Powered by Boating and Fishing, Data Shows Outdoor Recreation is a $1.2 Trillion Economic Engine

WASHINGTON, D.C, November 27, 2024 – The Marine Retailers Association of the Americas is excited to share new economic data released by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Economy Analysis (BEA) highlighting that outdoor recreation, and in particular boating and fishing, continue to be a major driver of the U.S. economy, jobs and local communities. According to the latest data from the BEA Outdoor Recreation Satellite Account, outdoor recreation generated $1.2 trillion in economic output (2.3% GDP), comprised 3.1% of U.S. employees and accounted for 5 million jobs in 2023.

Recreational boating and fishing continues to be a major driver of the outdoor recreation economy and this year was the largest recreational activity for the nation, coming in at $36.8 billion in current-dollar value added and was the largest recreational activity in 34 states and the District of Columbia. The states with the largest contributions were Florida ($4.2 billion), California ($3.1 billion) and Texas (2.8 billion).

“Recreational boating continues to be a key part of America’s Outdoor Recreation Economy, and the new 2023 BEA data highlights Americans’ desire to be outside, get on the water and enjoy their favorite pastimes,” said Matt Gruhn, President of the Marine Retailers Association of the Americas. “The success of the recreational boating industry is ultimately fueled by marine retailers who keep boaters on the water and are key for ensuring that we continue to grow participation in America’s Outdoor Recreation Economy. This economic impact underscores the importance of prioritizing policies that support marine retailers, fuel continued investments in conservation and ensure domestic marine manufacturers can remain strong to ensure the recreational boating industry stays a uniquely American sector.”

Powered by Boating and Fishing, Data Shows Outdoor Recreation is a $1.2 Trillion Economic Engine
U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis

This is the largest recorded measure since the BEA started calculating the size of the outdoor recreation economy in 2012. According to newly revised data in this year’s release from the BEA, the outdoor recreation economy has grown 36% in real terms since 2012. These new figures reveal that the outdoor recreation economy contributes more to the U.S. economy than farming, mining and utilities.   This is the seventh consecutive year that the BEA has released government data on this critical industry sector. Today’s release confirms the role of outdoor recreation as a central contributor to thriving economies, healthy people and connected communities. 

Jessica Turner, President of the Outdoor Recreation Roundtable (ORR), elevated the new data as a testament to the strength and importance of the outdoor recreation economy: “With over $1.2 trillion in economic output and generating 5 million jobs, this marks another year of growth for the outdoor recreation economy, underscoring its resilience and importance across the nation. The new BEA data highlights outdoor recreation as a cornerstone of our economy, generating jobs, supporting small businesses and providing essential opportunities for Americans to engage with the outdoors for health, connection and quality of life. This new data should signal to policymakers and leaders across the country that investing in outdoor infrastructure and access must remain a national, bipartisan priority. We urge this Congress to take swift action to pass the EXPLORE Act, a widely supported package of bills that will help to ensure that all Americans have access to the outdoors and support the communities and businesses that rely on recreation economies.”

Key Highlights: 

  • Nominal Gross Output: $1.2 trillion, up 5% from 2022 
  • 36% growth in Real Gross Output since 2012 
  • 5 million jobs, 3.1% of Employment 

Diverse Sector Growth (Real Terms):  

  • Bicycling up 11%  
  • Climbing/hiking/tent camping up 6% 
  • Hunting/shooting/trapping up 12% 
  • Snow Activities up 23% 
  • Trips and Travel up 7% 
  • Lodging up 9% 
  • The outdoor recreation economy exceeded growth of the U.S. economy from 2022 to 2023 with outdoor recreation real GDP growing 3.6% compared to 2.9% for the U.S. economy and jobs growing 3.3% compared to 1.8%. 

Retail Remains Strong
Furthermore, retail trade remains as a backbone of the outdoor recreation economy and was the second largest industry group for the nation, generating $156.3 billion or 24% of value added, and was the largest industry group in 26states. The states with the largest contributions were California ($17.6 billion), Texas ($13.9 billion) and Florida ($12.2 million). It is crucial to note the importance of a strong retail sector in the outdoor recreation economy, as this is made possible by MRAA members and others who bridge the gap between manufacturers and consumers, getting folks out on the water or on the trail and making outdoor recreation possible for the masses.

Continued Growth Despite Challenges: Despite economic fluctuations and market adjustments following the pandemic, the outdoor recreation economy continues to outpace the broader U.S. economy in several metrics. The data reflects increased participation across a variety of outdoor activities and a surge in related industries such as arts, entertainment, recreation, accommodation and food services (up 6% in real terms). 

Federal Support Remains Critical: The EXPLORE Act, already passed by the U.S. House of Representatives in April 2024, would help ensure that public lands and recreational spaces remain accessible and well-maintained, with updates in antiquated management policies, boosting the outdoor economy without new costs to taxpayers. As the outdoor recreation economy grows, so does the need for continued investment in public lands and infrastructure. Without updates and improvements, many recreation areas risk falling behind demand. Additionally, retroactively extending the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) by the end of the year would bring back certainty to the businesses trying to move supply chains out of China and keep their products affordable for consumers. 

If you are interested in learning more or checking out the full release of the data, click here. If you have any further questions about the data or would like to discuss the implications, please feel free to reach out to MRAA Government Relations Staffers Chad Tokowicz, Government Relations Manager at Chad@mraa.com, or MRAA Director of Government Relations, Mike Sayre at Sayre@mraa.com.

About the Outdoor Recreation Roundtable
The Outdoor Recreation Roundtable promotes the growth of the outdoor recreation economy and outdoor recreation activities. We educate decision makers and the public on balanced policies that conserve public lands and waterways and enhance infrastructure to improve the experience and quality of life of outdoor enthusiasts everywhere.

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.

