Top 100 Dealer Best Practices

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Boat Delivery
The boat delivery process sets the tone for what may become a lasting relationship that’s extremely profitable for both parties. A good first impression is critical, which is why the best dealers go out of their way to make each delivery special. Click on the link above to find out how they do it.

Boat Shows
The connections dealers make with boat show visitors can drive sales results for them throughout the year. Click on the link above to find out how Top 100 Dealers make the most of the many opportunities offered by these events.

Customer Satisfaction
Those dealers who understand customer satisfaction indexing and use it as a self-improvement tool are leaving the rest of the industry in their wake. It won’t be long before today’s boater figures out the difference between the best and the rest. Click on the link above to discover a host of ideas for creating and improving your customer satisfaction.

Employee Relations
The most successful marine dealers have a clear grasp of the connection between their employees’ well-being and their company’s success. Click on the link above to uncover some of their ideas for creating a fertile environment in which their employees – and their businesses – can stretch to reach their full potential.

Events
Top 100 Dealers are experts at using events to introduce new people to the boating lifestyle and enrich the boating life of their current customers. They know this leads to more sales, higher levels of customer satisfaction, and future sales as customers use their boats more, upgrade their boats faster and share their positive experiences with their friends and family. Click on the link above to learn more about Top 100 Dealers’ event strategies.

Finance & Insurance
The best of the best among marine dealers are using F&I to its fullest, attracting customers with promotions and using F&I to keep customers long-term. Click the link above to learn how they do it.

Follow-up
Of all the areas that affect CSI, following up with customers after a purchase or a service visit might be the lowest-hanging fruit for improvement. Boating Industry’s Top 100 Dealers know the power of follow-up, having adopted impressive programs to guarantee themselves outstanding CSI scores and, more importantly, happy customers. Click on the link above to read Top 100 Dealers’ follow-up strategies.

Internal Operations
When most dealers seek to improve their business, they focus on those areas most visible to the consumer. The best dealerships, however, understand that what happens behind the scenes is equally important in delivering the best customer experience and driving the biggest returns. Click on the link above to learn about the processes and procedures that make up their internal operations.

Internet
As technology has advanced and more consumers have flocked to the Web to research their purchases, the Internet has become an increasingly important part of boat dealers’ business. Click on the link above to learn the Internet strategies of those dealers leading the pack.

Inventory Management


Lead Management
Boat builders, dealers and the industry at large all invest big money to develop boat sales leads. However, regardless of how many leads are generated, the industry might as well throw that money out the window if those leads are mishandled, as is the case far too often. To learn how the best dealers turn leads into customers, click the link above.

Marketing
As consumers’ lives have become busier, they’re also being bombarded with more marketing messages than ever before. The best dealerships know that to reach consumers, they must constantly push the marketing envelope, finding new ways to grab their attention and create an authentic connection with their lives. Click on the link above to read some of their proven strategies.

Pre-Owned Boats
The best dealers understand that the majority of new boat buyers enter the sport thru the pre-owned boat market. Whether thru sourcing the units, preparing them for sale, or remarketing and selling them, pre-owned boats can provide outstanding profitability opportunities as well. Click the link above to learn how Top 100 Dealers approach this.

Sales Department
While sales volume is clearly important to the Top 100 Dealers, this group understands that quality and quantity must go hand in hand if success is to be long-term. These sales experts know how to use the sales process to set up the customer for a positive boating experience that will bring the customer life-long joy and the dealership repeat and referral business. Click on the link above to access their strategies.

Service Department
For too long, the service department has taken a back seat within most dealerships, considered by many to be a necessary evil. However, the Top 100 Dealers featured in this category understand how to realize this department’s potential to drive up customer satisfaction and fatten their bottom line.

Succession Planning
No one wants to invest their sweat, passion and money into reaching the peak of business excellence only to see it melt away when it comes time for them or their key employees to make a change. That’s why the most professional dealerships plan for the future, knowing change can often be unexpected. Click on the link above to learn how successful dealers approach their succession strategies.

Training
The most successful dealerships know that an ongoing employee training strategy is an essential part of their ability to improve and grow, retain current employees and attract new ones, and remain a step ahead of their competitors. Click on the link above to learn how they approach this part of their business.