Recent Press - Fran O'Hagan

Some vehicle brands that score high in customer satisfaction surveys do less well when the effectiveness of dealership salespeople is measured, according to a California consultant. Mystery shopping consultant Pied Piper of Monterey, Calif., sent 4,419 shoppers to dealerships nationwide, from July 2011 to June 2012, to measure salespeople's effectiveness in selling cars on the showroom floor.

Mercedes-Benz ranked first in the survey and led all brands in 10 of the 60 sales activities measured in Pied Piper's Prospect Satisfaction Index. For example, Mercedes led in salesperson introductions, offering a thorough test drive and focusing attention on important features. Mercedes was followed by Acura, Infiniti and Lexus.

Pied Piper said it looked at everything leading up to the purchase decision, starting from the first contact by the salesperson to the customer's decision to purchase or not. J.D. Power's Sales Satisfaction Index asks consumers for their impression of a dealership where they had recently purchased a vehicle.

There are a lot of ways to measure customer satisfaction. J.D. Power talks to recent buyers. Polk looks at sales stats and customer retention. But the folks at Pied Piper do it the old-fashioned way: with secret shoppers.

Between July 2011 and June 2012, Pied Piper hired 4,419 secret shoppers to visit dealerships across the U.S. The shoppers scored each sales pitch on 60 different criteria: were they offered a brochure? Were they given a walkaround demo of the vehicle? Did the salesperson discuss financing options? And so on.

Now, Pied Piper's data has been tallied, and the firm has released its 2012 Prospect Satisfaction Index (aka the "PSI"). Overall scores soared, proving that dealers and their teams have taken previous critiques to heart. Fran O'Hagan, Pied Piper's President and CEO, said that “This year's record high PSI results show that today's dealership employees work harder than ever to be helpful to car shoppers”.

Mercedes-Benz is still topping out in the U.S. when it comes to how its dealers treat shoppers. The Montvale, N.J.-based automaker, which was in the top five of the J.D. Power & Associates dealership experience survey last year behind Lexus and Cadillac, takes the top position in the latest Pied Piper Prospect Satisfaction Index (PSI).

The PSI is a mystery shopper-based study that the firm conducted between July last year and June this year, using 4,419 hired anonymous people to shop at dealerships. Mercedes has been number one in the study for the past four years, based on a process that ties mystery shopping measurement and scoring to industry sales success. Acura, Infiniti and Lexus dealerships tied for second.

This is a good news/bad news, glass is half empty/half full type of situation. On the one hand, dealing with unscrupulous car dealers remains among the top consumer complaints, on the other hand a recent study reports that dealers are treating today's car shoppers better than ever on the showroom floor.

Especially if they're interested in buying a luxury-branded model.

Mercedes-Benz dealers can boast having the most satisfied shoppers in the auto industry according to the 2012 Prospect Satisfaction Index (PSI) U.S. Auto Industry Benchmarking Study conducted by Pied Piper Management Company in Monterey, Calif. Meanwhile, Acura, Infiniti and Lexus followed closely in a three-way tie for second place. Overall, twenty-four of thirty-four auto brands improved their prospect satisfaction scores from 2011 to 2012. Those at the bottom of the pack include Audi, Jeep, Kia, Porsche, Suzuki and Mitsubishi.

We know that the typical motorcycle salesperson has to ask for the sale seven times to hear a customer say yes. What if there was a salesperson who had to ask for the sale 50 times to hear his first yes?

Meet Jose Jiminez, who for the past year has manned a Southwest Airlines cart in the Ontario, Calif., airport, encouraging travelers to signup for a Southwest Airlines Visa card. Jiminez is not only a salesperson, but is one who can't let rejection get in the way of having a good day. Every day he interacts with several hundred travelers to find eight or 10 willing to signup for a new Visa card. Fourty-nine travelers out of 50 reject his pitch.

Jiminez has clearly learned how to cope with all that rejection, and a powersports salesperson can learn three points from him:

1. It's a numbers game. If you accept going in that it will take multiple “asks” to hear a yes, it makes the rejection less personal and simply part of what's required to get a yes. Jiminez said, “You can't get disappointed when one person says no, because the next person may be the one who says yes.”

2. Stay upbeat and friendly. It shouldn't be the rest of the world's problem if you are personally having a bad day. Your prospects don't need to suffer too. Switch gears when you get to work. As Jiminez points out, upbeat and friendly is part of the job.

3. Don't pre-judge. Ask everyone for the sale. “The person who seems sure to say no will often surprise you and turn out to be the one who will say yes,” Jiminez said. The only way to find out is to ask.

Pass these tips along to your sales team to put rejection into the proper context, and when you are next in the Ontario airport flying on Southwest, stop by and say hello to Jose Jiminez.

Harley-Davidson dealerships returned to the top ranking in the newly released 2012 Pied Piper Prospect Satisfaction Index (PSI) U.S. Motorcycle Industry Benchmarking Study, which measured dealership treatment of motorcycle shoppers. Study rankings by brand were determined by the patent-pending Pied Piper PSI process, which ties “mystery shopping” measurement and scoring to industry sales success.

