Sell More to Tech-Savvy Boat Buyers

Today’s hyper-informed, tech-savvy boat buyers aren’t merely looking to buy products; they’re looking to buy experiences. If you’re not prepared to engage this new wave of Internet-junkie “researchaholics,” who are more informed than ever about your products and services when they first step foot inside your showroom, then you’re likely missing out on a plethora of potential sales.

At the 2014 Marine Dealer Conference & Expo, taking place Nov. 16-19 in Orlando, Fla., Mar-Kee Group co-founder and president David Martin will help attendees ready themselves for the coming influx of Gen X and Millennial buyers, as well as older generations increasingly taking advantage of new technologies, and find ways to appeal to them in today’s retail marketplace.

In his MDCE session, “Sales Strategies for the Hyper-Informed Customer,” Martin will help dealers understand who these hyper-informed boat buyers are, how they shop, what they want, and how to ultimately make them happy.

Attendees will walk away from Martin’s session with insight into how Gen Xers and Millennial buyers differ from previous generations and specific strategies for selling to them and other tech-savvy buyers. The session takes place Tuesday, Nov. 18 from 1 to 2:15 p.m. ET as part of MDCE’s Sales Track.

“During the past year, I’ve received several e-mails from dealers who are being challenged to successfully sell to today’s highly informed prospects,” explains Liz Walz, director of education for the Marine Retailers Association of the Americas, which produces the annual event in partnership with Boating Industry. “Learning how to appeal to this growing group of boat buyers is key to dealership success and the future of the industry. That’s why we asked David to dig deep into the motivations behind their buying decisions during this session.”

Each of the 2014 MDCE educational tracks — Sales, Marketing, Leadership and Service Plus — features five sessions. The Sales Track includes Martin’s advice on appealing to buyers, as well as strategies on maximizing the profitability of trade-ins; influencing customers’ buying decisions; reaching women in the boat-buying process; and turning F&I objections into opportunities.

“In this day and age, it’s more important than ever to be able to relate to tech-savvy shoppers,” says Boating Industry editor-in-chief Jonathan Sweet. “David’s session outlines for dealers how best to approach these sales prospects and communicate with them on the level that they are most comfortable. The end result: Increased sales and repeat business.”

The 2014 MDCE will offer 30 educational sessions in all, the most the event has ever offered, including seven Pre-Conference Workshops. The conference has traditionally included three educational tracks, but in 2014, it has expanded to four tracks: Leadership, Sales, Marketing and Service Plus. A Closing Keynote address also has been added this year.

The MDCE is scheduled for Nov. 16-19 at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Fla. It has attracted an increasing number of dealers every year since 2007. In 2013, MDCE featured double-digit growth in dealer attendance, for a total of 615 marine retail professionals. MRAA’s goal is to grow the event to more than 1,000 dealer attendees. To learn more, visit MRAA.com/MDCE.

About the Marine Dealer Conference & Expo
The Marine Dealer Conference & Expo is the Marine Retailers Association of the Americas’ annual conference and member meeting. As the marine industry’s only dealer-specific educational conference, the MDCE offers an in-depth lineup of educational topics, a full-featured expo hall and a series of fixed networking opportunities, all of which are designed to help marine dealers connect with and learn from others who can foster their success. The MDCE is co-produced by MRAA and Boating Industry, and it features Pre-Conference Workshops, Opening and Closing keynote presentations, four tracks of educational content and 30 sessions in all. It will be held Nov. 16-19 at the Orange County Convention Center and Rosen Centre Hotel in Orlando, Fla. For more information, visit MRAA.com/MDCE.

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How Do I Best Communicate to My Customers Through E-mail Marketing?

E-communications have become a critical component of any dealership’s content marketing strategy. It’s a fast, direct and cost-effective means of connecting with current and potential customers about everything you have going on at the dealership year-round, from sales and special events, to preferred pricing, boat show participation, customer appreciation days, and more.

Despite all the wonderful benefits of communicating electronically, however, the medium isn’t without its drawbacks; namely, the tendency to over- or ineffectively communicate. Since it’s fairly simple nowadays to overload custom templates in Constant Contact, MailChimp, or similar e-mail marketing services with everything but the kitchen sink content-wise and click “send,” we forget that we need a filter. Remember: Peoples’ inboxes are cluttered with materials each and every day, and you don’t want to become food for the “junk” or “spam” folders.

