While dealers across North America scramble to sell boats with little-to-no inventory in stock, manufacturers are scrambling to catch up on production.   At most boat builders, the incoming orders are far exceeding the ability to produce.   At a 100-boat-per-week builder, for example, they are currently receiving 300 new boat orders per week. “It’s […]

If you’re like most dealers, you can simply shake your head in amazement over what happened in 2020. A fast start, a sudden stop, and an unparalleled, dizzying re-acceleration to the business of selling boats.   The pressing question now appears to be: What does 2021 have in store?   There’s so much to consider […]

In any business, it’s difficult to ascertain just what it is that our customers want and need. In a discretionary income business like boat sales, it’s even more difficult. And when you add in the technology that makes shopping from home a breeze, well, it can feel downright impossible.   There are, however, a few […]

All this talk about the customer experience feels great. We can all nod, smile and agree that the steps we’ve shared over the last few weeks are great tactics for delivering for our customers. But how do you pull it all together in a customer experience strategy?   This is exactly where MRAATraining.com comes into […]

In any summer selling season, you feel rushed.   There are leads to nurture, customer questions to answer, trade-ins to evaluate, and deals to finalize. There are boats to prep, parts to order, deliveries to make, and customer-mandated deadlines to launch boats. You don’t even know how it will all get done.   Leads accumulate, […]

There’s lots to celebrate related to industry momentum when it comes to interest, sales and participation in boating and fishing. But there’s also a dark side to this story: the customer experience.   As sales leads have increased in some cases by 300 and 400 percent, and sales continue to hit record levels, the normal […]

As long-time boating enthusiasts and professionals, it’s easy for us to forget how much first-time boat buyers don’t know about boating.   Last week, for example, I watched as a new boat owner tried more than a dozen times to back his trailer down the ramp to retrieve his boat. He gave up and asked […]

Every year the market place throws a mix of new challenges at you and your business. Whether they’re personnel changes, technological obstacles, product line updates or evolving customer or partner preferences, they change the dynamics of how you approach selling and servicing boats.   With little-to-no warning, the boating industry changed forever with the health […]

Well, we got our wish. For the last decade, or maybe longer, we’ve been gasping at how the average age of our boat buyers has increased by about 8 or 9 months every single year. The same people who were leading the boat-buying parade in the 80s are still the ones buying boats today.   […]

If you’re not one of the many marine industry disciples who actually wore their life jacket to work last Friday — affectionately known as Wear Your Life Jacket to Work Day — you should be aware that the week prior to Memorial Day here in the States is always honored as National Safe Boating Week.   […]