Throughout the 40 years of MRAA’s Annual Conference, the MRAA booth has been known by many names — MRAA Info Center, MRAA Rewards Pavilion, etc. — but no matter the name, MRAA’s team has always stood ready to support our dealers — at the conference or otherwise.

In 1989, MRAA celebrated its 8th Annual National Conference, with a look ahead to the 1990s, a decade that we called the “Decade of the Dealer.” MRAA President Phil Keeter was quoted in this article as saying, “The retail marine dealer is the linchpin of the industry.” Today, we just consider every decade as the Decade of the Dealer!

According to research conducted by Discover Boating in its “First Time Boat Buyer Research,” the answer is, “FACT,” for 66% of buyers. But only after they have purchased from you. Which makes it obvious, that trust is an issue.

Members of the MRAA team attended a presentation by David Horsager, and we can tell you that 1. There’s a reason he calls himself a “trust expert,” and; 2. It is the exact reason we’ve chosen him to be our 2018 MDCE Opening Keynote. He taught us that in order to successfully build trust amongst consumers, it first starts with your employees and their relationship building skills with those customers.

Relationships are built on asking the right questions, showing your genuine desire to find them exactly what they want. Consumers are looking for a unique and personalized experience.

I know, I know, you have heard this before. But are you actually taking the time to ask the right questions to build that relationship and in term, their loyalty?

Once a positive relationship is built, you are one step closer to having their loyalty. But not until then. After you have their loyalty through relationship building, they’ll refer to you as the expert and share that positive experience with everyone they know. And therefore, your business has greater success.

Every so often, we witness major fundamental shifts in the way an industry operates. Look no further than the music industry evolving to digital delivery; peer-to-peer home sharing changing the hospitality industry; or clothing and grocery delivery altering the retail experience.

While change is hard for those in the industry enduring the evolution, as time passes, those shifts are generally understood as positive developments. They advance their respective industries to keep pace with the needs and desires of consumers, of society and of the larger economy.

Today, our industry is experiencing a shift unlike any we’ve ever seen before. On the outside for us boat dealers, it feels like a shift away from boat ownership to non-ownership. It can feel like the bottom is falling out from under us.

The data doesn’t lie: Even the leading categories in our industry are idling along at 78 percent of their pre-recession peak. Meanwhile, boat clubs, rental operations or fractional ownership are popping up everywhere, offering easier, less costly access to boating. We are enduring a seismic shift.

The problem our dealers are faced with, however, has less to do with consumers’ lack of a desire to own than it does with the failure on our part to deliver what consumers are really looking for in a boat: A memorable boating experience.

You see, as an industry, we have become far too transactional. We order the boat. We find a buyer. We sell the boat. And we move on to the next one. Most of the time, we’re moving on to the next one before the previous boat is sold. But we’re feeling successful because our turns are up, our inventory expense is down, our sales are tracking at or above last year, and our CSI scores are respectable.

The problem is our perception. You see, no consumer shows up at our dealerships because they want to own a boat. They show up because they want a boating experience. The boat is simply the means to engaging in that experience. It’s a slight but incredibly important shift in perspective. The boat is the platform. Boating is the experience. Fishing is the experience. Wake surfing is the experience. And so forth. Boat ownership allows them to do those things on their own terms.

It seems obvious, I know, but unfortunately, our focus on the transaction makes us lose sight of this reality. And “business as usual” suggests we’ll sacrifice the experience in order to make the sale.

So, I’m authoring this blog today to start the conversation on how you can shift from “business as usual” to something more experiential. Something that will create customers for life and give you a competitive advantage that no product, service or transaction could ever offer you.

This is the first in a series of blogs on the power of experiences. We here at MRAA believe that this is so critical to the success of your business — no matter if its sales, service, rental, clubs, fractionals or otherwise — that we want to invest the time in underscoring its importance. We want YOU to lead that fundamental shift.

