First Approval Source Advances to MRAA Education Champion

• The recreational loan specialist increased its support of MRAA’s mission through both enhanced membership and Dealer Week participation

MINNEAPOLIS — First Approval Source, a recreational loan specialist serving the boating and other industries, increased its support of the Marine Retailers Association of the Americas, by upgrading to an MRAA Education Champion, strengthening its support of MRAA’s critical mission of supporting dealers and the Dealer Week Conference and Expo.

First Approval Source joins nine existing MRAA Education Champions that fuel the educational programming the MRAA delivers in a year-round partnership program. While providing significant financial support toward MRAA’s efforts to help dealers grow, First Approval Source and all Education Champions benefit from a partnership package that contains bundled marketing exposure and high-level creative visibility to help them build and maintain relationships with MRAA members and the dealer community as a whole.

“We have greatly enjoyed and benefitted from our growing relationship with the MRAA and all that it does to support its members and boat dealers across the country,” says Jeffrey Backus, Founder and COO, First Approval Source. “With our focus on helping dealers finance more boats and creating win-win financing opportunities for dealers and their customers, I believe our partnership with MRAA is a perfect alignment of how we can continue to increase our support of the marine industry.”

First Approval Source, Buford, Ga., is a long-standing MRAA Member and has greatly contributed to its mission of fueling dealer success, including a partnership to provide a virtual training class on finance and insurance.

“The MRAA and First Approval Source share the same goals of helping dealerships grow and improve through tools, education and information, making this a fulfilling partnership for our team and our dealers,” says Allison Gruhn, MRAA Vice President of Business Development. “We appreciate the First Approval Source team believing in and increasing its support of our mission, and we anticipate curating more opportunities for our dealers to become better equipped at selling and financing boats.”

First Approval Source joins a family of nine other Education Champions, including:

About First Approval Source
First Approval Source specializes in making boat dealers’ lives easier while growing their bottom lines. Our integrated F&I services allow dealers to cut processing times in half and increase unit sales by 25%, all while delivering the most competitive rates and terms for their customers. Our commitment to dealers extends beyond just providing loans. We also offer exclusive online training courses on compliance, lender relationships, and protection product sales to ensure your entire team becomes experts in the finance process. For more information about First Approval Source, visit https://firstapprovalsource.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.

MRAA Adds New Director of Government Relations to Amplify Advocacy Efforts

MINNEAPOLIS, August 15, 2023 – The Marine Retailers Association of the Americas announced that it has added Mike Sayre as Director of Government Relations.

As dealers face significant regulatory and legislative challenges to their businesses, the MRAA is ramping up its government relations efforts to ensure the voice of the dealers is represented in the halls of government at the federal, state and local levels. Sayre has been tapped to lead MRAA’s growing advocacy efforts.

Mike Sayre, MRAA Director of Government Relations in gray polo shirt with MRAA logo in front of parquet wall
Mike Sayre, MRAA

“We are thrilled to add Mike to the MRAA team and continue to enhance our advocacy efforts,” says Matt Gruhn, MRAA President. “Mike’s experience navigating complex policy issues and grassroots advocacy will ensure the voice of MRAA members is at the table to advocate for policies that enable a strong selling environment.”

Sayre will oversee MRAA’s advocacy efforts in Washington, D.C., working with MRAA Government Relations Manager, Chad Tokowicz. The growing MRAA advocacy team will continue to address critical issues for the industry, such as the Federal Trade Commission’s proposed Auto Rule, the vessel speed restrictions along our Eastern seaboard and Gulf coast, such as the proposed Right Whale Rule, and support for the outdoor recreation economy and workforce.

“I am excited to join such a passionate team and get started representing MRAA’s members before policymakers,” said Sayre. “It is critical that dealers have a clear voice when and where decisions are getting made and MRAA’s members have recognized that need and have stepped up to support our advocacy efforts.”

Sayre comes to the MRAA with seven years of experience working for the American Motorcyclist Association, where he ran the AMA’s government relations team and grassroots advocacy efforts on recreation and infrastructure issues. He has a Masters of Public Policy from Michigan State University and a Bachelors in Political Science from the University of Michigan.

Reach out to Mike Sayre, MRAA Director of Government Relations at Sayre@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.

Timely Boating Tips for Your Customers

Share new Discover Boating website content with the next generation of boaters

As part of its efforts to engage the next generation of boaters, Discover Boating, powered by NMMA and MRAA, continues publishing timely and relevant content to meet the needs of consumers interested in boating. Safety was a focus of recent DiscoverBoating.com content with articles featuring topics such as watersports safety tips as well as the launch of the Watersports Essentials video, in partnership with Progressive® Insurance.


