National Powersport Auctions Launches Refer a Mate Program 

POWAY, Calif. (April 8, 2024) – As part of its ongoing commitment to enhancing its Marine remarketing segment, National Powersport Auctions (NPA) is excited to announce the launch of a referral program aimed at expanding its network of marine dealerships and businesses. This strategic initiative comes on the heels of significant growth in NPA’s Marine division over the past year. 

NPA launches Refer A Mate Program Marine

Under the NPA Refer a Mate referral program, any current NPA Member can refer a new marine dealer to NPA. Upon registration and membership approval, the referring member will receive a generous $250 buy fee credit towards their account. This incentive is per referral and underscores NPA’s dedication to fostering a strong community of members who benefit from its comprehensive buying and selling services. 

In addition to the referral rewards, NPA offers an enticing promotion for new marine members. Those who sign up by July 31, 2024, will receive their first year of NPA membership benefits entirely FREE. These benefits include access to NPA tools and participating in all NPA platforms for buying and selling marine units through NPA live auctions, simulcast auctions, and online auctions 24/7. Every member has a dedicated specialist to assist with values and logistics. NPA provides unparalleled support for marine dealers and traders looking to optimize their operations and maximize their profits. 

NPA launches Refer a Mate Program - logos

Matt Amata, NPA’s Vice President of RV and Marine, expressed enthusiasm for the program’s launch, stating, “A customer referral is a great way for a business to learn about our remarketing services. NPA members who refer friends and colleagues trust our company, processes, and buying and selling services. Through this referral program, we look forward to assisting more marine dealers with their inventory needs.” 

With this novel referral program and compelling membership offer, NPA reaffirms its commitment to driving success for its members in the marine industry. Dealerships and businesses can seize this opportunity to expand their network, enhance their services, and achieve greater profitability with NPA’s industry-leading solutions. 

 NPA members can contact their NPA Territory Sales Manager for more information about NPA’s referral program. Dealers or distributors interested in membership can apply online or contact the NPA Dealer Registration team at 888-292-5339 (ext. 923301) and email at dealer-reg@npauctions.com, from 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. PST, Monday through Friday. Any business wanting to know how to get onboard to consign or defleet marine products should contact Matt Amata at mamata@npauctions.com or 858-430-8476. 

About National Powersport Auctions
Established in 1990, National Powersport Auctions (NPA) is the world’s leading provider of powersport vehicle remarketing services. NPA’s nationwide footprint serves the industry’s largest financial institutions, manufacturers, and dealers through their premier live and online selling platforms. NPA offers comprehensive data services, including the NPA Value Guide™, the industry’s most accurate wholesale valuation tool. NPA has company-owned and staffed facilities in California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Texas. NPA is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Copart, Inc (Nasdaq: CPRT). For more information about NPA, visit: www.npauctions.com. 

Examining the Future of Buying

• Exploring the Future of Buying Study in Outdoor Recreation: A strategic roadmap for navigating the evolving landscape of consumer behaviors in the outdoor recreation industries

By Chris Yeloushan, VP of Dealer Development, and Industry Relations

In late summer/early fall of 2023, Rollick, a national leader in marketing, technology, and market research in the outdoor recreation industries, conducted the Future of Buying study (FOB), which examines how recreational consumers engaged with their brand and dealers in their most recent shopping and buying experience and, more importantly, the tools, technologies and resources they relied upon.

A Collaboration of Insights
Twenty-seven leading brands across the marine, powersports and RV sectors joined with Rollick in this study, allowing access to their owners and prospects through the Rollick Aimbase database management system. The study, branded by the clients themselves, achieved an impressive response rate, with nearly 18 percent of participants engaging — an achievement notable in electronic surveys.

Understanding the Audience
The study’s findings reveal a diverse audience comprising product owners and prospects. While most respondents were proud owners of their recreational products, a significant portion represented a crucial demographic — “new to the market” or first-time owners. Prospects, especially prominent in the marine sector, provided invaluable insights, including those who had opted to rent products before considering ownership — an exciting trend for exploration.

Response Time
Marine response time is becoming crucial as consumer expectations evolve. There’s a growing demand for prompt communication, with consumers expecting a phone call within 10 minutes of inquiry. This expectation reflects a broader trend identified in the study, where consumers prioritize immediate responses via email and text, especially from dealers, over traditional methods like phone calls. As the purchase cycle for Marine products typically spans over 4+ months on average, maintaining ongoing communication with consumers for a minimum of 1 year is vital to demonstrate value and sustain interest throughout the process.

