Well the Show did pretty well - over 2500 visitors. While that's not as good as I had hoped, it is better than past shows and better than the Rockland Show drew last year. People seemed pleased with what they saw there in terms of boats and accessories, their only complaint being they wish there was more of it to see. So did we, but in this economy we had to settle for a pretty small Show...
The thing is, if you asked most dealers how they felt they'd have guessed 1200 visitors. And they'd tell you that 1000 of 'em were just looking for something to do on a snowy day. Some pretty reputable dealers with good salespeople and products got completely skunked. That is not good news, because it means (1) I've got a lot of work to do to convince people to do a show next year with us, and (2) it makes for a lot of crabby boat dealers who are really struggling to make the bottom line and laying people off. Dave from the Tri State (Rockland) Show paid us a visit yesterday and he was clearly worried about the situation, too. I hope it doesn't translate to a lousy show at Rockland. I always get a heart attack (once literally!) over that damn show as it is...
Interestingly, it WASN'T a bad show for Mahopac Marina. We worked hard, cultivated our leads from NYC, invited them all up for a second look at the boats (offered free admission - the same offer was extended to all other dealers who had sales leads they wanted to impress), and made sure to talk to everybody that came into the booth and find a way to gauge their interest in boating/buying something. There were lots of people that had never owned a boat before, which for many of the types of boat we sell, is usually a good thing. So we made a lot of friends and created new leads for the future, and sold a couple of boats to boot...
Sometimes the indirect approach works best anyway. A lady and her brother are interested in getting into boating, never owned one before, and were skittish about how to get started. I suggested the Boating Safety Course and invited her up to take it at our Show, so she could take advantage of the discount they offered. She was thrilled. She made sure she came over to say "hi" to us both nights after the class ended. No we still haven't sold her a boat yet, but there is no doubt in my mind as to who she's going to go to when she's ready. In fact we're probably going to see her for a test drive in a few weeks when the weather gets warmer. So its a good thing not to get too greedy and be patient...
But we're kind of alone in that category, because most of the other dealers at the Show did not share our optimism...
