It has almost been a week since last Friday’s #trainingdaywithMRAA, and I can’t stop thinking about what Theresa Syer said in her session, “Make Customer Service Your Competitive Advantage.” “According to the IPSIS Mori Study, emotionally engaged customers are 3-times more likely to recommend you to others.” Whoa. We all know that the moment a […]

Experiences are greater than material products. I’ve been hearing this mantra from many directions lately. For example, Instagram is using influencers and ads to capture the experience you will get from engaging with the product – to capture the feelings and emotions tied to using their product. Going to a conference has changed; it used […]

What is your most effective marketing tactic to attract prospective customers to your dealership this time of year? “We are finding that making contacts at boat show and then inviting them to the dealership has been pretty effective. Whether it is cost effective is another question.” – John Ladner, Breath’s Boats & Motors “Open houses” […]

All it takes is one small (or large) change at your dealership to increase your odds of success. At MRAA’s annual conference, the Marine Dealer Conference & Expo, we often remind attendees to not bite off more than they can chew and to prioritize a manageable list of their top three conference takeaways home with […]

It’s time for a wake-up call: Most of us have been selling the wrong stuff the wrong way. That’s according to the book, “Start with why: How great leaders inspire everyone to take action,” by Simon Sinek. It sounds like a book on leadership – and it is – but it also has some incredible […]

The take away from another Miami Boat Show is always the amazing amount of manufacturer’s support for their dealers at the show to guarantee their brands are well represented in front of world’s largest boating audience. Major financial investments with impressive displays and reinforced staffing. I took particular note of the investment because of the […]

The Continuous Certification Program that you all have been hearing about over the past few months has launched! As we prepared for this day, many dealers asked us how the program’s courses differ from all the other educational content we offer. The answer is, actually, simple: It was designed to do more to help dealers […]

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Certified Dealers challenged us to make Recertification as valuable for them as Certification. So, we’ve spent the past year formulating a plan for how to do that and gaining industry insight into our plan. Read more about how we went about that in my last blog: Time for a Professional Change. Now, we’re focused on […]