A sampling of articles from July include:

Articles that saw growth in page views in July (compared to July 2022) include:

Industry stakeholders are welcome to share these articles with customers via social, e-newsletters and other communication channels.

The Service Shuffle

A look at service department pain points and potential solutions from MRAA’s recent Pulse Report.

To be an elite dealership, you need your Service & Parts Departments to follow and maintain a tight, structured schedule, yet remain flexible to effectively upsell and schedule future work to add cash flow. However, it’s not easy to be elite and adaptable. Chances are your dealership is successful and has achieved great things, but can still improve.

It’s hard to focus on upselling when service is already swamped with normal maintenance and repairs, parts delays still persist and your technicians — if you’re lucky enough to have a full crew — are already at capacity. How do you schedule more work when you don’t have the time or the workforce to make it happen effectively or efficiently?

The Service Shuffle - MRAA Pulse Report

We understand. The recent MRAA Pulse Report (in partnership with Baird and Soundings Trade Only) points to some shared service pain points at many dealers across North America. Responding to the question “What’s not working at your dealership?” survey participants stated that it’s still considered the hot summer season, so upselling and service scheduling future work needs to wait until the fall and winter. Others spoke about their high service demand and staffing issues, or a lack of qualified service techs, as reasons for service delays and missed upselling opportunities. Additionally, dealers have concerns about adding too much work and stress to their techs’ plates since service is already running at a high volume.

  • “Don’t need to and cannot. We are oversubscribed and have been for years.”
  • “Can’t find techs, so can’t upsell service. Just service what we sell due to lack of techs in our area.”
  • “Our Service Department is stuck in panic mode from the previous 3 years of overwhelming demand. And now they are having trouble ramping back up to ‘sell’ service.”
  • “In the fortunate position that we cannot [serve] the current volume of service on our schedule. Absolutely missing opportunities by not upselling, but we are over our capacity of scheduled work.”

To overcome some of these struggles, other Pulse Report participants spoke about taking a more proactive approach, incorporating better scheduling, menu selling and using technology to enhance the upselling process in order to create more efficiency and profitability in service.

“We do everything by appointment just like a car dealer,” an anonymous dealer explained. “We do not take any walk-in customers at the moment. This helps us plan our techs weeks out so we can get customer boats in and out, so they have access to use them more than traditional dealers in our area that do not do appointments at all. We are the only dealer in this area that does appointments.”

In addition to this appointments method, dealers shared tactics for greater upselling success:

  • “Offering service special packages, discounts and storage options to drive more traffic.”
  • “Deferring larger jobs to winter months to remain available for smaller service jobs.”
  • “Offering early sign-up discounts for winter storage, to schedule service into the fall and winter.”
  • “Educating their customers about regular maintenance while suggesting additional services.”
  • “Using aggressive online marketing, advertising and manufacturer promotions to drive sales and service.”
  • “Implementing inspection sheets and creating more standard jobs.”
MRAA's Training N Tactics logo in blue, light blue and white

Upselling and presenting service packages (ABC or Gold/Silver/Bronze offers) help you create options and highlight additional service jobs as a way to reduce the number of times your customer has to come back to you. This month’s MRAA Training ‘N’ Tactics session taught us that this also translates into improved CSI scores. For those dealers in the snow-and-ice belt, a service menu is an additional tool to send out with annual maintenance or winter storage agreements. It will help you streamline the check-in process and boost your off-season work.

You want your service-and-parts team to have the necessary resources to reduce repair event cycle times (RECT), and strategically maintain your parts inventory so there’s time for upselling. That’s why it’s important for you to know and implement best practices to keep your customers satisfied.

You have two opportunities to help your dealership improve now and as you plan for 2024:

  1. Your chance to learn about specific tools and tactics from industry experts and your fellow service peers is at Dealer Week 2023; in the Service and Parts Pathway Sessions. The annual MRAA conference educational sessions will guide you to a more effective service and parts team with several in-depth courses, including:
  2. Get on the A-List for Premium Service Success
  3. Apply Action Leadership in Your Service & Parts Departments
  4. Solve Your Parts & Service Customers’ Problems

And that’s just three of 15-plus education courses available to you and your team at Dealer Week, Dec. 4-7, in Tampa, Fla.

  • Can’t wait until December? Then check out MRAA’s Spotlight page, which underlines timely and important issues affecting our industry and offers you strategies, tools and resources to address these obstacles head on. Yes, even your current service challenges.

Do you have any advice for your peers or proven best practices you’ve implemented that has allowed your service team to upsell even when they are crazy busy? Let our team know. Email me at jerrod@mraa.com.

Skier’s Choice Increases Support to MRAA as an Education Champion

• Boat manufacturer enhances MRAA membership, to participate at Dealer Week 2023

MINNEAPOLIS — Skier’s Choice, manufacturer of Supra and Moomba performance boats, increased its partnership level with the Marine Retailers Association of the Americas by becoming an Education Champion. Its partnership strengthens MRAA’s critical mission of supporting dealers and the Dealer Week Conference and Expo.

Skier’s Choice joins nine existing MRAA Education Champions, who fuel the educational programming that MRAA delivers in a year-round partnership program. While providing significant financial support toward MRAA’s efforts to help dealers grow, Skier’s Choice and all Education Champions benefit from a partnership package that contains bundled marketing exposure and high-level creative visibility to help them build and maintain relationships with MRAA members and the dealer community as a whole.

“As a manufacturer, we have always attended Dealer Week with a booth and worked with MRAA to help our dealers,” says Chris Crysdale, Vice President of Marketing and Sales at Skier’s Choice. “We felt it was time to step up and be a sponsor of MRAA and Dealer Week on a higher level. Our dealers and Skier’s Choice have benefited immensely from Dealer Week participation and all of the training that MRAA offers. We want to help support that training.”

Headquartered in Maryville, Tenn., Skier’s Choice is a long-standing member of the MRAA and has greatly contributed to its mission of fueling dealer success, which now includes hosting the Skier’s Choice annual dealer meeting in conjunction with Dealer Week 2023 in Tampa, Fla.

“Working with Skier’s Choice over the years, we have seen how serious their leadership team is about supporting their dealers, so we are energized about the opportunities we have to work together now that they are our newest Education Champion,” says Allison Gruhn, MRAA Vice President of Business Development. “That starts with hosting their dealer meeting at Dealer Week this year, and it also opens the door for more educational opportunities down the road. We look forward to our continued partnership.”

Skier’s Choice joins a family of nine other Education Champions, including:

About Skier’s Choice
Skier’s Choice is a privately held company located in the heart of boating country in Maryville, Tennessee. Skier’s Choice products are manufactured to deliver high value, class leading innovation, industry leading satisfaction and a premium customer experience. Our products are manufactured to stringent standards in a lean manufacturing facility dedicated to making a positive impact in our community and a minimum impact on the environment. For more information about Skier’s Choice, visit https://www.skierschoice.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.

VRZ Consulting Commits to MRAA as Platinum Partner, Dealer Week 2023 Host

MINNEAPOLIS — The Marine Retailers Association of the Americas announces that VRZ Consulting has increased its MRAA support level to a Platinum Partner Member and Dealer Week Host.

Image of Dealer Week 2023 Sales & Service Pathway Host Valerie Ziebron, VRZ Consulting
Valerie Ziebron, Founder of VRZ Consulting

VRZ Consulting supports the MRAA’s programs and opportunities provided to the dealer body in an effort to fuel the success of the industry. Commitments from Platinum Partners and Dealer Week Hosts like VRZ allow for the expansion of MRAA’s offerings to create a positive, long-term impact for members.

Valerie Ziebron, founder of VRZ Consulting located in St. Augustine, Fla., is recognized within the marine industry for her service department expertise. She is a longtime favorite educator for her easy-to-apply ‘Golden Nugget’ best practices and engaging workshop sessions. This year, Valerie will host the Service & Parts Pathway classroom at Dealer Week 2023. Additionally,  she will share insight and knowledge about what dealerships can do to “flip the switch” from being reactive to proactive, with the firm belief that to be profitable, you must be proactive. Learn more about MRAA’s Dealer Week educational lineup, here.

“Helping marine dealerships build customer loyalty and profitability while reducing stress is a passion that VRZ shares with MRAA. I’m so excited to be a Platinum Partner and Dealer Week Service Host,” says Ziebron. “Every year we say, ‘this year is the best!,’ and truly the bar keeps getting higher. That’s what happens when you work with people who are so committed to bringing excellence to the marine industry. I so look forward to seeing you there.”

“We are delighted to welcome Valerie back as a Dealer Week Educator and Platinum Partner Member,” says Allison Gruhn, MRAA VP of Business Development. “I have full confidence in her ability to lead and guide our dealer attendees to greater success at Dealer Week 2023 and I look forward to our continued partnership.”

About VRZ Consulting
Valerie Ziebron started in the automotive industry in 1989. She was a sales trainer for General Motors and a service trainer for Chrysler. More than 20 years ago she started working in the marine industry and has been hooked ever since! Ziebron and her team have worked with thousands of dealership and OEM professionals across North America. VRZ specializes in what dealerships and OEMs can do to grow employee satisfaction, customer loyalty and profitability. To learn more, visit www.vrzconsulting.com, or contact vrzconsulting@yahoo.com, (+1) 313-506-8069.

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.

Northpoint Commercial Finance Appoints Gary W. Childress to Vice President Marine Operations

August 10, 2023, ALPHARETTA, GA. – Northpoint Commercial Finance CEO Dan Radley recently announced the appointment of Gary W. Childress to Vice President of Marine Operations. 

Gary W. Childress

A marine industry veteran with 30 years of leadership experience in sales, operations and strategic planning, Childress will now spearhead and direct day-to-day operations including initiatives with key Northpoint suppliers to foster stronger customer-focused synergy. He will work collaboratively with Senior Vice Presidents of Business Development Russell Baqir and John Durnien. 

“Northpoint is highly committed to ongoing improvement and further developing our customer-centric approach and we believe Gary’s unique skill set and extensive industry knowledge will be a tremendous asset in helping us to drive innovation and achieve our goals,” said Northpoint COO Scott Raymond. 

About Northpoint Commercial Finance
Northpoint Commercial Finance, with offices in Alpharetta, GA, and Burlington, ON, is owned by LBC Capital, a subsidiary of Laurentian Bank of Canada. Northpoint combines experience with advanced technologies, fresh ideas, streamlined processes, and a customer focus formed specifically for the varied needs and goals of each business. Northpoint’s inventory finance offerings drive sales, enhance cash flow, and improve profitability for both manufacturer and dealers. More information about Northpoint and their offerings is available at www.northpointcf.com. 

The Rational Walk to Success: Embracing the Pre-Owned Boat Market 

By Bob McCann, Lead MICD Program Consultant

Image of Bob McCann of the MRAA dressed in white button-up dress shirt in front of greenery in Minnesota
Bob McCann

When I made the walk from the automotive industry to the marine industry in 1999, two areas of concern jumped out at me. 

  1. The lack of any effort dealers gave to go after customer-pay service.
  2. The lack of a true used boat sales operation at dealerships. 

A Missed Opportunity: Neglecting Customer-Pay Service
The observation of a missed opportunity in service was mostly my ignorance of the enormity of the dealer’s role in the PDI (pre-delivery inspection) process and the lack of resources to provide service to customers who bought their boats elsewhere. However, when boat sales all but stopped during The Great Recession, dealers pivoted and survived on providing customer pay service. Regrettably, the additional customer-pay workorders dried up again when boats sales returned and are made worse in recent years with the sales boom that the pandemic blessed us with.

Enough about customer pay opportunities for now.

When Riding the Inventory Roller Coaster, Don’t Forget Pre-Owned Boats
Opportunities in the used boat market have reared their ugly head, and I say “ugly” because I’ve found over the years that most dealers have worked hard to dodge the used boat sale more than they’ve worked to embrace it. This is where we find bad habits and poor processes pulling down what could be a lucrative profit center for the dealership.

Reality is, a proper used boat sales operation can’t be developed or adopted based upon market conditions when a used boat is traded in one day and sold the next. Especially when they sell for thousands of dollars over market value with promises to make it right later. Who can argue with wins like that? Why would you want to put anything in the way of record-breaking margins with policies and procedures when the demand far exceeds supply and customers have no other choices?

A female boater operates a vessel in the summer on a Midwest lake.

I’ve been on this roller coaster ride for only a short time compared to dealers who have boat sales experience measured in generations. But, during my times I’ve seen the tides come and go with boat sales and as I expected the tide is turning and boat buyers have choices again. Are your slam-dunk sales methods going to stand up to customers with multiple options when selecting their next boat? I think not! 

It’s time to examine this used boat market for what it is — a market more than three-times the size of the new boat market and certainly one that should NOT be forgotten, even when new boat manufacturers are back to full production. This is about the time that the OEMs reading this turn the page and look for something more supportive of their efforts or look for the author to throw darts. I think you want to read on …

Ford vs. GM vs. Marine Industry
In an earlier part of my career, I helped Ford dealers sell more cars. During that stint, I was frequently reminded about how Ford lost leadership to General Motors because Henry was set in his ways and too focused on low-cost, mass production and missed a number of opportunities to sell his customers new cars. Frankly, there wasn’t any reason for a Ford owner to buy a new Ford because the new ones looked the same as the one they were already driving, down to the color! 

After Ford taught the world to build cars, a guy named Alfred P. Sloan, president of another large car builder introduced reasons for customers to buy a new car — namely, the annual model change, and the idea of a car “for every purse and purpose.” GM started them off in a Chevy and moved them along to other brands until they drove them to their grave in a Cadillac!