This shift in consumer behavior highlights the importance of adapting communication strategies to align with evolving preferences.

Demographic Nuances
Diving into responder demographics unearthed interesting differences between industries and brands. Notably, marine and powersports owners skewed younger, with RV owners leaning towards an older demographic. The study highlighted a growing female ownership trend, underscoring the importance of catering to diverse consumer needs and preferences.

examining the future of buying image 1 - product composition, Marine

Online Engagement
In an increasingly digital landscape, online sources emerged as dependable in the consumer’s purchasing journey. Manufacturer websites proved to be the primary touchpoint for consumers across all industries, offering a wealth of information and guidance. While dealer websites played a crucial role, third-party and community-driven platforms garnered significant trust, signaling a shift towards consumer reliance on authentic, peer-driven insights.

Embracing Technology
The study showcased consumers’ appeal for innovative technologies, with email and augmented/virtual reality experiences effectively leading the pack. Email is the most effective communication technology according to the consumers. Due to its non-intrusive nature compared to phone calls, it should be timely, personalized, immediate and short-term. 

As consumers gravitate towards immersive digital experiences, brands must harness the power of emerging technologies to deliver personalized, engaging interactions.

Navigating Purchase Dynamics
Understanding the intricacies of the purchase cycle is paramount, especially in industries like Marine, where buying decisions are often protracted. Consumers crave transparency and fairness in financial transactions, emphasizing the importance of clear communication and flexible financing options. Due to product price, variety and complexity, Marine’s extended cycle emphasizes the importance of a long-term nurturing strategy instead of focusing solely on immediate buyers.

The Rental Phenomenon
A fascinating revelation emerged regarding the rental market’s impact on purchasing decisions. While rental experiences often serve as a precursor to ownership, the Marine sector faces a unique challenge. A higher percentage of marine enthusiasts opt for rentals over ownership, raising questions about the industry’s future trajectory and the role of rental services in shaping consumer behavior.

examining the future of buying picture 2 - rental boats

Charting a Course Forward
As outdoor recreation continues to evolve alongside shifting consumer preferences and technological advancements, Rollick’s FOB study provides essential insights to shape industry standards. From leveraging digital transformation to fostering trust and transparency, success depends on adapting to consumer behavior. This study offers a new perspective on the outdoor recreation industry and highlights how customers expect to communicate in post-Covid times. With these insights, OEMs and dealers can confidently navigate this landscape to ensure sustained growth and success.

Chris Yeloushan, VP of Dealer Development, Rollick, talks about examining the future of buying

About the Author: Chris Yeloushan is our avid in-house expert in all outdoor recreation products. Chris is focused on building and developing key strategic programs within our OEM, Dealerand Partner networks to help create the most efficient consumer buying and ownership experience. You can catch Chris any given day camping in the RV, on the ATV, or in the boat.

About Rollick: Rollick connects manufacturers, dealers, finance, and insurance providers with in-market consumers in the Powersports, RV, and Marine industries to deliver a seamless customer journey. Rollick’s solutions, utilized by over 130 OEMs and thousands of dealers, include new customer acquisition, enterprise lead management, digital retailing, inventory marketing, customer experience/loyalty, and marketing automation. In addition, the company has rapidly built its GoRollick.com outdoor recreational vehicle buying marketplace to include a nationwide network of dealers and an affinity partner network with access to over 250 million high-quality customers, including policyholders of major insurance providers, employees at more than 2,000 top U.S. companies, members of the military, veterans and first responders. For more information, visit Rollick.io.  

Learn more about becoming an MRAA Partner.

MRAA Releases 2023 Impact Report Showcasing Commitment to Advocacy, Dealer Education

MINNEAPOLIS, April 8 – The Marine Retailers Association of the Americas (MRAA) recently released its Annual Impact Report, which provides an overview of everything the association did in 2023 to support boat dealers and the marine industry.

MRAA 2023 Impact Report

Along with introducing new education, artificial intelligence and Certification resources, the report shares refocused advocacy initiatives and record-setting membership, partnership and Dealer Week attendance figures as well as company-wide growth that helped the association deliver on its mission to fuel dealer success.  

