Boat Buying Strategies for 2025
It’s crucial for your dealership to adopt a boat-buying strategy that gives your business its best chance for success in the second half of 2024 and into next year. To guide your purchasing decisions, you must understand your own dealership’s metrics, as well as industry data relevant to your unique market. When building a buying strategy, it’s often helpful to scan the horizon to identify areas of opportunity and potential pitfalls, calculate current and future inventory costs, review past performance, and collaborate with partners to gain insight into other internal and external changes, including product trends and buyer behavior.
MRAA DATA
Survey: Boat Buying Strategies for 2025
Learn which boat types marine retailers expect to have the strongest growth in demand for 2025 from the MRAA/Baird/Trade Only Pulse Report survey. Dealers also shared some of the strategies they’ve implemented or worked with their manufacturers to build to help them better prepare for model year 2025.
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21 Dealership Insights into What’s Working Today
Your fellow dealers share effective strategies for conserving cash, managing inventory, connecting with customers and more. You can make a real difference in your dealership’s performance by adopting a proactive mindset.
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Reducing Inventory — What Works
Bill Yeargin, CEO of Correct Craft, an MRAA Strategic Partner, shares wisdom about why halting product orders is not the best solution. Having new products on hand attracts customers and also helps you showcase and move older inventory while maintaining a healthy dealership business.
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Navigating the Waters: Adapting Strategies in a Changing Market
Jason Oakes discusses why it’s important for dealers to adopt a consultative sales approach, carefully manage inventory by identifying gaps and use data to anticipate consumer demands. Advanced planning and training is essential to ensure sustainable success in an uncertain economic environment.
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Boat Buying & Inventory Management Strategies
Use these boat buying and inventory management strategies shared by Chris Kulaga, Product Manager at Lightspeed, an MRAA Strategic Partner, to help your dealership overcome key challenges and enhance your profitability.
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Data Mining & Projections
By analyzing market trends, current inventory and market share, Bob Bense, Superior Boat Repair & Sales, determines his commitments for each boat brand, while creating optimal inventory levels and fostering strong communication with brand representatives.
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8 Steps for Improving at Boat Buying
Learn about eight steps your dealership can implement to help you improve at boat buying and set you up for success in inventory management so you can outlast the softer market.
“One of my favorite quotes: ‘If you are not willing to learn, no one can help you. If you are determined to learn, no one can stop you.'” — Patrick Green, General Manager at Tobler Marina, May 30, 2024 MRAA Educational Foundation check-in article.
Time for a Mid-Season Checkup
How strong are you feeling about the rest of 2024? How about 2025?! We get it … the last thing dealers enjoy doing in the middle of their busy season is spending downtime in the office, dissecting their business plans, weighing the current conditions and making the necessary adjustments.
However, seasoned dealers know the importance of carving out time in their high season to check on their most important business metrics. Your commitment now can help you at the end of the year and when going into 2025. By taking a proactive approach now you can avoid taking a reactionary approach come December!
Mid-Season inspections of your key operations and profit centers are critical to assess your business, your inventory and your planning for the future.
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A Guide to ABC Scenario Planning
Running a marine dealership amidst market change and uncertainty is challenging. Navigating your boat buying in a soft market — and one with indecisive consumers — makes your role as a business leader and manager even harder.
Forecasting and scenario planning can make a significant difference in your dealership’s success because it helps you adjust for whatever the future may bring. Readying your team for various scenarios and outcomes, based upon your objectives and flexibility, can contribute to your success and your confidence.
The MRAA partnered with The Rawls Group and Kendall Rawls (author) to create a scenario planning guide that helps you adapt to your changing environment.
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GUIDE
The Guide to Navigating 2024
A dedicated web portal was built to help quickly guide your dealership through the contents of the MRAA Guide to Navigating 2024, a resource designed to help you successfully navigate this year and beyond. MRAA Members can download the entire guide to dig even deeper for strategies and best practices.
Understanding your data, inventory and profitability are all critical to help you accomplish your objectives. Along with the chapter scenario planning, pay particular attention to Chapter 3 (Knowing Your Numbers) , Chapter 4 (Managing Inventory) and Chapter 5 (Making Sense of Your Dollars).
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Not a Member? Get a preview of the Guide to Navigating 2024, here.
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Inventory Projection Calculator
As a sales manager, wouldn’t it be nice to have access to a customizable tool to use with your sales team to create individual forecasts and track actual performance?
This resource from David Parker, Owner at Parker Business Planning and popular Dealer Week educator, will help you learn to create a realistic sales forecast by category and month. Use Parker’s Inventory Projection Calculator to help you understand where you stand now and what to expect in the future. The calculator automatically updates and helps your dealership make better inventory management decisions.
Learn more about how to implement this resource into your dealership by watching Parker’s Dealer Week 2023 session, “Tactics to Turn Your Boat Inventory Faster,” which is available today for MRAA Silver & Gold Members.
WATCH:
MRAATraining.com Courses
Whether you are looking for a course to help you improve in your role at the dealership or are a manager creating a plan to share courses and training with your team, the MRAA Education Team created this guide to MRAATraining.com courses. You can search by category or topic to find and watch courses to help you improve through implementing best practices.
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MRAA Bronze members can upgrade to gain access to more course? Email Director of Membership Sherri Cuvala.
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Tactics to Turn Your Boat Inventory Faster
with David Parker, Parker Business Planning Owner
Effective boat inventory management practices are key to your individual results, your department’s success and your dealership’s profitability and longevity, especially in a softer market.
However, even the most disciplined of sales teams have gaps between knowing and doing, especially when the skills critical to your success are a little rusty and the market keeps shifting.
Veteran dealership consultant David
Parker shares with you a practical and tactical session on inventory management. Gain the fundamentals of
inventory management, including how to project monthly inventory targets and floorplan interest expense and how to
adjust average inventory levels when floorplan interest rates change.
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MRAA Ask the Expert Webinar — Understanding Consumer Mindset and Interest Rates: Insights for Marine Dealers
with Ian Wyatt, Director of Economics and Commercial Market Strategist at Huntington Distribution Finance
As a dealer and business owner, it’s vital for you to gain any possible tool or knowledge that will help you better understand your customers.
To help you get a better view of consumer mindset, Ian Wyatt an economist at Huntington Distribution Finance, can help you do that and provide you with insights into reasons for confidence in today’s economy.
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Not a Silver Member? Learn more about Silver Membership!
MRAA Ask the Expert Webinar — Navigating Marine Dealership Floor Planning: Data-Driven Strategies for 2024 and beyond!
with Brian Tocco, National Sales Manager at Well Fargo Commercial Inventory Finance
As a leader, you need to understand the current economic conditions affecting the marine industry and your dealership. This exclusive MRAA Ask the Expert webinar with Brian Tocco at Wells Fargo Commercial Inventory Finance takes dive deep into the current economic forecast, the status of boat sales,and inventory trends. Leveraging actual data and forward-looking projections, get the knowledge and critical insights you need to navigate the complexities of the market confidently and strategically.
Learning Objectives:
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