• Have things to give customers who are visiting, i.e. give them a gift.
  
  Dip dots, brochures, hard copies of your useful newsletters, anything that will be seen of value. Do I think that customers are going to go crazy and buy everything in the store because you gave them a sticker? Well of course not. But they may give you more time, attention and consideration if you do.
  
  
• Pull the bikes out of the line up.
  
  When you're working with a customer and he or she is interested in sitting on bikes you should a.) Let them and b.) Pull the bikes out of the line up and leave them out while you are working with that customer.
  
  Why? Because you may need to go back and forth and compare and this makes it a bit easier. But most importantly: it proves to the customer how hard you are working for them. The customer will look around and see three or four bikes pulled out of the line up and perhaps think to themselves, "Man this guy is really working for me!"
  
  They may be more inclined to give you a chance for the business. Remember, business is earned,it isn't given. Prove you're earning it.
  
  
• Take a digital picture of your future customer on the bike or bikes in which they are interested.
  
  When customers are in your store looking at bikes (and you have them pulled out and 'laying' around, offer to take a digital picture of the customer on the motorcycle they are interested in. This is really giving the customer something cool they will be really interested in (even more than a brochure!).
  
  So be excited, catering to the individual (not 'well what we like to do now with all of our customers... ') and offer to take their picture on the bike or bikes they've been looking at. Then ask for their e-mail address so you can send it to them later.
  
  If they agree, it means your customer likes you enough to let you spend some time with them. You've been able to have intelligent conversations about product and narrowed in on something which interests them. You've asked (and the customer has agreed) to at least sit on a motorcycle and be photographed and give you their e-mail address!

Then you can send the picture and a follow up with a fun comment like, "Here you are - looking great!" Include the couple of steps required so that they can turn the image into their computer wallpaper.

This is crucial to sales success for two reasons. First, it enables the psychological phenomenon known as transference. When someone sits on a motorcycle they are really taking mental ownership. They can "see" themselves owning the item. The digital picture enables them to relive and reinforce this feeling.

Plus, they can now show it to friends which adds an additional socially compelling ownership aspect. Please keep in mind sales opportunities aren't like wine; they don't get better with age.

I've had some people tell me they do this, but they just use the customer's cell phone to make it simpler. These people don't get it. YOU want to have the information, email address and photo of the person.

This also diminishes the reciprocity component and as a result, you've done nothing to further the relationship.

By the way, when the customers says "Thank you" for taking and sending the picture this is a huge moment of power. If you just say "No problem, would have done it for anyone!" you have frittered away a huge opportunity. Rather try saying something like, "Our pleasure! This is just one of the things we do for each other when you're a part of our dealership." This then communicates subtly to your customer that this is the kind of experience they can expect when they do business here. People like that sort of give and take.

So give the gift of your attention, give energy, be enthusiastic for the person with whom you are working and guess what? They will be enthusiastic about you and what you have to say as well.

Up the energy level, look your customers in the eye, smile, and laugh and be happy they are spending time with you and they will be more inclined to be happy and enthusiastic about what you have to say as well.

Think of this as my gift to you. After all you would do the same for me right? :-)

What do you call a person who says one thing and does another?

Hypocrite. Liar. Flip Flopper. Politician. Teenager. See - no  glowing character descriptions. Most people strive to be consistent with their publicly stated beliefs, ideas and commitments.

In an interesting experiment, a beach-goer placed his blanket, cooler and 'boom box' (for you kids out there this is how people used to take music with them before iPods!) near his area.

He spread out for a bit and then after a few moments went for a walk down the beach. At this point,  a co-conspirator came back and made it appear that he was stealing the 'boom box.' No one stopped the 'thief' or said anything. They repeated this experiment 20 times with the same result.

The scientists then moved down the beach to replicate the experiment with one exception. This time before the person went for his walk he turned to his fellow beachgoers and asked, "I'd like to go for a walk, would you watch my stuff?" To which people quickly agreed.

The result? Nineteen out of twenty times the fellow beachgoers intervened and stopped the would-be thief. Why did so many people help? They said they would.

How can you use this to get more customers to keep more appointments?

Few of us can forget the 1997 song from the Aerosmith album Nine Lives about the color pink. So we thought we'd talk to you about what pink can do for you.

Our youngest nephew, Michael, now 9, is playing hockey. His coach, in an attempt to get some players to keep two hands on their hockey sticks will put pink tape on their stick handles at the exact spot where the young players should be grasping the stick. Why?

Well, apparently, for 9 year-old boys playing hockey, having pink on your hockey stick is the closest thing to complete and utter social humiliation as they can imagine (kind of like having Ray Lewis of the Baltimore Ravens play football in a tutu).

So in an attempt to prevent the world from seeing the pink on their stick, they will keep their hands firmly wrapped around the offending tape. Alas! A fundamental of playing good hockey is grasped (pun intended).

How can you use pink and 'get a grip' (pun, again, intended?) Well as you know I'm a big fan of salespeople being product experts. One way that you can do that is by picking a model and then playing what we call "Stump the chump" (I really should get a better name for this activity). This is when - throughout the day - sales people quiz one another and try and "stump" a fellow salesperson regarding a product question. What's the lean angle? What's the torque output? What's the mileage? Questions like these are typical.

The person who can't answer is the "chump" (Hey, who wants to be a chump right?). Well Sean King, Sales Manager at Harley-Davidson of Macon does this:

We use a pink bandanna. The way it works is this: the person with the bandana has to try to stump another salesman in order to get rid of the bandana. The stumped person then has to carry it in their back pocket until they can stump someone else. Or risk carrying a pink bandanna in their pocket all day (and what self-respecting motorcycle person wants to be carrying around a pink bandanna all day!). I take it back at the end of the day and it starts over in the morning. This goes on all day. You can be anywhere except in front of a customer and get the question, and you have to nail the question.

Ok, so you know I like it when sales people know and use product facts and specifications. Although these contribute to the sales experience for the customer and dramatically increase the salesperson's credibility in the eyes of the customer, at the end of the day, facts and stats don't sell motorcycles.

What does? Appealing to one's emotions makes people buy.

You've all heard the cliché: logic makes you think, emotion makes you act. Well there's a reason it's a cliché because I believe it to be true.

How can you leverage this when selling products, especially motorcycles (if you're selling accessories or gear you can apply this as well, just transpose for your product)?

Well some positive emotions are these:

It seems everything is negotiable these days, especially the price of your motorcycles. At the same time we should not stack the deck in the other person's favor. I observed the following exchange the other day in a dealership.

A salesperson and a customer were talking and looking at a bike on the showroom floor when the customer innocently asked, "How much is this bike?"

The salesperson responded, "Well the asking price is $16,999."

When you use this sort of language on the selling floor it puts you at a disadvantage in the negotiating process. You've already used one of your "bullets" in terms of coming to an agreement on price: That is first and foremost -  is the price negotiable? You want that to be the first concession. But the other person has to 'earn' it.

When the exchange is as above you've just given away part of your power base. Is this a detail amidst the current retailing crises going on? Yep. But still... let's keep our eye on the fundamentals.

Then sign up for the Next Dealership Superstar® Contest

Years ago, Harley-Davidson President and CEO Rich Teerlink said to me, "Mark, if someone tells you they aren't interested in money, watch 'em. They'll lie about other stuff too!"