MRAA Releases Education Lineup for Inaugural Dealer Week

The Marine Retailers Association of the Americas recently announced the education lineup for its inaugural Dealer Week Conference and Expo, which includes new and old faces from past MRAA events; experts from inside and outside the marine industry; and a mix of professional educators, expert consultants and innovators from the front lines of marine retail.

“At the MRAA, everything we do is motivated by our vision statement, which calls for ‘A thriving marine industry, driven by dealer success,’” says Matt Gruhn, MRAA President.“Dealer Week is a big part of our strategy to make that vision a reality. The education presented at the conference was developed in direct response to the biggest challenges that dealers have told us they are facing today.”

Dealer Week will kick off with a keynote presentation from bestselling author, Olympic competitor and award-winning salesperson Vince Poscente before breaking into three “Education Pathways,” which will host topics centered around The Dealership, The Customer and The Employee.

Dealer Week will take place Dec. 8-11 at the Tampa Convention Center in Tampa, Fla. Registration is now open at DealerWeek.com. Attendees can save up to $125 on registration with Early Bird pricing through Sept. 30.

Opening Keynote
With everyone gathered for the opening of the conference, New York Times bestselling author Vince Poscente will deliver an entertaining and thought-provoking keynote on how marine dealership owners, managers and their teams can flourish in an unpredictable and highly competitive landscape. Poscente will share a formula for driving behavior change in yourself and your team that he used to transform himself from recreational skier to Olympic athlete in just four years.

“The dealers on the MRAA Education Committee raved about Vince,” says Liz Walz, MRAA Vice President. “What stood out to them were his unique combination of abilities as both a wildly entertaining storyteller and a highly effective coach. Given what’s happening in the market right now, they saw how powerful it could be to learn new strategies for thriving in fast-changing and often unpredictable conditions.”

The Dealership Pathway
Kicking off the Dealership Pathway, Tony Gonzalez, Garage Composites, will present a session called “Create a Culture That Delivers.” Culture can make or break your dealership. While we have all heard this idea preached before, have those preaching it mapped out what you should DO about it? This session will provide that and more.

Next up David Spader, Spader Business Management, will host a Dealer Case Study on “Succession Planning.” He will interview Carrie Stacey, Carrie Stacey & Co., a CPA in the U.S. and Canada who owned and operated two powersports dealerships and has worked in both RV and marine. The conversation will include topics such as business valuations, preparing your business for sale and turnaround support.

DJ Stringer, Garage Composites, will use both humor and real-world examples for his presentation “F&I: Does That Stand for Fairies and Imps? … No, The Money Is Real.” According to Stringer, just like fairies and imps, some people believe in F&I and others don’t. Those who do believe get introduced to a magical world of profits that people who don’t believe can never even imagine.

David Foco, A World of Training, will share strategies to address one of the most common challenges faced by dealers in his presentation “Ease the Pain of Seasonality Through Better Processes.” If you’re a marine dealer, the seasonality of the business is a brutal reality. Well, what if there was more you could do to ease the pain? This advanced course is for those dealers who are ready to get their hands dirty improving their service and marketing processes.

Rich DeLancey, Dealership Toolkit, will offer practical advice for “How to Hold Your Digital Accountable.” Developing a gorgeous website, producing stunning videos and posting social media content that gets shared across the Internet is great, if it generates enough leads to be worth your time and money. During this session, you’ll learn what data to collect, how to collect it and how to analyze it to determine how your digital marketing is performing.

The Dealership Pathway will conclude with Education Host David Spader, Spader Business Management, presenting a two-hour workshop titled “The Agile Dealership: Confidently Responding to Change & the Unknown.” Most dealers have accepted that change and volatility are the new norm. This workshop will help you identify, monitor and respond to the key issues your dealership is facing now and in the future.

The Customer Pathway
Sam Dantzler, Wheelhouse College, will serve as Education Host for the Customer Pathway as well as kick things off with “Stop Letting Data Get Between You and the Customer.” Most consumers, and, let’s face it, dealers, are getting bogged down by the noise created by all the data, advice and insight available today. Dantzler will cut through the clutter dealers face every day and focus on overlooked strategies you can use with customers and your team to improve the buying and ownership experience.

