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But the truth is, the most successful dealerships I know all use these techniques.
Their success means they can stock larger inventories because they are making more money. We as consumers do benefit from that indirectly. Food for thought.
One of my favorite dealerships is 3bros in Orange County. Their website is good and their pricing is always zero hassle. No set up or freight fees. Maybe those are just built into the MSRP. But while I like their approach, I'd love to know just how successful they actually are financially.
Some dealerships are a labor of love. The customers might be happy and the owners arent making hand over fist. I think of small Euro dealers that sell only Ducati, MV, Triumph, Aprilia, etc.
Then there are other dealerships that make huge profits selling Japanese brands.
Im guessing 3bros falls in the labor of love category. In spite of selling major brands.
That said, even the small niche dealerships have their pet peeves that piss me off. Example: I buy a rare MV Agusta. It's about $17500. I live several hours from the dealership so everything is done over the phone. In addition to the bike, I wanted a tank pad & lipo battery. I had multiple conversations with the parts guy regarding these special parts. I wanted to make sure they were in stock the week I came to pick up the bike. I was prepared to pay around $800 for installation. The day comes for me to pick up the bike. Not only are the parts not installed, they were never ordered. They literally lost out on thousands in sales for no reason. Im not their bitching about price or anything. Just order the parts & install them so when I show up it's ready. Especially when I give a month's notice.
They also had no idea about all the special parts that came with the MV (bike cover, stand, charger, etc). It was a major hassle getting them to search the back corners of the shop to find the parts they were convinced didnt exist. All this for the brands flagship bike that year. Total incompetence on their part.
This exact scenario occurred with my Husky FE350 purchase a few years back. Totally avoidable. Totally frustrating.
Why would an MX buyer want "your" identical RM-Z450 over some other Suzuki dealer's RM-Z450?
If the salesman offers any price that is even remotely legitimate, another dealer will gladly beat it by $100. If he gives you some BS low-ball offer and gets you to come in, he then has to convince you (somehow??) to pay more.
Getting the customer to come into the store is the salesperson's best way to show his store has value above and beyond the other shops... in some fashion or another.
Another dealer emailed me a price of $10,100 but I ended up buying a leftover 17 for $9100.
The Shop
Luxon 4-Post Bar Mounts
$189.95 - $239.95
DeCal Works Huge Plastic Inventory of UFO and Polisport kits.
These sales guys are just a tool in the sales process. They dont set prices and certainly don't negotiate them on the dealerships behalf.
Their job is to know the product inside & out (which they usually dont and is a completely warranted & avoidable complaint by consumers). Knowing the product helps promote it to a buyer that is on the fence.
As for the sales practices of the pitch & price negotiations, those are set by upper management and done so cause they work. Be damned if they're annoying, they lead to more sales.
Not knowing the product and just saying "pick a color" definitely does NOT lead to sales and is avoidable.
But as someone noted earlier, competent salespeople who know the product arent going to exist if nobody pays MSRP.
As a dealership let's discuss our pet peeves about customers.
1) The guy that gets upset cuz we don't have a cam chain tensioner in stock for his 1988 XR250. And then he tells me what I should stock for it as well. How many 1988 XR250's are still alive anyway???
2) Bro's that try to be your friend just cuz you work at a dealership. Like on a weekend when I go riding or racing people want to ask me about stuff for their bikes or how to fix this/that. And then get butthurt when you say "hey, I'm not at work right now, I'm trying to enjoy my day off NOT talking about work please" Can't I just have a day to ride my motorcycle like everyone else????
3) People that call wanting free advise on how to diagnose and fix a problem on their machine. Oh and BTW, can you make those copies of the service manual for me too. For the price of...... free??? WTF???? You people DO realize that is how I make a living is diagnosing and fixing your shit right!?!?! Like I went to school, invested THOUSANDS of dollars in tools/knowledge/experience to give it to you for free?????
