Articles

 Dealership: 

Ehlerding Motorsports began business in 1965 from a garage on the family dairy farm near Decatur and expanded into a new facility in 1971. Over the years, the business has grown tremendously, but the original foundation still exists – a love for motorsport vehicles and the desire to consistently offer high-quality products, competitive prices and superior customer service. Today, all operations have been centralized on one campus with two modern buildings totaling over 46,000 square feet in Fort Wayne, IN. 

Solution: 

For Don’s third Sharp Shooter Event, he decided to market to 3,000 past customers. Using a nice mix of active and inactive customers, he knew they could reactivate customers who hadn’t spent money with them in the previous year and continue to increase frequency of visits from their active customers. The ultimate goal was to increase the number of customers spending money with them over the next year and increase how much they spent, by getting them all to walk through the door more often. By utilizing 12 different media methods to touch customers, we increased the amount of traffic on event day and the number of leads generated. 

Big picture, we know Powersports Dealers need to touch their Buying Base a minimum of 52-104 times per year to increase retention and grow market share. The more you touch your customer base, the more responsive they become and over the course of the year, more of them walk through the dealership’s doors more often and the business grows.

The message we utilize is focused on inviting customers to a party. By focusing on what the customer wants (things like food, drinks, door prizes and demo rides), the dealership gets more of what they want (more P&A, service and gear sales and a few more units out the door). The reverse is also true; focus on the sale and you will alienate the 99.99% of customers who don’t have ‘buy a motorcycle’ on their list of things to do this weekend. Long-term, customers never get tired of being invited to a party, so they end up walking through the doors more often and when they’re there, they can’t help themselves but to spend more money. 

With so much marketing going out the doors, it’s important to have it hit customers at just the right time to really maximize the response from each media. Our marketing begins hitting customers roughly 10 days before the event and gives them a different opportunity to respond to the survey site (to generate leads for every department) almost every day leading up to event day.

Results:

Don was extremely pleased with the results and turnout on event day; he has done direct mail campaigns in the past for years and never gotten the level of response he has with our Sharp Shooter campaigns. 

His third Sharp Shooter campaign is currently in progress and he is amazed each time at the door swings and increased sales he sees. He agrees that our multi-touch approach, along with focusing on the right audience and using the right message is what does the trick. 

His Sharp Shooter campaign generated 134 completed surveys, which created a total of 105 in P&A, Service, and riding gear, PLUS 59 responses for a new or used bike!

Don has been in business for over 50 years and is relieved to have finally found something that works.

What’s Next:

September means Labor Day Parties and New Model Open Houses! New models are more exciting to your customers that Christmas morning is to 5-year olds. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to capture the excitement that the new model year brings! Check out the website (www.powersportsmarketing.com/sample-campaigns) for killer campaign options and for more information on how the Sharp Shooter Program can help you achieve your marketing goals in 2018, call me on my direct line 877-242-4472 ext: 112. Happy selling.