Tag Archives: Column

By Adam Quandt It seems as if every few years – or sometimes even every few months – there’s a new buzz word captivating our industry, our country, the world. And it’s easy to latch onto something when you hear about it again and again. But ask yourself how often are we just holding onto a buzz word until the ...

By Adam Quandt In 2004, Boating Industry unveiled the Top 100 Dealers program as an effort to independently rank and recognize the best boat dealers across North America. With the industry’s help and support, the Top 100 program has grown to unimaginable heights and celebrated marine retailers across the continent over 17 years. Moving into year 18, our industry continues ...

By Adam Quandt It’s time for some truth. The recreational boating industry is one that is often slightly slow to change. Sometimes it’s because the technological advances found in other industries aren’t quite able to operate in a marine environment just yet, other times we simply look at things and say, “that’s how we’ve always done things.” The latter is ...

By Matt Sellhorst Have your sales become more transactional in the past several years? For many dealers that has become the norm with the flood of demand, the trickle of supply and limited time to get boats delivered.  Maybe you’ve had a few more disgruntled clients because of delays in major unit delivery. Maybe you’ve had a few service clients ...

By Margaret Podlich Thousands of polite, pulled-together, 16-22 year olds descended on Atlanta during a sweltering week in June. They hailed from high schools, post-secondary technical schools, and community colleges from around the country. All students were required to dress appropriately for their trade, so some were in white double-breasted chef coats, others in pressed Carhartt khaki top and bottom ...

By Matt Edmundson We all know of the skills gap, but is it different for us in the marine industry? What trade other than a marine technician must have such a versatile skill set to be successful? How do we find and train new techs? Compared to similar industries such as automotive or aerospace, the marine industry has historically not ...

By Matt Sellhorst What is one of the first things people do when they are shopping for a new boat? What do they do after talking to your salesperson or seeing a boat listing from your dealership? The answer: they google “Boat Dealers Near Me” or the name of your dealership. What will your potential future clients find when they ...

By Adam Quandt If you’ve thumbed through the pages of recent issues of Boating Industry lately, you may have noticed we talk about change a lot. It’s been hard not to, especially over the last two years. We’ve seen changes in technology, changes in leadership, you name it. Change is constant. And while some of these changes have been forced ...

By David Gee After three eventful years as the editorial captain of Boating Industry, I am turning the helm over to the very capable Adam Quandt. He is new to the role of editor-in-chief obviously, but not new to Boating Industry. He started as an associate editor four years ago and has been my teammate as managing editor during my ...

By Matt Sellhorst With summer winding down, school back in session and so on many of us are getting back to more “normal routines.” Hopefully we are getting back to a more normal life all the way around, because these past 18 months I know I’ve felt out of sorts at times. Maybe you can relate, if you’ve had the ...