You need to create e-communications that are relevant and stand out among the pack, and choose to send e-mails only when you have something to say — not just because “it seems like it’s time to send something out…”

The thing to keep in mind about e-newsletters and e-blasts is that often, less is more. And with a few basic tips under your belt, you can create interesting and engaging communications for your customers and prospects.

The first thing you want to do when strategizing e-mail marketing communications is decide what you want to tell people. Do you have a big event coming up that you’d like customers to attend? Are you having a fabulous sale and want to let customers know about reduced pricing on current inventory? Have you planned a summer rendezvous that you’d like to assemble all the buyers of one of your boat brands to sign up to attend?

Once you decide what you want to communicate, the key is to air on the side of brevity. People often don’t have the time or attention span to scroll through a long, text-heavy e-mail to ferret out what you’re trying to telling them. You want to stay on point; try and see if you can say what you need to say in just a few short sentences, ending the write-up with a link to “more information” where the reader can go if he or she would like to learn more. This give you a better shot at having the whole blurb read and absorbed, as peoples’ patience for long-windedness in e-communications has worn thin.

Short, sweet and succinct — great buzzwords for your e-mail marketing efforts!

Photos also are important. If you can, try and include an image with most of the text blurbs you write. If you don’t have an image for each and every write-up, that’s perfectly okay (heck, even this newsletter doesn’t have images for everything!). There’s literature online that likewise cautions about using too many photos, for fear your e-mails will be gobbled up by spam filters.

Just use your best judgment when it comes to photography; if your newsletter looks too text-y, it probably is. So toss in an image or two to pique readers’ interest and offset some of those words with fun, exciting depictions to get them excited about what you’re telling them.

When it comes to actually mailing out e-communications, you want to try and hit the sweet spot; don’t send something every day, but don’t wait and do it every other month because you’re too busy, either. A short, weekly announcement about available inventory might be a good place to start; you can pick a particular day of the week and routinely send on that day. That way, people will come to expect your e-mail.

You also may want to create a monthly e-newsletter that comes out the first or last day of the month, highlighting things you have been doing, special offers you are touting, etc. Definitely send special announcements as you have them, as some are time sensitive: Newsflash about a weekend boat show or sale, information about an important local meeting on topics that impact boaters in your community; weather and beach advisories; etc.

Monitor your e-mail open rates through the above-mentioned services through which you send them to gauge how you’re doing. An open rate of about 25 percent is considered quite good — meaning that one-quarter of all the people you sent the e-mail too actually opened it up. Also monitor click-through rates and see how many people clicked through to other websites through the links provided in your e-mail.

Following these rudimentary guidelines are sure to keep your e-communications effective and your current and future customers engaged.

DB Website Numbers Continue to Grow

With the campaign just past its mid-summer point, in Fiscal Year 2014 (Oct. 2013 through June 2014), visits to DiscoverBoating.com have increased significantly (48 percent) over the same period last year.

Search engine marketing efforts continue to drive a steady stream of boating enthusiasts to the site, particularly to boat buying-related content, which includes the boat selector tool, financing information, boat brands’ search pages, etc. Potential buyers have moved on from DiscoverBoating.com to visit boat, engine and trailer manufacturer websites more than 1.3 million times through July 2014.

Demographic analytics report that visitors between the ages of 35 and 54 are well represented, with 35 percent of website traffic coming from this group. The majority of DiscoverBoating.com audience is male (70 percent); however, the newly added “Stories of Discovery” videos are helping bridge this gender gap, resonating more strongly with women compared to other content on the website (females make up 39 percent of the “Stories” video views).

CLICK HERE find out how you can add these powerful videos to your website.

MICD Unveils Guide to MDCE

Navigate your way through the diverse educational offerings on tap at this year’s Marine Dealer Conference & Expo with “The MICD Guide to MDCE 2014,” a special e-booklet available exclusively for Certified Dealers that’s designed to take the guesswork out of fulfilling your MICD continuing education requirements.

As you know, Certified Dealerships are required to complete a certain number of hours of ongoing education credits that escalate for each step of the MICD Program: Step 1 requires 10 hours of leadership and management training; Step 2 requires an additional 10 hours of sales and marketing courses; and Five Star MICD requires yet another 10 hours of HR and succession planning.

