Hicklin Powersports
Grimes, IA
Bart Hicklin gets his news every night at 7:01 pm, but not from a network anchor.
Hicklin goes to his email account to find out the news: How his central Iowa powersports dealership did in sales that day. The email, delivered every night exactly at 7:01 p.m., gives him five essential facts about his metric dealership, including daily totals in major unit sales, parts and service sales, as well as an overall total for all three departments. Plus, the emailed report pinpoints the total amount of margin the dealership grossed that day.
Hicklin, a longtime business owner, likes to jokingly describe the emailed report from the DX1 management platform as “space age.” That’s because Hicklin can remember his family’s diesel engine distribution business needing five accountants to supply the very same daily information that he now receives in an email from DX1 each night.
“It’s come a long way!”
Hicklin said of business management.
He could say the same about his multi-brand dealership, located on the outskirts of Des Moines, Iowa. Hicklin purchased the business in 2008 and despite a recession – national powersports sales dropped dramatically in 2009 – the dealership has seen a dramatic growth in annual unit sales. Hicklin credits the sales growth to a strong staff, his involvement in an industry 20 group and his ability to keep an eye on business through the nightly DX1 emailed reports.
When he bought the dealership, Hicklin changed business management platforms mainly due to the costs associated with running one of the industry’s most prominent systems. Hicklin switched to a smaller system provider, but struggled with the new system because it didn’t cater to the powersports industry. He then changed system providers again and became one of the nation’s first powersports dealerships to adopt a cloud-based management platform.
That was more than three years ago.
Today, Hicklin uses DX1 to religiously comb through his daily emailed reports. He calls them snapshots – they’re reports that show him anomalies in his dealership’s business. Was profit margin low in parts yesterday? Was service not as productive as they planned?
It’s all there, in his 7:01 p.m. report from DX1.
“As an owner it’s so critical to have an overall feel of the business.”
Bring this level of business accountability to your dealership.
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