BMW and Ducati finished in a tie for second, followed by Triumph and the Victory and Indian brands from Polaris Industries, in a three-way tie for fourth. Industry-wide performance improved substantially from 2011 to 2012, with only three of sixteen motorcycle brands failing to achieve higher scores.

Harley-Davidson dealerships led all brands in 16 different sales activities such as offering test rides, obtaining contact information and asking for the sale. Brand performance varied considerably from brand to brand, with twelve different brands leading at least one sales process category. For example, Ducati, Husqvarna and Triumph dealerships were twice as likely to offer a brochure to shoppers than dealerships selling Suzuki, Honda or Kawasaki. Similarly, Harley-Davidson, BMW and Ducati dealerships were twice as likely to ask for contact information than dealerships selling Husqvarna, MV Augusta or Moto Guzzi.

2012 Pied Piper PSI results for the U.S. motorcycle industry confirm that Harley-Davidson dealerships sell as effectively in 2012 as they did back in 2008 — pre-recession — when motorcycle dealerships nationwide were still enjoying another year of solid sales. But what about the dealerships that sell Honda, Triumph, Kawasaki, or any of the other brands? Many of these dealerships operate in 2012 with half the dealership staff that they had in 2008. How effectively could they possibly sell today compared to 2008?

It took the Harley-Davidson dealerships four years for their Pied Piper PSI score measuring sales effectiveness to climb back up to their 2008 level; a performance that in 2012 leads the industry. In contrast, while the 2012 PSI averages for all other brands trail Harley-Davidson, the improvement for all other brands from 2008 to 2012 is much greater.

That's right, despite of — or maybe because of — the tough times and smaller dealership staffs, dealerships selling the non-Harley-Davidson brands on average sell more effectively in 2012 than they did in 2008. Leading the way, with the most improvement, are the dealer networks selling Husqvarna, Triumph, Aprilia, Yamaha, KTM, Moto Guzzi and Honda.

Some examples? The typical Honda salesperson in 2012 introduced him or herself to a prospect 78 percent of the time and asked for the sale 52 percent of the time. Yes, there is plenty more room for improvement, but in 2008 those figures were 59 percent and 44 percent respectively.

So take a moment to congratulate yourselves on improving how motorcycles are sold at your dealership. … Now back to work pushing those improvements even further.

Harley-Davidson dealers return to the top ranking in Pied Piper Management Co.'s annual study measuring how well dealers treat motorcycle shoppers.

The California-based research company today released results of the 2012 Pied Piper Prospect Satisfaction Index (PSI) U.S. Motorcycle Industry Benchmarking Study.

BMW and Ducati finished in a tie for second, followed by Triumph, Victory and Indian in a three-way tie for fourth. Industry-wide performance improved substantially from 2011 to 2012, with only three of 16 motorcycle brands failing to achieve higher scores.

Harley dealerships led all brands in 16 different sales activities such as offering test rides, obtaining contact information and asking for the sale. Brand performance varied considerably from brand to brand, with 12 different brands leading at least one sales process category. For example, Ducati, Husqvarna and Triumph dealerships were twice as likely to offer a brochure to shoppers than dealerships selling Suzuki, Honda or Kawasaki. Similarly, Harley-Davidson, BMW and Ducati dealerships were twice as likely to ask for contact information than dealerships selling Husqvarna, MV Agusta or Moto Guzzi.

Monterey, California – May 7, 2012 – Harley-Davidson dealerships returned to the top ranking in the newly released 2012 Pied Piper Prospect Satisfaction Index(R) (PSI(R)) U.S. Motorcycle Industry Benchmarking Study, which measured dealership treatment of motorcycle shoppers. Study rankings by brand were determined by the patent-pending Pied Piper PSI process, which ties “mystery shopping” measurement and scoring to industry sales success.

BMW and Ducati finished in a tie for second, followed by Triumph and the Victory and Indian brands from Polaris Industries, in a three-way tie for fourth. Industry-wide performance improved substantially from 2011 to 2012, with only three of sixteen motorcycle brands failing to achieve higher scores.

There are studies that show facilities actually have little to do with whether a customer buys a vehicle from a dealership. One such study is Pied Piper Management LLC's annual Prospect Satisfaction Index, which sends anywhere from 3,500 to 4,000 mystery shoppers into dealerships each year to determine what's most important to customers.

And yes, the facility ranks low on importance. In fact, it's the dealership's people that are the most important. Says Fran O'Hagan, Pied Piper's founder, "The sales team is what makes much more of a difference than the facility. That's not to say the facility doesn't make a difference, just that if you and I owned a dealership and had to pick between a great sales team and a great facility; we would pick the great sales team every time."

(For the record, the Pied Piper study is the most comprehensive and provides the most accurate picture of what's going on in the dealership that I've seen. O'Hagan has been in the business for a long time -- much of it as an OEM guy.)

So what role does a facility play in either the vehicle purchase or service for a customer? According to Pied Piper, there are five key points: