By Pam Lendzion, ABBRA

The Service Department track at the 2010 Marine Dealer Conference & Expo was designed to increase profits in any service department, and no service department can be successful without a strong service manager. That’s why we’ve developed two sessions for the 2010 MDCE (scheduled for Nov. 14-17 in Orlando, Fla.) that drill down into the critical components of being a successful marine service manager.

During this first session, the American Boat Builders & Repairers Association will define what it takes to achieve operational excellence as a service manager, discussing how to achieve operational success and have a positive impact on your employees, customers, and the bottom line. Topics will include an in-context definition of “marine service management” and the sphere of influence of a marine service manager; personal and professional goals for an effective marine service managers; leadership and management skills required to be an effective marine service manager; and how to handle interactions with company ownership, staff, and customers.

Marine service managers and others in attendance will become familiar with the skills and techniques required to effectively: 1) manage time, materials, and information, 2) lead people, 3) efficiently achieve goals, 4) create a proactive service department.

To learn more about how to succeed as a service manager, make plans to attend the 2010 Marine Dealer Conference & Expo, to be held in Orlando, Fla., Nov. 14-17. With three concurrent educational tracks and more than 20 individual educational sessions, this event has been designed to help dealers return to the growth phase they knew prior to the economic downturn.

ABBRA’s “Operational Excellence” topic is part of the Service Department track. It will be preceded by sessions focused on the successful service advisor, solving your most pressing service challenges, and Web strategies to improve service department profits. It will be followed by Financial Management for Service Managers, a session on profitable, proactive service departments.

The Sales & Marketing track will be held concurrently and includes topics such as how to make more money by discounting less and charging more; high-impact, low-cost marketing tactics; the keys to succeeding as a 24/7 marine dealer; converting online leads into sales profits; immediate results using search engine marketing; and closing sales in a difficult economy.

While the Sales & Marketing track is perfect for sales managers and marketing managers and the service track will help strengthen any service manager or advisor, the newest, most exciting news for the 2010 MDCE is the addition of a third track, geared specifically toward dealer principals, titled Powering Profits. In this track, the educational topics will cover such pressing issues as pay plans, (re)building your culture, how to adopt best practices in your dealership, fact-driven dealer management and of course, myriad best practices to go with them. The event will also feature a general session and two keynote sessions, as well.

“We’ve covered all the bases with the education this year, making quality content, specific to service managers, sales managers, marketing managers and dealership principals alike, available in an unprecedented format,” explains Matt Gruhn, publisher of Boating Industry magazine, which partners with the Marine Retailers Association of America to produce the MDCE. “This will, without question, be the best line-up of education this event has ever produced.”