Well, the marine industry has been doing well to adopt GM’s marketing philosophies except for one of Sloan’s principles: “He who owns the used car market will own the new car market.” 

You see, Sloan understood that new models and colors weren’t going to be all that’s needed to obtain leadership. He knew that the dealership needed to make it easy for customers to drive in with their old car, leave it there and drive out with a new one. So, GM “invented” the used car trade-in and helped its dealers set-up used car operations that maximized the resale value of the used car. That made “The Rational Walk” between the used and new car affordable, and the transaction was an easy one.  Therefore, I spent as much of my time with a dealer helping them sell used cars as I did sell new cars. 

It has been refreshing to see the efforts of some dealers who’ve recently turned the corner on their pre-owned boat sales. However, I believe it was not for reasons we just wrote about — it appears that it was only a band aid till their new boat inventories reappeared. And now that new inventory levels are in surplus, it appears the focus shifts back to moving new units and forgetting about the true potential of the used market.

No More Missed Opportunities
It would be dreadful if this scenario becomes a sequel to the post-recession, customer pay-service business, and we return to the days of missed opportunities with pre-owned boats. But we are certain to return to those missed opportunities unless we learn to better market pre-owned boats. And that begins with trading for or acquiring more of them. 

This doesn’t necessarily mean that you must inventory more of pre-owned boats, but you do need to know where you can liquidate them in order to offer full value to your new boat buyer and capture more of those deals.

For the ones you keep to retail, you can’t allow pre-owned boats to be shown to potential boat buyers before the boat is perfectly prepared and ready to fetch top dollar without your sales representative needing to make excuses and promises to fix or detail the obvious. Every excuse or promise your sales team is forced to make devalues the boat in the customer’s mind and either results in a no sale or a reduced margin.

So, these efforts to better sell used boats due to a shortage of new boats have been a good lesson on what could be as well as what needs to continue for dealers and manufacturers to sell more new boats.  Curing these ills and embracing industry resources will give your dealership the tools needed to set yourself apart in the high-volume market (an estimated 1.15 million used units were sold in 2021 alone!) for pre-owned vessels, maintain high values and make it easier for new boat buyers to make “The Rational Walk” to a new boat. 

Pre-Owned Boat Market Strategies & Tactics

Need more insights and best practices for greater pre-owned boat market success at your dealership? MRAA Members can download the “MRAA Ultimate Guide to The Pre-Owned Boat Market.”

Members Only

Download Guide

Not an MRAA Member, but want access to the guide? Contact MRAA Membership Manager Sherri Cuvala, 763-333-2420.

Get even more pre-owned content on the MRAA Spotlight page “Drive Success in Your Pre-Owned Boat Business.”

Discover Boating: ‘Understanding Boat Capacity and Carriage Requirements’

• Fifth episode in digital video series focused on safe boating operation, Powered by Progressive® Insurance

As part of the brand’s efforts to reinforce safety guidelines, Discover Boating launched the final episode in its five-part digital video series in partnership with Progressive® Insurance. 

Discover Boating

In episode five, “Capacity and Carriage Requirements,” viewers learn about necessary boat capacity requirements as well as safety items needed onboard such as USCG-approved life jackets, a fire extinguisher, sound devices and a first aid kit.

Industry stakeholders are encouraged to share these educational videos on their social media, websites, in showrooms and emails to help educate and connect with customers. The safety video series can be found in the Discover Boating Industry Resource Center, powered by NMMA and MRAA.

Throughout summer, Discover Boating has offered a variety of safe boating content including how-tos, videos and articles through its social media channels, newsletters and website. Subscribe to the Discover Boating YouTube channel for more video content.

Share this entire five-part Discover Boating, Powered by Progressive® Insurance, safety video series with your customers to help keep them confident and in control while boating.

Mocama Marine Joins MRAA as Partner Member

MINNEAPOLIS — The Marine Retailers Association of the Americas (MRAA) announces the addition of Mocama Marine as a new Partner Member. 

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. 

Mocama Marine, headquartered in Panama City, Fla., designs and manufactures flats boats, bay boats and deck boats across two premier brands. The Action Craft and Southwind brands are leaders in design, quality and performance. 

“With the addition of Mocama Marine’s membership, the MRAA has yet another boat manufacturer we can partner with to cultivate marine dealer success,” says Jason Walz, MRAA Director of Programs. “I am excited to welcome these boat brands on board and look forward to seeing them thrive within our dealer network.”

Be sure to take a look at the comprehensive list of companies backing MRAA across all partnership levels. View the full 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.