“Our members and our industry partners invest a lot in MRAA, and it’s important to us to be transparent about what the association is doing with those resources to benefit the industry,” said Mike Davin, MRAA’s Vice President of Industry Relations. “Last year was the first year of MRAA’s three-year Strategic Roadmap, and following that plan the association launched a Service Management Certification Program with the American Boat & Yacht Council, hosted the largest Dealer Week on record, and introduced new education and toolkits to help dealers, among a lot of other initiatives.”

The MRAA releases an annual Impact Report to show how its initiatives — events, education, advocacy and additional strategic efforts – benefit its members, partners and the marine industry. The Impact Report also helps the association reach out to new partners and potential industry advocates who are looking to get involved.

The 2023 Impact Report details how the MRAA expanded its team both in the office and within Dealership Certification; launched a Service Management Study as part of its commitment to increase data sharing; invested in advocacy priorities, adding a Diamond Ambassador Program and a new Director of Government Relations; and advanced MRAA’s Dealership Certification program with the continued success of a 7-week format that guides retailers to establish a culture of continuous improvement.

Read the complete report here. For more information, contact Mike Davin at mike@mraa.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.

Help Customers Prepare for Boating Season

• Discover Boating content helps new boat owners navigate the next steps as they prepare for their first boating season

Throughout March, Discover Boating, powered by MRAA and NMMA, shared timely content connecting key holidays with boating. In celebration of Women’s History Month, Discover Boating’s website and social media channels featured “Women Making Waves” in the marine industry, shining a spotlight on their significant contributions. Additionally, in the article “How to Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day on a Boat” readers gained insights into safe and festive ways to enjoy the holiday on the water.

Now that the winter boat show season is finished, Discover Boating’s content is helping new boat owners navigate the next steps as they prepare for their first boating season by sharing resources and articles like “I Bought a Boat at a Boat Show: Now What?”.

help your customers prepare for boating season

With summer boating season approaching, April’s content calendar is packed with resources and tips to prepare boaters for the upcoming season. We’ll be covering essential topics like boating safety, insurance guides, and boat maintenance to ensure a worry-free and enjoyable season on the water.

New articles published to Discover Boating in March included:

Articles that saw growth in page views in March compared to last year included:

Dealer tip: Discover Boating articles are designed to be shared with customers. Use them as social messages, place them in your e-newsletters and feature them within other communication channels.

MRAA Joins Water Sports Industry Association Annual Summit

• The Summit allows MRAA, WSIA to continue to build collaboration on overlapping government relations priorities

By Chad Tokowicz, MRAA Government Relations Manager

I recently joined the Water Sports Industry Association (WSIA) for their annual summit in the snow, which took place at the Everline Resort in Olympic Valley, Calif. The summit, which is hosted each winter by the WSIA, brings together professionals in the water sports industry to network, learn, collaborate and hit the slopes. Each year the summit features keynote speakers who come from backgrounds as varied as extreme sports and economics, each of whom provides important insights and lessons for the watersports industry.

This year, Chris Thornberg, Ph.D., a founding partner at Beacon Economics, joined to provide insights on the economy and the current financial situation, focusing on the potential for a recession and other key economic indicators. This presentation was largely tailored to the audience, and he included a variety of statistics directly from and related to the recreational boating industry, which helped to further draw comparisons between the larger economy and the recreational boating sector. In all, Thornberg remained confident that we would not see a major recession but that the recreational boating industry must remain nimble ahead of a changing demand landscape.

MRAA Joins Water Sports Industry Association Annual Summit - speaker Chris Thornberg, Ph.D, Founding Partner Beacon Economics
MRAA Attends WSIA Annual Summit - Taylor Matsko, the communications and marketing director with the National Association of State Boating Law Administrators (NASBLA), moderated a panel featuring three boating law administrators: Ty Hunter from Utah, Captain Brady Phillips from Nevada and Brian Paulsen from Oregon.
MRAA Attends WSIA Annual Summit - Lee Gatts, VP of Government Affairs, and Aaron Hallenberg, Northwest Government Affairs Manager - presented on “The 5 Seasons of Boating."
This group and the MRAA Joined the Water Sports Industry Association annual summit held at at the Everline Resort in Olympic Valley, Calif.

