.

How? Well let's take a look at the
buying experience from your customer's
point of view. Here's what a typical ATV
purchase process might look like for
Mr. Bill Jones.

Bill the potential buyer goes ATV
riding one weekend with his friends,
has a great time and decides he is
going to buy an ATV for himself.

________________________________

Typical Steps Bill Will Take
________________________________

Step 1 - Referrals - Bill doesn't
know a lot about ATVs so he does
what most people do. He asks his
friends what ATVs they like and
where he should go to buy one.

Step 2 - Research - Bill then
goes on the Internet to do
research and starts looking for
information on features,
prices, warranty, maintenance, etc.
Bill now has enough information to
start visiting some dealers to get
more information on specific
manufacturers, models and of course
prices.

Step 3- Store Visit - According to
some estimates, Bill will visit up
to 3 dealers before he decides on
a specific dealer to buy from.

I may have oversimplified the
process a bit, but these basic
steps will help you understand
how you can...

___________________________________________________

Prepare Yourself to be the Dealer of Choice
___________________________________________________

Let's revisit each step

Step 1 - This may be the most
important step because it's
what drives traffic into your
store, and traffic is the
lifeblood of any business. In
Bill's case, he got a referral
from his friends. This is key
so you must make sure you have
a referral-marketing program
in place for all your current
customers.

Referral Marketing - Over 40%
of the small business owners
who participated in a recent
Internet poll revealed that
referrals brought them the
biggest returns over other
traditional marketing methods
such as advertising, direct
mail and networking Why? Because
a referred prospect comes
to you pre-disposed to buy your
products.

In my Essential Referral
Marketing System Program,
I mention the 3 requirements
for a successful referral-marketing
program. It must be; Quick to
get started, Easy to implement
and Simple to maintain. In addition,
it should leverage all other sales
and marketing efforts and be capable
of producing quality results over a
long period of time.

If you don't have a systemized
approach to getting referrals,
you need to get one ASAP. I'll be
talking more about Referral Marketing
in future articles.

_________________________________

Take a Look at Your Website.
_________________________________

Step 2 A - Will "Newbies" find
helpful information on your
site that will answer their questions?
In my Ultimate Lead Generation System
Program, I talk about how important
"Education Based Marketing" is for
high-ticket products like ATVs,
Snowmobiles, Jet Skis, Motorcycles, etc.

In the initial stages of the buying
process, what most buyers are looking
for is to be educated with unbiased
information. You should have this
type of information available on
your website and in your store.

I suggest using articles, brochures
and special reports (either written
or via audio CD) to deliver this
information. You can provide this
free information on-line or use it
as a tool to get prospects into your
store. A Special Report such as
"Buying Your First ATV? - What to
Look for, What Questions to Ask,
and What Type is Right for
You" will immediately attract
the attention of first time
buyers.

Other things you should have on
your website include store hours,
phone number, contact info and a
map or directions on how to find
your store. (The purpose of this
article is not website development;
so I'll save that for a future article).

Step 2B - What compelling reasons
have you given to get Bill to get
in his car and drive across town
to your store?

Most dealers' first response is
"I offer great prices and customer
service." The problem is EVERY
dealer says that. In order to stand
out, you need to give prospects something
they need. And what they need at
this point is education - unbiased
information. Offering FREE Special
Reports to educate and motivate
prospects will get them to come into
your store.

Another obvious way to get prospects
into the store is through advertising.
But if you really want to appeal to
first time buyers, you must specifically
appeal to them in your ads. How?

Home Depot uses FREE seminars and
workshops. Walk into any Home Depot
on a Saturday morning and you'll see
seminars being given on such things
as; laying tile in your bathroom,
how to put up a ceiling fan, how to
install a closet organizer. Home
Depot appeals to the "do-it-yourselfer."
So Home Depot shows them how easy
a project can be, what tools to
buy and how much material they
will need. And guess what? Store
traffic increases and sales go up!

If 50% of all ATV sales are to
first time buyers, do your ads
appeal to them or just the other
50%? Why not appeal to both? At
least a section of your ads
should be devoted to attracting
first time buyers. Again, giving
away Special Reports is a great
way to do this.

__________________________________________

The Actual Store Visit Experience
__________________________________________

Step 3- So let's say you have
a killer website and ads offering
Free Special Reports and it works and
you get tons of first time buyers
coming into your store. Now what?

