(Not So) Shameless Self-Promotion
Brainstorming Session by Vance Breese and Rick Fairless
Using Events to Bring in Customers
Finding ways to bring customers into your dealership can be difficult anytime. But it’s even tougher in today’s market, when money is tight.
How can you use your limited promotional budget most effectively to increase foot traffic and sales? The answer may require you to look beyond traditional newspaper, radio, and TV advertising to creative ideas like dealer rides, bike nights, open houses, charity events, maintenance seminars, and more. Yeah, it’s work, but you could find that the return on your investment is much greater than what you’re getting now.
Create a crowd: Hosting events at your dealership can bring in more people in one night than you see all week
To help get the thought process started, we offer a new feature called Brainstorming Session, presenting personal tips on important issues from knowledgeable sources.
Industry guru Vance Breese, who’s been involved in motorcycling as a racer, dealer, and, most recently, founder of Santa Maria Software, which produces the Counterman point-of-sale system used by more than 600 motorcycle shops, traces the development of his thinking on the subject. And Rick Fairless, who left behind a highly successful career as a sales rep for a major corporation to open an Easyriders store in Dallas that has since become the Strokers Dallas empire, offers his personal take on dealer events.
Finally, we end with a list of ideas gleaned from successful companies across the country.
Promote Your Shop? It’s a Breese!
During my years as a dealer, I tried to learn from small-town preachers. After the church gathering, they shake the hand of all those in the congregation to make them feel welcome. I found it’s an approach that could work for me, too.
No one needs a motorcycle, so it has to be a fun toy. And one of the most important lessons I had to learn is that not everyone knows how much fun a motorcycle can be.
I have been addicted to motorcycles since I purchased my first one decades ago in Oregon. At the time, you could get a motorcycle license at 14 there, and I would ride through the night to see my sweetheart.
I lived in Richland, and she went to college in Medford, about 450 miles away. I would visit her almost every weekend. I moved on to road racing for 23 years, and I still race at Bonneville. With memories like those, I don’t need to be reminded to enjoy my motorcycle. You probably don’t either.
Many of my customers are not addicts, though. And I have to teach them how to enjoy their motorcycles if they are going to stay involved in the sport. I had a hard time understanding this at first. I would see them purchase a motorcycle in June and not have their 500-mile service until the next summer. Many were too busy being responsible to learn about chasing dreams, so I had to teach that also.
In my early, struggling days as the new owner of a shop that had not been profitable for 11 of the 12 years it had been in business, I used to get caught up in the minutia of the shop, and I didn’t have time to teach my customers to have fun. As the owner of the dealership, I was responsible for making sure there was a gross profit and creating a situation where something was left over to fund my lifestyle.
I have a poor work ethic, so I always try to move tasks off my desk and into someone else’s hands. Once I hired enough people and learned to delegate, I could stay focused on what I can now see is the most important task.
Creating Fun with Events
Every year, in my small farming town, we would have a car show. I would show up with some of my racing motorcycles, along with some T-shirts and leather jackets to sell.
And each time, several local people would say to me, “I didn’t know there was a bike shop in town.” I found this particularly painful, because I was spending 3 percent of the gross on advertising. I would advertise on the radio around Christmas, and I would run ads in the photo-trader magazines.
I was whining about this to a friend who had a shop that had been successful for a long time, and he told me that 80 percent of my advertising budget was wasted. He said he always got better value from public relations than from advertising.
I always try to learn, especially from those who are doing better at chasing their dreams than I am, so I asked him to tell me more. He said that events are the key to getting customers involved with their motorcycles and your shop. He said he put on charity events, rides, open houses, maintenance classes, and a ladies’ night to bring in customers.
That’s just what I need, I told him — more stuff to do and more money to spend. But he told me to get my customers involved and have them do some of the work.
I had already learned this lesson from the dealership newsletter. I paid the editor, John, low wages to make it happen, and it came out on time, every month. I had to buy him a word-processing program and pay for the printing and mailing, but the newsletter was very effective. It had a much better return on investment than any advertising I was doing. I could see that I needed to apply some of the same techniques to events.
I started with evening shop rides. I would write the destination and the time on a chalkboard in the shop, add it to the message on our invoices, and put it on our answering machine with the shop hours and directions.
In the beginning, I found that I had a tendency to want to go too far, too fast, so I had to learn to look at motorcycling through my customers’ eyes. But once I learned that, these Thursday-night rides worked great.
John would write about them in the newsletter, using people’s names and making it sound like it was even more fun than it was. After about six months, John put a notice in the newsletter that we would meet at the shop and ride to a toy run together. A remarkable number of customers showed up, and within in a few years, people just assumed I was involved in running the event. The people who were running it didn’t mind. They loved the extra attendance. And I got a great return on my investment without much effort.
Adding a Charity Ride
After that success, I went looking for other ideas. A shop birthday ride seemed good, but the timing was bad. I had closed the deal to buy the shop on April 1, and that didn’t seem like a good date. But no one seemed to know when the shop had originally opened, so we just made up a date that became the shop’s birthday.? We decided to make this a charity event. John was a retired fireman, so we picked a kids’ burn camp as the beneficiary. Most of my customers who were firemen were happy to get involved, and some of my shop-ride regulars agreed to do a barbecue. All I had to do to reserve a large picnic area at the public park was to ask. Most of the radio stations I advertised on got involved with public-service announcements, and many local merchants donated prizes for our primary fund-raiser, a 50/50 raffle.
The whole thing ended up costing me around $600, and about three times my customer base showed up. Everyone enjoyed a great barbecue and a nice ride. We donated a little more money to the burn camp each year, and we got a write-up about it in the local paper, as though it was a news item. Plus, all those involved felt like they had done a good deed. I love this business.
Expanding the Concept
Based on those successes, we added other events. Among the most effective were the night classes to teach people how to service their motorcycles. They helped people understand how much they were getting for their money.
Most of our customers thought they were just paying for an oil change. They didn’t realize how much stuff got serviced or adjusted, and how carefully we would check over their motorcycles. These events also allowed people to pretend that they knew more than they did. I think that everyone likes that.
I never did a ladies’ night, but my friend, in a much bigger city, had great success with them. He would have a fashion show with both male and female models. He served alcohol, then drove all the women home in limousines he had hired. It was a ladies-only evening, and I heard that he hired a male stripper. It was the talk of the town.
All of these things had a return on investment that was easy to justify on a strictly monetary basis. But they were even more effective because, from the beginning, I got so much help from the customers. It made them feel more like this was their shop when they were able to help with an event.
— Vance Breese
Bikers love to be around other bikers. If you can get the party started, they know what to do from there
The Strokers Guide to Event Success
Hey, y’all. I would like to address this meeting of the Harper Valley PTA … wait a minute, wrong speech. This is about putting on an event at your motorsickle shop. OK, let’s get into it.
The idea behind putting on an event is to make money for the business, and you do that by bringing people into the store. However, people have to have a reason to come visit your business and spend money. Whether it’s an open house, anniversary party, or Marilyn Monroe’s birthday (June 1), having an event will give them that reason to visit and hang out all day.
At my shop, we put on an event every couple of months. Here are some of the things we do to attract people.
For starters, I always advertise the event on the radio. That kinda makes it more legitimate and helps spread the word to more people. We have our Spring Fling party every year around the end of March or the beginning of April, so people always know when it’s going to be. That makes it easier for them to plan to attend every year. We also make it a three-day weekend, so more people will travel to see us.
The way to make a three-day event work is to make sure there are reasons for people to come back each day. We do this with contests. On Friday night, I’ll do a tattoo contest. I own a tattoo shop (Strokers Ink), which makes this easier. But you can work with your local shop for judges and prizes. Saturday, we do a wet T-shirt contest that’s always popular. And on Sunday, we have a bikini contest. We use the crowd for the judges, and they really get into it.
