Show, don’t tell

By Valerie Ziebron, president, VRZ Consulting

The 80/20 visual principal helps build trust, CSI and profitability in boat sales, F&I, service, and parts.

Simply put, if someone can visually see what it is we are trying to sell them, they are 80 percent likely to trust, believe and ultimately buy from us. However, that trust drops to less than 20 percent if they don’t see the visual but we simply tell them about it.

There are so many opportunities to make our selling statements visual at the dealership. From discussing benefits at the boat when selling, to having photos of your boat inventory on flyers at boat shows, to offering a menu of F&I products at closing, to putting your service customers on a tangible schedule, to hanging cut away posters at the service counter to explain repairs more effectively. Look around and you will see opportunities to build trust and increase profits are literally all around waiting for you to capitalize on them!

Valerie Ziebron is president of VRZ Consulting and a member of Yamaha Marine University. She has spent more than 18 years helping hundreds of dealerships come up with tangible solutions to run profitable and proactive service departments. www.valerieziebron.com

This contribution is one in a series of solutions to the industry’s challenges as offered by female boating business professionals for the March 2008 issue of Boating Industry magazine. To view the article, Leading the way, including links to the entire list of solutions, click here.