4) Anybody that owns a Goldwing, wants to talk about Goldwings, thinks I should stock a few more Goldwings, wants a discount because they are in a Wing club, or heck... anybody that even thinks they might want a Goldwing at some point in thier life. You all can kiss my ass. One of my buddies asked me if I ever would ride a Goldwing. I told him I'd rather have a boyfriend.
5) Sticker shock shoppers. People think I make $2000 on a dirt bike that is MSRP at $9k. They can't believe a bike would be $9,000.00!?!?! What fucking rock did you idiots crawl out from????? HELLO!?!?!? It is 2017 you nitwits. a fucking candy bar is $2 for Christ sake! Where the fuck you been!?!?!?!?!
6) And lastly, internet shoppers. People come in, try all your stuff on, touch everything, and then literally say. I can get it at whatevermxstore.com for $13 dollars less. Or the guys that buy parts online and then want you to install them! Then the Chinese POS part they bought doesn't work. So they don't want to pay the labor??? I have some words for you type of people... FUCK OFF.... have the internet install your shit for you!!!
This list could REALLY go on for hours. But these a few of my favorite. Sorry if I offended anyone that may be in my list of complaints. Well... No, I am not sorry. Really, not at all.
Cheers,
Ryan
What's the downside? What do you recommend instead?
First is dealer added fees. I understand they have employees to pay but when I am buying a bike that's $2000 I'm not willing to pay another $1000 in fees.
2nd is mark up on parts and chemicals. 40%+ over other retailers and I will be waiting for shipping or finding a different dealer. I don’t normally try on gear without buying at dealers either. Rocky has free returns...
3rd is attitude and respectfulness. I have been in the market to buy a bike for my wife and we found one at a price I liked until they added fees. I told the General Manager who was working with me on the sale that I will be calling my wife to come to a decision. He says to me before making the call that, "your the man of the house, you wear the pants and make these types of decisions. Also you shouldn't have said that to another Jarhead." I about decked him. She has equal say in "big" purchases especially when the bike is for her and she is part of the reason I can afford my hobby.
On the other hand I have been to dealers that have great sales men/women. I could carry on a conversations about bikes or racing. They were also been respectful of my wife. Your in a business that relies on customers to purchase...happy customers...happy life.
He got a sweet Ducati 848 on a trade.
I called him up and said I wanted to buy it before it hit the showroom floor.
He gave me a good price. I didn't want a "deal". And then said "plus destination fee of $600".
I couldn't help but start busting up laughing. Destination fee on a bike that was dropped off by the customer who traded it in? Hahaha. He then looked at me like I was the crazy one. Totally dead pan. The audacity of it all had me in tears laughing. My friend gets off on how far he can push things. I know him well so I didn't take offense to it. Obviously I didnt buy the bike.
It sold the following week to some other dope who paid the destination fee on a used bike. Classic.
I dont have a problem with people trying to make money. Do your thing. Just make up for it with exceptional service. Everyone wins in that scenario. Cause if i get a deal yet all my parts arent in or installed on the bike, I leave pissed and the dealer lost out on profits.
Last motorsports shop I ran, most products had a 30% dealer margin.
We had been giving rider support "cost" on products until I took over and did the math. Between all of our expenses, my nut was 15%. So anything less than that I actually LOST money. Needless to say we lost all of our rider support racers quick. They were pissed. I didnt give 2 fucks. They were literally costing me money.
I offered them cost +15% so I wouldnt be losing money. Nobody took it. They were so mad. They acted like I was fucking them over. Truth is, cost +15% is break-even on most non-OEM stuff. Your local parts guy is doing you a favor. He's not making money, and wasting his time for you. You think you're doing him a favor shopping there, you arent. If I owned that shop, I'd rather my employees were doing something productive like inventory management to kill time rather than selling shit at adjusted cost which is just treading water.
In my case, I damn near fired our entire customer base. No more discounts on anything. Gross sales dropped to just $1500 the 2nd month I was in charge. Ownership was in a panic.
