Sea-Doo holds special dealer training events
By Adam Quandt
For the last four years, BRP’s Sea-Doo has taken training dealers in its largest market — Florida — to a whole new level.
“Florida is one of the biggest marine and personal watercraft markets in the world and there are over 1,500 people moving to Florida every day, with most of the movers seeking sunshine and fun on the water,” said LOOK Marketing president Tim McKercher, which represents BRP’s Sea-Doo brand. “With that, Sea-Doo has taken special initiatives to help the dealer network in Florida, one being on-the-water training and experiences with representation from the majority of the brand’s lineup.”
This year’s schedule features 19 stops across Florida, with 29 of the state’s 37 Sea-Doo dealers opting in to participate in the training events. Each stop offers both a morning and afternoon session, all limited to five attendees per session, to aid in COVID-19 protocols for a safe event.
The session features a hybrid method of half classroom-style learning — even
if that classroom happens to be on a beach — and half on-the-water experiences for dealer participants.
“It’s really about getting dealers on the product and out riding it, but at the same time we also give them a lot of insight as to how Sea-Doo is innovating and bringing new technologies forward,” McKercher said. “For example, with these events we can not only tell them more about the new Intelligent Debris Free Pump System (iDF), but they can experience it first hand and learn how they can pass their product knowledge onto the customer.”
The idea is that dealers participating in the training sessions will be able to put what they learn during the event into action right away back at the dealerships, especially with the continued upward trend in PWC sales.
“This year, these training sessions are more important than ever, with more new entrants coming into the sport for as long as I can remember,” McKercher said. “It’s really important for salespeople to be able to answer every question and point out ever important aspect of the PWC lifestyle, not just with their knowledge, but with first-hand experience.”
McKercher noted that now in its fourth year, the special training program is not only helping to educate dealers, but help keep dealership staff around longer.
“We’re starting to see familiar faces return to the training events, which is awesome, because those staff members are repeating the information they learn at the events to the rest of the staff back at the dealership,” McKercher said. “All of our attendees are always engaged and super focused. You can tell they really want to be there, because they know they’re going to gain from it.”
McKercher and his team will finish it’s Florida dealer tour in the panhandle over the next two weeks, following a week-long break for Bike Week. “It’s a lot of work per-person, but the people we’re touching through these training events touch so many more and we know that knowledge will pass to the customer at the end,” McKercher said. “We’re really proud to see the dealers put this learning into action.”