During the summit WSIA committees and the WSIA Board of Directors meet to conduct business. These meetings, which are open to non-voting members and visitors, focus on issues including vessel designs and how to build boats best to remove Aquatic Invasive Species (AIS), wake park standards and parasailing issues. I sat in on the AIS Committee and the Towboat Committee where conversations largely centered around the design and use of vessels. A representative from the American Boat and Yacht Council (ABYC) also joined to provide a presentation on various standards updates, which must be taken into consideration during the vessel design and construction process.

“The Five Seasons of Boating”
I also sat in on the inaugural meeting of the Marine Dealer Council, which is composed of several WSIA members who are marine retailers. This council is focused on serving as a way for the WSIA to get input on specific water-sports issues impacting marine retailers. During this meeting, the WSIA’s Vice President of Government Affairs, Lee Gatts, highlighted the partnership with the MRAA and how the two associations currently work together on a variety of overlapping policy priorities.

This year a major focus of the summit centered on advocacy and the important work the WSIA has undertaken, along with their partners, to fight against impediments to boating access. On the second day of the Summit, Lee Gatts, vice president of government affairs, and Aaron Hallenberg, Northwest government affairs manager, gave a presentation titled “The 5 Seasons of Boating,” which focused on how to engage with marine businesses on advocacy issues throughout the year. This presentation was meant to give attendees an idea of how they could best get engaged in our industry’s advocacy opportunities at various points of the year.

New Advocacy Platform & Panel on Boater Education
Furthermore, Megan Thielfold, director of communications and marketing for the WSIA, presented on the WSIA’s new advocacy platform in a session titled “Our Shared Investments in Grassroots Advocacy.” The presentation showcased the WSIA’s continued efforts to fight restrictions on access for water sports enthusiasts. Ultimately, the new platform will allow stakeholders to get engaged and directly communicate with their elected officials on important issues impacting the industry.

Lastly, Taylor Matsko, the communications and marketing director with the National Association of State Boating Law Administrators (NASBLA), moderated a panel featuring three boating law administrators: Ty Hunter from Utah, Captain Brady Phillips from Nevada and Brian Paulsen from Oregon. The panel discussed the importance of boater education and how things as simple as life-vest use can save lives on the water as well as opportunities for the industry to continue to support the work of law enforcement.

In all, the 2024 WSIA Summit provided an amazing opportunity to not only learn more about the issues impacting the water sports community but build relationships with folks all throughout the industry, from manufacturers and dealers to members of the law enforcement community and beyond.

Connect with the MRAA Advocacy, here.

4 New Partner Members Join MRAA in March

MINNEAPOLIS, April 1, 2024 — The Marine Retailers Association of the Americas (MRAA) announces the addition of Chekkit, Eco-Sources USA, J.D. Power, and Skylon Sports as its newest Partner Members.

4 New Partner Members join 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 Partners allows the Association to expand its offerings and create a positive, long-term impact on MRAA members’ business.

  • Chekkit (Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada) is an all-in-one software tool designed to help small businesses manage their inboxes, online reviews, text chats and more.
  • Eco-Sources USA (Springfield, Mo.) is an international lithium battery and solar energy manufacturer and supplier, integrating product R&D, intelligent manufacturing and promotional marketing.
  • J.D. Power (Troy, Mich.) is a pioneer in the use of big data, artificial intelligence (AI) and algorithmic modeling capabilities designed to understand consumer behavior and to deliver customer-facing strategies.  
  • Skylon Sports (Perris, Calif.) manufactures board racks and boat adaptors that are compatible with most factory tow boats.

“I’m excited to add these four unique companies as our newest Partner Members,” says Allison Gruhn, MRAA Vice President of Business Development. “Together, we’ll leverage diverse expertise to advance our industry, delivering tremendous value and driving positive change for our customers worldwide.”

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

New Safe Boating Video Series

• Discover Boating, Progressive Insurance® partner to launch third installment of ‘Top Safe Boating Tips’

Discover Boating, powered by NMMA and MRAA, in collaboration with Progressive Insurance, is launching its third safety video series titled “Top Safe Boating Tips” this month. The five-part series covers crucial safety topics that all boaters need to be aware of for a worry-free day on the water, including boating with pets, refueling, navigation lights usage, trailering and safe seating. Last year’s Discover Boating/Progressive-produced video series garnered more than 2 million views on YouTube, helping to engage and educate boaters on on-water safety best practices.