 

Since taking the leap into the marine retail business in 2001, South Florida Marine owner Jana Wood and her team foster an engaging and rewarding company culture as the dealership continues to grow and expand.

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Q: You and your husband started South Florida Marine in 2001, what made you decided to enter the boating business?

Wood: Mike owned a Ski Boat and had a close relationship with the local inboard service center. There was an opportunity for Mike and I to purchase the business to sell and service inboard boats. We decided to take a leap and buy in.

Q: What do you think was one of the biggest lessons you have learned since starting your business?

Wood: The biggest lesson learned is to keep our staff engaged in creating a bigger and better dealership each and every year. Though good times and bad we keep moving forward even when tough times arise. We learned to have fun and keep a sense of humor.

Q: You participated in last month’s Dealer-to-Dealer question. It is obvious that South Florida Marine values your employees. Explain how you maintain a positive dealership culture.

Wood: At our biweekly staff meeting, we encourage our staff to pick an employee of the month. We work together as a team through problems in whichever department it may be. We keep a family atmosphere and treat all our employees like family.

Q: What are you doing differently today versus this time last year that has helped you stay competitive?

Wood: We try to be present in the community as much as possible, even in areas you don’t normally see boats displayed such as car and air shows. We have extended our hours and ask our staff to rotate so that we can stay more accessible for boat drop off and pick up.

Q: What are 5 things that people may not know about you?

Wood:

1. We are the oldest Mastercraft dealership in Florida.
2. We specialize in salt water series inboard service.
3. We have two sons who plan to take over as owners and operators of South Florida Marine.
4. We have been a Top 100 Dealer for the past six years and are a 5 Star Certified Dealership
5. South Florida Marine is planning on expanding with a “ship to shore store” and doubling our property for our boat display in 2019.

We all have an individual or two on our social channels that are quick to document their children participating in what is definitively the parent’s favorite past time. And that predictable caption? “Start ’em young.”

If you’re anything like me, you give the photo a “like” and scroll onto the next thing. But slow down for a minute. What if you took that same idea and applied it to your business?

Here’s the question: What would be better than hiring an employee that has been a productive contributor within your dealership since before they could drive? As part of the “Marine Industry Guide to Growing the Workforce,” an industrywide publication addressing workforce issues, Strategy 4: Support initiatives in K-12 Schools offers several ways YOU could get community youth involved in your business and the marine industry:

• Offer your time and/or facilities to support local efforts that align and connect learning with industry-specific work-readiness skills and competencies.
• Join a school industry advisory council to help cultivate those connections and provide connective activities such as an industry tour, guest speaker, job shadow or internship.
• Take on interns and host job shadows to increase career awareness and promote the “pride in product” work ethic
• Invite parents, career counselors and other workforce development professionals to tour your workplace or the local boat show to familiarize them with the industry culture as well as the scope of positions available to their constituency.
• Host an instructor for a week-long Teacher Externship can ensure that in-school subject matter connects to real-world application in the workplace.

Help combat your own workforce challenges by “starting’em young” and by tapping into this valuable resource. Who knows, you may be able to keep’em forever.

You never know when you are going to meet someone that will change your life. The woman you had a conversation with while waiting for take-out might turn into the future you’s best customer, or your mailman who you see every morning may become your best source for referrals. How are your current, everyday connections shaping your future success?

Tricky question, right? Some of you are natural sales people who do not struggle with asking the “right” questions or directing conversation in order to learn more about others. Unfortunately for the rest of us, connections and the act of networking, does not come as easy.

The MRAA team recently attended a conference that held an entire session on networking. The speaker introduced the idea of ROR, return on relationships. His idea was that when you turn the conversation away from making a sale you could find yourself building a lasting relationship that will continue to drive ROI well into the future. Any interaction in any place could lead to a relationship that leads itself to a sale.

This idea isn’t exactly profound. We have all heard that relationships = ROI, but are we truly taking full advantage of this idea? Just think about this and don’t forget to say hello to your mailman in the morning!