Marketing is the first touchpoint in the customer journey. Therefore, it makes sense that it plays an integral role in helping to define the sales process. The sale starts with the first contact and that impression is one that can make all the difference in your success. Every customer has a different need or expectation.

Marketing is the first touchpoint in the customer journey. Therefore, it makes sense that it plays an integral role in helping to define the sales process. The sale starts with the first contact and that impression is one that can make all the difference in your success. Every customer has a different need or expectation.

Sales technology and the sales process are evolving and it’s time that you got on board if you haven’t already. The pandemic forced brands into a lot of changes without giving them time to decide how they felt. Now, it’s time to step back and reassess as the dust begins to settle.

In today’s sales world, things are changing whether you like it or not. Instead of balking, the best thing that you can do is lean into it. Part of that is breaking away from all of those old ineffective solutions and bad habits that you’ve let sit for so long.

People are no longer looking for things to buy. They’re looking for relationships to build and connections they can make. Sure, they’d love to pick up that new ATV model, but more importantly, they’d love to find a dealership that they can work with now and in the future for all of their wants and needs in the powersports industry.

Social media is all about giving people the connection that they want to your brand on a personal, connected level. It’s about creating a persona and using that persona to reach out and connect to people.

It’s easy for any website to say they’re the best. Of course, your Powersports brand is going to try to position itself as the top choice in the area, and maybe even in the entire industry. That just comes with the territory of building a website and marketing a brand.

There are a lot of elements that are affected by your reputation, including your bottom line. In a highly competitive market like the one we have today, your reputation is the only thing that sets you apart.

More than 37% of users reported that a review was the reason that they opted to visit a website. People like information from other people. Make sure that your reviews are cultivating the right reputation for your brand because this is a big part of your overall success in optimization.

Sometimes, the best way to learn how to do something is to learn what to avoid. In the case of developing a solid search engine optimization strategy for your Powersports brand, one of the biggest mistakes that people make is not following up on their efforts.

One of the biggest mistakes that people make when it comes to search engine optimization is overlooking the value of their sitemap, or even realizing that they need one at all.

Black hat SEO tactics are those that should be avoided at all costs. These are seen by search engines as manipulative methods for increasing rankings and are not a credible way to build a proper SEO strategy.

A simple search will produce dozens of results for articles, blogs, and lists of the biggest and worst mistakes of search engine optimization.

There is a lot of value in learning from those who came before you. In all of the information that you find online regarding how to effectively implement SEO, some of the best insight you’ll find is what others are doing wrong.

SEO is a process. It’s a process that, once started, will not have an end. The sheer nature of SEO is that it will remain in place until or unless you change it.

There are no two SEO strategies that are going to be the same. This marketing process in and of itself is inherently designed to be customized to the exact needs of a specific brand or business.

There are a lot of different elements to SEO, but they all center around one thing: providing a reputable, authoritative solution for the end-user.

There is a lot that goes into effective SEO, but when it comes to building a strategy, every single brand is going to have different priorities.

When it comes to implementing SEO, research and planning are going to set the foundation in so many ways.

SEO isn’t just about keywords anymore. It’s an entire process that entails several elements, and search engines are constantly looking for the best and brightest to be ranked at the top.

There are a lot of different ways to go about tackling the beast that is SEO. If you’ve already taken the time to learn a little bit about search engine optimization and how it works, it will be easy for you to get started.

While knowing the right way is important, sometimes it’s more valuable to know what you should avoid when implementing something like SEO. Some things could go poorly if they aren’t well-executed. There are other things that you want to avoid at all costs.

To succeed with search engine optimization, you have to understand all that it entails. This is not a single tool that you will use, but an entire strategy and process that needs to be carefully planned and executed to ensure optimal results.

Watch Edge Performance explain how ALMA can benefit your powersports dealership on accountability & efficiency while still maintaining a high level 2-way conversation with their customers!

Rob Palomarez, Sales Manager at Edge Performance Sports in Ontario, OR talks about the innovative features of PSXDigital’s CXMAi Desking tool, helping him improve the efficacy of the sales process and move more machines more efficiently and with better customer satisfaction.

Jason Carlin, Inventory Manager at Edge Performance Sports, talks about PSXDigital’s +Inventory Management platform holding up as the backbone of his store operations, breaking down the departmental walls, and helping to run his dealership more efficiently to ultimately sell more machines.

Jason Carlin, Inventory Manager at Edge Performance Sports, talks about superior accessibility and efficiency of PSXDigital’s +Inventory Management platform.

Jason Carlin, Inventory Manager at Edge Performance Sports, talks about how PSXDigital’s CXMAi Inventory Management helps him monetize inventory without spending more.

Jason Carlin, Inventory Manager at Edge Performance Sports, talks about how PSXDigital’s CXMAi Inventory Management helps him monetize inventory without spending more.

Jason Carlin, Inventory Manager at EDGE PERFORMANCE SPORTS shares a few creative tips that he uses to design a winning inventory strategy using PSXDigitals’ CXMAi +Inventory Management platform.