What do they see when they first
walk in? Let's face it; many
Power Sports Dealer showrooms
are laid out "warehouse style"
with model after model just lined
up in a row. To a first time buyer,
that can be very intimidating. I see it
all the time - it's the "deer in
the headlights" stare. There just
appears to be too many choices.

Is there a better way? How about a
banner or sign or even a separate
part of the store dedicated just
to first time buyers. You might
have a sign that says "Help for
First Time Buyers" or "Buying
Your First ATV? You've Come to
the Right Place" or "First Time
Buyer Information Center." This
is the place where you keep your
Special Reports and where your
sales staff is trained to take
new buyers to discuss their needs.

_________________________________________________

Power Sports Special Reports Now Available
_________________________________________________

After extensive research and
interviews, I have created a
series of Special Reports that
you can give your prospects.
Not only that, you can customize
it with your company name, address,
logo, etc.

There are a total of 5 Special
Reports for each Power Sports
Category - ATVs, Snowmobiles,
Jet Skis, Dirt Bikes and Golf
Carts. Here's a current list of
all 25 Special Reports that are
available on the PowerSportsSuccess.com
website. (Just substitute the words
Jet Ski, Snowmobile, Dirt Bike and Golf
Cart for ATV)

1 - 7 ATV Buying Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
2 - Insider Secrets to Getting The Best Deal on an ATV
3 - 12 Maintenance Tips - How to Keep your ATV Running Smoothly
4 - Buying Your First ATV? What to Look For, What Questions to Ask and Which Type is Right For You?
5 - Answers to ATV Buyers Most Frequently Asked Questions

Plus, I have added a Bonus Report that
can be used regardless of the Power Sports
product you are selling. It is titled:
How to Select The Right Power Sports Dealer.

For more information about these 26
pre-written Special Reports go to
Show Me The Special Reports

In conclusion, if you want to continue
to grow and thrive, you need to take
advantage of every opportunity to sell
every possible customer. With a few
simple changes to your website, ads
and showroom, you should increase the
number of first time buyers you close.

To Your Continued Success,

David Carleton
President
Power Sports Success

More Testimonials = More Sales

2007-01-24T18:08:00.000-08:00

Are Your Collecting Testimonials from Your Customers?

If you're not, you're leaving money on the table!
Testimonials from happy customers are your most
important weapon. You should be a fanatic about
asking for positive comments from your customers.

If you don't have a systematic process for asking
and collecting testimonials in your business,
you should start doing it today.

___________________________________________________

Most People are Too Busy, So Bribe Them to Action!
____________________________________________________

The fact is that most of your customers want
to give an endorsement but they are just too busy
or pre-occupied to get it done. It's just human
behavior to procrastinate something that is not
critical at the moment.

So, sometimes you have to "bribe" your customer
to get them off the mark. You need to give them
something that will motivate them to get it
done immediately.

I do this by giving away free information products.
What can you give away free, that has value,
to get your customer's endorsement? Special Reports,
How To's, etc.

Think about that and develop a process for doing
it with each and every customer.
______________________________

What to Do with Testimonials
______________________________

Once you have testimonials, sprinkle them
around on your website. You might even
consider creating a toll-free "gossip line"
that you prospects can call into and listen
to your customers raving about you.

Create a binder full of testimonials titled,
"What People Are Saying" and give the binder
to each and every customer that leaves your
business without buying.

There are a lot of creative things you can
do with your testimonials that will help
to close more deals.

To Your Continued Success,

David Carleton

Have You Finished Your 2007 Marketing Plan Yet?

2006-12-09T11:12:00.000-08:00

I was shocked!

Recently, I recently attended small business
convention and sat in on a marketing
presentation. The speaker asked the
crowd (about 300 people) to hold up their
hands if they had a written marketing plan.

Out of the 300+ people in the presentation, only
five (5) people raised their hands!

Unbelievable. Only five people had a written
marketing plan. It's no wonder I get calls every
day from dealers and builders complaining about the
slowdown in sales.

________________________________________________

Marketing Plans Increase Sales By 30% or More!
________________________________________________

Did you know studies have shown that businesses with
a written marketing plan experience an average
increase of 30% more in sales as compared to those
businesses that don't have a written marketing plan.

