Best-In-Class – Marketing and F&I: Logan Motorcycle Sales
Logan Motorcycle Sales of Wilkinson, West Virigina, generates business by sending out electronic emails to customers. The emails include coupons and information about sales in the service department, what parts are popular, and what units are on sale. Emails are also sent to customers on their birthday.
“We don’t try to overload people,” says Shawnda Hammons, VP of Logan, noting that emails are only sent out once or twice a month.
The dealership uses a platform called Connect through the Lightspeed software. “When one of our employees communicates with a customer, it allows all employees to see what they said back and forth so anybody can jump in to help,” Hammons says. “That’s extremely helpful.”
Facebook Marketplace is also used to boost sales. “Before I was VP and working in sales, I used Marketplace long before COVID. COVID made it become a bigger thing, but we used it before then to generate a lot of business,” she says. “We would bring people in from multiple states away.”
To reach a new audience, they practice keyword marketing by purchasing words associated with the dealership and the powersports industry. The dealership has also started posting on TikTok and has seen good response, notes Hammons.
“The reason we leaned toward TikTok this year is because we have a lot of younger buyers. The younger generation is all about TikTok. So even if it throws a couple of videos on their feed, it might generate a little bit of business,” she says.
Along with its digital marketing programs, the dealership still believes in print and places advertisements in two local newspapers and has two billboards. One is just over a mile from the store and the other is about 10 miles from the store.
In the F&I department, the dealership uses iTap, an electronic menu selling process that is integrated with Lightspeed. The iTap menu system allows employees to present to the customer all available products on an iPad that discloses product information, product terms, pricing, financing payment, terms and rates.
This system saves time when signing a customer because information is not manually entered into multiple programs. The menu allows the customer to choose coverage options that best suit their riding needs at the swipe of a finger and recalculates payments automatically.
Making the buying process simpler for the customer and having all coverage and payment information at the tip of their finger has generated an increase of 15 percent year over year in vehicle service contract sales. Coverage options that are the most popular at the dealership include the Lifetime Battery, extended service agreement and priority maintenance coverages.
About 65 to 70 percent of customers are financing ATVs and UTVs and Hammons explains that it is important to be able to assist these customers as they make financing decisions. The business manager, manager and Hammons handle this responsibility together.
