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 […]

Every business, regardless of its size or structure, face various challenges with natural disasters and periods of financial hardship.  As small business owners in a weather-dependent industry like recreational boating, the effects of floods, storms, hurricanes, and other natural disasters are familiar, yet frustrating, territory. There is no question that extreme natural disasters around the […]

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 […]

It has been such a delight to hear from every dealer who I’ve spoken with over the last couple of months tell me about their record pace for sales and service, in addition, to the amount of new business coming from new boaters. New blood is what this industry has needed and talked about for […]

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.   […]

Many of the legal experts that have been providing businesses with advice throughout the COVID health crisis have recommended the creation of systems and processes to track efforts to keep employees and customers safe. Now, under newly revised policies issued by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), its Compliance Safety […]