In the next session, Dantzler will interview Kevin Zoodsma, Action Water Sports, about “Segmenting Customer Data.” If your dealership has started tracking data that’s a good first step, but are you actually using the data you have about prospects and customers to drive decisions about marketing and buying? Kevin will share insights about how his team slices and dices (i.e., segments) their prospect data.

Longtime MRAA favorite Valerie Ziebron, VRZ Consulting, will be joined by Carrie Stacey, Carrie Stacey & Co., to teach a session on “Reducing Repair Cycle Time.” The faster your shop can get boats serviced properly the happier your customers and the more efficient (and profitable) your shop. This session will look at what shops of all sizes can do to fast track service and close out a larger percentage of work orders quickly.

Next up, MRAA’s own Lead Certification Consultant Bob McCann will be joined by Graham Anderson, Co-Founder of business texting platform Kenect, to discuss “Texting Customers: Do’s, Don’ts, and How to Make It A Win-Win.” This course will help you discover ways to improve the customer experience with texting. It will explore the legal and privacy considerations of texting, sample scripts, how to create a texting policy, the best practices for outreach, team training and what the future of texting looks like.

DJ Stringer, Garage Composites, will present a second session titled “Let’s Play Detective and Solve a Mystery: The Customer.” You don’t have to be Sherlock Holmes, Nancy Drew, or even Scooby Doo to be a good salesperson, but to be great, you do have to possess some investigative skills. This session will explore the psychology of the customer as it relates to the greet and discovery, and how to use the information you have to get all the clues you need to solve the mystery of how to sell more.

Theresa Syer, Syer Hospitality Group Inc., will conclude the Customer Pathway with the two-hour workshop “Supercharge Your Customer Experience.” In this session, she will share the 7 Key Emotional Motivators that can shift the tide emotionally for customers. She’ll also show you how to develop Key Emotional Drivers that will affect those Emotional Motivators and keep customers coming to you, working with you and ultimately buying from you.

The Employee Pathway
The high-energy duo of Richard Fenton and Andrea Waltz, Courage Crafters, will open the Employee Pathway with their presentation “Go For No.” Sales experts Fenton and Waltz believe that the relationship you have with the word “no” is the single most important factor in determining the level of success you achieve. Learn how a simple change in attitude and perspective can transform you and your team from being slowed down by failure and rejection into actually being energized by it.

After that, Education Host Jim Million, Million Learning, will chat with Eric Smith, Colorado Boat Center, about “Combating a Local Tech Shortage.” The team at Colorado Boat Center has been creative over the years in its approach to hiring in the service department. This session will dive into some of the innovative ideas they’ve used to combat the common dealer challenge of finding good technicians.

The next session features Samantha Cunningham Zawilinski, Portratz Partners Advertising, discussing “Intrapreneurship: Developing Early Adopters & Harnessing Innovation in Your Company.” There have always been go-getters in companies who push the status quo to become champions of your brand. In this presentation for organizational leaders, you’ll walk away with actionable steps to nurture a successful intrapreneur, learn how you create an environment and culture that enables intrapreneurs to thrive within your organization, and understand how intrapreneurs help to build a stronger, more progressive business in a competitive landscape.

Next up Allison Chaney, Boot Camp Digital, will share a roadmap for “Developing Your Personal Brand.” This interactive presentation will empower and motivate the audience to proactively create a powerful, positive and purposeful image of themselves online. At the end of this session participants will understand how their personal brand contributes to boosting their credibility and growing their reach. They will also have the tools to bring the brand to life in an impactful way.

After that Art Hill, University of Minnesota, will present “The Managing Me Workshop.” Most people struggle keeping up with the flood of “stuff” in their world (emails, phone calls, meetings and commitments) that far exceed their mental and emotional capacities. As a result, they lose track of their goals and experience stress, worry and guilt — and are far less productive. The Managing Me workshop takes the latest research about personal productivity, makes it practical, and creates an engaging experience that helps people apply the life-changing principles.

Wrapping up the Employee Pathway will be Education Host Jim Million presenting the two-hour workshop “Telling Ain’t Training.” This “training for non-trainers” session will teach managers how to take the information they’ve learned during Dealer Week and share it with their teams in a way that will engage them and help them remember it.

About Dealer Week
For more than 40 years, the Marine Retailers Association of the Americas has delivered world class educational programming to dealers, retailers and service operations that power the boating industry and serve today’s boaters. Dealer Week evolves as MRAA’s rebranded and reimagined annual conference and expo, a profoundly new event experience designed to engage, energize and empower the dealer community. The MRAA envisions a brighter future for marine retail, and Dealer Week is the preeminent means for bringing that vision to life. Learn more at DealerWeek.com.