If that sounds like an overwhelming amount of work, don’t fret. The good news is that you can meet nearly ALL those required hours at MDCE 2014, and the “MICD Guide to MDCE” will show you how.

The guide, which is available to all levels of Certified Dealers in the MICD Portal under the header “Continuing Education,” breaks down each of the more than 30 MDCE Pre-Conference Workshops and educational track sessions and lays out how every individual workshop or session meets one of the three categories of educational requirements: Leadership and management, sales and marketing, and HR and succession planning.

Since workshops and sessions range from one to three hours long, attending MDCE and planning your schedule specifically with meeting education requirements in mind means you and your team can knock out your mandated 10 to 30 hours in one place over the course of just a few days (Nov. 16-19); not weeks, months or even over an entire year.

It’s the simplest, most cost-effective means of getting the credits you need to stay Certified and keep your dealership personnel on the cutting-edge of what’s happening in the marine retail field.

CLICK HERE to access the guide today, and start plotting your course for success at MDCE 2014!

Marine Retail University Returns to Texas

Dominion Marine Media and the Marine Retailers Association of the Americas announced today that the Boating Trades Association of Texas has signed on to host the Norman-Spencer Marine Retail University for the third year in a row.

The event, which will be held Oct. 14 at the Courtyard Marriott Austin Downtown, also known as the Austin Downtown Convention Center, includes a full day of education and networking, as well as the option to register for a networking dinner the night before the conference.

“Each year, the Marine Retail University provides data, ideas and best practices that help Texas dealers explore new opportunities and tackle their biggest challenges,” says Rick Smith, president of BTAT and Marine Outlet. “The event also gives us a chance to connect with and learn from each other in a relaxed and enjoyable setting.”

The Austin Marine Retail University will feature six educational sessions, providing market specific boat sales data, consumer research, dealer best practices, trends in finance and insurance, strategies for selling at higher margins, and a keynote presentation from a foremost expert on succession planning. For more information and to register, visit www.mraa.com/event/BTATmru.

“We are thrilled to work with BTAT to serve the state’s dealer community once again,” says Courtney Chalmers, director of marketing for Dominion Marine Media. “The Texas boat market is a huge contributor to the success of the U.S. boating business, and we’re honored to be invited back to support it with a brand new Marine Retail University educational lineup.”

Designed to take fresh professional development opportunities to marine retailers in regions throughout the country, the MRU series stops in seven or more locations each season, which runs from September through April. Since the launch of this event series in November 2011, it has attracted more than 700 attendees.

“One unique feature of the Marine Retail University series is that the educational content is customized to meet the needs of the local market,” says Liz Walz, director of education for the MRAA. “Our number-one priority is providing the information, tools and resources marine retailers need to improve and grow.”

About Marine Retail University

The Norman-Spencer Marine Retail University is a series of regional dealer educational conferences. Launched in 2012 as a partnership between the Marine Retailers Association of the Americas and Dominion Marine Media, these regional events seek to provide attendees with in-depth market knowledge and the tactics to capitalize on those insights. The partners work closely with regional and state associations to deliver additional value to their members. Norman-Spencer Marine Insurance Services supports MRU as the title sponsor of the event series. For more information about an MRU event, please contact Liz Walz at 315-692-4533 or liz@mraa.com. To sponsor or exhibit at an MRU event, please contact Bart Zienda at 763-333-2419 or bart@mraa.com.

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Nominations and Applications Sought for 2014 Darlene Briggs Award

The MRAA Educational Foundation is currently seeking nominations and applications for the 2014 Darlene Briggs Woman of the Year Award.

The late Darlene Briggs, of Wayzata, Minn., was admired for her tireless dedication to the marine industry. To honor her memory, the Darlene Briggs Woman of the Year Award was founded in 1987. It is presented annually to an outstanding woman who is actively involved in the marine industry at any level. It recognizes “long and devoted service, untiring commitment and the advancement of women in the marine business.”

“I do see a lot more women boaters now than we did 10 years ago,” said Rallee Chupich, the 2013 Darlene Briggs Award recipient and director of service at Gordy’s Lakefront Marine, in an interview with Boating Industry magazine. “As I look forward, I see my role to encourage, coach, hire and train more young women in the marine industry and even more throughout our company in all roles.”

