Every business, regardless of its size or structure, face various challenges with natural disasters and periods of financial hardship.  As small business owners in a weather-dependent industry like recreational boating, the effects of floods, storms, hurricanes, and other natural disasters are familiar, yet frustrating, territory.

There is no question that extreme natural disasters around the world are on the rise, with the U.S. seeing more billion-dollar natural disasters than ever before. In the last decade alone, natural disasters cost U.S. taxpayers over $800 billion – or about half of what disasters have cost our country in the last 40 years. Our businesses and communities often are forced to live with old, deteriorating infrastructure that was not originally built with modern disasters in mind. Our dealership communities deserve more.

Historically, the U.S. has not emphasized preparing for the next natural disaster as much as it has responding to the damage they cause. The past few years we have seen a rise in historic hurricanes and wildfires across the county. Beyond our borders, swaths of India and Bangladesh are flooding following the destruction caused by the most powerful cyclone in a decade. Disasters like these are an existential threat to the 40 to 60 percent of small businesses that never reopen following a disaster.

There are several federal programs available for communities and businesses to rebuild after disaster strikes, like SBA’s Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) Program, but what if we invested more in preventing potential damage instead?

This is not an altogether radical idea. Research shows that for every $1 the government spends on disaster mitigation, such as improving existing infrastructure or elevating homes and businesses, save taxpayers an average of $6.

In response to the 2017 hurricane season, then Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Administrator Brock Long told the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, “I cannot overstate the importance of focusing on investing in mitigation before a disaster strikes … building more resilient communities is the best way to reduce risks to people, property, and taxpayer dollars.” Since 2017, natural disasters have cost the U.S. more than $462 billion.

This is why the Marine Retailers Association of the Americas, along with its recreational boating industry partners at the National Marine Manufacturers Association and the Association of Marina Industries, have taken this issue to Congress to reauthorize a little-known small business pre-disaster loan program that expired over a decade ago. This program would allow the Small Business Administration to make low interest, fixed-rate loans so small businesses can invest in disaster resilient improvements to protect commercial real estate and contents from disaster related damages. This ultimately would reduce the costs associated with potential closure, layoffs, and lost revenue resulting from business closure due to a disaster.

Recreational boat dealers depend on strong infrastructure to be able to make their living. Investing in climate-resilient infrastructure would help local communities and businesses better prepare crumbling roads, bridges, boat ramps, and shorelines for more frequent flooding and storm damage, and help prevent costly repairs and higher insurance costs. As small businesses drive our nation’s economic recovery through and beyond COVID-19, it will be particularly important for the U.S. government to provide opportunities to support job gains and business growth not only in cities, but in rural economies where the outdoor recreation economy thrives.

Our industry’s businesses make it possible for the nearly half of Americans who participate in outdoor recreation each year to continue to take part in their favorite activities. Our country’s natural resources and waterways are as abundant and accessible as anywhere in the world, with the state’s beautiful coast, lakes, ponds and mountains serving as a needed escape for residents and tourists alike. By investing in modern, resilient infrastructure, we can ensure that these resources and the businesses that depend on them can continue to thrive for decades to come.

Every year the market place throws a mix of new challenges at you and your business. Whether they’re personnel changes, technological obstacles, product line updates or evolving customer or partner preferences, they change the dynamics of how you approach selling and servicing boats.

With little-to-no warning, the boating industry changed forever with the health crisis that overwhelmed the early part of 2020. Who would have ever imagined that the next economic slowdown would have required you to run your brick-and-mortar operation out of your home? What could have ever prepared you for curbside pick-up, relationship building from a distance, or by-appointment-only, virtual boat closings? And who could have predicted that the shift to the digital sales and service process that you’ve slowly been coming around to would need to be made literally overnight?

The boat retail market place has never been an easy one to manage, and today, it is more complicated than ever before. There are more uncertainties, regulations, and consumer-related obstacles than our businesses have ever even considered.