By month 4 we were having the best gross sales & net profits in the shop's history. We finished the year with month by month growth EVERY single month.
By the end of the year we were successful enough to actually afford to REALLY sponsor someone and field our own privateer effort. A race effort that cost us money but benefitted us huge in marketing our shop and paid for itself 2x over. Unlike all the groms who got shit at cost and didnt lead to a nickel more in increased revenue.
-Trying to charge way too much for bike freight/setup, etc.
-Not giving an out the door price over the phone. I'm not one to try to negotiate. If I feel like I'm getting a fair price from you and you're honest with me, I'll buy from you. If I'm treated right, I'll gladly give repeat business and refer you to others as well.
-Being hovered over.
-Untrained employees. The literature is (usually) out there. Use it! However, it's sometimes not made easily available due to upper management if they don't want to pay for higher level training, etc.
-Noticing improper bike setup on the showroom floor.
From a dealership employee standpoint:
-Having to pull information out of someone. Help the dealer help you. IE, what kind of bike they have, what they're looking for, etc. A good example is:
customer: "I'm calling to check on the status of my bike."
service advisor: "Sure, what's your name?"
customer: "The Gixxer."
service advisor: "What is your name?"
customer: "The blue one."
-Check your voicemail when we call to let you know something came in/is backordered or a unit in for repair has been completed.
-Coming in right at close. If you're picking up a special order part or a serviced unit that's already paid for, by all means.
-Coming in to fit for gear, wasting an extended period of someone's time, knowing you're going to get it online to begin with. Some of the time, if you've found a price on Revzilla, Motosport, etc, we may be able to match or come close. Just ask. If we can't touch it, we'll tell you. Those places buy so much in bulk vs. one or two pieces a dealer buys, so they're able to sell a lot of things for less.
-Acting entitled to a discount just because (we do offer AMA).
-Trying to negotiate service pricing.
-Expecting us to diagnose over the phone. A: that's why we get up in the morning, and B: what if we're wrong? Then who would you be looking at?
-Not liking an answer one employee told them, only to ask another told the same thing (ie given an answer by a female, and then asking for a male)
-Expecting a dealer to have EVERYTHING in stock. I admit it used to suck looking at it from a customer's point of view, but after working for a dealer for a while, it made more sense. "The back" isn't some magical place where someone can pull any part or accessory out of. We do try to keep common items on hand. And personally, if I know something cross-references, I'll check every resource known to me. We've had someone recently ask if we had a complete engine for a 1980s model bike, and act surprised that one wasn't sitting on a shelf. We don't charge shipping for special orders unless something needs to be next day/two day air.
-Noticing improperly setup bikes on the showroom floor (comes back to training or lack of care).
-Not having easier access to advanced training (properly trained employees = more knowledgeable and productive employees = happier customers and more revenue for employees/dealership)
-Seeing sales guys trying to charge customers too much for setup/freight.
There is a limited supply of bikes to each dealership. Smart dealerships, usually the big ones, will wait until the mom and pop shops blow out their inventory at $100 over invoice, then sell bikes with freight and setup.
People act like motorcycle shops are evil for wanting to make money. You are buying motorcycles here, not health insurance. I will gladly pay a little more at a dealership to keep them in business!
In 2014 my cousin was shopping for a KX450 and he called around and got some quotes on leftover '13 models. We have a dealer an hour from us (closest) that our family has bought many bikes from over the years that had a 13 and wouldn't go below MSRP. We got a good quote from another shop 2 hours from us so we were loaded up and heading to that shop, on the way we decided to stop at the closer shop and give the douche 1 last chance. We walked in there with checkbook in hand and tie-downs in the pickup and he still wouldn't budge from the sticker price so we walked out and proceeded to go and get the other bike at a great price with zero haggling.
