6 Tips for Managing Inquiries When Selling Your Motorcycle
Ready to roll down the road with your next bike? Now is the time to sell your used motorcycle, but first you need to do the research to set your price, create a detailed listing, and manage buyer inquiries. You want to make sure you get the best value for your bike and everything goes smoothly with the sale from beginning to end. Cycle Trader is sharing six tips for managing inquiries when selling your motorcycle.
1. Be Prepared When Selling Your Motorcycle
When you’ve learned all the benefits of selling your used motorcycle and know it’s time to part ways, be prepared for customer inquiries by staying organized. The sale will go faster, you’ll keep your cool and won’t be overwhelmed when shoppers ask questions, and you’ll be able to give feedback on your bike. If you have one or two primary methods of contact, such as by phone or email, keep track of inquiries each day in a notebook or on a spreadsheet. Have your paperwork in order for your bike, including title, registration, and service history. This will help if a hard-to-answer question comes up on a specific detail with your make or model.
2. Know the Motorcycle Market to Set Your Price
Stay aware of trends as they change; you may be able to set a higher price for your bike based on availability and the time of the year. The market is constantly changing, and the value of bikes fluctuates throughout the year. It’s important to keep up with similar listings on the marketplace to get an edge over your competitors and set a strategic price. In addition to searching the marketplace for similar bikes to get a sense of the average price for comparable units, you can also get a real-time value for your motorcycle by using the Cycle Trader Motorcycle Valuations tool, which is backed by J.D. Power to ensure the best estimates possible.
3. Be Responsive with Inquiries for Your Motorcycle
Don’t miss out on any opportunity that comes up to sell your bike. Make sure you’re responsive and get back to shopping inquiries in a timely manner so you don’t lose the chance for a sale. While you don’t constantly have to be checking your phone or email, you shouldn’t wait several days to get back to a shopper when they reach out with interest in your bike. They’ll move on to another listing, and you may lose out on a future sales opportunity if you’re too slow when communicating. Here is some advice to keep in mind when it comes to being responsive:
- Indicate in your listing your best contact method, for example email or phone call.
- Respond to inquiries as soon as you can, and always within 24 hours.
- Respond to the buyer in the same way they reached out to you.
- If you can’t respond right away, set up your email with an automatic response with a message, or change your voicemail greeting to ensure shoppers know you will get back to them.
- Check your junk/spam folder in your email to prevent miscommunication and ensure you’re not missing any messages.
- If you’re communicating through phone, make sure your voicemail inbox isn’t full, and add serious buyers to your contacts list.
- If you respond to a buyer but don’t hear back within one or two days, reach out again with a follow-up message.
- Keep a record of inquiries to stay organized, including when they reached out and when you responded.
4. Be Ready with Your Own Questions for Motorcycle Shoppers
Value for your bike might be your highest priority, along with having a fast and stress-free sale, but you also want to ensure your motorcycle is going to the right buyer, too. Look at it from their point of view, and make yourself familiar with things to consider before buying a used bike. If a shopper reaches out about your motorcycle, find out what they’re looking for with their next bike. This will reveal if they’re experienced with bikes or need an overview/introduction as a new rider. The buying process might be new to them, and it could affect how quickly you can move through a sale.
Asking questions to better understand a buyer’s needs and how your bike can meet them will also help give a buyer more confidence in the purchase, making them more likely to pull the trigger. Plus, an informed buyer helps decrease the chance that they end up dissatisfied with their purchase or even ask for a return and refund. Finally, when it comes to the transaction, having questions about payments is one more way to deter the threat of scams.
5. Be Strategic During Motorcycle Negotiations
Stick to your guns and don’t get carried away with the first offer you get for your bike just because it’s timely and you want to make a quick sale. Don’t immediately accept a lower price; explain why your price is firm, and back it up with your bike’s best features. This is an opportunity to communicate to a shopper what they’ll get out of your motorcycle when they purchase it. Don’t be taken off by comments based on your bike’s flaws. Instead, revert attention to the bike’s history, performance, and the care you’ve given it over the years, and that it’s still running strong. After all, you’ve set the price based on the quality of your motorcycle, and the bike should be something they’re proud about when they finally decide to buy. Be sure to check out our previous article to learn more tips for negotiating price when selling your bike.
6. Be Honest When Selling Your Motorcycle
You want your sale to be a positive experience, so it’s important to be truthful with shoppers and the final buyer of your motorcycle. You don’t want anything coming back to you, including complaints or bad reviews that could otherwise tarnish your reputation when selling a motorcycle on the market. Don’t hide flaws with your motorcycle, and be up front about any performance issues or concerns you have either from the bike’s history, or how it may run in the future when it comes to maintenance and repairs. Provide as much detail on every aspect, good and bad, in your bike’s listing, and in photos and videos.
Selling your motorcycle is more than just creating a listing, waiting for a buyer, and hoping for the best offer. It comes down to managing inquiries, knowing what shoppers are after, being responsive, and remaining honest. If you’re ready to sell your motorcycle, check out Cycle Trader’s Seller’s Guide resource page, your central hub for articles, videos, and other tips and information for selling your bike
Ryan Miller
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