Taking Advantage of Boat Care Opportunities

September 23, 2008
ANN ARBOR, Mich. Ð Dealers have the opportunity to capture Boat Care product sales from almost every customer who enters their store. If they’re not taking advantage of these sales opportunities, they are missing out on significant sales and profits. The market is out there Ð just waiting to be tapped Ð and increasing boat care sales may not be as difficult as it seems. Here are a few basics to help increase sales.

Boat Care as an Investment
The first thing to remember and convey to customers is to understand that they have made a significant investment in their boat. After all, for most boaters, the dollars invested in their vessels is second only to the amount invested in their home. For customers, maintaining their boats means maintaining and protecting an investment.

Product Merchandising
Merchandising is the “secret weapon” in an ongoing battle to increase sales and profits. It’s defined as any form of in-store promotion, other than personal selling, that triggers purchasing behavior. Here are a few tips for good merchandising.

Boat care products should be stocked together and displayed in an easy-to-find, logical location. Placing quart bottles at eye level Ð the preferred place Ð and heavier gallons on lower shelves can help generate more sales. Products that sell well should be restocked quickly while slow-movers are replaced with the products customers want. Doubling up the facings of the hottest movers can make those products move even faster.

Point-of-Sale Displays
In addition to building a winning retail area by brightening the store and making it an interesting place to shop, point-of-sale materials are proven to increase sales. There are two sources of POS materials. First, a dealer can ask his distributor and suppliers for any materials.

Second, the simplest and most inexpensive form of POS available is a dealer making his own signs. Homemade signs represent a very effective way to increase sales with limited amounts of costs, time and creativity.

There are three types of signs to produce: product identification, product description and sale signs. All three work to attract attention to the product and increase sales. But, for obvious reasons, sale signs are the most effective. That leads to…

Advertising
Boat care products must be advertised at the start of the season when boaters are prepping their vessels to proudly take out for the first time. Advertising works best when it promotes news or an attractive deal such as: “We now stock high-quality Boat Care products,” or “Buy one, get one free!” In fact, with an attractive offer, advertising will actually bring customers into a store that will, in turn, purchase additional products.

Tie-in Selling
Dealers who take advantage of tie-in selling, also known as associated or related selling, can increase their sales and profits. While merchandising involves non-personal tactics, tie-in selling involves personal contact. It’s the proven technique of suggesting a product or products for purchase in addition to those a customer planned to buy (or is in the act of buying). Tie-in selling works because the tie-in product makes sense and relates to other products being bought.

Customers appreciate suggestions because they view the dealer as a trusted advisor and respect his opinion. Also, they may be unaware of the product or have a problem that can be readily solved with it. Sometimes, it’s as simple as them already making a purchase and being receptive to another.

The key to tie-in selling is product knowledge. A staff educated in the product basics and trained to tie-in sell is extremely beneficial to a dealership.

There are many ways to “tie” a product being bought with a boat care product. When a customer buys a new cover, recommend a bottle of cover cleaner to maintain it. Another way to tie-in sell is to suggest to a customer who is buying cover cleaner that he should pick up black streak and bug remover to take care of those problems, too. In addition, when customers pick up a quart of product, there’s the opportunity to sell them up to the gallon size.

Drum Up Additional Sales
Aftermarket manufacturers offer cleaning products in industrial sizes so dealerships can prep their new and used vessels in a cost-effective way. This allows dealers to legitimately recommend the products to customers in a “we use it ourselves” way. This powerful testimonial speaks to the product’s effectiveness and the store’s confidence in it.

Recommend Top-Down Cleaning
Customers look to dealerships and their staff to provide product knowledge. A way to reaffirm their trust is to recommend the “top-down” method of cleaning, which will save them time and effort.

The “top-down” method means starting with the top of the boat and working down to the hull. This way, a product used “above” can actually help wash down a not-yet cleaned area and a clean area is not rewashed. By showing customers this method, it helps a dealer to introduce specific products that work on other areas of the boat but that they may be unfamiliar with.

Usage Recommendations
Naturally, customers want to know how often to use a product. Both the customer and the dealer are served best when boaters follow a maintenance schedule. Boats should have a major cleaning at the beginning and end of the season. Then, maintenance should take place on an as-needed basis in between those two times.

This might lead to a “How much do I need?” discussion of size or quantity to buy. If a customer understands that he’ll need a cleaner three times a year, for example, he might just buy that money-saving gallon, rather than a 32-ounce bottle. In this case, a bigger sale has been captured for the store.

Lastly, many customers have grown accustomed to using a home or automotive product to maintain their boat. A boat is a major investment and itÕs important to maintain it with marine-specific products.