American Motorcycle Dealer AMD 236 March 2019 | Page 22

Tucker
Show
AMD attended the recent Tucker Dealer
Show at Fort Worth, Texas (January 2019)
and to accompany our review of vendor
company and product news we spoke with
newly minted Senior VP of Sales and
Marketing Greg Blackwell to get his take
on how the company draws a line under
the past few years and builds a platform
from which to win back dealers and take
sales from their competitors …
hen
it
was
announced that
industry veteran
Greg Blackwell
had joined Tucker
as the new Senior VP of Sales and
Marketing at Tucker, the general
reaction among those who knew
Greg, and knew about his
background, was that this was a
powerful signal of intent.
There was some surprise that a former
senior LeMans, Drag Specialties and
Parts Unlimited executive of many
years standing would be invited to
take a similar role at their primary
distribution rival. It has certainly
succeeded as a way to flag a change
of culture.
It was surprising to many given the
controversy that first greeted the
announcement of the “merger”
between a MAG that included several
of LeMans’ top selling brands and
W
their primary distribution. In early
2014 that announcement was news
the market, still traumatized by and in
recovery from the impacts of the
financial crisis, had to work hard to
digest.
Given the multiple difficulties that
have confronted Tucker since the
relationship with MAG was
announced in 2014, it is an
appointment that can only be
interpreted as a positive signal for
Tucker, and therefore a positive signal
for the market.
For Blackwell though, once he got to
meet the new MAG board and
understood their thinking and
direction of travel for the distribution
business, the decision became an easy
one.
“The Board very quickly sold me on
what the new ownership wants to
achieve, how it wants to do things
differently and avoid the mistakes that
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AMERICAN MOTORCYCLE DEALER - MARCH 2019
have been made in recent years. The
ownership understands that MAG
and Tucker need a board that is well-
stocked with industry experience and
understanding, which it now has, and
needs an equally experienced new
management team that can draw a
agree with their desire to see the
businesses in the Group being
operated by people with as much
industry experience and knowledge as
possible. In my experience, the
powersports market is unique, one
where that experience is crucial,
“the board sold me on
what the new ownership
wants to achieve”
line under the past five years,
including the filing, and move the
business forward practically and
realistically.
“That they see me as somebody who
can contribute to that future makes
me very proud. But fundamentally, I
especially so with dealers.
“When dealers meet a new sales rep
for the first time for example, they
immediately want to know what their
market experience or knowledge is, if
they have been a racer, are a rider,
have a technical grasp and so forth. If
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www.AMDchampionship.com