“I haven’t sold a new boat since December.”

That’s the raw, unfiltered voice of a dealer from MRAA’s June 2025 Pulse Report — and it’s not an isolated story. Across North America, dealers are sharing similar frustrations. Aged inventory stacking up. Interest payments ballooning. Leads going cold. Promotions not working. Service departments stressed and staff morale slipping.

One dealer called June “the worst month we’ve had since 2008.” Another said, “It’s not just sales that are soft. Customers aren’t even using their boats.” Still another warned, “We might have to lay off techs for the first time in years just to make it through the winter.”

If it feels like everything is harder right now, it’s because it is. And I don’t believe we’re talking enough about the magnitude of what we’re facing.

This isn’t just a typical slowdown. This isn’t just a soft market. This is a convergence of forces that are fundamentally reshaping our industry.

Sales are back at 2012 levels. Consumer expectations have radically changed. From showroom to service, customers expect mobile-first, digital-first, always-on experiences. Meanwhile, the speed of technology is accelerating faster than any of us can keep up with. AI, agents, automation, data, personalization — these aren’t tomorrow’s tools. They’re shaping the buying journey right now.

And here’s the hard part: Many dealers are too busy just trying to get through the day to notice how quickly the ground is shifting beneath them.

That’s not a criticism. It’s an acknowledgment of the brutal pressure you’re under. But it’s also a wake-up call. Because if you keep your head down much longer, you may look up one day to find that your business model, your value proposition, even your relevance, have been left behind.

I say this with great humility and empathy and after talking this through with dozens of dealers and manufacturers who are validating the realities we face. Their request is simple: “Tell me how to respond.”

On the flip side, I wouldn’t be writing this column if I thought the situation was hopeless. When faced with change of this magnitude, the surest path to failure is inaction, and the dealers first to adapt to today’s realities and customer expectations can create a huge competitive advantage.

As your dealer association, it is our job not just to advocate for your business, not just to provide you with programs and services, and not just to offer you education. Our job is to look out over the horizon, identify what’s coming at you and ensure that we set you up so that you’re aware of the trends that will impact your business and so that you can build resilience and adaptability.

Keeping watch on the future of our profession gives us an incredible opportunity to deliver those programs, services, advocacy and education with deep insights from dealers just like you. And what I can tell you is that the pain dealers are experiencing isn’t hypothetical. It’s happening now. And I believe the most important thing I can say in this moment is this:

Dealer Week 2025 is the program your business needs right now — because it was built entirely by and for dealers who are living this disruption.

Let me explain what I mean. When we sat down to design this year’s Dealer Week — which takes place December 7-10 in Tampa — we didn’t start with content ideas. We started by asking dealers one question: What are the most important challenges you’re facing today?

We collected their answers. We listened to their frustrations. We studied MRAA’s Pulse Reports. We mapped the major shifts dealers are trying to navigate. And then, we worked with our team of education advisors, subject matter experts, and curriculum designers to build a dealer-driven playbook that tackles those challenges head-on. Here’s a sampling of what it looks like:

With slow sales and shrinking margins, Dealer Week will teach you how to reverse-engineer your sales process, reconnect with high-quality leads, and negotiate deals based on trust and value — not price cuts. In today’s environment, your sales and marketing must work smarter, and sessions like “Reverse Engineer Your Sales Outcomes,” “Negotiate Win-Win Watercraft Deals” and “Stop Missing Marketing Opportunities” will give your team real tools they can use the moment they get back to the dealership. To accentuate the focus on helping you drive sales, Dealer Week is offering an all-day, pre-conference Boat Show Bootcamp to help you start the model year out on the right foot.

Customers are showing up in your dealership with more knowledge and more skepticism than ever before. They want self-service, instant answers, and seamless online-to-showroom transitions. At Dealer Week, you’ll learn how to build a customer journey that matches today’s expectations, not last decade’s. Sessions like “How to Market and Sell to a Changing Boat Shopper in the AI Era,” “Rethink Dealership Operations for a Loyalty-Driven Future” and “Get WISER: 33 Ways to Improve CX” are designed to help you evolve your approach and build a loyalty machine instead of a leaky funnel. Dealer Week’s Opening Keynote by world-renowned author and retail expert Doug Stephens will lay the foundation, provide insights into the forces threatening your business and offer you practical models for evolving your go-to-market approach.

The stress of the current climate is wearing teams down. Service is slipping. Accountability is unclear. Dealer Week’s Leadership Pathway offers tools for resetting your team’s mindset, culture, and clarity. “See It, Solve It” will help you rebuild ownership and accountability. “7 Levers to Boost Efficiency and Margins” will help you lead your business through uncertainty with confidence.

These are but a few of the key takeaways you’ll gain at Dealer Week. And, importantly, they aren’t just about theory: You’ll gain direct access to real-world tools, templates, worksheets and frameworks — all designed to help you fix what’s broken, sharpen what’s working, and prepare for what’s next.

You’ll also get time: Time to lift your head up, get out of the weeds, and reconnect with people who are walking the same road you are. You’ll meet other dealers who are asking the same questions and find answers you didn’t even know you needed.

This isn’t just another slowdown. And Dealer Week isn’t just another conference.

This is a once-in-a-decade inflection point. And the absolute worst thing you could do in response to it is to go alone. Dealer Week is the one place — the only place! — in this industry where you’ll find the comprehensive strategy, insight and community to help you face it with confidence.

If you want to get ahead of what’s coming … If you want to lead your business through this and not just survive, but grow … You need to be at Dealer Week.