The National Powersports Dealer Association (NPDA), was founded to help franchised and independent powersports Dealers via services, products, programs, education and advocacy. The goal is to create a professional, successful and profitable industry. The vision is for NPDA to advance our industry by elevating Dealers to be well prepared, sustainably profitable and exceed the expectations of a growing powersports customer base. In short, NPDA is the Dealers themselves.
George Gatto is NPDA… and he was formerly NBDA. “I’ll back up and tell you that when I was in the bicycle industry for so many years, I was a proud board member of the National Bicycle Dealer Association.” Gatto served on the NDBA Board for nearly a decade before going back to his motorcycle industry roots… and finding out he was right where he started. “I saw how much the NBDA was able to do to basically improve dealerships. They were able to bring shops up… whether it was information, getting more people out to ride or just networking with other dealers. We started 20 Groups, we had a lot of training, and even ties to the tradeshow — we actually sponsored all the training at the tradeshow, and we would bring in the speakers and people to train you.” Coming full circle on two wheels!
“I have three dealerships in Pittsburgh: Gatto Harley-Davidson, Gatto Cycle shop, which is a multi-line powersports store, and Three Rivers Harley-Davidson. As with many family businesses I started when I was a child, basically cleaning oil spots off of the concrete floor that the bikes used to drip. I went through high school and college still working for my parents at the shop.”
“What I found in the bicycle industry and I'm also finding in the powersports industry is that the level of business acumen is from here to here. In the Harley industry, the level of business acumen is a lot higher, because Harley over the years has spent a fortune on training their dealers, most of which training is now been a budget cut. But on the powersports dealer side, I think there is a real opportunity for training. There are a lot of small regional dealer organizations, but having something national, I don't understand how it hasn't happened yet. I mean, it really helped the bicycle industry and I think it'll really make a massive improvement in improving motorcycle dealers across the board."
Bottom Line:
“I personally invite you to join the National Powersports Dealer Association. Reason being, if you want to improve your dealership, you gotta do it via NPDA because it's so hard to do anything on your own. It is possible when you have a group of peers that you can talk to; when you have information at your fingertips; when you have people that can help you with anything from legal affairs to knowing what to stock… It's just something you got to do. I can't imagine not being part of this organization.”
See more of George Gatto’s vision here:
