Shopping Tips From A Boat Sales Consultant

Buying a boat is much different than an automobile for more than the obvious reasons. Getting you from one place to the next is the fundamental use of a vehicle. More than just a mode of transportation, a boat is your ticket to fun, from fishing and cruising to tubing, skiing and more.

That also makes the boat-buying experience different—especially at a Bass Pro Shops Boating Center. To get an idea of what makes it different, and worth the time, here is what customers can expect, explained by an experienced sales consultant.

Doing online research on the boat brand websites is a great start. We know that 90% of our customers do that before coming in. An informed customer is more confident about what they want in a boat and how our brands best meet their needs. They can also plan their questions to ask me when they are ready to meet in the showroom.

What I like most are the videos. Those show the boats in action with families onboard fishing, cruising or whatever else the boats are designed to do. The videos inspire ideas, excitement and how the boat can help them create their perfect day on the water. There are even how-to videos about trailering, engine operation, storage and maintenance. So, basically everything you need to know you can see in a video on the boat brand websites.

We use nationally advertised pricing and call the process NO HAGGLE NO HASSLE. So, the price the customer sees on the website is the same in our stores, brochures and ads. We hide nothing inside our prices. So you don’t have to worry about whether or not your negotiating skills are good enough to haggle over the price.

BoatTEST.com is a respected website that I really like to use, because it’s like taking a virtual test drive of a boat. The content is in video format so you can see the boat tested by an unbiased reviewer. During the walkthrough segments, you get to see key features of the boat, how it works and what it does. Then, the reviewer takes the boat on a test drive, putting it through its performance runs. The results and stats are shown in the video, so you can see top speed, fuel economy and however else the boat handled in the test.

I always try to get to know them as a person first, not as a customer. Striking up a conversation about anything but the boat is how I begin. That surprises a lot of people expecting me to hit them from the start with hard-sell tactics. We just don’t do things that way with our boats and company culture. If I can get them to start talking about their families, that might eventually lead into a conversation about a boat. I am selling fun, so what’s most important is finding out about their lifestyle and what they plan to do with the boat.

Not at all, or maybe the next time either. My job is making sure the customer is informed about what they want in a boat. That can take multiple trips, phone calls and emails. There is nothing worse than buying a boat only to discover that it was the wrong boat. Buying a boat is so much different than a car, which you are basically using as transportation to get from one place to the next. A boat is more of a lifestyle purchase. Making sure the customer is completely informed to make the best decision about their perfect day on the water is always my goal.

I believe it’s the quality and value of our product. Also, how we make the buying experience the same as what boating is all about on the water, which is having fun.

The first thing is towing capacity. I like to make sure their vehicle meets the requirements for towing capacity. Another consideration is storage—where they plan to keep it, if there is enough space or if HOA restrictions are an issue. It’s easy to get focused on the actual boat being in the water and forget about those important details.

The amount of time it takes. Some first timers come into the store thinking they might hitch up to the boat and leave that day, like they would when buying a car. Financing might take two business days, and it takes us about that much time to prepare the boat for delivery to the customer.

Because we want everything to be just right. We are very particular about our quality control process. It actually begins at the factory and continues at the dealership. We inspect the boat coming off the truck, before the customer is introduced to it. And then we do a final inspection with more than 70 items on the checklist.

That’s actually one of the best questions of them all. Of course, I am supposed to say anytime, which is true. However, boats these days are so feature oriented, they can literally be customized down to the cup holders. The takeaway for would-be customers is giving themselves plenty of time before their boating season even begins.

Yes, and here are the reasons why. What the timing part comes down to is whether or not everything the customer wants on a particular model is in our inventory. If not, we can pull the inventory from a nearby dealer. Another option is installing some of the optional accessories at our dealership. Otherwise, the purchase might become an order that must be built at the factory, shipped to us and then delivered to the customer. That can take several weeks, depending on the model. Of course, we want the customer to take delivery of the boat in plenty of time so they can enjoy it all season long.

Winterizing the boat is an all-too-familiar autumn ritual for northern boaters. What about boaters living in warmer climates? Is it worth spending the time and money on a boat that won’t be used until next spring?

Once upon a time, a wide gap separated fiberglass and aluminum bass boats. Performance, stability, durability and interior storage made fiberglass the front-runner on mainstream bass lakes. Lower prices, better fuel economy and getting to unpressured skinny water were short list advantages of lighter weight aluminum models.