Identifying Opportunities in the Dealer-Manufacturer Relationship

Collaborative effort between the MRAA board and leading manufacturers and suppliers focuses on driving improvements in the customer experience.

By Matt Gruhn, MRAA President

In the world of major unit retail, stark differences exist between the auto and marine industries. Major unit sales volume, alone, drives the bulk of the disparities between how each industry operates and derives its profits. It also commands different approaches to the critical dealer-manufacturer relationship that impacts so much of the customer experience.

In the automobile industry, franchise agreements govern the manufacturer and dealer relationship. The dealer purchases a brand’s franchise, which comes with a set of clear expectations for how the dealership will deliver for the brand. In return, the manufacturer grants the dealer the right to sell and service its vehicles in a specific market area. Such a franchise gives the dealership an ongoing right to use the manufacturer’s trademarks and operating system, defines the dealer’s obligations and typically provides incentives for the dealer to act in the customer’s best interest because they are paid by the factory to perform warranty and recall work.

In the boating industry, dealers and manufacturers do not use franchise agreements, and there are various views on the pros and cons to this approach.

Manufacturers build a brand and set goals for their business. Dealers build a brand in their local marketplace and set their own goals. The goals generally align — sell lots of boats, take great care of customers – but they don’t always fall into perfect alignment.

For example, boat dealerships commonly carry multiple boat lines — some of which may even compete with one another — and must find a balance between the needs of each brand and the goals of their own business. Manufacturers naturally desire to be priority No. 1 in each dealership that carries their brand, and they often find it challenging that they can’t leverage dealers to abide by specific operating systems, strategic initiatives, customer satisfaction requirements or other specific criteria.

Further complicating the issue is the fact that the use of written dealer-manufacturer agreements, which would document agreed-upon expectations, is inconsistent across the marine industry. Thus, the entire system allows for gaps between the partners’ expectations for one another and the real-world performance they deliver.

All of this leaves our industry with a real need for dealers and manufacturers to engage in intentional, collaborative conversations around expectations and performance — conversations that would ultimately lead to both parties delivering a better end-user experience and higher levels of customer loyalty among today’s boat buyers.

Three years ago, MRAA’s Board of Directors (all dealers) and Strategic Partners (all manufacturers and suppliers) collaborated to add to MRAA’s strategic plan the directive for MRAA to serve as an advocate between dealers and manufacturers and, specifically, to formalize conversations between the two parties. Admittedly, as MRAA is largely a dealer-focused organization, it takes a delicate balance and a focus on not succumbing to bias in such an endeavor, and I’m proud to tell you that through the guidance of both dealers and manufacturers, MRAA is rolling out a comprehensive performance review program to support industry collaboration and growth.

Identifying opportunities in the dealer-manufacturer relationship

MRAA has worked closely with two multi-brand manufacturers to roll out a pilot program featuring a scorecard that will encourage dealers to score and provide feedback to their respective manufacturers and a scorecard that will encourage manufacturers to score and provide feedback to each dealer in their network. The scorecards were built using direction from an MRAA strategy meeting, where both dealers and manufacturers charged MRAA to create a common platform that could be used to facilitate conversations between the two parties. After more than a year of effort put to this, including dozens of conversations with industry stakeholders, the draft scorecards were fine-tuned by the MRAA Board of Directors and then further refined through one-on-one conversations with several boat manufacturers.

The feedback was compiled, a total of eight, ever-improving scorecard drafts were created and critiqued, and near-final versions were presented for feedback to the MRAA Board and Strategic Partners at an in-person meeting on Sept. 30. The final versions are now in play with multiple boat brands as a pilot program that MRAA intends to fully rollout in 2025. We’ll learn from the first set of brands and their dealers and will refine our process and our scorecards and come back with a meaningful scorecard program intended to strengthen the collaboration between dealers and manufacturers in order to take better care of today’s boat buyers and grow our industry.

So, you might be wondering: What topics will the scorecards address? The dealer scorecard will ask manufacturers to rate their dealers and provide feedback on customer satisfaction, professional appearance, inventory management, sales, service and parts effectiveness, and operational excellence, while the manufacturer scorecard will ask dealers to rate their manufacturers on their market territory, product quality, parts delivery, satisfaction with the manufacturer’s rep, satisfaction with the overall relationship and the dealer agreement. Both the dealer and the manufacturer scorecards will also allow the parties to address education and training, marketing and promotions, warranty programs and processes, and market share.

MRAA’s discussions around this have garnered many questions, all of which we are happy to listen to and talk through. The impetus behind these efforts is that if we, as an industry, want more boat buyers and more repeat boat buyers, we must deliver a better customer experience – one that warrants today’s busy consumers investing their hard-earned money and their precious time into our products and services and into our livelihoods. We believe that in creating meaningful conversations around the dealer-manufacturer relationship and working together toward the goal of growing boating, we can create a better future for decades to come.

Samples of the Dealer and Manufacturer Scorecards will be unveiled at Dealer Week in Orlando (Dec. 8-11), and the program will be fully rolled out by MRAA and a third party — Customer Service Intelligence, Inc., who boasts a rich history in capturing voice of the customer information and data — via an email and phone call survey campaign. MRAA will then share reports with manufacturers who enroll and participate in the program. Manufacturers will receive a comprehensive report of feedback from their dealer networks — along with an (anonymous) aggregate comparison to industry and segment averages — and those manufacturers will be expected to share their dealer scores and feedback with each individual dealer.

While many tools and resources and how-to’s for using the scorecards are forthcoming as part of the launch, MRAA is confident this new program will drive performance improvements on both ends of the supply chain by helping to establish and enhance more productive dialogue between manufacturers and their dealers. The scorecards will elevate conversations around expectations for each party, and the feedback regarding performance will provide both parties a pathway to continued improvement, growth and customer loyalty.

