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MARKETING
Wanda Kenton Smith
INSIGHT
Now more than ever, dealers
must adopt a survival strategy
Iregularly call clients and colleagues just to or second homes or expensive jewelry? We need
take the pulse of the industry. On one of to understand how our customers think. Why
those calls last week to get a reading on would we consider making a major discretionary
sales, a major dealer said something that so purchase when the economy is the worst in re-stunned me I asked him to repeat it to be sure I cent history? What would motivate us?
hadn’t misunderstood. Manufacturers and dealers need to brainstorm
“We’re projecting that up to 25 to 40 percent and develop some solid arguments as to why
of all the boat dealers in the U.S. won’t survive this is the absolute best time to buy their prod-this economic downturn,” he said. ucts. I’d recommend as many value-added ser-
The “we” he referred to is a 20 Group of top- vice and support enticements possible. Then
performing dealers. Granted, this is an unscien- I’d communicate this sales message through as
tific projection, but these are among the savvi- many marketing channels as possible.
est dealers around, and their conclusion is Avoid the quick and easy “panic pricing” that
based on their own market observations. signals desperation. People generally won’t
I’m deeply troubled by buy from organizations
that forecast. If they’re “ that appear to be faltering right, that means more [People] who have the abili- and may not be there to than a quarter of U.S. support service after the boat dealers may not sur- ty to buy are hunkered down sale. The only time to turn vive the winter. in a wait-and-see mode … to aggressive, ‘blowout’ This, to me, is an SOS — a warning that our re- we must give [them] a com- tail colleagues need help. Dealers are the critical pelling reason to buy now. link that holds us all to- gether. It doesn’t matter if you’re the greatest manufacturer with the most innovative products; unless you’re selling direct, your livelihood depends on the perfor- mance of your dealers. The rest of us are im- pacted likewise. So what should we be doing now to fortify ” pricing is when dealing with non-current invento- ry. If you have non-cur- rents in stock, do whatev- er is required to move them, pronto. With each passing day, this product becomes less desir- able and more costly. Sell it, even at a short- term loss. The longer you hold on to it, the worse the eventual bite will be. I spoke with another colleague who is a vice president with a major boat manufacturer. One
our dealers? of his better dealers had two strong sales work-
I have my own ideas, but I also bounced ing on current-inventory boats. In his anxiety
some concepts off others who understand the to sell, the dealer cut right to his lowest margin
dealership dynamic. I talked at length with in the early phases of negotiations. Both deals
David Parker, a dealership consultant who also went south in a hurry because the customers
operates “ 20 Groups” for some of the major feared they hadn’t reached bottom. The dealer
brands, including Monterey, Cobalt, Master- had left himself no wiggle room. Parker recom-Craft and Regal, among others. Thirty of his mends maintaining at least a 5 to 10 percent
clients are currently ranked in the top 100 deal- margin, and reducing the price by hundreds,
erships nationwide. not thousands, of dollars.
I also spoke with John Peterson, vice presi- Once you’ve developed your selling strategy,
dent of Hunter Marine, a sailboat manufacturer it’s time to draw your prospects into the dealer-whose sales are up by double digits this year. ship. Communicate a call to action in everything
Peterson attributes this slump-defying perfor- from your print and Web-based marketing to no-mance not only to new product offerings, but cost one-on-one telephone calls to your entire
to strong dealer relationships. customer and prospect list. I’ve been preaching
With rare exceptions, we know boat sales have for years that dealers need to work the phones
dried up. Many affluent prospects are victims of on a regular basis. Parker agrees, and added
Wall Street. Others are locked in the home mort- See Kenton Smith, facing page
gage chaos that has frozen their borrowing capability. Others who have the ability to buy are hunkered down in a wait-and-see mode. If we have
any hope of turning sales, we must give our
prospects a compelling reason to buy now.
Think about it. How many of us are going out
and buying big-ticket items such as luxury autos
Wanda Kenton Smith has 28 years marine
industry marketing experience. She is president of Kenton Smith Advertising & Public Relations and president of Marine Marketers of
America. For comments on this column, e-mail
