When did manufacturers get so exclusive at boat shows?

[valhalla360]

Originally Posted by Tetepare

First, we have to acknowledge that the determination of who gets aboard when is not made by the sales persons, but by someone higher up.


That said, don't underestimate a top salesperson. Not only are they experts in the topic, and evangelists for their product, they can analyze a psychiatrist in five minutes and tell you what's wrong with them.

Last week at a show an older gent with white hair, a brushy moustache, and blue overalls ate up a bunch of my time telling stories. After a long while, he departed, a bunch of bills lighter. About two hours later he came back, and storied some more. Finally he pulled out a big wad of cash, this time leaving with a much lighter wallet.

As he parted, he said in his deep Kentucky drawl, "You didn't think I'd buy anything, did you?" I just smiled. We both knew that to be untrue. I knew within two minutes he had money, and I knew if we got on well he'd part with a big pile of cash. Of course, to his credit, he knew I could tell he had money, and he was feeling me out to see if I was worthy. It wasn't happenstance, and it wasn't good fortune that he just happened to have cash; despite the old farmer appearance, it's hard to hide brains, hard work, or financial flexibility.

A great salesperson doesn't play the odds, they already know which cards are in hand.

Again, you play the odds. A good salesman may look at other things than simple dress but they are still playing the odds. You are fooling yourself if you think otherwise.

[Etscott]

This post is certainly interesting. We purchased a catamaran after attending boats shows for about 30 years. We over those years checked out every kind of vessel from kayaks to catamarans. The catamaran is our second boat, the first being a 23 foot ski boat, purchased at a boat show. The catamaran we finally purchased in the fall of 2019 and delivery and commissioning for our 2020 occurred over January to March of 2020. Part of the purchase details included the broker asking if we would allow our boat to be in the next boat show. We agreed and felt we had appreciated all the other vessels we had the chance to see over 30+ boat shows, time to give back.
Well it was not at all an enjoyable experience for us. The OP hit the nail on the head with his expectation to have as many people that fit should be allowed on board and the privilege of touching everything with clean or dirty hands. Our broker did have a queue to wait for appropriate space to view the boat, but still it was a pushy crowd and some viewers were downright disrespectful to our property. The line up to view our vessel was so thick and stacked the stringers on the dock actually broke under the weight of the queue.
So hindsight: we will not show our boat in future shows, this boat or any future boat unless it is a controlled by invitation only program. Our broker did try and protect our asset however mobs are mobs. It really felt, as I observed some folks viewing the boat, that there are some cruel sick people out there who get pleasure of purposely doing stupid things and disrespectful of others property.

We would work with the broker to show the vessel one a 1:1 respectful process as described by the OP.

The 1:1 viewings for larger assets of unique vessels is really to manage to people and crowd mentality as sadly common sense , good manners and respect of property is not demonstrated by a few boat show attendants.

This is our experience

[Jef & Marin, Netherlands]

A salesperson on a boat displayed on an indoor boat show told us that one of those many potential buyers had used the yacht's toilet..... I can understand appointment-only

[Zzmeyer]

As a long time attendee at Annapolis, but unable to this year, I enjoyed this thread and the various observations. Just a few minutes ago I got an email from the Jeanneau dealer on the West Coast. The gist? Most shows on the West Coast of the US are cancelled this year. We have a better idea. We have the same boats we'd have at the show - five. On Oct 30 and 31 we are having a showing of these boats. Make an appointment. We will permit one group per boat per hour so we can have serious time with you. Seems like a very sane approach to me. Sure, you can't see brands side by side, but I suspect most serious buyers have an idea of what they want.

[SVFaith]

Originally Posted by redneckrob

I went to the boat show in Annapolis today for the first time in 5 years. I was surprised at how much the higher end catamaran manufacturers had restricted access to their boats. Most of them seemed to have a 1:1 salesperson to visitor policy going on, which meant that only 2 or 3 people could be on a boat at a time, which meant that there was pretty much no way you were going to get on any of those boats unless you had made an appointment before hand or maybe showed up right when the show opened and put your name on a waitlist. I remember at one point you could hop on those boats as long as there was room, heck I remember crawling around a Gunboat at the Annapolis boat show long before I had the means to afford one.

It clearly wasn't a COVID thing, none of the big manufacturers were much different from years past. It just seemed that the high end guys decided that they no longer wanted the unwashed masses on their boats at boat shows....which makes you wonder why they even bother to go to boat shows? Ironically back when they had no problem with me putting my grubby proletariat hands on their boats I actually couldn't afford them, now I can but got turned away by most of them today.