Please stop by the Dealer Week booths for either MRAA or Customer Service Intelligence, Inc. to learn more about this or contact me directly after Dealer Week is over: matt@mraa.com.


A version of this article originally appeared in the December issue of Soundings Trade Only.

The Nexus of Success

The relationship among dealers, manufacturers and customers is more critical than ever.

By Matt Gruhn, MRAA President

In 2018, an eye-opening report surfaced about the health of the marine industry. It revealed the attrition rates of first-time boat buyers. Close to 40% were selling their boats and leaving boating within the first five years of ownership.

The attention placed on boater retention — as opposed to a sole focus on recruiting future boaters — became a key industry initiative. While an emphasis on the overall customer experience has always existed, the attrition rates provided a rallying cry for greater focus.

More research and data underscored the importance of that experience to the overall health of boating in 2021. Left Brain Marketing, at the request of the Recreational Boating and Fishing Foundation, Discover Boating and the Marine Retailers Association of the Americas, led a research project that sought to understand challenges and opportunities to enhance boat ownership. The study found that nearly 90% of boat buyers, shortly after the point of purchase, said they would “definitely” or “probably” remain a boat owner for at least the next five years.

In other words, first-time boat buyers intend to remain in boating for the long term, but there is a significant gap between their intention and reality. What happens between the purchase and year five that causes boat owners to flee?

Defining the Ownership Experience
By the end of 2019, the 40% attrition figure had been discussed widely across the industry. Then, the pandemic hit in early 2020, creating a marketplace that led to record numbers of first-time boat buyers.

In the ensuing years, the frenzied environment created customer-experience problems. Suppliers were frustrated by overseas restrictions that shut down their ability to deliver parts to U.S.-based boatbuilders. Manufacturers were frustrated by suppliers that couldn’t deliver parts, components, resins and materials necessary to build boats. Dealers were frustrated because they could sell every boat they could get their hands on, but they couldn’t get enough boats to satisfy all of their potential customers.

Boats that dealers did receive often were missing key components, as manufacturers were forced to short-ship boats with missing parts just to get product into dealer showrooms and on the water. With consumer demand at an all-time high, boats deemed operational — those missing latches, as opposed to engines, for example — were delivered to customers with the promise of installation at a later date.

Given those challenges, many industry experts fear that the five-year attrition rate is at risk of worsening. It’s easy to understand why. Pandemic-era buyers experienced lower product quality. The price of boats increased significantly, so the cost of ownership started off on the wrong foot. Maintenance requirements increased as quality issues arose. Boater training suffered as dealerships hurried the delivery process. The only thing that seemed to work in the marine industry’s favor was the frequency of boat usage — in a socially distanced world, boating was among the most popular pursuits. Unfortunately, frequent usage led to a greater demand for repairs and maintenance, when dealership service departments were already maxed out.

All of which brings us back to the risk of greater at­trition as we face the reality that the world has returned to restaurants, travel, concerts, youth athletics and more — all competitors to the free time consumers had allocated toward boating during the past four years.

Complexity in Customer Experience
Across the marine industry, companies measure the customer experience through the eyes of Customer Satisfaction Index and Net Promoter scores. Manufacturers that attain the highest scores are recognized at industry events. Dealerships that excel are acknowledged at dealer meetings.

To emphasize the importance of these scores, manufacturers provide dealers with consequential financial incentives, such as higher warranty reimbursement rates. The dealers’ higher scores lead to manufacturers’ higher scores, which ultimately translate into a great marketing story that may encourage consumers to buy one brand’s product instead of another.

The drive to attain these higher scores, though, threatens to mask the need for real deliverables when it comes to the customer experience. To begin with, we must understand that customer service is transactional in nature. A customer comes into the dealership with a need, and the dealership fulfills that need. That’s customer service. Customer satisfaction, then, is a measurement of the level of satisfaction with that interaction, with the transaction.

Customer experience, on the other hand, as defined by Theresa Syer of Syer Hospitality Group, a frequent trainer in dealer education programs offered by the MRAA, is the sum total of all interactions with a business. It includes experiences consumers have with a website, phone interactions, the greeting at the store, the engagement with a salesperson, the brief but telling interaction with the lot attendant, the product quality, moments of customer service, and all other interactions with the business. The quality of the overall experience, as reinforced by the Left Brain study, includes inputs from people and products alike — from the manufacturer and the dealership — as well as several factors intertwining the people and products, such as financial considerations.

To underscore the dealers’ and manufacturers’ shared accountability to the customer experience, consider insights from a pre-pandemic data point offered by way of a study by Avala Marketing Group, now known as Rollick. As the administrators of the National Marine Manufacturers Association’s customer satisfaction program, they looked deeper at the results and identified that some of the highest correlated inputs to overall boat satisfaction — that is, satisfaction with the product itself — include the “overall purchase experience” (at the dealership) and the question, “Would you recommend this dealer?”

In fact, of all of the questions related to the overall satisfaction with the boat, “Would you recommend this dealer?” was more highly correlated to overall boat satisfaction than some of the questions specifically related to the product itself.

“What this tells us,” they noted at the time, “is that a customer’s happiness with the dealer experience can override dissatisfaction with the product. But conversely, a poor dealer experience can cause the customer to abandon that brand forever.”

So in the pursuit of providing a world-class customer experience for today’s boat owners, it becomes clearer that the path to doing so requires a strong, collaborative effort by the dealer and the manufacturer. This reality justifies the need to measure and have deeper discussions surrounding this critical dealer-manufacturer relationship and its significance in delivering on the promise of the boating lifestyle. 

This article was originally published in the September 2024 issue of Trade Only Magazine.

Don’t Split Up the Team

How the strength of the dealer-manufacturer relationship drives customer loyalty.

By Matt Gruhn, MRAA President

“Don’t split up the team,” Christina Fliakos said.