The 2014 recipient will be presented with the award at the Marine Dealer Conference & Expo, taking place Nov. 16-19 in Orlando, Fla., by the Marine Retailers Association of the Americas and Boating Industry magazine. The recipient receives a trophy furnished by Boating Industry, which will publicize the presentation and feature the successful candidate in an issue of the magazine following the event.

For more information, or to apply or nominate someone, please visit the Darlene Briggs Award page of the MRAA website: MRAA.com/DarleneBriggsAward. The deadline for nominations is August 31, and the deadline for applications is September 30.

For additional questions, please contact Liz Walz at 315-692-4533 or liz@mraa.com. You need not be nominated to apply for award consideration.

About MRAA Educational Foundation

The MRAA Educational Foundation, a not-for-profit 501(c)3 corporation, was founded in 2004 to provide financial support for education, training and professional development in the recreational marine trades. MRAA recognizes the need to provide for the growth of our dealerships and the professional development of their employees. MRAA and the MRAA Educational Foundation are dedicated to the growth of the recreational marine industry through workforce development. For more information, visit About Marine Retailers Association of the Americas

At the Marine Retailers Association of the Americas, we believe that for the marine industry to thrive, the companies that interact with the boater in their community must thrive. Those businesses determine the boater’s experience and are the leading factor in the industry’s success. The MRAA works to create a strong and healthy boating industry by uniting those businesses, providing them with opportunities for improvement and growth, and representing them with a powerful voice. For more information, visit

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Learn to Shoot and Edit Boat Videos at MDCE 2014

Video has become one of the most powerful marketing tools available to today’s dealers. By learning to use this tool more effectively, dealerships are likely to see a much bigger payoff, both in terms of increased online traffic and boots through the door.

At the 2014 Marine Dealer Conference & Expo, taking place Nov. 16-19 in Orlando, Fla., participants in Lenny Rudow’s workshop, “Shooting and Editing Boat Walk-Through Videos,” will learn the ins and outs of filming video and how to use it to sell more boats. First, dealers will discover the best ways to shoot a walk-through video on a trailerable boat, including a live camera equipment demonstration. Then, workshop attendees will glean the latest video editing tips and tricks, including how to use YouTube’s built-in editor, to make videos more effective and impactful.

Dealers will walk away from Rudow’s workshop with tip sheets they can take back to their businesses to help them film and edit boat walk-through videos that will attract more consumer attention and win more sales. The workshop takes place Monday, Nov. 17 from 9:45 to 11:15 a.m. ET as part of MDCE’s Pre-Conference Workshops.

“Statistics show that website visitors who view video spend more time on the retailer’s website and are far more likely to purchase than other site visitors,” explains Liz Walz, director of education for the Marine Retailers Association of the Americas, which produces the annual event in partnership with Boating Industry. “The more professional the video, the better the results. That’s why we’re convinced this workshop will be so valuable to attendees.”

In 2014, other workshop topics will include leadership, sales, marketing, social media, succession planning, and the service department. Each workshop will feature takeaways (job descriptions, workbooks/guidebooks, report cards, tip sheets, etc.) to help attendees implement what they learned in the pre-conference sessions without delay upon returning to their respective dealerships.

“With more than two decades of experience writing, editing and filming in the boating industry, Lenny is uniquely qualified to help MDCE attendees improve their video skills,” says Boating Industry editor-in-chief Jonathan Sweet. “Video has rapidly become a key marketing tool for dealers, and we are fortunate to have Lenny at the helm, guiding MDCE attendees towards the best strategies for creating and posting their own online videos.”

The 2014 MDCE will offer 30 educational sessions in all, the most the event has ever offered, including seven Pre-Conference Workshops. The conference has traditionally included three educational tracks, but in 2014, it has expanded to four tracks: Leadership, Sales, Marketing and Service Plus. A Closing Keynote address also has been added this year.

Pre-Conference Workshop seating is limited and is available on a first come, first served basis. Attendees can select the workshop(s) they wish to attend during the MDCE registration process and pay an additional fee. Discounts are available for MRAA retail members.

The MDCE is scheduled for Nov. 16-19 at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Fla. It has attracted an increasing number of dealers every year since 2007. In 2013, MDCE featured double-digit growth in dealer attendance, for a total of 615 marine retail professionals. MRAA’s goal is to grow the event to more than 1,000 dealer attendees. To learn more, visit MRAA.com/MDCE.

