Category: Uncategorized

Get Some Mud on the ATV

Post author By efgmarketing
Post date March 24, 2023

It’s Spring – or almost Spring depending on your location – and what better time to pull that ATV out of the shed and churn some dirt! While you’re at it, now is a good time to generate some revenue as well. According to Mordor Intelligence, the North American ATV and UTV market is valued at USD 5.96 billion in 2023, with a predicted growth to USD 7.90 billion, registering a CAGR of about 4.8 percent over the next five years. Rebounding from the shut-down pandemic years, ATV and UTV use has expanded from primarily agriculture, patrolling and hunting uses to sports and recreational activities, gardening, and a plethora of other uses.

Top ATV manufacturers including Yamaha, Polaris, Honda, Can-Am, Suzuki, and Kawasaki realized the opportunity for market growth during the pandemic and announced a slew of new products in 2022. Targeting a wide range of markets including sports, all-terrain, adult, youth, and commercial applications, these units are hitting the showroom floor as consumers shake off the winter doldrums. Specifically, the growth in off-road adventure activities and ‘overlanding’ reflects US consumer interest in affordable family-oriented fun.

While gas-powered models will remain the top seller for the next couple of years, advancements in electric ATVs will leverage growth in the automotive EV market. Outdoor charging options for hunting or back-country use may lag but commercial applications including military and civic use could follow the trend of these industries transitioning their fleets to EVs.

Tags and Kawasaki, ATV, Can-Am, EFG, EFG Companies, Honda, Polaris, Suzuki, xTreme Protection, Yamaha

Uncategorized

Taking a Holistic Approach

Post author By efgmarketing
Post date February 21, 2023

We’ve all heard the phrase, “take the holistic approach.” But, what does that mean from a dealer perspective? From the first point of contact, through the sales process, and throughout the life of the unit, your goal is to build a relationship that supports the whole customer journey. It’s as much a mindset as it is a functional way of running your business.

But what happens if you don’t take a holistic approach? Say for example, your parts and service departments are viewed as cost centers rather than profit centers. While you provide needed functions that are critical to the life of the powersports product, the departments are not viewed as a component of supporting the whole customer journey. Instead, those departments may be managed as an expense that is monitored and managed based on their impact to the dealership – not as a benefit to the customer. Or maybe inventories are kept as low as possible, employee training is written off as too expensive, and service employees are not encouraged to evaluate the entire customer experience with the unit.

What might happen if you changed your approach to one portion of your dealership? Let’s consider a scenario where you adopt a holistic approach to the service department.

Tags dealership service center, EFG, EFG Companies, powersports dealer, repair order audit, service center training, service manager training

Uncategorized

Staff for Success in 2022

Post author By efgmarketing
Post date January 14, 2022

While we wait for the year-end numbers to come in, we can make some educated estimates that sales will continue to be strong, inventory issues will continue to unwind, and service will remain an opportunity for generating profit. But one of the biggest questions looming in 2022 is staffing and labor. Will you have enough employees to support your sales and service opportunities? And, if you have sufficient staff now – will they stay?

Labor is becoming a serious issue across all areas of the economy, impacting both large and small businesses. While the unemployment rate has improved since the height of the pandemic – falling from 6.3 percent in January 2021 to 3.9 percent in December – the rate of those leaving their jobs has escalated. Employers are having to play offense and defense at the same time, struggling to fill a near-record 11 million openings while also holding on to existing workers.

As dealers look to re-staff in 2022, some are finding themselves competing in a very tight labor market. Some economists are starting to believe the pandemic has changed the behavior of the job market in ways that could have a lasting impact, including resetting the relationship between workers and their employers.