BY FRAN O'HAGAN At the Long Beach Motorcycle Show this year, at least three manufacturers mentioned their new phone apps, which join motorcycles and smart phones. Kawasaki’s Rideology app allows ...

Change is good. Think of the most successful retail stores regardless of industry, and we can agree that they all have something in common: they regularly change their in-store displays.

Earlier this year, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie signed a bill into law allowing Sunday motorcycle sales. While pushing for the change in law, New Jersey motorcycle dealerships observed that many of their customers had been crossing over the state line into Delaware to shop on Sundays.

Let’s focus on sustainable ways to drive more floor traffic. Note that I said, “sustainable,” since a one-time, budget-busting advertising blitz is probably not the long-term answer. Here are three free or inexpensive solutions that are sustainable.

Probably not. We know that asking for the sale is an obvious key to selling motorcycles, but we also know that on average, U.S. motorcycle salespeople ask for the sale less than half the time (48 percent to be exact).

I was utterly shocked when I recently received an automated email response from a dealer’s information email address that said because of the high volume of emails that are sent to that account, I may not get a response for up to 72 hours.

If your salespeople are having trouble turning shoppers into buyers, find out if the salespeople are talking customers out of buying.

The best sales team selling out of a tent will run rings around an unskilled sales team at a beautiful dealership. But what about the facility? How much of a difference does a facility make to sales success?

Everyone who blogs for the website brings different information to the table, and each was chosen to blog because of their expertise, knowledge of the industry and ability to share the information with others. The posts readers have grasped onto most are the ones with data, PSB found in a search of the Top 10 blogs since the site’s inception.

Our company applies the term, ‘museum curator’ to describe salespeople who are friendly and knowledgeable and will happily answer any customer questions, but don’t actively try to turn shoppers into buyers.