“Best Ideas” to be shared at MDCE

In tough times like these, marine dealers need proven strategies and initiatives in order to succeed. And with the addition of an entirely new concept, that’s exactly what the Marine Dealer Conference & Expo will deliver to attendees.

Here’s how it will work: All dealer attendees of the 2009 MDCE will be asked to submit their best idea from the year, something they have incorporated into their business and found success with. A short description of that idea and how well it worked will go before a committee, moderated by Boating Industry magazine’s senior editor Liz Walz, and the dealers who submitted what are considered to be the top five “best ideas” will be asked to sit on a Best Ideas Panel Discussion.

Click HERE to download the Best Ideas form.

Once on the panel, each of the five dealers will then present their best idea to the audience, how it worked, what they learned, and how other dealers could implement the same idea into their own businesses, and a question-and-answer session will follow. After these presentations, the audience will then vote on the single best idea, and the dealer who submitted that idea will be awarded a prize.

“For years, dealer councils, 20 Groups, the Top 100 Dealers and other dealer organizations have found incredible benefit in sharing the strategies and best practices that have been successful in their businesses,” Walz explains. “Now, through the large and diverse community that is being built among the dealers at the MDCE, we will share those best practices that have been proven to deliver the greatest results. It’s dealers learning from other dealers; that’s exactly what our surveys have told us dealers want; and we can’t think of a better way to give them their return on investment for attending this event.”

As an additional premium, all submitted “best ideas” will be compiled into a publication and provided to attendees at no additional charge — “that’s worth the price of admission alone,” says David Parker, president of Parker Business Planning and a speaker at the 2009 MDCE.

To learn more about the Best Ideas in today’s marine market, make plans to attend the 2009 Marine Dealer Conference & Expo, to be held in Orlando, Fla., Nov. 16-18. And don’t forget to demonstrate your company’s creativity and innovation by submitting its best idea. With two concurrent educational tracks and nearly 20 individual educational sessions, this event has been designed to help dealer navigate today’s difficult market.

The Best Ideas panel will be the premiere dealer discussion in the Sales & Marketing Track on Tuesday, and it will be preceded by an overview of the dealership of tomorrow, dealership recovery and growth, the art and science of inventory management and followed by secrets to lead management success.

A Service Department Track will be held concurrently, with a focus on department efficiency, profitability, 20-plus ideas on building a stronger service department, and best practices in service department operations. Wednesday morning, a Commercial and Retail Financing Track will also be offered. The event will then wrap up with a dealer solutions panel and an industry leaders panel, two hallmarks of this convention.