Discover Boating, new safe boating video series

The first video, “Keep Your Dog Safe on the Water: A Pet Owner’s Guide to Onboard Adventures,” offers tips for pet owners who want to bring their canine companions on their boating adventures. The video covers essentials like selecting a pet life jacket, protecting paws from hot surfaces, ensuring hydration, proper boarding techniques and following marina pet policies. This first episode in the latest video series can be viewed below and on Discover Boating’s YouTube channel.
To further engage current boaters and the next generation, Discover Boating and Progressive strategically created short-form videos (in addition to longer form versions) that can be shared on social channels, such as TikTok and Instagram – popular platforms Discover Boating’s target audiences use to consume digital content. Discover Boating will also be sharing the new videos via consumer email distributions and on its websites in the U.S. and Canada.
Industry stakeholders are encouraged to view and share these safety videos on your social media channels, consumer emails, brand website or play it on loop in showrooms, to provide valuable safe boating content for your customers.


The 2024 five-video series focuses on the following topics:

  • Safe Boating with Pets
  • Refueling Best Practices
  • Proper Use of Navigation Lights
  • Boat Trailering Techniques
  • Safe Seating Protocols

Similar to the 2023 video series (viewable/shareable here), a new video will be released each month, March-July, on YouTube. Discover Boating will also share shorter cutdown versions to engage target audiences across social media platforms and promoted on the Discover Boating blog, DB TV section and b2b.discoverboating.com.

About Discover Boating:  Powered by the National Marine Manufacturers Association and the Marine Retailers Association of the Americas, Discover Boating connects boaters and future boaters with experiences, resources and community to enhance their boating journey and expand the industry in the U.S. and Canada. For nearly two decades, Discover Boating has led the North American recreational boating industry’s consumer outreach efforts, attracting millions of people to boating and helping them get on the water and become boaters. Industry stakeholders can follow along and share Discover Boating content from DiscoverBoating.com and @DiscoverBoating on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

About Progressive Insurance: Progressive Insurance® makes it easy to understand, buy and use car insurance, home insurance, and other protection needs. Progressive offers choices so consumers can reach us however it’s most convenient for them — online at progressive.com, by phone at 1-800-PROGRESSIVE, via the Progressive mobile app, or in-person with a local agent. Progressive provides insurance for personal and commercial autos and trucks, motorcycles, boats, recreational vehicles, and homes; it is the second largest auto insurer in the country, a leading seller of commercial auto, motorcycle, and boat insurance, and one of the top 15 homeowners insurance carriers. Founded in 1937, Progressive continues its long history of offering shopping tools and services that save customers time and money, like Name Your Price®, Snapshot®, and HomeQuote Explorer®. The Common Shares of The Progressive Corporation, the Mayfield Village, Ohio-based holding company, trade publicly at NYSE: PGR.

Lessons Learned at Inaugural SheMoves Conference

MRAA staff recently attended the inaugural SheMoves Conference hosted by Associations North, a regional association for association professionals. Sessions held included topics on leaders and our impact, professional development, advocating for yourself, not apologizing as a reflex, imposter syndrome and leaning on our strong community of women. Here are a few of the takeaways I encourage everyone to consider as we wrap up Women’s History Month.

Lesson 1 Support women, our current and future business owners.
Lesson 1: Support women, our current and future business owners.
Lesson 1: Support women, our current and future business owners.
Images by Block Portrait Studios supplied by Associations North

Lesson 1: Support women, our current and future business owners.
The exhibition portion of the event highlighted local women-owned businesses. They shared their entrepreneurial stories, founded by themselves or their daughters, and how they give back to their communities. We’re happy to report Onica surpassed her Girl Scout cookie sales goal! I got ahead on my Christmas shopping and was able to network with these women and talk about informational interviews with youth in their businesses.

Lesson 2: Take time to recognize women in your life as leaders.
Liz Keener, MRAA Director of Dealer Development

Lesson 2: Take time to recognize the women in your life as leaders.   
Sometimes, the best leaders are on your own team, in your own home. I know I’m surrounded by brilliance at work every day … but do you recognize the leadership within your organization? MRAA got to experience this in a new way when Liz Keener, MRAA Director of Dealer Development, took to the stage. She shared The MRAA Book Club passion and invited everyone to read a recent favorite of hers – “Wolfpack” by Abby Wambach. I’m proud to see how she is making an impact on our team, in the marine retail industry, as well as the industry of associations.