That won’t stop boating from maintaining its place as the No. 1 choice among family-focused recreational options, however. And it doesn’t have to prevent you from achieving the success you and your team deserve.

For nearly five decades now, the Marine Retailers Association of the Americas has fought for the advancement of boat and engine dealers and the marine industry at large. We have stood alongside dealers as we battled unwarranted laws, regulations and restrictions, and we have provided dealerships with critical guidance as they faced ever-changing market conditions, technological advancements, and yes, even the once-unfathomable requirements of evolving customer desires.

As we navigate through the chaos of 2020, everything has changed, but nothing has changed. Our team here at the MRAA — a seasoned group whose leadership team not only navigated The Great Recession with you, but who also delivered immense value throughout the challenges of the last 20 years, not to mention the last 20 weeks — remains right by your side. No matter what the world throws at us.

Last week, MRAA opened registration for Dealer Week 2020. This event offers you the clearest path to navigating the complexity and uncertainty of your market place. It is the must-attend event of 2020, if not of your entire career, as it will set you up for success in 2021 and beyond.

Dealer Week attendees create their plans for the year ahead with the help of 
educational courses, industry experts, dealer colleagues and MRAA partners.

In partnership with our Board of Directors, our Young Leaders Advisory Council, our Strategic Partners and our Education Champions, we are building the most powerful MRAA educational event ever. Dealer Week 2020 will guide you through today’s new realities and tomorrow’s questions. It will share the most meaningful insights, trends, analysis, best practices and strategies specific to your business. Dealer Week will deliver the answers you need in order to have confidence in your plan for 2021 because we know that the growth, success and prosperity of your family, your business, and your team are of utmost importance.

MRAA remains full speed ahead on Dealer Week 2020. And no matter if the in-person event can go on, as planned, for Dec. 8-11 in Austin, Texas, or we need to deliver this critical educational event through a virtual experience — and I do mean experience … not just some glorified webinar — I promise you that the MRAA will be there for you to answer the call. We’re ready for both scenarios.

Your business needs you to prepare for whatever the market place presents in the year ahead, as well. The pillars of success for today’s boat dealerships are changing. Let us help you change with them. Get started at Dealer Week 2020. Register today.

It has been such a delight to hear from every dealer who I’ve spoken with over the last couple of months tell me about their record pace for sales and service, in addition, to the amount of new business coming from new boaters. New blood is what this industry has needed and talked about for years. It’s our opportunity to grow in unit sales and not just dollars.

Now that this silver lining has appeared from the dark clouds, we need to shift gears and manage the capacity needed to keep these new boaters in the lifestyle.

What are your customers hearing from your staff? Are they needing to apologize for crazy long wait times? I can hear it now, “sorry” it took so long, or “sorry” we couldn’t help you; we’ve been bombarded with customers buying and wanting their boats serviced. I see the cog in the wheel having the ability to service the boats before and after the sale. There aren’t any quick remedies coming that will produce experienced technicians. All the answers for more techs are to grow your own. So, is your dealership operating as it did prior to this burst of business?

In addition to being a lifelong boater, I’m also an avid cyclist. Boat dealers aren’t the only dealers realizing this surge of business. Bike shops are dealing with an overwhelming demand for sales and service. This may sound like a good problem to have, but is it? What if this is the first-time folks are coming to your business wanting to purchase or get service and you can’t deliver?

My bike is closing in on a year old and it is time for a tune up, so I stopped into two bike shops over the weekend. Here’s a quick review of the two experiences:

Bike shop 1: Three technicians, still operating the way they did prior to the pandemic, except for the crowd-management, theater-style ropes they installed outside for people who enjoy 90 degrees and 90% humidity. They’re operating the same way they always operated… A customer walks in to pick up his bike, one tech stops working on a bike, goes to the counter, greets the customer, gets the bike, works the POS to retrieve the bill, and takes payment. Meanwhile, customers with broken bikes are being told from a distance, “we are slammed and backed up three weeks.” 

