You just got back from a great show, but despite your best efforts, some meetings with prospects didn’t lead to a sale. Not so unusual, is it? You also realize that you didn’t see some potential buyers that you were sure would visit your booth over the weekend.

Powersports Business and its bloggers remind you each year that your dealership should be participating in holiday sales, Black Friday and other significant retail days and events. We’ll keep reminding you of that year after year – and provide you unique tips for capitalizing on these days – because showcasing your dealership’s goods while other retailers are promoting theirs is highly important. But one we haven’t yet touched on is Small Business Saturday.

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.

Most new prospects who visit a dealer’s booth for the first time aren’t ready to commit on the spot. In fact, most sales are closed with prospects that dealers have been working with for a while, even as far back as past shows. Motorcycles, ATVs and other powersports products are luxury purchases that often require a long-term research and buying process, so this first visit usually marks the beginning of the sales process, not the sale per se.

If you’re a powersports dealer, you should already be preparing for the holiday season.

A customer purchases a new major unit – a snowmobile – from his favorite dealer. As part of the purchase he also spent $1,500 in performance parts, $900 in service work to install them and $500 on a new jacket to match his sled. His total expenditure is more than $15,000.

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.

Scenario: A customer purchases a new ATV from his local dealer. The next year he goes back to purchase two additional units from the same dealer as both his wife and his son have enjoyed riding as well. In preparing for a family ATV vacation, he finds the battery for the original unit will no longer hold a charge.

We’ve barely bid a fond farewell to summer and already it’s time to start welcoming in the holiday season. To provide you with a jumpstart on your planning, we’ve included these suggestions to help you boost your holiday sales.

Events have always been a form of marketing for most dealerships, but they’ve become more prevalent in the past few years as dealers are reaching out to invite more customers into their stores to encourage more spending.