Lesson 3: I am a leader and have a voice worth listening to.
Sarah Korbel, MRAA Events & Operations Manager (by Block Portrait Studios)

Lesson 3: I am a leader and have a voice worth listening to.
I, Sarah Korbel, MRAA’s Events & Operations Manager, prefer to be behind the scenes and offstage. Thus, when asked to be on a panel titled “Infinite Insights,” I laughed. I didn’t see myself as being particularly insightful, but I do believe we can learn by doing things that scare us. So I said yes. While preparing, I thought about whether or not we can declare ourselves a “leader.” While I’m still not sure we can, I do believe we get to choose how we lead. And if someone decides how we lead is worth emulating … that’s leadership to me.

I choose to lead honestly, imperfectly and through relationship with others. I talked about how a leader doesn’t need to know everything. Part of leading is knowing your own capacity and recognizing you can’t do it all. Rather, great leaders bring the right people and resources together for success. This all came full circle when I learned after the event that I had this opportunity because another woman I met only once before, said she appreciated my insights and thought I’d be a great addition. She saw me as a leader with a voice worth listening to. I have a thank you note in the mail to her today.

Lesson 4: Men can, and should amplify the voices of women.
Lessons Learned at Inaugural SheMoves Conference
Scenes from SheMoves featuring MRAA crew members Mike Davin, Liz Keener, Gabrielle Ronnenberg, Grace Schmidt and Matt Gruhn.

Lesson 4: Men can, and should amplify the voices of women.
After the event was over, a colleague and I were discussing the delicate debate of whether to highlight men during a women’s focused event. One could debate it – however, I encourage everyone to think of it like this: One of the most powerful things men can do for women is to show up and listen. One’s gender doesn’t determine worthiness, and we all know this, but in a world where not everything is perfect, men showing up like this is an endorsement of these women as leaders. It’s saying – “I believe I have something I can learn here.”

To me personally, it meant two of my bosses felt what I had to say was important. That they felt they could learn from me. I am extremely grateful they show up for me, Liz, and the women that they spent time with at this event.  

I’m grateful Associations North took the time to learn how women make up more than 70 percent of the Associations Industry. And as a result, chose to give women an opportunity to learn from and network with each other, and celebrate our community. As we wrap up Women’s History Month, I encourage you to reach out to the women in your life and share how you have learned from them, what you appreciate about their leadership.

Let Data Be Your Pathway to Insights & Predictive Solutions

We have all been there, sitting in a meeting when someone says the word. Everyone around the room instantly thinks: is it DAY-ta or DA-tuh?

It doesn’t matter how you say it! Both forms are considered acceptable English pronunciations of the word data. Don’t believe me? Watch this!

What DOES matter about data is that you learn to use it to your advantage. You need to track internal and external data.

In-house, you want to track your number of leads generated, lead conversions, service efficiency, and repeat customers, to name a few. You want to explore this information daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and annually – comparing it year-over-year – at your dealership. It helps you comprehend what is happening in your business and the marine industry. It will likely reveal pain points and areas of strength and weakness.

It’s also vital to gain knowledge of other data sources to make informed business decisions. We understand that and have the resources to help you. It is one reason we are committed to providing the industry with market reports and why we partner with proven data influencers.

It’s also why Goal 3, Advocate and Raise Awareness, within the 2023-2025 MRAA Strategic Plan included the production of a data dashboard to inform dealers and manufacturers.  

We built a Data hub within our Resource Center on MRAA.com to share industry data. That page includes various resources from which you and your team can gather information to operate your business more effectively and aid you in scenario planning.

MRAA Pulse Reports
In partnership with Soundings Trade Only and Baird Research, MRAA produces a monthly “Pulse Report,” which helps to identify today’s trends and dealer sentiment to help you make more informed decisions for your business. We ask specific questions each month that pertain to current MRAA Spotlight topics, too, to gain firsthand feedback from dealers across North America.

MRAA Data Infographics
Using Pulse Report survey results, the MRAA develops a unique infographic with timely data and information for your dealership to use to better understand what’s going on in the industry.