Bike Shop 2: Four techs working in two workstations. The team member who is normally at the drink bar is at the register taking money and returning bikes while all the techs keep turning wrenches!

It’s a much different feel in Shop 2, especially when I asked a customer how long it took to repair his bike, “Three days!” I’m certain that the desire for bikes will not maintain this level, but Bike Shop 2 will be taking advantage of this surge long after the need is over. 

Are boat dealers looking for ways to keep their techs focused on getting their jobs completed? Take a minute and run a quick check in your mind. Are your techs doing anything that doesn’t require their skill and expertise, such as:

1. Looking for and moving boats to and from their workspace;
2. Looking up and running for parts;
3. Looking for keys;
4. Interpreting poor write-ups;
5. Completing paperwork;
6. Reassembling boats after the mechanical repair is complete;
7. Having to move boats out of their workspace due to no customer authorization;
8. Working ridiculously long hours that leads to burn out;
9. Cleaning their workspace.

Boat dealers live this seasonal work style every year and plan for it, but this year, they might need to start thinking of additional ways to adjust their processes to reduce wasted time, improve efficiency, and figure out how to do it while injecting some fun. In addition to the fun, everyone at the dealership should be getting rewarded with praise and bigger paychecks.

MRAA recently hosted industry expert Valerie Ziebron for insights into this topic and more in an Ask The Expert Webinar titled “How to Make the Best of the Mad Rush in Service.” Did you miss it?  No problem, watch or listen anytime at MRAA.com/MRAAwebinars.

Well, we got our wish. For the last decade, or maybe longer, we’ve been gasping at how the average age of our boat buyers has increased by about 8 or 9 months every single year. The same people who were leading the boat-buying parade in the 80s are still the ones buying boats today.

Where are the Millennials or GenXers, we asked? Where are the first-time boat buyers? It’s been a real concern.

The data today suggests that the top of the boat buying funnel is overflowing with prospects. Leads are off the chart, dealers are reporting that they’re busier than they’ve ever been. And lenders like MRAA Partner Member Vantage Recreational Finance are reporting a “tremendous amount of first-time boat buyers entering the marketplace.”

So, we got our wish. The first-time boat buyers are here. Now, the question becomes: What are you doing to make sure they are not simultaneously final-time boat buyers, as well?

If history has its say, we’ve got a lot of work to do to improve the boat buying and ownership experience and keep boaters on the water. According to a study publicized last year, nearly 40 percent of first-time boat buyers sell their boat and don’t replace it within five years of original purchase. From 2013 through mid 2018, that meant that 148,000 first-time boat buyers were one-and-done and opted out of boating. That’s equal to about 50 percent of the total power boats that are sold in any given year.

Of the 380,000 people who bought a boat in 2013, 39%
(or 148,000) sold and did not replace their boat by mid 2018.

Dealers have control of this situation. We know from our friends at Rollick, who administer the industry customer satisfaction surveys that, A. Of all the dealer-specific CSI factors, the Overall Purchase Experience has the highest correlation to overall boat (the product) satisfaction; and B. Of ALL CSI factors, the question “would you recommend this dealer?” has the highest correlation to overall boat satisfaction. In both instances, it’s clear that the experience at the dealership drives product satisfaction.

In a nutshell, according to Rollick, this means that the customer’s happiness with the dealer can override dissatisfaction with the product, and a customer who is upset with their dealer is more likely to walk away from the boat brand. And, as it turns out, they’re also more likely to walk away from boating, altogether: In a survey of consumers who had almost purchased a boat but stopped short and walked away from the purchase indefinitely, 66 percent noted they had not had a helpful experience at the dealership.

So, as consumers choose boating at an increasing rate, we need to ensure that we are providing a rewarding, memorable sales and ownership experience, or we risk losing them forever. With this surge expected to continue into 2021, now’s our chance to truly grow boating. Let’s make sure we deliver an experience worth recommending and coming back for so that the momentum continues for years.