About the Marine Dealer Conference & Expo
The Marine Dealer Conference & Expo is the Marine Retailers Association of the Americas’ annual conference and member meeting. As the marine industry’s only dealer-specific educational conference, the MDCE offers an in-depth lineup of educational topics, a full-featured expo hall and a series of fixed networking opportunities, all of which are designed to help marine dealers connect with and learn from others who can foster their success. The MDCE is co-produced by MRAA and Boating Industry, and it features Pre-Conference Workshops, Opening and Closing keynote presentations, four tracks of educational content and 30 sessions in all. It will be held Nov. 16-19 at the Orange County Convention Center and Rosen Centre Hotel in Orlando, Fla. For more information, visit MRAA.com/MDCE.

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MRAA Members: Get Help With Warranty Claims Through MarineLab

Warranty work is an essential part of doing business for marine dealers; critical to take care of customers’ needs, but not always cost-effective or profitable for the dealership. Membership in the Marine Retailers Association of the Americas takes the headache out of filing, managing and tracking warranty claims by giving MRAA members exclusive access to MarineLab, an efficient and profitable way to process manufacturer warranty reimbursements.

MarineLab is a cost-effective solution available solely to MRAA members that helps dealers of boats, motors, trailers and marine components and accessories dramatically increase warranty revenue at the dealership. The service allows retailers to maintain a fixed cost for warranty processing rather than relying on in-house staff, which adds to the retailers’ overhead and expenses. Dealers are able to tap MarineLab’s team of experts to address any warranty-related requests or concerns, as well as submit, track and review all warranty claims; dealers simply pay a percentage of paid claims in a given month for the MarineLab service.

MRAA members get exclusive access to MarineLab through the MRAA Rewards Program, which includes more than 30 tangible benefits that members can take advantage of for their $300 annual investment in MRAA membership.

“There’s no denying that warranty is a potential profit center for many dealerships; yet it’s hard to find the manpower and the time — particularly during boating season — to process, file and keep track of manufacturer claims,” says Sonja Moseley, MRAA director of benefits. “The beauty of MarineLab is that for a reasonably low cost, dealers can simply hand over the warranty reigns to experts whose jobs it is to exclusively focus on this type of work. Dealers basically ‘set it and forget it.’ Gone are the days of dedicating an individual in your service department or even your service department manager to handling warranty claims; MarineLab does it all for you, and you only pay them for the claims that are paid by the manufacturer.”

MarineLab is run by 35-year marine industry veteran John Lerma, a longtime service manager with a major retail marine outfit in Minnesota, who at one point oversaw warranty operations for all four store locations throughout the state, where reimbursements totaled around $1.2 million annually. Lerma says many dealers don’t realize that they should be collecting anywhere from 2 to 3 percent of their annual sales in warranty reimbursements, which can translate to thousands of dollars in paid claims throughout the course of a year.

“For larger-volume dealerships, monitoring and tracking warranty claims may already be factored into day-to-day operations, but for smaller, family-run or mom-and-pop shops, which comprise a majority of the industry, committing the time necessary to completing and following up on warranty claims with manufacturers is a bit daunting; so the work does not get done,” says Lerma, MarineLab general manager. “This leaves thousands, if not tens of thousands, of dollars or more on the table each year; money the dealership is not earning and is not adding to its bottom line. We manage the claims process from start to finish, including all phone calls, processing and tracking, follow-up, etc. Sometimes, depending on the claim and the manufacturer, we can get claims processed in as little as one hour.”

Lerma points out that warranty policies and procedures are constantly changing, which makes it difficult for service department personnel to stay on top of the moving target. Finding time to focus on the task at hand also is an issue, as dealers are busy servicing customers first and foremost.

“Often, dealers put off filing claims because they are just too busy,” Lerma explains. “And some manufacturers only give you 30 days to file. Time can be of the essence, and with MarineLab, dealers can rest assured they’ll never miss out on potential profits from warranty work.”

The personalized attention from MarineLab also helps with getting claims processed quickly and efficiently. MarineLab representatives are on a first-name basis with most manufacturer representatives. This familiarity and built-up trust helps reduce claim denials, not to mention boost dealership profits.

“Let’s say a dealer collects $5,000 in warranty claims in a particular month,” Lerma proposes. “The total cost for MarineLab services to collect that $5,000 would be around $350. There’s no way you could hire a full-time dealership staffer to handle all your warranty work for $350 per month. The value is unbeatable, and on top of that you have the decades of expertise and personal, longstanding manufacturer relationships that MarineLab brings to the table.”