Nearly 50 dealers and manufacturers paused their conversations and turned to Fliakos, who is Senior Manager of Parts and Service Processes at Brunswick Corp.’s Service Center of Excellence.

They had been buzzing about repair event cycle times and the need to collaborate to get customers’ boats back on the water faster. Too often, poor communication between dealers and manufacturers slows down warranty repairs. Dealers contact the manufacturer, whose warranty either allows for the repairs or not. Customers faced with out-of-pocket costs become frustrated with the dealer. Sometimes, they call the manufacturer directly. If the manufacturer then approves the warranty work, it undermines the dealer’s relationship with the customer.

“Don’t split up the team” was Fliakos’ way of saying that dealers and manufacturers need to be on the same side.

The dealer-manufacturer relationship is often overlooked as a bedrock element in the boater’s buying and ownership experience. In fact, warranty-related processes and policies represent just one of six key areas where the quality of the dealer-manufacturer relationship either drives or deteriorates customer loyalty with boating.

In preparing for the meeting where Fliakos brought this reality squarely into focus, I spent a significant amount of time exploring where, exactly, the dealer-manufacturer relationship affects the customer experience and customer loyalty. I talked with more than three dozen manufacturers and dealers. We discussed the desires and expectations that manufacturers held for dealers, and vice versa. Then, we dove deeper into which of those desires and expectations actually affect the customer experience, and how.

I also reviewed articles from outside our industry on dealer-manufacturer relations, including performance-oriented scorecards and state-level warranty laws. I examined nearly two dozen marine manufacturer-dealer agreements, including a model agreement created by the Marine Retailers Association of the Americas and the National Marine Manufacturers Association. When I was done with that, I reviewed sales and service contracts, eligibility policies, operating standards, evaluation forms and termination notices.

That’s how these six key areas of the dealer-manufacturer relationship were identified, specifically as areas that directly affect the boat-buying and ownership experience:

Supply chain management that ensures quality boats reach the customer. This includes inventory management. Steady orders let manufacturers level-load their production lines, and managing inventory costs is a priority for dealership health. Dealers and manufacturers must act appropriately in response to market dynamics. Both should make ongoing investments in workforce development to support producing, selling, and servicing boats and engines.

Quicker service turnaround times for the consumer. This applies to new-delivery and service-repaired boats alike. It begins with quality assurance efforts — including the quality of products from third-party suppliers — at the manufacturer level. There’s a need for quicker problem-solving, along with effective methods for involving manufacturers when interfacing with customers. There are opportunities to share boat schematics, build sheets and other documentation to enable more accurate parts procurement. There’s also a need for dealers to respond faster, with better-quality information. Improved two-way communication presents a united front to the consumer.

Warranty policies that take care of the issues and the customer. Several opportunities in this area should be explored, including reimbursement policies based on performance with incentives at or above the dealer’s retail rate; preapprovals that speed up the time to get boaters back on the water; policies that speak to dealers’ travel and haul-out costs; and post-dealer termination policies focused on taking care of the customer, including parts access, reimbursements and allowing the selling dealer to provide service for the life of the warranty.

Annual performance reviews that ensure manufacturers and dealers are providing a high-quality boating experience for customers. This opportunity begins with stating clear expectations for the dealer and manufacturer. Identify and document what an actual review process should look like. Use “cure periods” to fix underperformance by dealers or manufacturers.

Manufacturer-sponsored development programs that ensure dealership teams and customers are educated on the product. Such an approach would ask manufacturers to require product sales training, require technician training and require competency training for dealership teams. The approach could also involve the use of certifications or credentialing to ensure that dealership team members are retaining knowledge and skills.

Improved dealer-manufacturer agreements that support partnership, sound business practices and customer loyalty. This catchall interconnects all of the above touchpoints into a written document. It also includes addressing such key elements as an initial contract with proper length and terms; the mutual pursuit of agreed-upon expectations; and the renewal of the contract with considerations around length of the term and conditions for continued improvement.

In the boater’s buying and ownership experience, where every touchpoint with our industry can be consequential, the burden of accountability falls upon the dealer and manufacturer. While many other players — suppliers, distributors, lenders, technology providers and more — play a significant role, the dealer and manufacturer serve as the face of the marine industry to the consumer.

It’s our goal at the MRAA to focus on much more than keeping this team intact. It’s our priority and part of our strategic plan to help strengthen and enhance what this critical team brings to the table. The effort needs to begin with establishing clear expectations, maintaining collaborative communications, and improving on what we learn along the way.

Stay tuned to learn where our efforts are leading us. And please reach out if you think we’ve missed anything: matt@mraa.com.

This article was originally published in the October 2024 issue of Soundings Trade Only.

Beer vs. Boats

In the game of trying to stabilize inventory, there really is no difference.

By Matt Gruhn, MRAA President

Have you ever played The Beer Game? No, I’m not talking about a frat-house game. I’m talking about The Beer Game as chronicled in the book The Fifth Discipline. The book shares the story of three businesses — a beer retailer, a beer distributor and a brewer — seeking to serve their customers well, to keep their product moving and to avoid the risks inherent in supply-and-demand environments.

Author Peter M. Senge has seen the same outcome during the thousands of times his collegiate and management-level students have played The Beer Game. Each participant makes well-motivated, clearly defensible judgments, based on reasonable expectations of what might happen in managing their business. After that, everything goes sideways.

“First, there is growing demand that can’t be met,” Senge writes. “Orders build throughout the system. Inventories are depleted. Backlogs grow. Then, the beer arrives en masse while incoming orders suddenly decline. By the end of the experiment, almost all players are sitting with large inventories they cannot unload.”

The point of the game is to prepare students for similar crises that surface in real production-distribution systems. Take the recreational marine industry. Today, in our factories and our dealerships, the scenario is threatening to play out in real time, despite the fact that we’ve already played this game.

