Hey there - I am still alive! Seasonality got me... In the heat of a summer season in the powersports business, I put the podcast on the rear most burner for a month. Sorry about that! But, as we know we experience some pretty strong seasonality in this business. It's September. My kids are just now back in school. The days are getting (noticeably) shorter. What changes are you making in your business? How are you preparing for Fall & Winter 2019? The year is 75% over according to the calend...
Sep 04, 2019•9 min•Season 1Ep. 35
You may not know the DFW (Dallas/Ft Worth, Texas) area but it's a massively populated metro area surrounded by some sprawling suburbs, full of powersports riding Texans. Bobby Whitney has come to powersports within the last year, from 20 years in high line, high volume, luxury automotive business working with Sewell Auto Group. This is where Bobby learned Mr Sewell's "Customer For Life" philosophy (as the book by that same name expands upon). "Customers For Life" book by Carl Sewell : https://ww...
Jul 27, 2019•35 min•Season 1Ep. 34
If you work in the F&I side of a powersports business, you'll want to listen to this episode. I got a few minutes of Tony Tarell's time to chat about his wizard-like products he provides to dealers to sell thru their F&I departments. I'm told it's a very profitable product for the Finance and Insurance staff to sell as well as a new product named Little Brother is also pretty trick for using in house and always knowing where you units are. Check them out here: https://al3rtgps.com/ Here ...
Jul 27, 2019•47 min•Season 1Ep. 33
Have you ever gone to a merchant and left, feeling underwhelmed? Yeah, I bet you have. Most likely today or within the last 24 hours you have had that experience. I just wanted to have a quick episode as a reminder that you, fellow Dealership fiXit, are empowered to be sure you are the Hugger! I like to imagine that each interaction with a fellow human being is an opportunity to embrace them (figuratively) and solve a problem they have arrived at your doorstep about. Are you front line in parts ...
Jul 25, 2019•12 min•Season 1Ep. 32
I read and discuss the blog post from Cycle Trader's Cycle Dealer Insider blog, which is directed at you the powersports dealership. My hopes are that I can get some dealers thinking about what they are and are not doing in regards to content marketing. Wait, what is content marketing? ;-) Listen and see... Link to the dealer facing blog post here: http://cycledealerinsider.blogspot.com/2019/07/whats-fuss-about-content-marketing.html Link to Cycle Dealer Insider main blog page: http://cycledeale...
Jul 16, 2019•13 min•Season 1Ep. 31
Motorcycle sharing is rentals. Why would normal powersports dealerships be interested in understanding motorcycle "sharing" when they want to sell more motorcycles? I think they should learn about it as, like most other tools available to you - they are also available to your competitors. This is why I asked Austin to speak with me about what he is doing, so powersports dealerships can understand how the landscape is changing and the options of an UBER-esque population begin to hit where we live...
Jul 09, 2019•37 min•Season 1Ep. 30
With an actual weekday off, this 5th of July, I took this time to chat with my buddy Joe Johnson about the motorcycle business. I love talking about ideas with folks looking to serve powersports folks and find new ways to do that. Joe and I get down a rabbit hole or two about our thoughts on serving powersports dealerships and how these dealerships can get more accomplished with less wasteful energy expended. Some ways that reps like us can help our dealer clients be better: Get nosey in their b...
Jul 06, 2019•1 hr 25 min•Season 1Ep. 29
PG&A folks - check this out! Today we got to have a great pod-versation with Phil Ammendolia, President & CEO of LS2 Helmets U.S. If you don't know this line, you owe it to your bottom line to check them out. Seeing as it's been many years since I have been working INSIDE a powersports parts department, I'm sure Phil will forgive me for not knowing anything about his brand, but as the old saying goes - Do your best. When you know better, do better! The videos Phil has on the LS2 YouTube ...
Jun 22, 2019•51 min•Season 1Ep. 28
Jay Bernard of Triumph Motorcycles is a regional manager who was kind enough to jump on a session of Dealership fiXit with me and chat about many things Triumph, here in his part of the United States. What's the deal with Adventure bikes and why are they so popular right now? What is Triumph doing differently than the competitors to earn consumer's money? As it turns out, it's a lot! Technology is a heavy focus. Jay also hints of some possible upcoming smaller displacement, lower price point mod...
