Bintelli, a distributor of scooters, electric bicycles, golf carts, and go-karts, is launching a program to incentivize dealers to improve their businesses, according to a published report.
In order to help dealers compete with online retailers, Bintelli created the Continuing Education Credit Program, in which dealers can receive discounts on Bintelli products for attending trade shows and dealer seminars. In addition, dealers can earn points by watching the exclusive educational improvement videos that Bintelli produces for its dealer network.
“We want to reward them for buying in, and working towards improving their dealership,” Justin Jackrel, president of Binelli, said in Powersports Business. “It’s sort of a Hail Mary, but we need to do everything in our power to motivate these dealers to find out what the secret sauce is. I honestly believe that if we don’t do something in five years, 75% of the powersports dealers [will] close, and everyone [will buy] their stuff on Amazon.”
Jackrel admits that Bintelli likely won’t be able to run the program for an extended period of time; if every dealer in the distributor network attended two trade shows and watched 75% of their videos in the next year, the company would lose over $250,000 in incentive money. However, the program is meant to get dealers started on the path of improvement and that for struggling dealerships, this is “kind of a last-chance thing,” he said.
“Anything that is done in the name of training, education, or dealer development is a good thing,” Scott Yarbrough, editor of the Black Book Official Motorcycle & Powersports Value Guide, told Powersports Finance. “Like many other areas of the economy, how brick and mortar retailers compete with online-only operations will come down to the value-add of the physical store and personal touch of the people involved.”
In addition to the financial incentives, Bintelli will also make efforts to aid dealers in showroom setup, stocking, marketing, and cross-promotion. The distributor will make detailed business plans for each of its products and will offer assistance with online product advertising on sites like Craigslist.
