Powersports Business Blog
Offering Test Rides - Is it Worth the Effort?
June 2009
Fact one: Today when a motorcycle shopper walks through the door of a dealership, 77% of the time there will be no mention at all of the possibility of a test ride. Fact two: Motorcycle dealerships which offer test rides to prospects at least three-quarters of the time retail on average 43% more motorcycles than those who do not. Few dispute the fact that test rides sell motorcycles, so why do so few dealerships figure out how to offer test ...
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Road Racing World.com
Ducati Gains Market Share In United States
May 2009
New Dealership Openings and Highest Ranking in Prospect Satisfaction Index® Contribute to Company Success Nationwide Cupertino, Calif. (May 20, 2009) – Ducati North America is delighted to announce a significant boost in market share across the United States for the first quarter of 2009. Despite adverse market conditions and a drying up of consumer credit, Ducati is attracting a bigger share of the market than ever before. "Ducati has come a ...
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Las Vegas Sun
Ducati grows U.S. business by better relating to customers
May 2009
Ducati has been the fastest-growing motorcycle brand in the United States for the past five years, but it was by no means an immediate success. The company changed almost everything about itself, from the models it imports to the distribution of dealerships. It focused more on boutique, specialized dealerships and removed itself from the big multibrand dealerships that sell product, but don't sell brand. Because Ducati is a niche product, Lock ...
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Motorcycle.com
Duc dealers first in customer treatment - Study ranks dealerships on helping prospective customers
May 2009
A recent study gave Ducati dealers the highest ranking among U.S. dealerships for how they treat their customers.
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PowerSports Business
Survey: Retail sales practices improving for most brands
May 2009
Compared to last year, the motorcycle sales department staff is more likely to introduce themselves to clients and ask follow-up questions, not to mention encourage consumers to sit on a bike. However, they are less likely to inform the consumer about financing options, discuss the bike's unique features and how those compare to the competition, and less likely to provide visual aids, like brochures. Those are some of the key findings from a ...
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Motorcycle Product News
Pied Piper Releases Customer Satisfaction Study
May 2009
Ducati dealerships ranked highest in the newly released 2009 Pied Piper Prospect Satisfaction Index U.S. Motorcycle Industry Study, which measures how consumers are treated when shopping for a new motorcycle.
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Dealernews
Pied Piper Study: Customer Service Improves
May 2009
Motorcycle salespeople on average asked prospective customers for their contact information only 45 percent of the time during a recent nine-month period, according to the 2009 Pied Piper Prospect Satisfaction Index study. Sounds bad, right? But it's actually an improvement over the previous year's study in which salespeople asked only 38 percent of time. Dealership staff members seem to be improving in other areas as well, the study reported.
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Press Release: 2009 Pied Piper PSI(R) U.S. Motorcycle Industry Study
Ducati Dealers Achieve Highest Ranking in 2009
May 2009
Ducati dealerships ranked highest in the newly released 2009 Pied Piper Prospect Satisfaction Index® (PSI) U.S. Motorcycle Industry Study, one of a series of annual benchmarking studies which measure how consumers are treated when shopping for a new car, motorcycle, RV or boat. The independent study sent 2,100 hired anonymous “mystery shoppers” into motorcycle dealerships nationwide, then used the patent-pending PSI process to compile the ...
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Powersports Business Blog
What Can Today's Shoppers Learn from Your Salespeople?
May 2009
Many shoppers today walk through the door of a dealership armed with enough product information from the internet to give a product "walk-around" themselves. The question is, "What can today's shoppers learn from your salespeople?" We know that the most successful salespeople are seen by the shoppers as helpful, rather than simply trying to sell a motorcycle without regard for the shopper's interests or needs. But if all a salesperson knows about ...
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Powersports Business Blog
Retaining Your Customers - Assembly Required
April 2009
Remember when you were a kid and built model cars or airplanes? You spent hours carefully assembling your models, but then placed them on a shelf and didn't pay much attention to them afterward. Building the models was the part that was fun. Now consider an important ingredient to Harley-Davidson's survival thirty years ago: If you wanted to ride a Harley back then, you also had to regularly repair it, or even better, replace parts prone to ...
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