Dealership insights
Why Edge Performance Sports Focuses on Building Better Vendor Relationships
In 2019, Edge Performance Sports' president shared how he picks and manages technology vendors. His five rules, his vetting questions, and a scorecard to use.
Quick answer
In 2019, Ryan Gentry, President of Edge Performance Sports, argued that technology vendors are partners, not purchases. His column set five rules: remember why you are switching, manage expectations, set goals, champion onboarding and support training. He also listed five vetting questions and asked for full control of the dealership's own data.
In August 2019, Ryan Gentry, President of Edge Performance Sports in Ontario, Oregon, wrote a column for Motorcycle and Powersports News (MPN) titled "Why Your Dealership Should Focus on Building Better Vendor Relationships." It ran in MPN's advertorial section, credited to PSXDigital, PSX's name at the time. This post summarizes what he wrote, quotes him briefly, and turns his advice into tools a dealer can use.
It is for dealer principals and general managers who buy technology. Everything below describes 2019, not who works with whom today.
The column at a glance
| What the column said (2019) | |
|---|---|
| Author | Ryan Gentry, President, Edge Performance Sports, Ontario, Oregon |
| Published | MPN, Aug 8, 2019, in the advertorial section |
| Core idea | Suppliers sit at the heart of a dealership's processes, so the relationship needs managing like any other part of the strategy |
| Trigger | He looked hard at PSXDigital's CXMAi platform right after his most profitable year |
| What he reported | The platform's automated sales and marketing processes showed missed opportunities he "would have denied we even had before" |
| Advice | Five rules for a switch, five vetting questions, and terms on data and integration |
Why a profitable dealer went looking
Ryan's point was that a good year can hide a leaky process. In his words, "If you're like me, you think you're already driving a fully-loaded smooth-running machine." He was coming off his most profitable year when he evaluated PSX's platform, and he wrote that it "pulled back the curtain on missed opportunities." He called the result becoming "better than our best."
That is a dealer-reported opinion from 2019, not a measured figure. The lesson: review vendors when nothing seems broken, so you choose calmly rather than in a crisis.
Five rules for switching technology vendors
Ryan opened the section with "But change is hard. It's takes guts. It takes grit." Then he set out five rules. The third column is our suggestion for putting each one to work.
| His rule | What he meant | Do this before you sign |
|---|---|---|
| Remember your why | Whether the reason is cost or a better relationship, staff engage when they understand the purpose | Write the reason in one sentence and share it with the team |
| Manage expectations | Technology is "not a silver bullet"; know what a tool will and won't do for your store | List three things the tool will not fix |
| Set goals | Ask yourself and your vendor "what should we expect?" and look for reasonable, specific answers | Agree on two or three measures and a date to check them |
| Champion smooth onboarding | Complete buy-in matters, and "imposing change on your team they haven't accepted will fail" | Name the managers who will coach, not just enforce |
| Support training | Use the vendor's training and ask staff to be patient while kinks are worked out | Book training time on the calendar before go-live |
His view of his own role is worth repeating. Owners and top managers start as the people who decide on the investment, and then they become "accountability coaches and mentors." His line: "If I don't help my people succeed during the transition, they won't." For the floor-level version of that job, see why salespeople resist CRM and what fixes each objection.
The five vetting questions, and what a good answer sounds like
Ryan had been through enough installs, in automotive stores and in powersports, "to spot a train wreck before it happens." He said these questions "shouldn't be that tough to answer":
| His question | A good answer includes | A warning sign |
|---|---|---|
| Is it easy to use? | A live demo on your own kind of deal, run by your own staff | Only a scripted demo by the vendor's rep |
| How long does it take for a new employee to get up to speed? | A specific onboarding plan for a new hire | "It depends" with no plan |
| What level of training and support is available to my staff 24/7? | Named channels, hours and response expectations, in writing | Support only through a sales contact |
| Does it give me real-time and actionable data? | Reports a manager would use in a daily one-on-one | Reports that need exporting to a spreadsheet first |
| Can I access the system from any device? | The exact devices and browsers supported, shown working | A promise of mobile "coming soon" |
Our guide on how to choose a powersports CRM covers features. Ryan's list tests the relationship after signing.
