May 25, 2009 – Remembering the true objective for the motorcycle dealer

At a recent regional OEM meeting I attended the conversation between dealers on the break turned, as it always does, to “how’s biz?” As all of us know such conversations are not limited by the truth, and are usually subject to commentary on what the OEM, government and local competition are doing or not doing. Credit is always taken when things are good, and blame assigned somewhere when they are not.
In a particular coffee klatch I was participating in, the question to me was, given that we had just made another dealership acquisition effective May 1, “how was I confident that we could turn around and succeed in an underperforming dealership in such a tough market?”
My response was that the day before we took over, we had hired nine salespeople in addition to the two in place, hired two full-time F&I people, expanded the open hours, including Sunday operation and had major promotional plans in place. We installed automated traffic tracking and follow-up resources. We were focused on controlling all we could control and were confident that we would see immediate positive results. This answer produced a hostile glare from one of the dealers in the group, whose response was, “Lemco, you are such a whore.”
The dealer making the comment is a long time and well-known operator. His comment was heartfelt and certainly direct. He has a beautiful dealership and is involved in a number of local and industry events and is in all regards a quality individual who would not make, what he intended as an insult, lightly. From his prospective I am very much a whore.
To do for money, what others do out of love and passion, does by definition make me a whore. I offered no apology to him and I offer none here. I have endured such responses for as long as I have been in the business. Making a priority out of having a structured and aggressive sales process, opening longer hours seven days a week and being totally focused on profitability used to be an option. A couple of years ago I wrote in this column that there was room in our industry for both enthusiasts and promoters (whores to some). I’m not sure that option continues to exist.
Things are tough out there, perhaps tougher than I have observed in my 40 years in the business. I have been saying in this column, to my partners and to the members in my Harley PG “20” club, that in spite of all the bad cards dealt, the income opportunity is as good as it has ever been. And, I have been putting my money where my mouth is, as an active partner and investor in six dealerships.
We take care of our customers and provide a quality experience to every showroom visitor, with enough staff to pay attention and ask everyone to buy. We care about our staff and endeavor to be supportive of OEM programs and provide good representation. However, the order of our priorities remains intact:
1. The dealership
2. The customer
3. The staff
4. The OEM
If we don’t make money, the order doesn’t matter much because we cannot take care of anyone on the list. And if being in the business primarily for the money makes me a whore, so be it.
True, we deal in a product that is driven by emotion, not logic. People do not need the toys we sell. We measure total revenue and profitability but must never lose track of the fact that while we generate a profit (hopefully) with every motorcycle sold, the real winner in every transaction is the customer. The objective is to operate in a manner that makes it easier for more customers to acquire what they want.
Many dealers have gone broke this year, and sadly many more will follow. Most will not fail for a lack of integrity or a genuine desire to be part of an industry they love. They are genuine true salt of the earth people that I have put a lot of effort, for my entire adult life, into advocating for. I wish them well and hope they can draw some comfort in the fact that they really tried and never stooped to being what they considered to be a whore.
Cheers, Ed. psb
Ed Lemco has been involved with the powersports industry for more than 30 years. Lemco, the former owner of Lemco Management Group, is the founder and executive director of the National Council of Motorcycle Dealer Associations. Lemco currently operates a call center for dealers in St Croix.