A lot of business owners I speak to tell me...

-> 'I just don't have time to do a plan.'

-> 'To be honest, David, I don't know how to do a
marketing plan.'

-> 'David, I had a consultant do a marketing plan
for me last year but it didn't seem to help my
sales.'

I get all kinds of excuses but none are legitimate.
Your marketing plan is the most important document
in your business.

___________________________________________________

Never Delegate Your Marketing Plan to An Employee
___________________________________________________

Marketing is the one part of your business that should
never be delegated to an employee (or a consultant for
that matter). It's too important.

Too many business owners see marketing as just
another thing to farm out to their employees. Here's
a good example of what I mean...

Listen, the faster you turn the operations of your
business over to someone else and become the full-
time Director of Marketing, the faster your business
will grow. Period.

___________________________________________________

Your Marketing Plan
___________________________________________________

You should be developing next year's marketing plan
right now! Don't put it off. Set a deadline date
to have the plan done and stick to it.

Call a meeting for that date with your employees to
review the plan. That way you'll put some pressure
on yourself to get it done on time.

___________________________________________________

Break Up Your Marketing Plan Into Mini-Plans
___________________________________________________

Make your plan modular. By that I mean, think about
the different areas of marketing that you'd like to
exploit and develop a mini-plan for each.

For instance, consider creating a...

1. Publicity Mini-Plan

2. Advertising Mini-Plan

3. Promo Event Mini-Plan

4. Joint Venture Mini-Plan

5. Referral Marketing Mini-Plan

6. Website Mini-Plan

etc...

By breaking up your plan into mini-plans it makes it
easier to focus on one action plan at a time. Don't
worry how they will all interconnect right now.

Just create your mini-plans by writing down all the
activities that you want to do in each marketing
area. Make sure to break down each activity into
details with deadline dates and costs.

Now that you've created your mini-plans, pull out a
calendar and start attaching the activities to your
marketing calendar.

Now you'll be able to see all the activities and any
overlaps. Your next step is to work out the
activity overlaps and do up a budget.

___________________________________________________

Your Marketing Budget
___________________________________________________

A common question I get is, 'How much should I spend
on marketing.' I won't address this topic in this
newsletter but I will give you a few thoughts.

First, tally up all your marketing costs from last
year and divide it by the number of ATVs, Snowmobiles,
Dirt Bikes or whatever you've sold.

This figure will give you your 'Cost To Acquire One
Customer.' This is an important figure in that it
is a benchmark for you to use for this year's
budget.

Next, write down your sales goal for this year in
units and multiply it by the 'Cost to Acquire One
Customer' figure. This should be a rough estimate
of your marketing budget.

But if you want it to be a banner year, you'll
probably have to spend more. Most highly successful
small businesses dedicate 6% - 10% of their sales
revenue to marketing.

___________________________________________________

"Plan Your Work, Work Your Plan"
___________________________________________________

Now that you've created your plan - - stick to it!
If you've planned to spend XX dollars then spend it.
It's okay to be flexible but it's not okay to trash
your plan mid-year.

Stay with it and work it. Implement monthly
marketing meetings in which you review the plan and
follow up on assigned tasks.

Make your plan visible to everyone in your
organization so that they know what's going on and
what to expect.

If you plan your work and work your plan you'll have
a banner year, no matter what the economy is doing.

And if what I saw at the recent convention in which
only five people raised their hands when asked who
had a written marketing plan is really true, you're
going to blow away your competition!

Now, get going and finish plan :-)

To Your Success,

David Carleton

Power Sports Dealer Success

2006-10-28T13:25:00.000-07:00

Hello Power Sports Dealers:

I'm glad you found my blog. I'll be posting relevant and interesting news, ideas and commentary about the ever changing power sports industry.

These won't be business articles, but more current happenings about dealers, success stories, and other ideas and news that I hear both inside and outside the industry that I think you'll find useful and interesting.

I would suggest that you check back here often. In addition, I'd like to hear your thoughts and ideas on what you'd like to see from this blog or from the Power Sports Success website. www.PowerSportsSuccess.com

I look forward to hearing from you.

David Carleton
david[at]PowerSportsSuccess.com

Return to www.PowerSportsSuccess.com Home Page