Tag: Bernie DeGraw

‘Pop-up’ Boat Show

Sales have slowed and are struggling to recover. Customers seem to be hiding from dealers. Banks appear scared of lending. Inventory is back to normal, or worse even higher. Almost everyone has a trade-in vessel where they owe a lot more than it is worth. As a dealer principal, sales manager, or other leader in […]

Onboarding With Purpose

For me, the coming of peak season is like when I have already seen a horror movie. I remember the moments when the bad guy starts the chainsaw or when the monster pounces out of the darkness. It is exhilarating, but I’m ready for what is coming. But my friend hasn’t seen it before, and […]

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 […]

Converting the Forever Shopper

As a boat dealer it is almost a guarantee that you have had repeat customers. Those customers provide such a great feeling. You sold them a boat and then they came back. You did a fantastic job with the first sale. Then service took over and made the customer feel loved. Loyalty blossomed and that […]

Strengthen Your Service Department

Service Managers face tremendous challenges every day.  They confront workforce shortages, wavering efficiency and concerning proficiency numbers, increasing repair event cycle times, teamwork issues, quality control problems, lowering customer satisfaction scores and so much more. And to make it even more painful, there just hasn’t been a true training pathway to help them to overcome […]

2 New Hires Strengthen MRAA Dealer Education Team

MINNEAPOLIS, Dec. 1 – The Marine Retailers Association of the Americas (MRAA) announced today that it added two new employees to its Education Team: Senior Education Developer Bernie DeGraw and Education Coordinator Carolyn Howell.   “Adding Bernie and Carolyn will help us enhance our educational initiatives and deliver on our mission to fuel dealer success,” […]