Wine and dine your customers
Gordy’s Lakefront Marine Inc. (Ranked 15 in 2005) is more than a boat dealership. The company also includes the Cobalt Lounge and Boat House Restaurant, a ski and wakeboard school, a charter cruise operation, a boat service/storage facility called Cobalt Farms, a boat rental service and a travel agency.
Many of the customers Gordy’s sells to are people who just showed up for a drink or a meal and liked the environment so much they wanted to be part of it … a lasting part of it.
“Interestingly enough, the food and beverage business is a great complement to the boat business, because so much of the boat business is social,” says Gordy’s president, Thomas Whowell. “Our restaurant is the world’s best closing booth. You take somebody over there for lunch or dinner, and you have a few cocktails, you kind of wine and dine people.”
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