To those of us who have been boating for decades, operation of a boat may come easy, and knowledge of boating etiquette and laws are common knowledge. But the same is not the case for the first-time boat buyers you’ve sold to this year.   In fact, boating can be downright scary and intimidating to […]

Use of videos for promoting products and services has become extremely common. As the world goes digital, it’s clear: Videos sell boats. So, it’s obvious that a boat dealer would also jump on the bandwagon. As a boat dealer your goal should always be to discover new and effective ways of making people aware of […]

Boat dealers are feeling the digital pressure from all sides as the marine industry rapidly evolves under the pressure of the COVID-19 pandemic and most recently the significant influx of new boat buyers that have entered the market. As an industry, we’ve been touting digital marketing for years — since at least the time I […]

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 […]

We all have what feels like one million things going on at all times, at work, at home. It’s hard to remember everything we need to do. Heck, sometimes I can’t even remember why I opened the refrigerator. That’s why process maps are so important. They keep our business tasks on track, assuring that, if […]

I’ve been telling dealers for years to move their sales conversations to the phone because tone of voice is a big, damn deal. It has a major effect on how prospects perceive you. So, how do sales call scripts fit into that perception? We believe that there are three core elements in effective face-to-face communication, […]

You know follow-up is that last, important step in your sales process, but the July holidays have just passed, and you’re still busy and wondering how you could possibly find the time to follow-up yourself or hire someone else to do the job.   If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the need to follow-up with your […]

Now is the time to invest in your dealership’s customer experience. You can do this either by hiring a short-term, contract employee, or thinking long-term about a customer experience representative or manager to have on staff. You need someone who can run through your customer relationship management (CRM) log and call your spring and summer […]

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 […]