Jason Carlin, Inventory Manager at Edge Performance Sports, talks about how he ensures stocking the right inventory at the right time – and how to keep it turning.

Jason Carlin, Inventory Manager at Edge Performance Sports, talks about specific challenges to managing inventory in Powersports and how PSXDigital’s Inventory Management and CXMAi platform has resolved those issues.

Don Werner, Sales Manager at G-Force Powersports in Colorado, cuts to the chase in his assessment of the all-in-one CXMAi platform.

Daniel Vartanian, General Manager of Glendale Harley-Davidson, discusses the reasons behind their decision to implement the PSX Digital system, as well as the results they are already seeing.

The information that’s going into the system in some cases, I mean poll numbers, email addresses, the customer’s name, this is standard information, but how can a salesperson utilize the data entry to make a better experience for themselves when these customer records do come back up when they do have to continue down the sales process? Is there a good way and a bad way to put information into the system?

As a salesperson, we’ve talked a lot about how this is incorporated into the customer facing time. How is this changing the way a salesperson functions when they’re not dealing with one, two, or three customers at the same time. When they’ve got that “down time” when they’re not in front of a customer, how is this changing their routine at that point?

Now, from a salesperson standpoint, again, my greatest asset as a salesperson is my personality, my ability to be unique from other salespeople, whether they’re working with me at the same store or across town. I want the customer to remember me. How does the salesperson preserve that aspect if suddenly we’re doing so much of this in an automated fashion that salespeople become almost cookie cutter? Does that happen?

Is there pushback from a sales manager when adapting to a modern CRM and Automated Sales Process? Not if they understand how it helps THEM, too!

Now all of a sudden as a salesperson, I can genuinely start to believe that the manager really is there to help me not to be a watchdog but to be a co-salesperson in the effort.

Now, I will admit that the very best sales people, regardless of the industry, the best salespeople have certain things that they do that maybe everyone else doesn’t do. They have a certain style, or a pattern that they follow, and from what you’re saying, we’re not trying to disrupt that entirely. A salesperson can still have what makes him a great salesperson incorporated into this, but the fundamentals of the sales process are left to the control of management and the owner of the dealership, correct?

If a salesperson pulls out a mobile phone when greeting a customer, does the customer perceive it as a distraction or is it seen as being on the cutting-edge of technology? Is it a sign that the dealership is current with the modern age and are using tools to serve them better? Or is it just rude!?!

Another thing that the sales force was not necessarily doing that well was handling the calls, the incoming calls and things, so we created business development centers. BDC was going to be the answer, and that was going to be our end-all be-all to fix things, but really the BDC is not an automatic problem solver.

When you’ve got all this information, a dealer has a tool in place that collected this information, the natural tendency is, “I’m gonna blast these people with all kinds of emails and they’re gonna hear from me all the time. What a great way! I’m gonna have my name in front of them,” but that can be the death of your process, as well.

I’m with you every step of the way, so if things start to look like they’re getting out of control, I can step in and help. If I don’t know where you’re at in the process, I can’t. So, again, you’re making my life easier.

Sales floor automation technology helps improve the natural dealership process while keeping management informed of activity. Larry Bruce tells us how.

Now you talked a lot about customers and the ways that we have historically gotten in touch with them and things like that. And you’re right, everybody now has a mobile phone, but are we still utilizing the wrong channels to get a hold of our customers?

You mentioned something about inventory; inventory management. Why is inventory management such a vital part? Such a primary aspect of your financial success as a dealer?

We’ve been working with CRM tools, at least in the automotive industry for the last 30 years. And here we are again talking about it. You would think we would be like done with it by now, right?

Somebody can get online, they can look in two, three, four places, but when they finally do come through your door, you need to earn their business, because they’ve already done their shopping.  You’re probably going to contend with some misinformation that they’ve gathered on their own, or thought they gathered on their own.

If you sell someone a car one month and their spouse comes in and buys another one 2 months later, you’re not exactly going to sell them another vehicle for a while.  But I would think that with Powersports, these new things come out; you mention accessories and even primary equipment. It’s an opportunity to be a little more aggressive than you could be with retail Automotive Sales.

It seems like for a salesperson managing their contact information, there are some similarities to retail Automotive.  I would think that in both Industries the sales person that waits around for the door to sway and the phone to ring is going to be in last place.  It sounds like there are opportunities to be very aggressive about contacting people because they want these new things. They’re not afraid to buy them.  Is that true?

We spent a lot of time dealing with Automotive dealerships over the past 20 years and helping them with customer relationship Management systems. But really honestly, what do you think is different when it comes to Powersports? Why is it such a different atmosphere and a different venue from what we’ve done in the past?

Do you see a lot of loyalty to the individual sales person the way you did in automotive? And, do you see a level of loyalty to the individual store?

What can a salesperson do?  What does a salesperson need to change about their day in day out activities to take advantage of that, if you will?  If it’s that way for them, it’s that way for everyone.