“Paycheck friendly” is a new concept to me too.  Customers aren’t buying many new units, or doing big accessory remodels on their bikes, or buying big ticket apparel packages either—the cash isn’t there.  Those days are gone.  Now, we spend in drips and drabs…instead of chunks and lumps.  So, Mr. Dealer, it’s probably time to change expectations of your customers’ new spending habits and thus, your selling habits and product offerings.  Riders lucky enough to still have a job or some form of regular income now typically budget smaller amounts of “fun money” aside from each paycheck…as they arrive bi-weekly.     

If we can’t buy the parts or accessories we (really) want on $100 to $200 every two weeks, then we can save it up for a few weeks in a cookie jar until we can afford it.  That flat black Vance & Hines pipe is dancing in my dreams now, but I also want the contrast cut black wheels to match it…and the black air filter too.  I can’t afford it all at once, so would you, Mr. Dealer, help me plan my dreambike 6 to 8 weeks out in 2 week increments?  Help me get there g-r-a-d-u-a-l-l-y rather than in one felled swoop—you know…”paycheck friendly.” 

Interestingly, Sears recently brought back their Layaway Plans–an eight week pre-pay program you can implement on-line.  Why?  It’s an effort to help customers buy more sequentially by forcing the customer to save for what he wants.  Simple.  Pay as you go.  It sounds old fashioned.  It is.  And it works.   

I am NOT suggesting you do layaway unless you want to (Google “Sears Layaway”).  I am suggesting you help your customers better visualize their end goal and help them get there.  Paint the picture…because your customers have no imagination until they see it themselves.  Arrange and group your products either from lowest cost to highest cost or  package them into modular kits that permit your customer to build from paycheck to paycheck.  Here are a couple of 4 pay-period, 8 week build concepts:  

                                    1^st Buy______2 Weeks            4 Weeks          6 Weeks____8 Weeks

Performance Kits:       air cleaner          exh. pipe          FI mapping       ignition  install

Apparel Kits:                helmet              gloves               jacket               pants                boots

Wheel Sets                   rims                  brake discs       calipers tires                  install

Custom Package          seat                  windshield        chrome             chrome             install  

 How about calling this your: “8 Week Build Plan” or “Customize Your Motorcycle in 8 Weeks.”  I like “Pay as You Personalize?”  There is no financial risk on your end—you are only helping your customers see more clearly through the fog of personal finance to a machine they would really like.  Look at yourself as an interior designer who provides the “after” picture and an associated budget.  The customer still pays as the project progresses, but at least they are more confident in the outcome while the payments are stretched out. 

Are you the naysayer in the back of the room?  You think this will only aid customers in changing their mind on where to buy their bolt-on or apparel products…and they’ll go to the internet instead?  So what would you do to prevent that?  If it’s a mechanical installation, be sure to incentivize the labor rate…at the end of the 8 week period.  If it’s not going to be ultimately installed in your service department, then here is what you can do…. 

Product or service, provide a “cumulative credit”…which accrues to the project at week 8.  In the case of the entire apparel outfit on the last week, the earned credit could be worth enough to buy an extra set of winter gloves on top of the summer ones bought in week 2.    Notice “credit” is NOT a “discount.”  Discounting is the easy way out and cuts your GP terribly.  If you have to give away something these days, it should NOT be retail dollars—it should be wholesale dollars.  Use the apparel credit above as an example.  The winter gloves sell for $100 MSRP.  If you gave your customer a “discount” of $100 off of all the accumulated 4 apparel items in the 8th week goal, he walked out happy and with $100 of (retail) beer money in his pocket.  If you offer the $100 “credit” instead you only let $58 walk out the door (your cost on the additional “free” gloves).  The customer, however, should be happier with the extra gloves because his riding experience will be better. 

Build loyalty, return visits and happier riders by helping us imagine what we can by not just today, but cumulatively over the next few months.  Stair-stepping it out for us and enticing us with a reward credit at the end…makes your dealership more fun to shop in and “paycheck friendly” too.  Thanks, bud.

http://finance.yahoo.com/career-work/article/109519/5-ways-to-ensure-mediocrity-in-your-organization?mod=career-leadership

By Eric Anderson

Design Directions

Neo-Retro Industrial. Yes.  I made that term up…sort of.  The recent Bell Helmet designed product and corresponding advertisement for its new (sic) metal-flaked, pinstriped open faced bucket nailed it with the headline “Not Retro. Original.”  Original in the sense of being unlike their competitors.  Dodge Challenger, Ford Mustang and Chevy Camaro are also nailing the “neo original, but not-retro” designed market in a down economy.  Target’s designer, Michael Graves, also designs gorgeous houseware products along similar re-newed lines.  Oakley has also shown huge growth in 2009 based upon their development of industrially inspired eyewear.  Notice these are all American, market-driven companies looking ahead toward a new, younger customer base and a new economy. 

Perhaps X, Y and Baby Boomer generations are tired of the planned obsolescence of Bold New Graphics (BNG) each year—putting lipstick on a pig…or hog.  New models from many OEMs (and apparel manufacturers too) started to look the same the last few years in a spinning vortex toward blended mediocrity.  Will a rebound from the economy and the puree of copy-cat designs force a return to innovative, original design fundamentals and the individuality of today’s riders?  Personalization, or customization if you prefer, is a huge part of American culture—not just in the motorcycle world.  Just check out Nike Customized at www.nikeid.com, Oakley Custom Eyewear at www.oakley.com and Vans Custom Shoes at www.vans.com.   Nobody in America wants to look the same, yet the larger the manufacturer the bigger the pressure of reproducing larger volumes of basically the same things.  Economies of scale and the pursuit of cheaper prices has sucked out creative design elements.  What’s the Next Big Thing in motorcycling?  It is actually very predictable with the increasing quantity of aftermarket accessories and the coming of Just-in-Time (JIT) OE manufacturing—it’s personalized motorcycles. 

