Being A Motorcycle Salesperson: 5 Things I Hated

adri

adri

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And also five things I loved about being a motorcycle salesperson at a dealership... because, can't lie, the job was great to me... even if I was too new to be great at the job.


Filmed in the Abruzzo mountains of central Italy, except for the opening 30 seconds in my garage. If you don't like the guy talking (it's cool, I hate him sometimes too), just watch it on mute and enjoy the scenery :)

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Nicely done. The conundrum of sales, you need them and everyone hates them. Nice scenery. Wonder how motorcycle dealers in Italy are viewed there.
 
I spent a long time training sales people for a bank, thousand over the years. Where most struggled is how to identify customer needs.

immediate need, they are ready to buy and need a salesman to guide them through the process. This is easy because they tell you they are buying now. I want a motorcycle now, I’m in love with this model.

Undeclared need: customer had the need in the back of their mind, but doesn’t readily disclose it. I’m primarily a commuter but planning a few long trips. I don’t wrench anything, so I need a good service network. Im 22 and I can only afford 1500/year for insurance.

Future needs: customer is in the tire kicking stage, doing research to figure out whether they need the what they are shopping for and trying to figure out the ownership experience. A couple of friends have motorcycles and I think I’d like to get one. I’m planning to buy once I save some money, but want to start understanding my options.

No need. These are the folks that shop for recreation, not really planning to buy anytime soon, just enjoy being close to their fantasy.

The sales process becomes a lot easier if one can assess needs, unfortunately any sales folks don’t do this well, making the sales journey tougher for them and the buyer. Those who master this generally do much better.

Skipping this part of the sales process risks putting the buyer into something Sales people who don’t master this are less successful and usually move out of selling.
 
Great video, a lot to think about. Selling bikes would be my dream job unfortunately I don’t think there’s much money in it unless you actually own the business, even then I think it’s pretty challenging. I’ve met many business owners and bike salesmen over the years, none of them with the exception of one or two made bank. I would have a problem with the ethical issues mentioned, selling a full on sport bike to an 18-24 year old kid rarely ends well. I really effed up my driving record for 4 years at 19 on a ‘81 Suzuki GS1100. All the bikes I’ve bought new were easy work for the salesman. I basically read every bike magazine available cover to cover and knew exactly what I wanted right down to the colour. I usually knew more about the bike than he did.I use to drive past Brooklin Cycle on my way home from work years ago and they had an absolutely gorgeous bright red 2001 Honda Interceptor in the front window that I was lusting after. I could see it every day from Brock St. on my way home from work. Then, coincidentally on my birthday, after a month of torture I pulled into the parking lot, walked in and up to the first salesman I saw and said I would like to buy THAT bike. He looked a little shocked. As we did the paperwork he kept telling me sincerely how much he loved that bike also. I asked him how many he had sold as it was a very popular bike with limited availability. He looked at me and said “This is the first bike I’ve ever sold”.That really made my day.
 
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adri said:
It's all @Lightcycle 's fault.
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Mad Mike said:
I spent a long time training sales people for a bank, thousand over the years. Where most struggled is how to identify customer needs.

immediate need, they are ready to buy and need a salesman to guide them through the process. This is easy because they tell you they are buying now. I want a motorcycle now, I’m in love with this model.

Undeclared need: customer had the need in the back of their mind, but doesn’t readily disclose it. I’m primarily a commuter but planning a few long trips. I don’t wrench anything, so I need a good service network. Im 22 and I can only afford 1500/year for insurance.

Future needs: customer is in the tire kicking stage, doing research to figure out whether they need the what they are shopping for and trying to figure out the ownership experience. A couple of friends have motorcycles and I think I’d like to get one. I’m planning to buy once I save some money, but want to start understanding my options.

No need. These are the folks that shop for recreation, not really planning to buy anytime soon, just enjoy being close to their fantasy.

The sales process becomes a lot easier if one can assess needs, unfortunately any sales folks don’t do this well, making the sales journey tougher for them and the buyer. Those who master this generally do much better.

Skipping this part of the sales process risks putting the buyer into something Sales people who don’t master this are less successful and usually move out of selling.
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Future needs: If our car was to suddenly dissolve in the rain, I would like to generally know what's out there so I occasionally window shop. Keeping up with sticker shock is also a factor.

They used to leave the build list and MSRP on the cars so I could get a feel for the market without disturbing a sales rep. Now they insist on a sales rep disturbing me. I tell them upfront I am only updating my view of the market but the sales pressure continues.

No Need: I had a friend that was financially in very good shape and he enjoyed going through the dog and pony sales presentations and never inking a deal. He got his ego buffed by knowing he could have paid cash for any of the cars he looked at.

Similarly with boats: I was at the boat show many years ago when C&C was still around and a young guy took a half an hour of a rep's time asking very specific questions about the 30+ foot boat they were standing on. At the end the rep asked what the young guy was presently sailing. It was the equivalent of a windsurfer.

Interesting bit, I took note of the prices and displacements of several C&C models and they were withing a few cents per pound of each other.
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