The part vendor advice misses: your data and your exit
Most vendor-relationship advice stops at service and support. Ryan went further. His final advice was "to look for partnerships that give you full control and access to your information, transparency into what they are doing with your data, full platform integration and no hassle with no contracts."
Those are business terms, and they belong in writing. Ask every vendor, including PSX, these questions before you sign:
- Who owns the customer data we enter, and the data the system creates?
- Can we export all of it, in a standard format, at any time, at no extra charge?
- Which other vendors or services can see our customer information, and why?
- What is the contract length, the notice period, and what happens to our data when we leave?
- Which of our other systems does it connect to today, not on a roadmap?
There is a regulatory reason to care as well. If your dealership is a "financial institution" under the FTC's Safeguards Rule, which can depend on the financing or leasing you offer, the rule requires you to oversee service providers. That means taking reasonable steps to select providers that can protect customer information, requiring safeguards by contract, and "periodically assessing your service providers based on the risk they present." A service provider, under the rule, is any business that receives, maintains, processes or can access customer information through its services to you. Whether the rule covers your store is a question for your counsel. This is general information, not legal advice.
A vendor relationship scorecard
Ryan's rules work best as a habit, not a one-time purchase decision. Review each major technology vendor once a quarter.
- We can still state why we chose this vendor, and the reason still holds.
- The goals we agreed at signing were checked on the date we set.
- New hires reach basic use within the onboarding time the vendor promised.
- Support questions get answered within the times the vendor gave us in writing.
- Managers use the vendor's reports in daily or weekly coaching.
- We have exported our data at least once to prove we can.
- We know which other services can access our customer information.
- The vendor has acted on at least one piece of our feedback this year.
- We know our contract end date and notice period.
The vendors he named in 2019
Ryan closed with a list of partners: "Shout out to PSXDigital CXMAi, CDK Lightspeed, Spader, NPA and Cycle Trader for being among those vendors I can call partners vested in a winning strategy for success." His last line: "Relationships are created. Technology is built. Make sure you have the best of both."
That list records his view in 2019. Companies, products and partnerships in the industry have changed since, and this post makes no claim about any of those vendors today.
What has changed since 2019
The company that ran this story as PSXDigital is now PSX Ascend, and the PSX Ascend platform brings customer data, inventory context, marketing and dealership performance together. In 2019, PSXDigital also described itself as a Polaris Digital Certified Website Partner; this post does not claim that the program or certification is active today.
What PSX offers now, as described on its product pages:
- An AI-powered powersports CRM designed around powersports dealership workflows, with views across multiple rooftops.
- ALMA, the Automated Lead Management Assistant, which takes over the repetitive work of re-engaging stalled prospects after associates have worked a lead, and brings them back to a live conversation with a person. It does not use AI to call customers.
- Call recording: every inbound call, and every outbound call where state law permits, recorded and tagged in the customer record.
Edge Performance Sports appears in other PSX stories from that period. Our Edge Performance Sports customer story covers its reported lead response, and how Edge Performance Sports handled powersports desking challenges in 2019 covers its sales desk. Another 2019 dealer, Harley-Davidson of Glendale, described its own CRM switch in similar terms: management commitment first, features second.
You can also see the same AI-powered powersports CRM on our sister site, PSXDigital's AI-powered powersports CRM page.
Sources
- Ryan Gentry, "Why Your Dealership Should Focus on Building Better Vendor Relationships," Motorcycle and Powersports News, Aug 8, 2019 (archived copy, Internet Archive)
- 16 CFR 314.4, elements of an information security program, paragraph (f) on overseeing service providers, eCFR
- 16 CFR 314.2, definitions, including "financial institution" and "service provider," eCFR