Remember when the Great Recession turned growing sales trends into a precipitous rise in inventory levels that put 35% of our dealerships out of business, seemingly overnight?

More recently, in our real-life version of The Boat Game, demand skyrocketed and dealer inventories quickly depleted during the early stages of the pandemic. Boats were then purchased on pre-order, before they even hit the production line. The pressure on dealers and manufacturers mounted to the point of overwhelm, largely due to the fact that insane demand coupled with worldwide supply chain issues meant they simply couldn’t keep up. Dealers just kept ordering because they knew they could sell everything they could get their hands on.

Then, about a year and a half ago, demand began to subside, those back orders were still being built, and normalization of inventory levels came way faster than anyone expected.

So now we’re on the back end of this round of The Boat Game, trying to adjust our businesses and our inventory levels to the market’s latest realities. The numbers are stark: According to key industry partners, inventory levels at dealerships across the United States on Dec. 31, 2022, compared with Dec. 31, 2021, had effectively doubled. And that trend has continued into the prime selling season of 2023.

Some dealers have noted that they have canceled orders, aren’t taking new orders, and they’re concerned over how to order for the 2024 model year.

“We are receiving 2023 models in May and June,” one dealer told us in MRAA’s May 2023 Pulse Report, “and at the same time being asked for 2024 models to ship in July and August.” This is the point in the game where supply is arriving en masse, while demand has sharply decreased.

Another dealer wrote: “Boat companies are asking for our 2024 orders already. Seems like every year they want [orders] earlier and earlier, knowing that if we order now, the boats will be here in July, and we’ll still have half our 2023 inventory on the lot.”

In response, manufacturers have begun to slow production, perhaps a little too late, as they simultaneously seek to fill the white space in their networks — the market areas where they have no, low or poor dealer representation. Manufacturer promotions have also been on the rise, as dealers cut their margins and fight harder to turn shoppers into buyers.

This isn’t the new normal. It’s the old normal, coming back to life.

We’ve endured periods of rapid inventory growth before. The question is: Do we remember the lessons we learned?

As dealers, it does us no good to complain about manufacturers wanting us to buy more product. A little more than a year ago, dealers were begging for more shipments. Today, perhaps, inventory levels are high enough. But did the manufacturers know that before the request for more orders came in?

As manufacturers, it does us no good to pressure dealers to take more inventory than they are comfortable with, or to introduce more product into the market by finding another dealer. Both paths compromise the health of our industry and our critical distribution network.

What’s needed here is a better understanding of and responsiveness to the cyclical nature of our industry. Dealers must balance the right product offerings and the right amount of product with the demands of the marketplace, while manufacturers seek efficient, consistent production output. Achieving this balance is always a challenge, but it’s something that can be better managed.

The point is: The pressure dealers and manufacturers are feeling could be significantly reduced if we could improve the systemic issues that cause these recurring challenges.

Senge outlines several lessons we can take from The Beer Game. First: More often than we realize, it is the system that causes the crisis, not external forces or individuals’ mistakes. Second: System structure includes how people make decisions (the operating policies whereby we translate perception of demand), goals (established months or years prior to today’s reality), rules (often written by someone else) and norms (such as habits, good or bad). Third: Players of the game have it in their power to eliminate the extreme instabilities that invariably occur, but they fail to do so because they do not understand how they are creating the instability in the first place.

Echoing Senge, I suggest that, if thousands of boat dealers and their respective manufacturers — representing different demographics, customer types and market areas — all generate the same patterns of behavior, then the causes of the behavior must lie beyond the individual dealer or boat brand. The causes of the behavior must lie in the structure of the game itself.

What must the marine industry do to change the structure of our game? Perhaps a good place to start the discussion is the MRAA July 2023 Spotlight topic: inventory management. Find resources to help at mraa.com/spotlight. 

This article was originally published in the July 2023 issue of Soundings Trade Only.

Dealer Week Comfort Spot Returns: Priority One Relaxation Station

MINNEAPOLIS, Nov. 21 – The Marine Retailers Association of the Americas announces the return of the popular Relaxation Station, presented by Priority One Financial Services, to the Dealer Week Conference & Expo, Dec. 8-11, in Orlando, Florida.

Dealer Week Comfort Spot Returns: Priority One Relaxation Station

After last year’s sell-out experience at boating’s only event focused on dealer growth, MRAA Partner Member and Dealer Week Exhibitor Priority One Financial Services will again sponsor a Relaxation Station for three days, Dec. 9-11. Guests can visit the complimentary Priority One Relaxation Station to unwind in a tropical oasis for 15 minutes. They can schedule a massage with a trained massage therapist or stop by for a first-come-first serve massage in a zero-gravity therapeutic massage chair. Additional guest amenities will include fresh snacks, spa water and phone charging stations.

“It’s important to help dealers celebrate all the hard work they do on a daily basis, so the return of the Priority One Relaxation Station allows them a short escape from business and a chance to kick their feet up,” said Allison Gruhn, Vice President of Business Planning. “Dealer Week education helps dealers focus on the year ahead, providing them with clear takeaways and implementable solutions they can take back to their businesses. This complementary chance to relax helps them recharge their mindset, too, as they ready themselves for 2025!”

Find the Relaxation Station inside the Dealer Week Expo Hall entrance, directly to the left, located between Smoker Craft (Booth 124) and Barletta Pontoon Boats (Booth 137).

To experience where rest and relaxation meet recreation in Orlando, reserve your spot today.

About Priority One Financial Services
Founded in 1987, Priority One Financial Services, Inc. offers flexible, business-ready finance and insurance solutions for marine, RV, trailer, powersports, park model and equipment dealers. A division of Forest River, a Berkshire Hathaway company, Priority One provides full-service retail financing to customers through industry-leading technology and award-winning service. 