Jun 18, 2019•34 min•Season 1Ep. 27
Mike Murray, the VP of Sales for National Powersport Auctions (NPA) is my guest in this episode. He and his team have been a big part of keeping an impressive dealer-first service culture while growing their team, in recent years. Having worked with and for Mike in the past, I'm a big fan of his passion as well as and NPA. If you have not been to the experience that is the largest powersports auction in the world and at the level NPA does it... you owe it to yourself to go to your closest locati...
May 31, 2019•40 min•Season 1Ep. 26
Scott Wright of IMS Products is no stranger to dealerships. Sure, he has been manufacturing and selling powersports products to distributors, dealers and customers for the last 25 years. But, did you know that he worked at a dealership? It's been a few years but he has a great grasp on dealership life and he has some ideas of how any dealer can better control their own destiny by stocking more of the right products. I agree wholeheartedly with Scott in that a dealer cannot stock everything but s...
May 21, 2019•58 min•Season 1Ep. 25
John Slater from SRP, maker of Slater Skins and Slater Shields joined me tonight for a talk about branding opportunities. He's been doing this a long time and has had some great history of getting outside sponsors to step up and brand up motocross and freestyle mx riders machines with his products that add much needed volume to the available space of these motocross bikes. If you haven't seen what I'm talking about, see the links below for images. These things are impressive. I might have to buy...
May 18, 2019•41 min•Season 1Ep. 24
Brooke Farquhar owns a shop named Motoworks in Fredericksburg, Virginia. It's different from any shop I've been a part of in that it's a membership only shop where Brooke can invest all of this time and energy into being the exact level of advocate that each and every customer needs to stay engaged in this activity we love so much - motorcycling. Motoworks Facebook page is here: https://www.facebook.com/motoworksva/ This business is more of a labor of love for Brooke and it shows. When he descri...
May 18, 2019•1 hr 30 min•Season 1Ep. 23
I just read and wanted to share the article plus my thoughts on the Powersports Business article entitled, "Harley-Davidson Dealerships are number 1 at Replying to Website Customers" study, in which they include a Pied Piper PSI study (article link included below as well). Imagine, you are a regular consumer, ready to move forward in the purchase of a new widget, product X that costs several thousand bucks. This is a product that you don NOT need but believe it will help make you lead a happier,...
May 14, 2019•24 min•Season 1Ep. 22
I've heard for many years that powersports dealerships are many years behind automotive dealerships in regards to their advertising, branding and data utilization around those investments. I found Michael Annable on Linkedin this year and started following him since he shares a lot of insights there, on where dealerships in the automotive vertical are making mistakes and possibly wasting money. I knew I was harassing one of the right people when I saw he was co-founder of Showroom Logic his curr...
Apr 27, 2019•44 min•Season 1Ep. 21
Are you doing the right things for digital growth? "Stop wasting your time posting to Facebook!" Wow. Yes - Joe Iribarren got my attention with that statement too! Thankfully, he was ready to back it up with real world insights. I'll start out by saying that this episode will only be an initial insight into this topic but you'll want to hear what Joe Iribarren has to say on how you are using social media now versus some changes you may want to make to use the medium for better engagement and vis...
Apr 24, 2019•32 min•Season 1Ep. 20
I welcome Derek Sanders of DS1 Consulting back for another visit, this time about the F&I department of your powersports dealership. Do you have an F&I dept in your dealership? Since I haven't spent any time in that role, I had Derek come chat about how every dealer can be a better, more profitable finance and insurance department plus better satisfy your customers at the same time. Seem counter intuitive? It isn't! I welcome your feedback on this or any Dealership fiXit episode. These a...
Apr 20, 2019•51 min•Season 1Ep. 19
James Myers of Valley Cycle Center in Winchester, Virginia has been involved with the family powersports business that his father started 50 years ago. James has been involved for over 20 years. I was curious how they make that work when I see so many multi-generation business struggle. He also gives me some insights on how dealers can and should get involved with state dealer groups so they can help secure their own business future thru the legislative processes, if needed. Please share this po...
