Encourage prospects to buy
MINNEAPOLIS — Without being aware of it, many dealerships discourage their best prospects from buying. To stem the tide of runaway sales, businesses need to know what they’re inadvertently doing to turn prospects away and counteract these measures with positive momentum designed to win sales and create customer loyalty.
At the 2014 Marine Dealer Conference & Expo, taking place Nov. 16-19 in Orlando, Fla., sales and marketing guru Don Cooper will expose the main reasons why sales prospects decide not to buy and provide effective measures to obliterate these excuses, transforming “fails” into sales.
In his MDCE session, “Opportunity Walks: Why Most Prospects Don’t Buy,” Cooper will help dealers learn how to generate more sales, discover 10 reasons why prospects don’t buy what you’re selling (and it’s not what you think!), explore strategies for building confidence in buyers, and discuss how to significantly impact and improve customer loyalty.
Attendees will walk away from Cooper’s session with briefs on the “Top Ten Mistakes Salespeople Make,” “Six Assumptions That are Killing Your Sales,” “Nine Words You Should Never Use With Boat Customers,” and much more. The session takes place Tuesday, Nov. 18 from 8 to 9:15 a.m. ET as part of MDCE’s Sales Track.
“You need to understand why a prospect decided not to buy from you in order to prevent it from happening again,” explains Liz Walz, director of education for the Marine Retailers Association of the Americas, which produces the annual event in partnership with Boating Industry. “Don will provide dealers with the tools to keep a prospect engaged and boost their chances of making the sale.”
Each of the 2014 MDCE educational tracks — Sales, Marketing, Leadership and Service Plus — features five sessions. The Sales Track includes sessions covering everything from Cooper’s insight into customers’ buying decisions to strategies for reaching women in the boat-buying process, maximizing profitability on trade-ins, turning F&I objections into opportunities, and appealing to Millennial and Gen X buyers, among others.
“Don remains one of the most highly rated and engaging speakers in MDCE’s Sales & Marketing track for the last several years,” says Boating Industry editor-in-chief Jonathan Sweet. “He brings an unrivaled level of enthusiasm to his presentations, making him one of the event’s most popular and impactful speakers. This is a can’t-miss session for anyone interested in selling more and building customer loyalty.”
The 2014 MDCE will offer 30 educational sessions in all, the most the event has ever offered, including seven Pre-Conference Workshops. The conference has traditionally included three educational tracks, but in 2014, it has expanded to four tracks: Leadership, Sales, Marketing and Service Plus. A Closing Keynote address also has been added this year.
The MDCE is scheduled for Nov. 16-19 at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Fla. It has attracted an increasing number of dealers every year since 2007. In 2013, MDCE featured double-digit growth in dealer attendance, for a total of 615 marine retail professionals. MRAA’s goal is to grow the event to more than 1,000 dealer attendees. To learn more, visit MRAA.com/MDCE.