Headquartered in Saint Petersburg, Fla., the five-time Tampa Bay Business Journal “Best Place to Work”honoree also owns and operates Priority One Equipment Finance and Veritas Insurance Group.  

For more, visit p1fs.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.

7 Tips for Driving Up Dealership Profitability

There’s not much that grabs attention like a promise of a 23% increase in profits.

That’s why I bet Gallup got a lot of clicks on the report it released this fall, suggesting that teams with the highest levels of employee engagement had 23% higher profits than those with the lowest levels of employee engagement.

Employee engagement is a topic that everyone can agree seems really important. However, as managers, it’s not always clear how to move the needle and where it should fit on the priority list. That’s particularly true in a challenging market in which keeping cash flowing, making payroll and ensuring the lights stay on are real concerns for some dealerships.

So, what are some concrete actions you can take to move the employee engagement (and profit) needle now?

• Tip 1: Start measuring employee engagement and satisfaction, if you’re not already. More than 300 marine dealership locations across the U.S. and Canada are already doing this each year through the Marine Industry Certified Dealership program, and we often hear that it’s one of the most impactful elements of getting and staying certified.

• Tip 2: Ask your employee about their training needs. At least five of the 12 employee needs Gallup has identified managers can meet to improve employees’ productivity can be tied to training and education. When you spend time or money to help a team member develop professionally, you demonstrate that:

  • You care about them.
  • You encourage their development.
  • You believe their job is important.
  • You are paying attention to their progress, and it is worth focusing on for you and them.
  • You are committed to giving them opportunities to learn and grow.

Training and education is most effective when it is focused on an area where the employee recognizes a need to improve and grow and is motivated to do so. You will find out what these areas are by asking.

Also, consider the goals your dealership has for the team member. To do so, you might evaluate your employee’s performance in the key result areas of their position. Are they carrying out the responsibilities they were hired to do? How well are they performing in those areas?

• Tip 3: Create a development plan. Use this insight into the employee’s goals and your dealership’s goals to create a professional development plan together for the year ahead. What three or four main objectives do you strive to accomplish and how and when will you accomplish them? If you need a simple training template to create your plan, you’re welcome to download a sample one from the Workforce area of the MRAA Resource Center. You can also find tips for performance reviews on this page.

7 Tips for Driving Up Dealership Profitability

• Tip 4: Assess what training is available. To answer those questions and complete this plan, you’ll need to assess what training is available and choose education and training opportunities for your employee to participate in. Don’t let a lack of funds stop your forward momentum. These opportunities can come in a variety of forms for a variety of budgets, from books to conferences, podcasts and webinars to e-learning courses. If you need help determining the right option for you and your team member, reach out to the MRAA Education Team for guidance. It would be our pleasure to help.

• Tip 5: Prepare beforehand and follow-up afterward. Perhaps even more important than what kind of training you offer your employee is how you, their manager, help them prepare for success beforehand and follow-up afterward.

Authors and training gurus Mary L. Broad and John W. Newstrom researched whose effort is involved in the positive impact of training. They found that supervisors, not trainers or the person actually attending and learning from an education event, had the greatest impact on whether it had a positive effect at work, mostly in the form of that supervisor’s effort before and after the training.

• Tip 6: Create coaching and mentorship opportunities. Remember that managing change isn’t easy for an individual or for a team, even when everyone is on board with that change. New behaviors often take months to become habits, and unforeseen obstacles to change often get in the way. This is where you can assist, coach, mentor and support your employee or your team through the process to positive results.

Even once it appears that a new strategy, process or tactic is in place, regular check-ins are a good idea. The stress of events like new hires, surges in business or other common obstacles can cause a setback in which team members revert to old, comfortable behaviors. Even without stumbling blocks like those, the regular check-in keeps the process moving forward and allows for necessary adjustments to take place.

• Tip 7: Develop a career pathway. When you create a development plan with an employee, the goal is to help them, you and the dealership meet its goals for growth. But where is that growth leading? The ultimate demonstration of your commitment to your employee and their development is to build a path (or paths) together where that growth could take their career. Even an informal conversation about options for the future can go a long way in building employee engagement and loyalty.

Strategies and tactics like these boost employee engagement and retention, while inspiring your team to perform at their best. It’s no wonder, then, that there is such a strong correlation between employee engagement and profitability.

6 New Partner Members Join the MRAA

MINNEAPOLIS, November 19, 2024 — The Marine Retailers Association of the Americas announces the addition of 1st Mate Logistics, Amplified People Solutions, Bonsai Media Group, Canopy Financial, Granfort USA Marine Distribution and My Financing USA as its newest Partner Members.  

6 New Partner Members Join the MRAA

Marine manufacturers, suppliers and service providers, through Partner Membership, commit to aligning their brands with the programs and opportunities that MRAA offers in its efforts to fuel the success of the marine industry. Support from Partner Members allows the association to expand its offerings and create a positive, long-term impact on MRAA members’ business.  

  • 1st Mate Logistics (Hixson, Tennessee.) provides a range of transportation options, including 53-foot marine haulers, flatbeds, bumper pulls, ocean freight and enclosed trailers for parts. It’s a go-to choice for boat builders and suppliers. 
  • Amplified People Solutions (Las Vegas, Nevada) specializes in tailored HR, project consulting, training and strategic planning for the marine industry. They support marine businesses that need expert HR guidance without a full-time department, no matter the size of the team. 
  • Bonsai Media Group (Seattle, Washington) helps original equipment manufacturers generate leads and boost engagement with targeted social ads and enhanced search rankings. They create fast, award-winning websites and immersive 3D/2D product configurators for detailed customer interaction. 
  • Canopy Financial (Loveland, Ohio) is dedicated to empowering businesses with personalized, transparent lending solutions. Their customer service division simplifies financial experiences with tailored loan options and innovative digital tools, making it smarter and more accessible. 
  • Granfort USA Marine Distribution (Melbourne, Florida) offers premium boats from 21 to 42 feet, blending style, performance and reliability for unforgettable experiences. They provide exceptional craftsmanship, seamless support and transparent pricing for effortless boat ownership. 
  • My Financing USA (Louisville, Kentucky) offers RV, boat and motorhome financing across the U.S. with a quick, secure application process and flexible options for all credit scores, finding the best loan programs tailored to customer needs.

