Martin Racing Performance: Here Today Gone Tomorrow How To Rise Above the Market!

Here Today – Gone Tomorrow

Rise Above the Market Trends - ( with help from John at Moxie Scooters )

Brands departing from the market can be a good thing or not depending on what side of the fence you’re on. There are 38 companies missing from my distribution list I compiled for a report to the former editor of Motorcycle Product News three years back. I was just taking a look last night. Some of these departed on a good note, most departed by leaving the market altogether.

This also applies to stores. If you don’t have the right relationships you will close. Not a question of If just when. Focus on what makes money to do that with as a brand new Scooter, ATV, GoKart, Buggy Store you need to follow some key steps!

Build Powerful Profitable Partner Relationships.

Work with your supplier. When a small shop owner that purchases $100 a year calls you and says I pay a dollar less for a cable by buying from a competitor that’s not someone you are going to give a discount to. Show your loyalty to your supplier and they will show you the money. This applies to both vehicles and parts. Dealers that pick up ten lines fail and go out of business, eventually no distributor will work with them because they are fighting for floor space. I’ve seen this all too often in stores that have closed even leading shops.

When it comes to parts most store owners don’t even control what the mechanics are doing. Yesterday a store owner complained that instead of going on the MRP site or calling us for a part his mechanic went online and purchased the part from the first website on Google he found ( ANOTHER RETAILER ) who dropped shipped it from MRP. So instead of paying $2 for the cable he paid $12 plus $10 in shipping. (see training employees on suppliers below)

“MRP sends me business every day where lately some of my other suppliers are stealing my clients, they send them catalogs at home, offer them discounts, they come in ask questions and then go on their website and purchase parts.” = John owner of Moxie Scooters, Texas. You can see his MRP website at http://www.moxiescooters-store.com give him a call he will tell you why it doesn’t pay to buy from competitors online.

John knows what he’s talking about, so if you’re a store owner talk to him.

Moxie Scooters

www.moxiescooters.com

4117 Colleyville Boulevard
Colleyville, TX 76034
(817) 788-5333

Strength of Collaboration

Telling the supplier what you need is essential. MRP went from stocking 3,500 SKUs in 2008 to 12,000 as of last month. Part of this has been because dealers tell us what they need on a day to day basis not what they buy once a year. The relationship between our key stores and is collaborative we now stock the right Armadillo jackets for Xtreme Miami and The Scooter Shop because they told us “THIS IS WHAT WE WANT.” Last year they could never get the Hoodies in stock and it wasn’t a yearly Just in Time item they said “If you stock this we will buy it every week.” – Guess what we’ve increased their sales by 100% on the hoodies.

Same applies to brands you carry again referring back to my conversation with John at Moxie yesterday. He’s found that companies like Kymco send him the resources he needs so he sticks with them. He needed help promoting sales, guess who sent him the help?

KYMCO. To help motivate Kymco sales, he offers MRP parts and Upgrades. That leads to our third point.

To quote John again at Moxie “better alignment between Moxie and MRP has allowed us to get more customers, I’m getting more email leads than what I know what to do with.” That’s awesome that’s what we want to hear that the dealer has more leads and emails than he knows what to do with, that means he needs to hire more, build more, follow up on phone calls and emails so he can do more repairs. When I call him and I see increasing momentum is so many areas of his parts business it tells me that despite unit sales being down he has a gold mine awaiting him. “Three Vespa shops closed all around us in the last year, we have to continue to improve our part sales to take advantage of all this.” That’s what MRP is here for now that there is a gap in the market, his part sales are going up. He’s not calling us asking if he can get a $1 discount, he’s calling us because he’s qualifying for an extra 3% because he’s doing volume by the end of the year. That’s what we want to see in a client and I’m happy to hear that.

3. Change is Constant LEARN TO SELL PARTS

What I can say about the market is that change is the one constant and you have to adapt. So for new store owners looking to open a new scooter, atv, buggy, go-kart dealership I recommend the following:

Stop thinking JUST IN TIME. You will never be a profitable Gokart store thinking you can make a living off of just selling karts. Guess what that’s called PEP BOYS. When you walk into a Buggy Shop for the first time you want to see the stock unit and the upgraded unit. You want to see exhausts, you want to see helmets. So instead of buying two more units, buy some upgrades.

Every single day I hear from a store owner “ I ONLY ORDER WHEN PEOPLE ASK FOR IT” In the back of my mind I see here we go again another brilliant business plan. When I walk into Best Buy I look for more than just the computer, I go to look at new accessories. I already own 12 computers. When you buy a PS3 or Blue Ray you go back for the accessories same thing for the Go Kart store.

If you sell Carter then you should stock the Carter Exhaust – GUESS WHAT MRP IS THE ONLY COMPANY THAT HAS IT. If a consumer calls us and you’ve never EVER purchased a CARTER exhaust we are sending them to a store that we know that has it in stock.

In the end we want a happy consumer, we want him to go to the Carter dealer that has not just buggies but also upgrades. If he doesn’t buy them from you he will go online and buy them from a competitor – don’t take my word for it watch. Some store owners say they don’t care, but if they bothered to do the match and read the Dealer News stats they would realize that’s were 42% of the profits are. Making more with less is essential these days so stock upgrades for the brands you sell.

STOP DILLUTING YOUR STORE

I’m constantly saying this. Seriously, if you are going to be a Kymco dealer be a Kymco dealer. Why do you need to have 20 brands. KYMCO has a full lineup. You can’t sell the Xciting 500 without the Xciting 500 in the store. If you are going to bother to put a sign that reads KYMCO carry the full line instead of pretending you’re a dealer just so you can buy ten other brands. Nothing worse than walking into a dealership that has TGB, SYM, Kymco, JCL, JONWAY, Linhai, Diamo with only one or two units of each brand and then a catalog on the counter. That’s not how it works. Reminds me of the used-car lot dealership mentality. Get away from that.

Watch this video for advice to how to stay in business.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmayLBdH3bc

You want to move Kymco? Get a demo unit. Get an upgraded unit with performance parts. Do test drives. Invest in upgrading a Quanon with a race exhaust and chrome it out, but some Wave disks on it, and PIMP IT OUT! Yes, that is the key to sales. I’m not saying go the Honda route and have a one brand only store. I’m just saying if you are going to carry the MadAss from Peirspeed then carry three or four colors don’t just stock one unit without a demo, that’s living life half way. Make it the centerpiece of the room, pimp one out, add some Buzztronics lights to it, add some performance parts, and put it in the window. Get a demo unit, that’s how you sell.

Once again to quote John from Moxie “I’ve had it with some of these brands, if they’re not selling or supporting us we are going to stick to the brands that work with us.” It takes time for many dealers to learn this lesson. Moxie now sells parts online, sells parts in the store, and they have more foot traffic thanks to all the other shops closing.

Moxie Scooters

www.moxiescooters.com

I went to a MadAss dealer last week, he had ONE yes just ONE unit in the store. Said if you want to buy more I can order them for you. I told him who I was and explained studies showed that having a demo unit plus extra colors would lead to more turnover. His argument was that the store would rather buy more $500 scooters. That’s not the answer, anyone can sell on price few can sell on branding.

DON’T DILLUTE YOUR STORE> Build it up. Again, take pride in these brands look up at number 1. If Kymco sees your doing a good job they will send you more resources and help you. Same applies to the MadAss and other brands. They see you have one unit in the shop forget it, you’re just a Jobber to them. The Key is to build up your company in both the eyes of the consumer and the distributor.

Why be another number when you can be a flagship store for any of these guys, the key to growth is to stand out. Make your store your brand, don’t dilute it, bring profits to it.