MRAA-member dealers that are currently using MarineLab for warranty claim reimbursement submission, processing and tracking say they couldn’t be happier with the service, and that it’s easily worth the price of MRAA membership.

“We truly appreciate the work MarineLab is doing for our dealership,” says Paul E. Kammerer, service manager at Longshore Boats in Charleston, S.C. “The slightly reduced warranty receivables more than make up for the modest fee, not to mention how the program streamlines our collections process and makes my job easier. MarineLab allows us to provide better customer service to our retail clients, improves our cash flow and saves us the worry of warranty collection hanging over our heads.”

To learn more about MRAA membership or to join, contact MRAA membership coordinator Hannah Muerhoff at 763-333-2420 or hannah@mraa.com.

About the Marine Retailers Association of the Americas
At the Marine Retailers Association of the Americas (MRAA), we believe that for the marine industry to thrive, the companies that interact with the boater in their community must thrive. Those businesses determine the boater’s experience and are the leading factor in the industry’s success. MRAA works to create a strong and healthy boating industry by uniting those businesses, providing them with opportunities for improvement and growth, and representing them with a powerful voice. For more information, visit About MarineLab
MarineLab was established by the nation’s leading experts on warranty reimbursement in recognition of the increasing importance of profitibility in fixed operations in the wake of a suppressed economy and struggling retail sales. The company has been named a Preferred Partner of the Marine Retailers Association of the Americas and is the association’s exclusively endorsed warranty processing service provider. For more information, visit MarineLab.com.

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Prioritize Strategies for Improvement at MDCE 2014

It’s not uncommon to read a great book, attend an eye-opening seminar or finish up a powerful 20 Group meeting and come away from the experience feeling inspired, but also overwhelmed. The trick is to have a process for harnessing the key take-aways from that experience and channeling them into the areas of your business that require the most TLC.

At the 2014 Marine Dealer Conference & Expo, taking place Nov. 16-19 in Orlando, Fla., veteran business consultant Pat Kennedy of Parker Business Planning will help attendees organize and prioritize the abundance of good ideas they will accumulate at MDCE so that they can get the most out of their implementation back at the dealership.

In the MDCE session, “Prioritizing for the Principal,” dealers will identify their company’s biggest challenges, develop simple strategies for the most important areas of their businesses and gain a better understanding of the special role they play as dealership principal in the execution of company initiatives. Attendees will walk away from this session with downloadable tools that simplify a dealership’s financial data for better overall decision-making. The session takes place Tuesday, Nov. 18 from 1 to 2:15 p.m. ET as part of MDCE’s Leadership Track.

“Pat’s session is intended to help dealers sort through all the information that they and their teams learned throughout the conference,” explains Liz Walz, director of education for the Marine Retailers Association of the Americas, which produces the annual event in partnership with Boating Industry. “Then, they’ll learn how to turn it into actionable items that can truly make a difference in their day-to-day business operations.”

Each of the 2014 MDCE educational tracks — Sales, Marketing, Leadership and Service Plus — has a total of five sessions each. The Leadership Track includes sessions covering everything from Kennedy’s advice on improving dealership decision-making to creating a strategic plan; protecting your business, your family and your wealth; and understanding employee motivation and engagement, among other topics.

“Attending MDCE each year is a great strategy for your business, but it’s only valuable if you are able to put the good ideas you learn at the conference to work for you once you return home to the dealership,” says Boating Industry editor-in-chief Jonathan Sweet. “After making the financial and time commitment to attend MDCE, Pat’s informative session is a can’t-miss stop for dealership principals.”

The 2014 MDCE will offer 30 educational sessions in all, the most the event has ever offered, including seven Pre-Conference Workshops. The conference has traditionally included three educational tracks, but in 2014, it has expanded to four tracks: Leadership, Sales, Marketing and Service Plus. A Closing Keynote address also has been added this year.

The MDCE is scheduled for Nov. 16-19 at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Fla. It has attracted an increasing number of dealers every year since 2007. In 2013, MDCE featured double-digit growth in dealer attendance, for a total of 615 marine retail professionals. MRAA’s goal is to grow the event to more than 1,000 dealer attendees. To learn more, visit MRAA.com/MDCE.