“Partnering with these six exceptional companies strengthens our dedication to delivering innovative, front-line solutions and unmatched support to the marine industry,” says Allison Gruhn, MRAA Vice President of Business Development. “These collaborations not only enhance our ability to meet the evolving needs of the industry, but also reflect our ongoing commitment to driving growth, fostering innovation and creating lasting value for our partners and customers alike.” 

Dealer members are encouraged to explore the list of companies that actively support the MRAA across four partnership levels. View the complete list.  

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. 

Take This Job and … LOVE It!

The first work-related tune that pops in a lot of people’s heads is probably “Take This Job and Shove It,” a David Allen Coe song made popular by Johnny Paycheck (got to appreciate that last name!). According to Wikipedia, the song represents a working man’s attitude toward a gig he’s worked long and hard at, but found no true reward for his efforts. Plus, his woman has left him, making him extra emotional.  

Chances are, as a leader, you’ve either heard a similar phrase from an employee or learned about someone’s bitterness for their job, which may have even come as a surprise to you. So how can you transform the “shove it” into “LOVE it?” By investing in your employees, you can help to build a culture of accountability and trust and create better engagement. Through active listening and taking an empathetic approach, you can help to shift some of their focus to training and personal development rather than only performance and results.

When you create professional development plans for your employees and gain their buy-in, you not only meet their expectations but also improve engagement, trust and satisfaction.

Virgin Group Founder Richard Branson shared a simple sentence on his LinkedIn account that read, “Train people well enough so they can leave, treat them well enough so they don’t want to.” This is a different take to the old dual-question we’ve heard in the boating industry that says, “What if I train them and they leave? What if you don’t train them and they stay?”

So how can you invest in your employees more, even in challenging times? It’s more affordable to train them and retain them than it is to hire new talent. It’s also painful to see the revolving door of talent keep spinning because it drains your confidence and that of your remaining staff. Of course, some people’s departure feels more like a gift more than a gut punch, but that’s why it’s critical to set them up for success; so the good ones stay!

In a recent MRAA Pulse Report, we asked leaders a question to identify their most challenging aspect for selecting and assigning staff to training opportunities? Those opportunities for continued learning and professional growth. The top obstacle was finding the time within the schedule and was followed by the cost of training in general. View the results in this MRAA Infographic.

Take This Job and … LOVE It!

Once you overcome your dealership’s limitations, the next critical step is to create and follow a plan for to help them find success, not discouragement. Use these helpful tips to set up a training program that helps your team.

  • Specific Training and Development Plans: For employee development, it’s vital to set up a structured training plan that gets employee buy-in. You can help your employees – sometimes even at a different pace based upon the individual – improve their skills and confidence with a definite pathway for success. Set up their plan together, complete with directives and expectations, to avoid any confusion.
  • Employee Engagement and Feedback: Your timely, constructive feedback can make a world of difference in their training success (or failure). Employees need regular feedback, as it helps them understand where they are and where they need to be. HOT TIP: Make your feedback timely by sharing it with them as close as possible to their training event. HOT TIP: A key pillar within the MRAA Certified Dealership Program is an Employee Satisfaction Survey, that captures your team’s anonymous feedback and suggestions for improvement. 
  • Advancement Opportunities: Employee retention can improve by showcasing your interest in making possible their desire for advancement. For them to understand and have a clear vision for growth can be motivating and help them reinvest in your dealership.
  • Needs Analysis: Do you even know what each of your employees wants from their role and daily work? Think: What’s in it for them? When you create opportunities for them that align with your business goals, they gain perspective. By allowing autonomy and providing meaningful work you can help them gain gratification within the work they perform.
  • Cultural Fit and Values: In order to develop a respected work-place culture, you want to help develop employees who fit within your organization and share similar values. This leads to improved performance and greater satisfaction among your crew. This includes both hard skills and the ever-important soft skills (critical thinking, creativity, adaptability …).

The MRAA has a couple courses to aid you in employee development, including:

Even with a plan in place, your busy dealership environment makes it challenging to find the “extra” time to watch, listen and learn additional education and insights. Try these strategies to help your training operations progress:

  • Integrate Training into Daily Operations: By integrating learning into your team’s daily tasks, you ease the pain to “find time” for it. HOT TIP: Use a mentor/apprentice method to help some employees learn on the job. This can be more efficient and offers real-world education and implementation.
  • Start Small & Simple: When employees are doing what they enjoy, the clock moves quickly. You don’t want them counting down the hours and becoming clock watchers. That’s why building an uncomplicated plan for education is critical. The idea is not to add more time in their day. You’re better off creating short, focused training. Also, convenient training programs and using friendly digital platforms (where they learn) create less hurdles and excuses for failure.
  • Time Management: We all know employees manage their time differently. Some shine by concentrating their efforts on creating perfected work habits that lead to successful outcomes. Others need guidance, and sometimes coaxing, to become more focused and consistent. Better time management can help remove the excuse of “there’s no time.”
  • Budget: More often than not, through a membership, travel, conferences and other offerings, training is not free. It’s wise to budget for your training plan, whether that includes distant travel or digital education programs. When you plan for it and include it in your budget, you’re committed to use it. Plus, your team gains a better understanding of your dedication to training so they buy-in because they see avenues for personal and professional growth.
  • Employee Input: While you could drive the bus, it’s often better to let the employees take a turn behind the wheel during the planning phase to be sure it meets their needs and interests. They are also more likely to engage with the opportunities provided.
  • Highlight the Benefits: As a leader, your ability to showcase the benefits of training and career advancement clearly to your employees can make a huge difference. When they know you want to help them improve and grow, you gain active participants, not superficial players who were assigned an additional task.