About the Marine Retailers Association of the Americas
At the Marine Retailers Association of the Americas, we believe that for the marine industry to thrive, the retail organizations that interact with the boaters in their community must thrive. With that in mind, MRAA works to create a strong and healthy boating industry by uniting those retailers, providing them with opportunities for improvement and growth, and representing them with a powerful voice. For more information, visit MRAA.com or contact us at 763-315-8043.

DiscoverBoating.com Launches New Content For Use

DiscoverBoating.com has launched new online content in order to provide information and boating resources to boat owners and potential boat owners. Share these these articles and resources on your social media channels in order to generate engagement among your channels.

Check out the latest content updates on DiscoverBoating.com:

Boat ownership resources
How to Register a Boat
How to Get a Boating License
First Time Boat Owners: How to Get Started

Supporting pages for Go Boating Today
Renting a Boat: Boat Rentals Guide
Boat Sharing & Peer-to-Peer Boat Rentals
Boat Club Memberships: Why Should You Join?
How to Charter a Boat

Boating lifestyle articles
Boat Camping: 5 Tips for Sleeping Onboard
Boat Yoga: 5 Poses to Do Onboard Your Boat
Boatgating: Top 4 NFL Stadiums on the Water

RBLC’s New Markets Task Force to Re-Engage on Diversity Initiatives

As part of its continued efforts to grow boating, the Recreational Boating Leadership Council’s New Markets Task Force is reorganizing to address its next phase of work within the recreational boating industry.

According to chairperson Wanda Kenton Smith, the original 35-person task force collaborated a few years ago to research and share latest diversity findings and trends, plus developed and produced a series of custom videos as part of a professional educational module which was presented throughout the industry.

The series, “Proven Strategies to Engage New Markets,” provided a detailed demographic overview of emerging ethnicities, coupled with in-depth interviews featuring five organizations in the marine industry who were successfully engaging diverse audiences. The video series won the national Neptune Award for diversity presented by Marine Marketers of America.  

“Our task force did a great job in identifying the growth of specific ethnic markets and communicating their growing economic clout and buying power,” said Kenton Smith. “Our goal was to educate the industry, share best practices and encourage manufacturers and retailers to be more inclusive and welcoming to a broader audience of prospective buyers.”

In addition to the live presentations conducted around the country, online webinars and tip sheets, plus access to archived videos available on demand, the task force also produced a series of full-and half-page advertisements which were published in key industry B2B trade media.

“We believe the New Markets campaign achieved its initial goals of educating the industry about the explosive growth of key demographic segments and their respective buying power,” said Kenton Smith. “Now, we are ready to re-engage with our task force to discuss and develop the second phase of ongoing education and potential outreach.”

The New Markets Task Force is comprised of individuals working within the North American marine industry who either represent specific ethnicities, or who have interest in becoming involved in efforts to attract diverse audiences to boating. In addition, the task force is interested in hearing from organizations within the recreational boating segment who may have best practices to share regarding sales and marketing initiatives to diverse audiences.

“Our initial task force did an awesome job and their enthusiasm and collective contributions made a positive impact on our industry,” said Kenton Smith. “We are excited to move forward in 2020 to continue this important effort and dialog. We welcome any and all to become actively engaged in our forthcoming plans and development.”

MRAA Hits the Road

The past few weeks have been busy for dealers like you. Just as you’re seeing the last blast of summer sales, you’re also jumping on planes or driving across the country to visit your reps and peers at manufacturer dealer meetings. And we have been, too!

In the past month, members of the MRAA team have visited meetings for Chris-Craft, Lowe, Bennington, Tiara, Alumacraft, Barletta and Chaparral. And we have more coming soon! We’re spreading the news about Dealer Week, MRAA membership and the Marine Industry Certified Dealership program with the goal of offering you solutions to improve your business and fuel your growth. We’re also sharing information about the Dealer Week Early Bird discount, which ends Sept. 30, and passing along a Certification bundle that allows you to bundle Bronze membership with Certification to take advantage of valuable resources and benefits while completing the Certification program.

If you missed us at your meeting, or if you want more information on anything MRAA has to offer, Nikki can help. Reach Member Development Manager Nikki Duffney at 763-333-2420 or at nikki@mraa.com for the full scoop.