About a year after that I was looking at getting a Kawasaki Vulcan and I knew that the guy an hour away had 4 or 5 that he had been sitting on for quite awhile so I called him and said whats the best price you can give me on one of those bikes, he then tells me oh the MSRP on those is x amount, and I said ok whats YOUR price on one if I came and wrote a check tmro. Then he tells me well kawi has a $500 rebate on these right now. I told him cut the bullshit I'm not looking for a rebate, i know you've had these for awhile and I'm trying to help you move one, so again i want to know what the LOWEST you can go on one right now today. He gives me the same bs about the rebate and i hung up and bought one from someone else.
It drives me crazy that he doesn't sell many bikes but then when he has the opportunity to do so he wont budge even $100.
And if your setup kid was putting together a KTM out of the box while checking fluids, checking spokes, installing the hand guards, installing pegs(they suck at times), putting on the frame guards, putting on the fork stickers, throwing the crate and trash away, filling with gas, hooking up any necessary lights, programming the ECU, filling out a PDI form and taking it for a little test ride in less than an hour, he was pretty good. I've put a shit ton of those together and it takes me a little longer.
Pit Row
Years ago we never charged any add on fees. We now try to collect freight. Years ago we(the dealer) were responsible for arranging our own freight carriers to pick up our bikes from the warehouse. My dad worked hard to negotiate a rate with a local carrier and even worked out cash deals with the owner to get the rate lower yet. The manufactures had troubles with dealers not getting bikes picked up and then they also figured out that if they took over the freight/delivery side of things that they could make a profit on it. When our first manufacture changed policy our freight cost per crate almost doubled. Lets say you had a bike that you had a $1000 margin on back then with a $50 freight cost and now if you have a bike with a $1000 margin the freight cost is now $350-$500. How come I pay $350 to get a bike from Chicago yet I can send a bike to California for $275? The manufactures are making margin on the dealers with their freight charges. We have a few bikes(think smaller bikes) that the price I am invoiced from the manufacture is right at what the bike retails for. Yes the manufactures have some "ransom"(holdback) money that they hold from the dealer and pay back once you sell the bike and register the sale but it has shrunk to around 2-3%.
But hey, I work at a Stealership so I am just lying.
On a 450 or even a 250 2-stroke you'd never know the difference. Maybe not even on a 250F. On a 125, however, you can tell if you are a sensitive rider.
Race teams rarely use o-ring chains unless they are racing endurance-style races (24 Hrs., Baja, enduros.) MX teams almost always choose non o-ring chains for the little bit of extra HP, especially since they change the chains out regularly and longevity isn't a factor.
I was shopping around for a YZ250X recently and went to one dealer. Salesman was too interested with his phone to come over, so I went to him. Didn't see the bike I wanted, so asked if they had any coming in soon. He looked up a YZ250 and walked me over to it, I was super surprised when he took me to a 250FX. At least know the difference between 2 and 4 stroke.. So I politely tell him I wanted the two stroke model, and he walks me over to a 125 saying " here's the only 2 stroke we have, its basically the same as the 250" and that was when I started laughing and walking right out the door
Recently dropped off cylinders for an old jetski to get bored. I was told "should only be a couple days, easily before the weekend". I gave them extra time and showed up Saturday, the annoyed service guy then tells me "haven't got them back from the machine shop, I'll call you early next week". I call them Wednesday, nothing. I show up Friday, "oh yeah we got em back Thursday, meant to call you".
Just be honest. If it was going to take a week and half to 2 weeks from the start, fine! I don't want to show up or call and annoy you! And no I did not complain a single bit to them. I told them "no problem" every time because for the most part I appreciate my local dealers and they are generally good at their jobs. It's just typically the service guys who give me the run around.
Some guys should also never talk to customers. I worked in customer service in my younger years. As much as I hated it, I was really good at it. I bent over backwards for people daily and I would get asked for specifically because of it. I know it doesn't come that easy to some. If you suck at it and don't ever want to feel obligated to a customer, don't work in a position that makes you do it.
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