Jake says working at Oak Hill has been the only job he’s ever had, advancing his way from teenaged gas dock attendant to showroom sales manager and finally the captain’s chair; Tim returned to Iowa after completing vocational school and launching successful endeavors in Florida as both a lead service technician and independent shop owner.

Jake and Tim recently sat down to chat a bit about a variety of topics, including the general business climate, the shortage of qualified marine technicians and their emphasis on training a new generation of Oak Hill team members. 

Jake: We’re excited, and our outlook is pretty much the same as it was last year: we think it’s going to be a real good season. Maybe even a little bit better. We’re not looking for huge growth, but our opportunities are coming in service, storage and obviously everyone wants to grow their sales.

Tim: We’re very fortunate here. We have four technicians who work together great and care about the business. They help each other, stay up-to-date on schooling and are just absolute rock stars. We’ve run lean at times, though, and went with three technicians for a while when we knew we needed four. 

So, I guess if there’s advice that I have for dealers around the country, it’s to create a culture within your dealership that makes it a place people want to work. I really think you can place your dealership ahead of others if you’re known as a place people want to come and work. If dealership principles focus on their service department and make it a place people want to go — you’ll get top talent.

Tim: We don’t skimp on education at all. If there’s something we need to go to, we send everyone. It’s not, “hey, we’re going to have one guy go to outboard school because we need an outboard certification.” No. Everybody in the shop needs to know what’s going on and have an opportunity to benefit themselves and have more opportunity within the dealership.  

Jake: You’ve got to want as an owner or manager for your team to do well and stay educated. The culture we create here is for our team to want to be the best. They want to go to school and be the most educated out there. Again, it starts with the culture.

Tim: When we talk to other dealers, it’s almost comical how smooth things run here. It works very, very well. We don’t have those issues. On the flipside, whenever people ask me about an in-depth sales question on volume or this or that, I can say, “hey Jake, what are we doing in sales again?” I don’t have to worry about it. Jake has everything covered over there and vice versa.