MRAA, NMMA BoatPAC to Host Two Florida Events

BoatPAC, the joint political action committee of MRAA and NMMA, will host two upcoming events in Florida with key members of Congress and industry champions.

Next Tuesday, Aug. 27, BoatPAC will host Congressman Mike Waltz in the Orlando/Daytona area at Mission Inn from 10 a.m. – 1 p.m.

BoatPAC then heads to Tampa for an event with key industry champions during IBEX, on Oct. 1 from 5:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m. at Jackson’s Bistro.

For more information on BoatPAC and how you can contribute, visit boatpac.org.

Nautical Ventures Takes Over Management at Anglers Marina

Through a lease-option, Nautical Ventures Group has taken over operations of Anglers Marina in Dania Beach and will rebrand the entity as Nautical Ventures Marine Center.

On the 10-acre site, Nautical Ventures will build a new 200-unit drystack, a 15,000 square-foot state-of-the-art showroom, a six-bay parts service facility, a ship’s store, a waterfront restaurant with tiki bar, improve overall infrastructure for 120 wet slips, and be the future home of Nautical Ventures Boat Club. A newly built, custom houseboat is docked onsite, serving as an interim sales, brokerage and boat club office.

Four Service Providers Commit to MRAA Platinum Partnership

Digital Power Solutions, Epic Finance, Keller Media Works, and Total Control Software have committed to the Marine Retailers Association of the Americas at the Platinum Partner level.

Through Partner Membership, marine manufacturers, suppliers and service providers commit to align their brands with the programs and opportunities that MRAA works to provide the dealer body in order to help fuel the success of the industry. Support from Partners allows the Association to expand its offerings and create a positive, long-term impact for marine retailers.

Digital Power Solutions
“We are elated about the opportunity to partner with MRAA and look forward to working with the MRAA dealer network,” says Steve Moore, CEO/Founder, Digital Power Solutions. “TRADE CYCLE Marine installs easily on any boat dealer website and the lead content is unparalleled in the industry. In addition to instantly increasing website leads, Digital Power Solutions educates boat dealers on how to initiate various proven marketing methods where TRADE CYCLE Marine can be integrated such as social media, eNewsletters, email campaigns, a dealer’s service drive, Google and Facebook marketing and much more, most of which are cost-free!”

Digital Power Solutions offers the industry’s first website trade-in lead conversion system, TRADE CYCLE Marine. The system allows boat dealers to utilize their existing website to better leverage leads that are collected online by providing website visitors with the estimated value of their current boat in exchange for customer information.

Epic Finance
“Epic Finance is committed to handling each customer and dealer partner with the greatest of care and transparency,” says Chris Rowden, Director of Sales and Dealer Development at Epic Finance. “Our job is all about customer service and making our dealer partners more successful as well as contributing to the memories and happiness of boat buyers. Epic’s partnership with MRAA has been invaluable and we look forward to making the relationship even stronger as a Platinum Partner.”

The Epic Finance team has more than 130 years in combined financial experience.  Through partnerships with the some of the nation’s largest banks, regional banks, credit unions and subprime lenders, Epic Finance has the ability to offer a full spectrum of recreational lending services to the marine retail community.

Keller Media Works
“We love this industry.” says Ben Keller, owner of Keller Media Works. “The vibrant details of the boat business capture the imagination and the heart in amazing and unique ways. Partnering with MRAA is a natural step towards our goal of assisting marine companies tell engaging stories from all aspects of the industry, in order to help grow it. We are proud to support MRAA in their mission, and all the membership by helping tell their inspirational, and aspirational stories.”

Keller Media Works is a full-service media and marketing company that helps grow marine retailers by creating stunning visual content and engaging their audiences through vibrant images and stories.

Total Control Software
Since 1992, Total Control Software has been supporting marine and RV dealers across North America. Its user-friendly software solution allows dealers the freedom to focus on building their business instead of focusing on the day-to-day operations.

“2019 has been a year of grow for the MRAA, especially in the area of Partnership,” says Matt Gruhn, MRAA President. “We are estatic to announce the addition of our four newest Platinum Partner Members. With there support, the association can continue to create valuable educational resources to our marine retail members.”

