By Valerie Ziebron, Yamaha Marine University

Have you had challenges in service? Every shop does, but the successful ones know how to turn those challenges into opportunities. Advice on how exactly to do that will be the topic of the final presentation of the Service Department track at the 2010 Marine Dealer Conference & Expo, scheduled for Nov. 14-17 in Orlando, Fla.

In this interactive session, Valerie Ziebron, who has consulted for some of the biggest names in the automotive, marine, and retail industries, will address pressing service issues from the audience. In addition, she will detail management’s role, look at the best ways to identify issues, differentiate symptoms from root causes, determine the nature of the concern – people or process, and collaborate on real-world best-practice solutions. “Your Service Problems … Solved” will provide tangible tools to help you stay ahead of challenges as your shop moves forward.

To learn more about “Your Service Problems … Solved,” 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.

“Your Service Problems … Solved” wraps up the MDCE’s Service Department Track. It will be preceded by sessions focused on the successful service advisor; profitable, proactive service departments; Web strategies to increase service department profits; achieving operational excellence as a service manager; and financial management for service managers.

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.”