Explore the MRAA’s Guide to Dealership Improvement to find more improvement strategies, including how to develop a training plan and budget customized for your dealership.

Incentive Pay for Training?
Some leaders view the training as a perk to their employee, as in an opportunity for career advancement. Determining whether to provide incentive or pay upon training completion depends upon your dealership’s financial situation, the type of training and the predetermined education plan you set up with your team.

  • Added Value: Because it enhances your employees’ skills and professional growth, you can choose to make training a perk to the employment. Just remember to make it clear from the start that you’re investing in their professional development so they understand the program. Gaining their satisfaction and helping them perform better is essential to their success and yours.
  • Compensation Alignment: Training is valuable for sure, but can be more rewarding if it involves increased skills and more responsibilities. You have to determine if your employee can take on more complicated jobs or improve efficiency so you can justify paying them more. And if it’s not cash or a pay raise, perhaps you can find other clever way to reward your best students.
  • Employee Expectations: Again, managing expectations is critical for your training program’s success. Discuss the two previous points with your entire team to clearly communicate if the training could lead to a pay increase or if it is primarily for skill development. Your transparency avoids misunderstandings and helps employees understand the training benefits.
  • Performance-Based Increases: Once your employee completes the training and it leads to improved performance, you could consider a pay raise. But this is something you need to determine beforehand to eliminate confusion and distrust.
  • Market Competitiveness: How does your compensation package compare with industry standards? You need to know what your competitors pay, as it may sway you to adjust your compensation or incentives for training.

Ideally, you want to be able to find a balance within training that both motivates your team and helps retain them while also helping them advance their career without necessarily burdening your financial health.

Use the following MRAA resources to help advance your service department.

Long-Term Success
As a leader in your dealership you have many opportunities to further your success in 2025. Remember, though, that employees are often viewed as the lifeblood of a business because their contributions are vital to its success. Investing in team training is more than an expense. Sure, time constraints and budgeting are hurdles you must consider, but they don’t outweigh a more engaged and well-trained workforce.

Your commitment to employee growth and career development can help to build a stronger culture and a crew that is more invested in the dealership. Your team’s success is ultimately your dealership’s success. Finally, you want your employees singing your dealership’s praises and to bellow the words, “take this job and LOVE it, I ain’t leaving here no more!”

[AIMIE, MRAA’s AI for Marine Industry Education and content delivery system, was used as a resource in the production of this content. Learn more.]

General Election Update – Implications for Recreational Boating Industry

By Chad Tokowicz, MRAA Government Relations Manager & Mike Sayre, MRAA Director of Government Relations

As the results from the General Election on Tuesday, Nov. 5, continue to take shape it is clear that Donald Trump has emerged as winner of both the popular and electoral college votes, and will be named the 47th President of the United States. Furthermore, the U.S. Senate has flipped and now features a Republican majority, with 52 seats to 47 Democrats with one race still too close to call. At the time of writing this, results for the House race are still inconclusive, however, it is leaning toward a Republican majority. Regardless of who wins the majority, the margins in the House will remain razor thin. In the event that the Republicans do take the House, they will control the Presidency, Senate and House, which will make the passage of policies through Congress and Senate confirmations much easier.

Impact on Recreational Boating
The results of the election have major implications for the recreational boating industry and this blog will outline some of what we expect to come.

  • A second Trump Administration will hopefully be good news for major industry issues like the Right Whale Vessel Speed Rule. While the Biden Administration could still finalize the Right Whale Vessel Speed Rule before the end of the year, there is a very high likelihood that it will be overturned by the Trump Administration come January. If the Biden Administration does nothing with the rule before the transition, it will surely be dead upon Trump’s inauguration.
  • The Trump Administration will also usher in another era of deregulation, and this may mean that various worker protections put in place by the Biden Administration are undone, potentially including policies like the Overtime Rule change. Similarly, many of the regulatory activities of the Biden Administration’s Federal Trade Commission, such as the proposed Junk Fee rule, will also face scrutiny from the new Trump Administration.
  • Additionally, the Trump campaign has promised to put in place tariffs on imports, which may ultimately increase the price of imported items used for building recreational vessels as well as imported accessories and related items — and this increased cost may then find its way to dealers and therefore consumers. The Trump campaign proposed tariffs of 10-20% for all imports entering the United States, and tariffs between 60-100% on Chinese imports. Whether or not the incoming Trump Administration follows through on these trade policies remains to be seen but such wide-ranging tariff proposals will face pushback from many industries that depend on imported goods and raw materials.
  • Tax policy is another area where we will see a flurry of activity from the Trump Administration and unified Republican Congress. President Trump has long been focused on lowering the tax burden on citizens and businesses. While the details of the Trump tax plan are complex, from a macro-level perspective, we can expect that the original provisions of the Trump Tax Cuts and Jobs Act are made permanent. Furthermore, we may see tax policy focusing on exempting tips and overtime pay from income taxes. As Congress and the Administration begin to discuss these tax cuts, the MRAA will be at the table to see if further tax cuts for small businesses can be secured.

State of the States
While this election resulted in significant changes to the composition of the federal government, at the state level, the changes were much more modest. Of the 11 governorships up for grabs, none changes party hands. Not every state legislative result has been fully determined but so far only three state legislative chambers have changed party control with Republicans making most of those gains.

General Election Update and Implications for Recreational Boating Industry

As the MRAA continues to prepare for the 119th Congress and to work with the Trump Administration, we will be sure to brief you with any important updates or calls to action. As always, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to Government Relations Manager Chad Tokowicz at Chad@mraa.com.