For us, alcohol is another key factor in a successful event. If people can drink a beer while they’re here, they stick around longer and come back the next day. Again, it helps that we have a bar next door (Strokers IceHouse). You may need to get an event permit to serve beer. Just make sure you also get event insurance to cover yourself.
Adding Entertainment
For entertainment, we bring in several bands to play continuously through the weekend. Having live music is important to create that party atmosphere, and you can usually find local bands to play for free or cheap just to get their name out there. We also make sure that we have plenty of gals around for atmosphere.?If you’re trying to create a family-friendly event, think about activities for kids. If people feel like the whole family is welcome, they’ll be likely to spend the day.?We’ve brought in motorcycle daredevils to perform, including a trials rider who climbs over everything on his bike, and sportbike guys doing wheelies and donuts. Last year, we had “Jumping” Jeff Schneider, who jumped over 13 trucks on his Harley. This kinda stuff brings people in and keeps them. If there is a big-name bike builder in your neck of the woods, then invite him out to show off his work.
Inviting Groups
It’s also a good idea to invite some local bike clubs and vintage-bike clubs, or the local antique/hot-rod car club. These guys all love to show off their stuff, and it won’t cost you a dime. Just give them special parking to show off their machines, and these guys will eat it up and talk it up. They will tell their buddies that they’ll be there and that their friends should come hang out as well.
I’d also invite the HOG club and Ladies of Harley groups in your area. Inviting all these people is the easiest way to publicize the event and get lots of people to your shop without spending a lot of money. Bikers love to be around other bikers. If you can get the party started, then they know what to do from there.
Like I said, though, the point is to make money! So once you get these people to your shop, be sure to have plenty of stuff to sell. Load up on T-shirts, sunglasses, bandannas, caps, gloves, belt buckles, and all those quick-impulse items. Decorate your store with banners, pictures, or anything else that will encourage your customers to walk around and not just stand in one spot. I even have the ceiling airbrushed. The more stuff you have to look at, the longer people hang around, and the more money they spend.
While you’re thinking ahead, be sure you set aside plenty of room for parking all the bikes that will show up, and talk to your city’s special events department about any permits you need to hold an event, put up tents, host live music, or serve alcohol. I also work with the Dallas Police Department to provide security — not that you’re likely to need it, but better safe than sorry.
Once you get your event going, it will take on a life of its own and people will come back every year. Hey, I didn’t start my business the size it is now. It grew steadily, and having planned events helped a lot.
— Rick Fairless
And a Few More Additional Ideas for Shop Promotions
What else can you do with promotions to bring customers into your shop? Here are several more ideas borrowed from successful dealerships across the country:
1. Bring in the reps — Huge dealerships can get the manufacturers to show up at their open houses. You probably can’t match that, but do you have some close contacts with a distributor, an aftermarket company or custom builder in your area? See if they’d be willing to display their products at your event, and offer expert advice or tech tips to your customers.
2. How low can you go? — See if you can get volume pricing on special products from your distributors (particularly those that might be on hand) to pass along to your customers.
3. Everything must go — Put your own clearance pricing on last year’s merchandise that’s cluttering up your display shelves. Move it out to make room for new gear this year.
4. Get it on — Offer special “buy-it-now, install-it-free” deals on select items to spur sales and introduce customers to your service department.
5. Make it yours — Work with local airbrush artists or painters to offer discounts on customizing newly purchased items.
6. Show it off (part one) — Hold bike shows in various categories: customs, everyday riders, vintage bikes, etc. Offer the free use of cleaning products to promote sales. Let your visitors choose the winner by placing quarters in buckets in front of each machine, with the proceeds going to charity. You get a great addition to your event, more customer involvement, and thanks from a charitable organization, all for the price of a few trophies.
7. Show it off (part two) — Does your shop sponsor a race team? Make the bike and rider attractions at your event. People love to look over exotic?racing machines, particularly stretched-out drag racers, and talk to the?athletes who ride them.
8. Choose a partner — Many local radio stations are eager to do remote broadcasts from locations that allow them to come into direct contact with listeners. And that’s exactly what you have to offer. In exchange, you’ll get plenty of pre-event promotion on the station.