About the Marine Dealer Conference & Expo
The Marine Dealer Conference & Expo is the Marine Retailers Association of the Americas’ annual conference and member meeting. As the marine industry’s only dealer-specific educational conference, the MDCE offers an in-depth lineup of educational topics, a full-featured expo hall and a series of fixed networking opportunities, all of which are designed to help marine dealers connect with and learn from others who can foster their success. The MDCE is co-produced by MRAA and Boating Industry, and it features Pre-Conference Workshops, Opening and Closing keynote presentations, four tracks of educational content and 30 sessions in all. It will be held Nov. 16-19 at the Orange County Convention Center and Rosen Centre Hotel in Orlando, Fla. For more information, visit MRAA.com/MDCE.

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Sell More Boats to Women

For years, there have been studies that show women typically hold the purse strings in their families. But while almost everyone in the retail marine industry is aware of it, little has been done within the sales department to improve success among this group.

At the 2014 Marine Dealer Conference & Expo, taking place Nov. 16-19 in Orlando, Fla., marketing and consumer trends expert Kelly McDonald will outline strategies dealers can employ to sell more boats to women and their families. The author of two bestselling books, “How to Market to People Not Like You” and “Crafting the Customer Experience for People Not Like You,” McDonald is a first-time presenter at MDCE and brings to the conference a wealth of knowledge about marketing to women and minorities through her work with companies like Toyota, Kimberly-Clark, Nike, Harley-Davidson, Miller-Coors, and Sherwin-Williams.

In her MDCE session, “Sell More Boats to Women,” McDonald will help dealers understand what influences women and motivates them to buy, and how retailers can best relate to women in the areas that are of greatest concern to them. Attendees will walk away from McDonald’s session with new insight into how women think, communicate, decide, shop, and buy, which dealers can use to increase closing ratios. The session takes place Tuesday, Nov. 18 from 3:45 to 5:30 p.m. ET as part of MDCE’s Sales Track.

“Families are a core market for most dealers,” says Liz Walz, director of education for the Marine Retailers Association of the Americas, which produces the annual event in partnership with Boating Industry, “and by better understanding how to sell the boating lifestyle to women, dealers can improve their closing ratios not only with families, but also couples and single women.”

Each of the 2014 MDCE educational tracks — Sales, Marketing, Leadership and Service Plus — features five sessions. The Sales Track includes sessions covering everything from McDonald’s advice on strategies to reach women in the boat-buying process, to maximizing profitability on trade-ins, new insight into customers’ buying decisions, techniques for turning F&I objections into opportunities, and ways of appealing to Millennial and Gen X buyers, among others.

“Because women are often the major household decision-makers, it’s critical that dealers understand how to appeal to women with their boat sales and marketing efforts — if they wish to thrive in today’s market,” says Boating Industry editor-in-chief Jonathan Sweet. “Kelly is an expert when it comes to reaching women buyers, and we are fortunate to have her sales and marketing expertise on tap for this year’s MDCE.”

The 2014 MDCE will offer 30 educational sessions in all, the most the event has ever offered, including seven Pre-Conference Workshops. The conference has traditionally included three educational tracks, but in 2014, it has expanded to four tracks: Leadership, Sales, Marketing and Service Plus. A Closing Keynote address also has been added this year.

The MDCE is scheduled for Nov. 16-19 at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Fla. It has attracted an increasing number of dealers every year since 2007. In 2013, MDCE featured double-digit growth in dealer attendance, for a total of 615 marine retail professionals. MRAA’s goal is to grow the event to more than 1,000 dealer attendees. To learn more, visit MRAA.com/MDCE.

About the Marine Dealer Conference & Expo
The Marine Dealer Conference & Expo is the Marine Retailers Association of the Americas’ annual conference and member meeting. As the marine industry’s only dealer-specific educational conference, the MDCE offers an in-depth lineup of educational topics, a full-featured expo hall and a series of fixed networking opportunities, all of which are designed to help marine dealers connect with and learn from others who can foster their success. The MDCE is co-produced by MRAA and Boating Industry, and it features Pre-Conference Workshops, Opening and Closing keynote presentations, four tracks of educational content and 30 sessions in all. It will be held Nov. 16-19 at the Orange County Convention Center and Rosen Centre Hotel in Orlando, Fla. For more information, visit MRAA.com/MDCE.

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