Since this winter got off to such a strong start, burying half the country under snow earlier than it has in a decade, there’s a slight chance that you’ve been spending it practicing wheelies on your ice tires, trying to compete with the new Guinness Book record holder. He did it at ninety miles an hour for 200 meters, and he has only one biological leg:
There’s probably a much greater chance that you’re hanging out in your shop, thinking about your business as you follow the advice of Buzz Kantner, Publisher & Editor of American Iron Magazine, who suggests you “at least clean, dry, and wax your bike, and plug a charger into the battery every couple of weeks,” so it’s ready to go when the weather turns.
Last year was pretty good. Your cruisers sold better than the previous year, as did your dual sport bikes. Not everything went perfectly, but with the consensus indicating that this year may be the best the economy has seen in a decade, it’s possible that this year will outperform the last.
So you start dreaming about how that might happen…
Dream #1: Service Profits
A snow-bound garage may be a good place to train your service technicians. An informal survey done by Motorcycle & Powersports News found that most motorcycle dealership owners and managers get about 90% efficiency out of their mechanics. It’s a ratio; you take the number of billable hours and divide that by the actual hours it took to do the work. 90% means they take longer to finish the work than what you’re billing.
100% would increase your profit, and the proverbial “giving 110%” might boost it to the point you could give the mechanic a piece of it.
Something to consider while you’re tinkering.
Dream #2: Boomers Buying Indians
And chances are those technicians will be busier and busier as time goes on. The ranks of motorcyclists continue to swell, with most coming from the Boomer generation. Generally speaking they are former riders coming back after decades away. They have money and prefer to hire your guys to work on their bikes.
Hopefully new models and innovations will bring them into your shop this spring, because unfortunately the media has made much of the fact that as more members of this demographic ride, more of them are hurt or killed in accidents.
Their reflexes are slower than before, their vision is poorer, and their bodies are more fragile. Knowing this, the industry banded together to form the Motorcycle Safety Foundation and published courses targeted at mature riders, but they haven’t been adopted. The industry will stay on top of it though – Harley Davidson offers riding courses at its dealerships, and Polaris plans to follow suit with “refresher courses” for those returning to the sport.
The government has handled the same problem slowly and inefficiently. Massachusetts failed to pass seven bills designed to make the roads safer for bikers. New York failed to require car drivers to learn motorcycle safety awareness.
As the industry finds its way back to pre-recession levels that may change.
The industry certainly has its eyes on Boomers, and some of the buzz they generate this year may really bring them into your shop.
Probably the most buzz-worthy development will be the new line of Indian bikes. No one can praise Polaris enough for the way they’ve revived America’s first motorcycle brand.
And last year their Indian Chief won Motorcycle.com’s “Cruiser of the Year” award, which the magazine attributed to its Thunderstroke 111 engine and the way the company managed to simultaneously stay true to the brand’s classic presence and integrate top-of-the-line technology. They write, “the fit and finish of the bikes – from the paint to the quality and amount of chrome – announced that Indian is here, here big, and for the long-term.”
They’re even ahead of the curve on 2016 – on Friday, February 13 they’re holding a “Dark Horse Challenge Ride” through Chicago, at the end of which they’ll unveil the 2016 Indian Chief Dark Horse, a much anticipated high-end addition to their already stellar line-up.
Dream #3: Sturgis at Seventy-Five
According to its organizers, the seventy-fifth anniversary of the seminal, notorious, legendary, world-famous gathering of the faithful in Sturgis, South Dakota “has the potential to be one of the greatest and perhaps the largest gathering of motorcycle enthusiasts of all time.”
Ask prospects if they intend to cruise through Deadwood on their way to Needles Highway, Iron Mountain Road, the Wildlife Loop, or Spearfish Canyon, or if they prefer destinations like Mount Rushmore National Memorial, Crazy Horse Memorial, the Badlands and Devil’s Tower National Monument.
If they do, then you know they need to look and feel as cool as possible. Take your time, enjoy the sale, and make sure you end up with a customer for life.
The Nightmare: A Boomer with a Toothy Smile
He’ll enjoy the conversation and the sale as well. And after you’ve discussed financing – or the lack of same – he’ll almost certainly get out his checkbook while regaling you with stories about the last time he went to Sturgis.
Laughing and smiling he’ll tell you what it was “really like back in the day” and he’ll slide you the check with an air of such confidence you feel safe sliding it into your register’s drawer before handing him the keys to his new bike and watching him don his Sturgis-ready gear.
You’ll think the business deal is to keep the conversation going, to keep him laughing, so he’ll introduce you to his friends.
Over the thirty-one years we’ve been in business we’ve talked to a lot of motorcycle dealers three or four days after they let that customer walk away.
Because that’s about when his check comes back, returned for insufficient funds, and after calling the bank to find out there’s very little he can do about it, the dealer calls us to make sure it won’t happen again.
That’s right – we can eliminate that nightmare from your business. We can help you protect your recovery so you can pay that mechanic, stock that Indian, go to Sturgis and then batten down your shop before next winter’s snows. Learn how here.
