Over the pandemic-riddled 12-month period of April 2020 through March 2021, it took boat dealers an average of 70.5 days to complete service on a new boat under warranty. This isn’t a rough estimate. We’ve pulled this data directly from the Lightspeed dealership management systems of real boat dealers. This jaw-dropping statistic underscores a number […]

Facebook has just announced that starting September 13, 2021 they will be discontinuing their inventory partner catalogs. Meaning, third party providers will no longer be able to post ads on behalf of the dealer free of charge. With this announcement, Facebook will follow and join similar sites like eBay and Craigslist in the paid marketing […]

By Valerie Ziebron, President, VRZ Consulting “When you don’t get what you want, you get a lesson.” 

The silver lining of almost every dealership failure is the opportunity to learn from it and improve your business practices. 

When a boat has to come back to the shop, chances are good the reason is not unique […]

Last year, almost every news story or conversation was littered with words like “new normal,” and “unprecedented.” While managing change is not a new idea, it seemed to be the theme of 2020. Now, here we are, sprinting through the second quarter of 2021, and more change seems to be afoot. This year is not […]

Learning more about your customers: Gather intel on all the boating and fishing newcomers so your dealership can improve its messaging, content production and customer retention What if there was a resource available to you that could better explain who all the new boating and fishing customers were? A way to learn more about them […]

Using free and available assets to reach your customers with content that addresses their needs, questions and concerns.   Marty Marketingguy and Mary O’Marketing are both striving to get better at their position for their respective dealerships. Marty is the marketing manager of a multi-location dealer and marina operator called Big Bigger Biggest Boats. Mary […]

For many boat dealerships, it’s hiring season. As a seasonal business, you want to be sure you have enough of the right team members in the right seats to take care of your customers in the front of the house – and support your team in the back of the house – during the busy […]

5 Resources to Help Dealers Combat Bad Habits It’s often been said in business that good habits are created during the tough times and bad habits emerge during the good times. What happens, though, when the good times are so good that we grow comfortable or unwittingly lazy?  In today’s boating marketplace, there are very […]

By Liz Keener, MRAA Certification Manager We all know 2020 will go down as one of the hardest years in our lives, and one of the most challenging, up and down years for our dealerships. Despite all of these positive and negative obstacles, 10 dealers not only persevered through the year, but they also pushed […]