American Motorcycle Dealer AMD 248 March 2020 | Page 32

Tucker University
Set in motion by Jim Barker, and benefitting from early stage
platform input from Vance & Hines' John Potts, Tucker Senior
Director of Marketing Taz Sobotka has completed plans to
create a brand training platform for dealers.
Working with Brandecation CEO and founder Rich Maychrich,
Sobotka has masterminded Tucker Powersports' substantial
investment in education "to continue bringing value to dealers
through a strategic partnership with Brandecation." The
outcome is the launch of Tucker University - TuckerU.
"Our dealers tell us education is critical," stated Sobotka. "They
tell us consumers are more educated than ever when they walk
through their door, so it's our responsibility to help educate
their dealer staff. We're proud to launch TuckerU to help do just
that.
"For brand partners choosing to join Tucker University, it means
direct access to Tucker's 150+ person sales team and over 8,500
dealers. Users of the TuckerU platform learn, test and retain
specialized product information at their own pace. TuckerU
provides direct access to training courses and certifications in
one convenient location, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365
days a year."
Maychrich said: "We're excited about this new partnership. It's
amazing to see the number of brands coming to us knowing
they can get plugged into TuckerU. This strategic partnership is
a win-win for everyone. TuckerU includes valuable brand and
product knowledge on powerful brands distributed to
powersports dealers across the nation.
"It also includes custom training modules on retailing,
merchandising, marketing, and other areas. Each of the training
courses come with a testing and certification process."
Brands already enrolled in TuckerU include Arai, Metzeler,
Bikemaster, QuadBoss, DragonFire Racing, Twin Power, ProTaper,
Speed and Strength and Answer Racing, with more to follow.
"Our goal is to help our dealers and field sales team have a
centralized place to go for education. This is an area of focus in
bringing value to our customers," says Sobotka.
Founded in 2014, Brandecation's web-based training solution
for professionals and enthusiasts is an "immersive and
educational platform free from the limits of a classroom," says
Maychrich. "The platform allows businesses to provide
education to the desired users regardless of geographical
location. The targeted information, excellent accessibility and
intuitive design eliminates the learning curve, leading to
greater user involvement and retention. The Brandecation
analytic package provides detailed information on various
performance metrics, providing comprehensive data and return
on your objective." www.brandecation.com
32
AMERICAN MOTORCYCLE DEALER - MARCH 2020
complex than may have hoped would
be the case, resulting in a poor run for
the distributor in September, October
and November 2019 with inventory
levels below optimum and fill rates
suffering as a result.
However, an August 2019 refinancing
and sequence of strategic
improvements, including supply chain
improvements, has already started to
feed into the balance sheet, with
company targets being met in
December and, by the time of the
Dealer Show, Tucker was well on the
way to doing so again in January.
Among the supply chain
improvements was at least one
blindingly obvious change - moving
their Asian inventory 'Break Bulk'
container processing from Georgia to
their Visalia, California warehouse just
200 miles north of the port of Long
Beach. What it was doing in Georgia
in the first place kind of begs the
question, but this simple initiative
alone has, apparently, saved between
ten and twenty days of delay and
inventory darkness between product
being landed and being available to
dealers on the shelf in their local
distribution center. A time deficit that
was often longer than the sea freight
shipping time itself.
Bretschneider described this as a "big
win, and our team has delivered many
more wins in the short period of time
we've had." Some of the changes
implemented were indeed tough ones.
Staff were laid off (again not least
several V-twin sector outside sales
representatives), and the Dealer Show
itself demonstrated the management
team's determination to be "realistic"
about expenditure.
The result of increased vendor
participation pricing, the fall lock-
down on POs during the 're-fi' and the
resulting inventory and payables
issues have all contributed to a smaller
show footprint.
However, though small, what was
there was perfectly formed. A goodly
number of dealers still found plenty of
vendors and show specials in a rebuilt
expo environment that, in my humble
opinion, and that of many vendors
present, did a good job of presenting
brands in a real-world dealer
showroom centric display design with
a 'market place' ambiance that broke
down barriers, allowed dealers to
engage more easily with vendors they
may have skipped in the conventional
serried ranks of pipe and drape trade
show environment, and which
encouraged vendors, sales
representatives and their dealers to
commune in a way that generated a
positive vibe - one which successfully
delivered the often competing virtues
of doing business and socializing.
If all goes to plan in the coming year,
breaking down that in-built tension
between sometimes mutually
exclusive dealer expo objectives will
have given Tucker and their sales
representatives something to build on
for the years ahead, and kudos to the
team that pulled it off.
Bretschneider readily admits that he is
new to the powersports industry, but
he is not new to turning businesses
around and helping them to achieve
their potential - and, to judge by his
resume to date, he is very good at it.
Along with industry veteran Greg
Blackwell, as Chief Commercial Officer
leading the company's sales and
marketing functions, Bretschneider
certainly didn't seek to duck the issues,
openly addressing the show each day
with an honest and transparent
'complex
and time-
consuming'
appraisal of those issues and where
they were at in the cycle of addressing
them. An approach that will have done
much to restore credibility and help
rebuild confidence with vendors,
dealers and team members alike.
He said he had four key messages for
stakeholders and the industry at large
and one key objective for the business
- namely to become the powersports
dealers' distribution partner of choice,
providing opportunities for dealers to
sell and to do so with increased
profitability.
Those four key messages start with a
plan to embrace what I guess could be
described as the low hanging fruit first,
namely to exploit the opportunities
that "move the needle the most" in
what Bretschneider says is "an
opportunity-rich environment."
Secondly he said that one of the most
important things that he and his
management team had to do straight
away was to "decide what NOT to do.
This is very hard and requires real
management discipline. It means that
we will have to accept that we will
continue to suck in some areas before
we are able to address everything."
I told you he was being honest and
transparent - he clearly accepts that
this trip to the last chance saloon really
is Tucker's last opportunity to turn it
around and get it right.
Bretschneider says that deciding what
not to do and sticking to that has
already allowed them to focus in depth
on implementation of the
development of the solutions the
issues need and, subsequently but very
quickly, allowed them to move on to
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