Boating Industry Intelligence You Can Profit From
LAKE FOREST, ILL. – Having announced its new Dealer Advantage program, a three-prong focus the company says will help its dealers become more profitable, Brunswick is setting out on a tour of 18 cities across the nation to explain all the details of its program.
“We’ve got a massive list of things we want to roll out,” says Dusty McCoy, Brunswick Chairman and CEO “but I want to be clear: We’re not forcing anything on any dealer.”
The program will offer products and services in three critical areas of a dealer’s business: operations, employees and customers. It’s set to go into effect in the 2008 model year, though dealers have been allowed to sign up since it was announced at the Miami International Boat Show last month.
With the dealer operations focus, the main goal is said to be to help dealers improve profitability through such things as business insurance assistance, payroll and tax administration services, real estate services, partner purchasing, and wholesale financing. Succession planning assistance is said to be coming soon. For dealers’ employees, Brunswick says its goals are to help the dealer retain talent through retirement plans for dealers and their employees, scholarships for children of dealers’ employees, and while it wasn’t in place when we spoke with McCoy in February, health care benefits for dealer employees are in the works. Finally, the customer focus portion has a goal of helping dealers close more deals through such features as retail financing, retail insurance, and extended warranties
As it prepares for dealer shows this fall, Brunswick wanted to circulate the word and answer any and all questions about the program.
“This is so fundamental to our relationship with dealers,” McCoy says. “We want this to be easy, seamless. It’s a cafeteria. Take what you want. If you think you’ve got a better dealer with, say a phone company, great, but Sprint is here if you need that.”
The list of cities Brunswick will be visiting is below.
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