About the Marine Retailers Association of the America
At the Marine Retailers Association of the Americas, we believe that for the marine industry to thrive, the retail organizations that interact with the boaters in their community must thrive. With that in mind, MRAA works to create a strong and healthy boating industry by uniting those retailers, providing them with opportunities for improvement and growth, and representing them with a powerful voice. For more information, contact us at 763-315-8043.

Dealer to Dealer: August 2019

As we push toward the end of the prime selling season, what is the one goal you want to accomplish by the end of the year?

“Figure out why our new boat sales are lacking behind 2018 when every other aspect of our business are well ahead.” – Joe Lewis, Mount Dora Boating Center

“The one goal I’d like to accomplish would be to reclaim my sanity. Somewhere between Memorial Day and Labor day, all normal sanity was sucked out of my mind. Hopeful some cooler days and smooth sounds will restore my fried brain cells.” – David deAndrade, White Lake Marine

“Top of my list is to reduce the inventory. Our inventory is high for this time of year and the manufacturers are asking for new 2020 orders to either met or exceed last year’s orders. Being in this business for over 40 years we know that every election year the business tapers off towards election time. But after the elections, whether a Republican or Democrat is elected, there is business as usual. So we will adjust our inventory accordingly in 2020.  

Also we are training in house for new technicians. We are using our older tech’s to train the younger new tech’s and compensating the older tech’s for their training.” – Jim Wiborg, Bob Hewes Boats

“Be billing 80% of paid trades payroll hours.” – Jim Dragseth, Whiticar Boat Yard

“We’ve outgrown our current location, both in size and scope. Our goal is to secure a bigger, deep water location that will allow us to inventory more boats, expand our service operations, accommodate more employees, add a full-service marina component, and more. Ideally we would migrate to the new location during 2020.” – Roger Moore, Nautical Ventures

“We need to sell through our overstocked and aged inventory. There’s also a challenging time ahead so far as inventory planning and management goes. Our primary goal is to identify when and where to shift our ordering and delivery dates, as well as volume of inbound orders.” – Greg Knop, Family Boating Center

What do you want to accomplish in the upcoming months? Tell us below in the comment section!

NMLA Releases Annual Statistical Report

Portfolio boat lenders expecting positive business during 2019; boat loan delinquency performs below 1% for 7th straight year.

The most comprehensive marine finance market study of lending trends and operations in the United States has been released by the National Marine Lenders Association (NMLA). The 2019 Annual Statistical Report provides detailed data relating to the industry’s two leading retail business line entities — financial institutions who originate and hold retail or floor plan boat loans and service companies who originate and broker consumer boat loans to financial institutions. The report is a compilation of information from 50 lenders who represent a sizeable share of the marine finance market.

As specified in the Report, the recreational marine finance industry continues to experience strong economic health. Performance statistics reveal that boat loan delinquency has remained stable since 2012 and that 78% of portfolio financial institution’s boat loan customers were in the 35-54-year age group. Average boat loan turnover rate was reported at a healthy 48 months.

The entire 101-page 2019 NMLA Annual Statistical Report is now available for purchase in PDF format.

Continuous Certification: It’s Like Learning How to Swim

Last week, MRAA Lead Certification Consultant, Bob McCann, used the analogy of learning how to swim during our MICD Certification consultant training.

You can imagine it… You’re a kid in a pool. A trusted adult is standing a few feet away and motions you to swim toward them. At the last second they take a step back. What?! You were almost to the finish line and they made a step backwards that challenged you to go farther, to do more.

The MICD Continuous Certification curriculum is kind of like that. Each quarter offers new content that is designed to challenge the way you run your business. We want to make you think.

In Q1, Jim Million takes a step back and provides information on how you can work toward a coaching and mentoring culture that will lead to a more effective workplace.

Q2 addresses the productivity of your leadership team. Ty Bello takes a step back and identifies the areas that may be blocking you from being productive.

Liz Walz and a panel of experts take a step back and help you reconsider how you allocate your staff’s time and talent in sales, marketing and customer service and how your departments collaborate to grab the attention of prospects and customers in Q3.

And if you have caught on, you would guess that Q4 is sure to push you further and challenge the way you run your business in order to bring greater success, as Theresa Syer shows you how to understand and influence your customer’s Key Emotional Drivers.

We hold our Certified dealers to a high standard. They have proven that they have the desire to be the best and be a dealership that continues to strive to be better. So we will continue to take a step back and challenge you to swim.