If your family is anything like mine, the countdown to summer begins when the calendar flips to May. End of school, warmer weather, and the Memorial Day holiday prompt thoughts of weekends on the water. I bet you – and your marine and personal watercraft customers feel the same way. But nothing ruins the outing more than a boat or jet ski that won’t run or dies in the middle of the lake! As a dealer, what are you doing to ensure your customers enjoy hours of fun cutting waves instead of cutting checks for expensive repairs? More specifically, are you generating revenue from value-based protection products that will keep those recreational units in the water versus on the dock?
As I’m sure you’re aware, the U.S. watersports market is doing quite well. Based on market research from Statista, the watersports equipment market will experience annual growth rate of 4.34 percent from 2024 to 2028. According to the US Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), around 100 million Americans go boating each year. Outdoor recreation makes up 2.1 percent of our country’s GDP, generating USD $788 billion in real gross output. Boating and fishing are the largest outdoor recreation activities in the country, totaling nearly USD $23.6 billion. While that’s great news, these numbers don’t put dollars on your balance sheet or customers on your doorstep.
What does reach customers, and tangentially your bank account, is building a strong transactional relationship with current and new customers. Recognize that your customers may be planning for that summer getaway without considering the functionality of the toys they plan to take with them. Make it your job to protect their vacation and their marine and personal watercraft vehicles.
Train for transactions
Your dealership sales team is trained to make the sale, but are they also trained to build a long-term transactional relationship with customers? We all know that it’s much less expensive to bring a customer back to the dealership than to acquire a new one and customer retention is cultivated with relationships. Relationships are built when the customer truly believes the dealer cares and has a personal stake in the owners’ success with the vehicle. From the first moment of engagement through the sale – and beyond – make sure your team is building and strengthening those relationships.
But it’s not just the sales and finance team who play a role in the dealer/customer relationship. Your service advisors are also part of the mix. In fact, the entire dealership team should be charged with supporting the customer relationship. June is a great time to bolster that training across all departments.
Protect for profit.
On the sales side, don’t leave off valuable protection for your marine and personal watercraft vehicles. Providing protection for a breakdown helps customers enjoy the water without worrying about “what ifs” while also providing another stream of revenue for your dealership.
On the service side, now is a great time to reach out, and encourage them to schedule a check-up on that boat or jet ski before hauling it to the boat ramp. If your customers haven’t already taken advantage of the protection available to them, the service appointment serves as a great reminder. If done correctly, this level of proactive engagement supports the relationship while boosting service revenue and saving your customer from an expensive repair at the marina.
At EFG, we realize dealers who sell marine and personal watercraft products face several challenges. Our proven team of EFG trainers and experts are here to help you get those units in the water and grow needed F&I revenue. We bring years of experience to your team. At EFG Companies, we’re more than an F&I provider, we’re your business partner in the retail marine and personal watercraft industry. Contact us today to learn more about how our team can help you achieve your winning strategy.
