Now that 2020 has wrapped, many OEMs are beating the drum about the significant year over year growth they saw last year. However, Mark Sheffield, Strategic Advisor at Woods Indian Motorcycle, and Powersports Consultant Derek Sanders warn we must be cautious of the hype; although dealers benefited greatly from a global recession, the pandemic created some unique market distortions. In this episode, Mark and Derek discuss why the pandemic has been an opportunity for dealers to reset and what they must do to continue to find success moving forward.

Show Notes: 

00:00:00 00:00:55

• Host Robert Pandya introduces episode guests Mark Sheffield, Strategic Advisor at Woods Indian Motorcycle, and Derek Sanders, Powersports Consultant.

00:00:00 00:01:20

• Mark shares his background and how he joined the Powersports world.  

00:00:00 00:02:45

• Mark explains why the Powersports industry needs to be cautious of the recent industry hype and the unique market distortions the pandemic created.

00:00:00 00:06:00

• Derek shares his background and how he got into the motorcycle industry as well as the technology sector.

00:00:00 00:9:40

• Derek explains new tactics OEMs and dealers are employing to better serve consumers and what the new buyer needs.

00:00:00 00:12:45

• Derek explains key differences between GenXers and Millennials in terms of their consumer habits.

00:00:00 00:14:30

• Mark explains the importance of responding to digital leads.

00:00:00 00:18:30

• Derek explains why dealers need to focus on digital leads and learn this skillset.

00:00:00 00:20:13

• Mark shares a three-pronged approach in preparing dealers for success.

00:00:00 00:22:00

• Mark explains areas that dealers are generally lacking and missing out on.

00:00:00 00:25:10

• Derek highlights cool companies engaging technology to better customer experience.

00:00:00 00:29:30

• Mark speaks to inventory management in the current era, the sweet spot dealers need to shoot for, and how to find out who in the dealership is carrying the weight leveraging data.

00:00:00 00:35:00

• Derek explains why 2020 was a huge wakeup call for the Powersports industry and why we need to do things differently to ensure we are going to be here in the next five and 10 years.

00:00:00 00:37:20

• Derek and Mark speak to the key training that needs to happen for existing and new sales staff.

00:00:00 00:42:15

• Mark speaks to the importance of fixed operations.

00:00:00 00:46:00

• Derek and Mark each give the OEM and dealer network a piece of advice.

00:00:00 00:37:35

• Robert closes the conversation and reminds everyone to subscribe and get in touch with the producers of Centerstand at [email protected].