Apr 02, 2019•1 hr 3 min•Season 1Ep. 18
If you’ve been around the powersports business for any length of time you have most likely perused, used or hired “MIJ” for your job or employee acquisition needs. Alex talks with me some the recent struggles the motorcycle biz is having with finding qualified mechanics and other positions. Please check out MIJ at www.motorcycleindustryjobs.com if you are an employer looking for top talent or you’re a hopeful candidate looking for a one stop shop for top employers. Please email me at: dealership...
Mar 16, 2019•48 min
Michael Jones Sr, a 30 year service department veteran and master technician joins me tonight to look for ways you can take your dealership to another level - if you are willing to make some changes that he says are crucial to help us keep the new-with-old service customer engaged with us and you need passion to to do it. Listen to see what he is talking about. Thank you for checking out Dealership fiXit. Please consider giving us a top rating on your podcast platform so we can keep growing and ...
Mar 09, 2019•1 hr 6 min
Special guest Craig Martin joined me to discuss ... nearly all of the things! Thankfully he was willing to spend so much time with me sharing insights from so many years as a distributor rep, shop owner, race team manager and so on. I’d be willing to gamble and say that whatever area is your part of the dealership, tonight’s podcast has some gold nuggets for you. As always, please share this episode and podcast with everyone you know at a dealership. Thank you!
Mar 01, 2019•1 hr 40 min
Ryan McPherson aka @skippy168 on Instagram and #salesbyskippy & #askforskippy everywhere joins us from Denton, Texas where he works at Cycle Center of Denton in parts and accessory sales. He shares some insights on how he does things differently than his competitors to better engage with eager consumers. He also sheds some light on how a dealership owner can find and hire guys like him. He’s my #dealershipfixit of the week!
Feb 22, 2019•1 hr 16 min
What is your personal expectation on merchandising at your retail dealership? Specifically, online... If you haven't thought about exactly where you set the bar for yourself and your staff on merchandising each and every area of your operation, you're losing. Consumers expect you to be the tip of the spear. Heck, they're supposed to hand you money for the product, right? As always, feel free to give me your feedback or better yet email me and come on a future podcast (virtually) and let's talk i...
Feb 13, 2019•30 min
Quick monologue about co-op. Want to get a decent podcast conversation lined up with someone at/from a dealership about your role being in charge of co-op ... good/bad etc. Co-op should be a tool you utilize to minimize your out of pocket spend on advertising to get your dealership more exposure. Are you doing it? Are you using all of it?? Let's chat soon on a longer version of this episode. dealershipfixit@gmail.com
Feb 13, 2019•5 min
Brian Fullerton is our guest and we discuss his path from socal lot kid at Alba Yamaha to point guy at Acerbis in the US. He also found time to be a fireman for 9 years at the same time.
Feb 09, 2019•1 hr 4 min
Who knows how to get rabid grassroots support and can also tell a dealership what areas they need improvement in about 30 seconds? Jim Boschen is our guest - Episode 10
Feb 02, 2019•1 hr 21 min
#1 mistake dealerships make? Derek Sanders special guest - Episode 9
Feb 01, 2019•1 hr 13 min
My old friend and special guest on Dealership fiXit podcast, Craig Johnson has many years worth of insights that he was willing to come on and share just a few of. He's worked in powersports dealerships, he opened his own KTM motorcycle dealership in Minnesota, sold cars in auto dealerships and now runs a company that sells motorcycle products thru distributors Tucker Powersports and Parts Unlimited to customers thru dealerships like yours. Aside from his product knowledge, he knows how to win c...
Jan 29, 2019•54 min
Ever fire a customer? Special guest Jason Fox from Adirondack Harley-Davidson joins me on this, Episode 7 of the Dealership fiXit podcast. In this episode we talk about his path into the powersports business including times where the difficult choice was made and a customer was told that we would like to refrain from providing them service in the future... Wait, can you do that?? Yes, but beware because you may not be in a position to do it!
Jan 26, 2019•37 min
I got a couple friends who heard this podcast tell me that i sure didn't do a very good job of explaining who I am or what I've done involving dealerships! So, went back and listened to the first 2 podcasts and I see that is true! This episode is just a speedy run thru on what my resume for the last 20 years has been - just as a way to lay it at your feet to determine if a podcast like this had any real value add for you in it. Please listen to decipher whether or not you need to waste any extra...
Jan 22, 2019•13 min
