The percentage of powersports and motorcycle dealerships involved in peer review business groups known as 20 clubs is expected to reach a new high this fall. The increase in participation is industry-wide, with more OEMs and dealerships scrutinizing their retail practices as the industry’s new unit sales have remained largely stagnant over the past few years and even dropped slightly in the first half of 2016.

“OEMs have realized they need to pay as much attention to the retail side of the industry as the wholesale side,” said Sam Dantzler, president of Garage Composites, the industry’s leading dealership training and 20 club provider. “Equally important is the desire by dealerships to take better advantage of the store traffic they’re receiving, and capitalize more on each and every unit sale.”

Andy Kent, operator of Beach Blvd. Motorsports in Jacksonville, Fla., has certainly done the latter. Since joining a Garage Composites’ 20 club earlier this year, Kent’s profit per unit has increased nearly 67 percent. Kent’s 20 club includes more than a dozen non-competing dealers from throughout the nation.

“Garage Composites and my group members have pointed out holes in my dealership, where we were overspending or wasting money,” Kent said. “They have added to our bottom line in ways I never thought possible.”

The growth in the percentage of dealers using 20 groups has been industry-wide, with OEM participation aiding the growth in both the United States and Canada. Dantzler, who has been involved in 20 clubs for three decades, says the percentage of dealers involved in 20 clubs or joining such groups this fall will eclipse what was seen before the recession hit the industry in 2008-’09.

To meet the demand for more 20 clubs, Tony Gonzalez, CEO of Garage Composites, said the company is expanding its 20 clubs this fall in the metric, European and V-twin spaces. Plus, he said Garage Composites will be announcing a number of new OEM relationships in coming weeks.

“Even with the decrease in the industry’s overall new unit sales this year,” Gonzalez said, “we are seeing year-over-year revenue growth happening for dealers who are aggressively implementing and tracking the retail strategies we’re discussing in the 20 clubs.”

For more information: www.garagecomposites.com.