Buying a stock machine, then replacing OE parts with aftermarket ones is a duplication of effort, expensive and a waste.  Why not get what you want…the first time—when you buy it?  You can design your brand new Mini on-line from 10,000 possible configurations and have it delivered to your house or dealership 6 weeks later.  Check out the “Mini Configurator” at www.miniusa.com under “BUILD.”  “No two Mini’s are alike” is their tagline for this section of the website recognizing the individuality of their buying customers.  Is our industry ready to make it easier on our customers to also envision their unique dream bike or outfits…before they pay for them?  I’d wait longer for something custom and different.

The Recession has wiped the slate clean to make room for new inspirations and directions in a Renaissance of motorcycle tastes.  Racy sportbikes, freestylers, tourers and sport tourers, dragster Busas, scooters and vintage looking V-twins have come and will likely remain, but what new categories will be born and which current categories will grow?   The current adventure bike category is still small, but it appears to be on an SUV-inspired growth curve due to a rugged, industrial-design appeal and increased accessibility to public lands which a license plate permits.  Scooters sales hover up and down, but will continue to have hotspots near college campuses, parking-starved inner cities and when gas prices soar.

So what’s really brand new and coming down the pike for moto and gear design?  Rocketeer meets Roland Sands?  Hailwood club racer inspires VFR?   Land Rover breeds with Super Enduro?   JT Racing relaunches camo-miltary?  Icon and Dickies join forces?  Fashion…and industrial design is fickle and will always upset those who rest on their laurels.  It’s time to see some fresh directions from those who design and build motorcycles, related accessories and gear.  And…could we see what our custom look  might look like…before we write the check?

"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction."--Albert Einstein

They are for selling — not for entertainment! OK. Maybe they’re a little entertaining because it’s boring to sit in a waiting room or stand in line without watching something that you can read, blinks or moves around. Mall televisions promote gift certificates, movie theaters and upcoming store sales. The dentist TV wants me to know about the newly affordable teeth whitening methods and the celebrity “real” Orange County housewife who is now his customer. Gas pump screens push credit cards and refreshments. The bank-o-vision sells its new checking account program, and my bike store’s Informatron explains a trip I could win to the Tour de France.

Now comes my motorcycle store’s television programming. Travis’ backflips. Jason’s stoppies. Racing. The Crusty Derelicts of Zombietown riding through the air with a half-ton of hot steel between their legs. Honestly, it’s all cool stuff, but it doesn’t educate me, the customer, about any of the good deals or new products available inside the store. Remember there are only two kinds of products for which your store’s shoppers will pull out their wallets — what’s new and what’s on sale. So show them what they can buy now while they are inside your store!

The Sharpie and posterboard sign days are gone. Gone too are the funny starburst-shaped cardboard signs with the word “NEW” on them. It’s the 21st century, and we’re obsessed with messages and moving images on big-ass flat-screen televisions or pocket-sized PDAs. It’s time for powersports dealers to join the world of audio-visual sales-enhanced retail environments. If you have already paid to attract potential customers to walk through your front door, then it’s time to close more sales inside the store too. Customers no longer have the time to “just look” — you are a destination store, and flat-screen monitors were made for ogling.

Your customers drove or rode out of their way to you. If they are only a credit card swipe away from buying something, why not mega-inform them about the 1.9 percent financing, winterization specials, free gloves with jacket purchase, complimentary tire balance, midnight madness blowouts, next month’s big race and the new 2010 fashions, which just arrived?

It’s called the digital signage industry. Technically, it’s not television because a loud soundtrack is not usually present — that’s interruptive to shopping and conversation. Think of digital signage as animated signs with TV-like images or videos promoting only the brands you have in stock — every second of every business day. No human staff member could possibly keep up with that.

Company’s like Moto TV that offer such solutions were the answer for Jason White, GM of Fay Myers Motorcycles World near Denver.

“The final straw was we were running a road race on our monitors and the TV station cut away to an ad from our competitor across town, playing right in front of our customers inside our dealership,” White says. “We’re done with regular TV inside our store.”

Check them out at www.mototvnetwork.com, or visit them at Dealer Expo. They are the same people who brought Blockbuster its in-store TVs promoting the latest movies and DVDs to rent and buy.

Every dealership in our country has a different mix of brands and products, all at continuously varying levels of inventory. That means powersports stores will probably have to pay a monthly subscription fee for customized in-store programs that change frequently. Shell Oil, Home Depot, Wal-Mart and Harley-Davidson all use their own pre-programmed channels because their stores carry the same brands and product mixes. Most powersports retailers carrying myriad combos of vehicles and aftermarket brands might expect to pay between $350 to $500 a month to change your custom digital signage monthly for new and different products or seasons. But it’s waaaay cheaper than hiring more sales staff.

Is it time to quit playing so much cool TV entertainment in your store and push your in stock brands more? When it comes to a TV screen, it’s not perceived as pushy, personal or aggressive. We’ll let a TV get in our face anytime.

This story originally appeared in the Dealernews February 2010 issue.

Predictive Retailing

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