2023 Service Management Special Report
The MRAA Service Management Special Report explores service. You will find data and information on dealer demographics, employee resources, pain points and service department metrics. The report and survey results can help you understand where your business stacks up against others in the marine retail industry. For a deeper understanding, read the blog: “Stories Give Service Data Meaning” from Bernie DeGraw, MRAA Senior Education Developer.

2022 Marine Industry Compensation Study, MRAA Data and Insight

2022 MRAA Marine Industry Compensation Study
We collected 980 position-level responses from 103 retail locations for the MRAA’s most recent Marine Industry Compensation Study. Workforce, staffing and compensation are popular and ever-important topics for marine retailers. You can get an executive summary or the full report here.

But that’s not all. The original 2016 Marine Industry Workforce Assessment is also available. Use it as a barometer to see how our industry has changed over the past eight years and to examine marketplace trends. To broaden our conversation about compensation, the MRAA will also produce a new 2025 Compensation Study to keep our finger and yours on the pulse of what’s currently happening within the workforce, from challenges to victories and future estimates.

J.D. Power Marine Market Insights
The MRAA and J.D. Power have collaborated to supply the marine industry with market insights and reporting. The report explores average retail values by boat category, top researched vessels by brand and additional data you can dig into. We have even discussed some of this data with Lenny Sims, VP of Business Development/Strategy, to it and to provide you with knowledge.

J.D. Power’s Market Insights 2023 Marine Year-End report was recently uploaded to the MRAA Data Center.

Numbers & Knowledge
The MRAA is committed to engaging and informing dealers and manufacturers through education, development programs and data-driven solutions. Our effort will help them find success and also help improve the health of the marine industry. We will continue to enhance our retail data dashboards to keep this same audience informed and to deliver on one of our strategic goals to become an authentic source of industry numbers and knowledge.

Stories Give Service Data Meaning

Dan Heath, a New York Times best-selling author once said, “Data are just summaries of thousands of stories – tell a few of those stories to help make the data meaningful.”

The MRAA collected a great deal of data in the survey process for the Service Management Special Report. In a sense, we collected thousands of stories from dealerships across North America. In the report we share the data, how we collected it and, most importantly, we inspected the data to find the stories that we were being told. No doubt, the stories took a little time to sort out. We invested time to compare the information from different data pieces. At times, what we found was unexpected but it was almost always useful.   

Stories Give Service Data Meaning - MRAA Service Management Special Report

For example, the data in the Service Management Special Report showed us that efficiency was one of the top pain points for service department leaders who completed the survey. That isn’t necessarily such a “new” story being revealed. Service department leaders everywhere dwell on their efficiency numbers and it is almost always an ongoing concern. Often, they wonder what made efficiency go down and then (hopefully soon) they start looking for why it went up.  

And yet, an efficiency story was there in the numbers. One piece told us that more than 40 percent of all respondents found efficiency to be a pain point. Another told us that many dealerships have a person dedicated to parts that works with service specifically. When we looked at those two together we found a sort of moral to the story. That is that those dealers with a dedicated parts person for the service shop had a higher full year and higher peak efficiency than dealers without this role. They even had higher proficiency when they had the dedicated parts person.

The parts department efficiency story is just one of many informative, helpful and even exciting narratives exposed by the Service Management Special Report.

Stories Give Service Data Meaning - MRAA Chart
Here is what the efficiency and parts person story looked like in the combined data.

The data also helps us to share explanations about the workforce, dealer resources that influence success, and Repair Event Cycle Times (RECT). It gave us insightful narratives about written and shared job descriptions and control quality. We even found a yarn or two about process maps that are significant and memorable.

Other topics revealed by the data and stories:

  • Workforce Shortage
  • Efficiency
  • RECT
  • Teamwork and Communication
  • Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty
  • Individual Incentive Pay Plans
  • Team Incentive Pay Plans
  • Process Maps
  • Organizational Charts
  • Job Descriptions

“The core advantage of data is that it tells you something about the world that you didn’t know before,” says Hillary Mason, a data scientist addressing the value of data.

As we revealed in the 2023-2025 MRAA Strategic Plan, we are committed to gathering data and using it to help our members find avenues to greater success. We look forward to continuing to share industry data and tell you the stories within the data we gather to help make it meaningful and useful.  

To capture more service-related data and to read more stories from the Service Management Special Report, purchase the full report or download the Executive Summary.