Boating Industry Canada August 2015 - (Page 22)

work is the only tool we have to build up that crucial winter works program. They may have a need for a repair if something catastrophic happened near the end of the season, but other than that Canadian boaters don't really give much thought to the boats they love so much until the buds come out in the spring. Then you're so busy no one has time to think!.. Unfortunately there's no secret sauce to change our reality but better to take some initiative to watch as the marine industry suffers. OK, Johnny boy, what can we do? Motivating customers to undertake winter work is a daunting task. They may have a need for a repair if something happened at near the end of the season. Will any single technique guarantee results? No, but a combination may. Your customers are active in July and August primarily, then decreasingly so after Labour Day when school starts and work assignments resume. Mid season is the time to make impressions with the only tools we have: * Book now for fall/winter specials * Instrument and electronics upgrades * Canvas work * Gelcoat repairs * Equipment replacement * etc. It's all pretty nice in theory but as we know, it's not so simple. My pal, Nick Bailey who has been at the heart of the repair and service industry for 40 years (he's now the service advisor at Bristol Marine, the largest facility in the GTA) puts it quite bluntly, "the harsh reality is power boaters are much like sailors in that they are reluctant to spend a dime unless absolutely forced to and then only with much wailing and gnashing of teeth to go with the whining and chiseling for cash deals and discount. " The thing is, we discount all this and yet we continue to annually bang our heads against the same vicious cycle. How do we get off this merry-go-round? Our only hope is to retrain our customers and ourselves. Kiss them on the wallet - we need to provide incentives to spread our shop work over the winter, then productively manage the work so it's profitable. The marketing required will need to be extensive. Build a culture in the customers' minds of scheduling maintenance and improvements for the off-season; we have to train our boaters to pre-plan; we need to make grudge purchases attractive; then educate all parties involved that this is a shift that benefits everyone. Today, you still have them in your store, on your docks and at their cottages nearby. It's not too late to begin what may be a long process to turn the "let's wait-until-spring" ship around. American Boat & Yacht Council ĞƌƟĨǇŝŶŐdĞĐŚŶŝĐŝĂŶƐďǇƚŚĞ ^ƚĂŶĚĂƌĚƐ SELECT. INSTALL. LEARN. ZĞĨĞƌƌŝŶŐdĞĐŚŶŝĐŝĂŶƐƚŽǇŽƵ͊ ^ŝŐŶƵƉĨŽƌǇŽƵƌŶĞǆƚĐůĂƐƐ ĂƚŽƵƌǁĞďƐŝƚĞŽƌ ůŽĐĂƚĞĂƚĞĐŚŶŝĐŝĂŶŶĞĂƌǇŽƵ͘ 22 Boating Industry Canada AUGUST 2015 ENJOY. You're outfitting your boat with electronics, you've read the reviews, you've checked out gear at the shows, now you're ready to go. The dream will go better if you get professional help from a trained NMEA dealer to explain the features you need and don't need. He will install and certify your electronics installation to the highest marine industry standards. He will teach you how to use it and be there later if something goes wrong. You get to do the "Enjoy" part yourself. The National Marine Electronics Association: setting marine electronics standards and setting the bar in excellence for safer boating. www.nmea.org National Marine Electronics Association 800.808.6632 * 410.975.9425 * info@nmea.org Use our dealer locator to locate your nearest NMEA dealer http://www.abycinc.org http://www.nmea.org

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Boating Industry Canada August 2015

Insight
Industry News
Impact - Tim Kennedy
Products & Innovation - Marine Tech Crisis
Propulsion - Going for a Ride
Ad Nauseam
Made In Canada - Scepter
Made In Canada - Steelhead Marine
The Boat Shop - NMEA
The Boat Shop - ABYC

Boating Industry Canada August 2015