Seems like a silly business practice. I know I could go on Thursday or contact them all and pre-book, but you don't get to fortuitously show your spouse a bunch of boats while you're wondering around on Sunday that way, nor can you more casually see what the boats look like if you're a couple years out from buying (kids in college in 2!). If any of those manufacturers are listening, maybe reconsider and do your 1:1 "serious buyer" stuff on Thursday and Friday and let everyone else have the joy of looking at the boat on Sat and Sun? You never know who you just turned off your brand.

I was at Annapolis on Thursday morning, it was packed. I was happy to see that for the industry, but I couldnt get on any of the boats, even with a vip tag. I thi9nk it will take a bit of better planning on my part to make that happen in the future. Some of these boats are pretty darn pricey, i get it that they want to protect them from the crowds and its tough to say yes t some and not others...so they have to do the appointment thing.

[sailjumanji]

In 2018, we attended the Miami boat show with the sole purpose to look over a Seawind 1160, finalize options list and test sail before putting down a non-refundable deposit. That was before the market went nuts and wait times for a new cat were only about a year then.

Fast forward to today. There are at least 20X times the buyers, the boat show provides their best shot to get on a boat, and test sail before putting down a deposit. Annapolis is a big show. There are a half dozen Seawind dealers there - all of the US contingent. Four day show, and they all want slots to get their clients in to finalize a deal. So you can see where "we are just here to look" attendees don't get priority boarding.

Yeah and when we attended, we were comped passes. Ditto for the Annapolis show later that year. And they wanted to use our new boat for the Miami show the following year, but we passed as we planned to be in Bahamas. All of the Seawinds at shows are owned by someone. There are no corporate owned boats at the show, and the boats you tour are not for sale. The 1600 at this year's show is at least a year old and the owners are liveaboards that have been cruising for the last year

[DeValency]

Like with any business selling something for $1-2M or more, no one can expect it will open the scene for the usual tire kickers/window shoppers etc. These shows are extremely expensive event for the vendors and we can accept their priorities: naturally for the more serious buyers that know in advance what they’re looking for and roughly have the budget.

For many vendors, the presented boat in the event days is their only opportunity to have potential real clients tours. Same for the buyers, if you’re looking to spend a million on a boat, you wouldn’t like to stand in line and setting up a tour in advance is the logical thing to do.

[Chotu]

I think it’s pretty cool that a lot of the people in this thread are or have been small business owners obviously. They understand the point of view of the boat manufacturer and sales team.

[danstanford]

Originally Posted by Chotu

I think it’s pretty cool that a lot of the people in this thread are or have been small business owners obviously. They understand the point of view of the boat manufacturer and sales team.

It is even more important for us in business to hear how our partners in business, the consumers, feel and react.

[Chotu]

Originally Posted by danstanford

It is even more important for us in business to hear how our partners in business, the consumers, feel and react.

Absolutely.

And the consumers are not the people complaining. The false leads are.

Consumers are the people who buy your products/services. Just to get back to basics.

[chavodelocho]

Any of you knows why there´s just a few producers?...:-(((.IMHO,no COMPETITION at all.BTW,share your thoughts,pls:https://www.3dprintingmedia.network/...dustry/marine/

[Joh.Ghurt]

Originally Posted by chavodelocho

Any of you knows why there´s just a few producers?...:-(((.IMHO,no COMPETITION at all.BTW,share your thoughts,pls:https://www.3dprintingmedia.network/...dustry/marine/

Actually, there are a lot of boat-yards making boats, but most of them need to charge for their product a price that allows to live, which takes them off the radar of the average bargain hunter. If you want cheap, you have to go with the big few with optimised production lines.

As to the link, I don't really understand why you're pushing this 3D-printer propaganda site. Do you have a financial interest in them?

Sure, 3D-printing is great in many instances and is a great way to get replacement plastic pieces for old equipment, but the idea of printing a keel-bulb out of aluminium reeks of a solution in desperate search of a problem to solve.

[chavodelocho]

3d means cheaper boats.Cheaper boats means more affordable to mannnny people.It means more sales,more jobs and more and more people living off the nautical industry.Only losers are status quo maritime industrials.It´s only about time.Adapt or die..

[redneckrob]

Originally Posted by Chotu

Absolutely.

And the consumers are not the people complaining. The false leads are.

Consumers are the people who buy your products/services. Just to get back to basics.

As a business owner and the guy who started the thread, I wouldn't exactly call myself a false lead. I have owned a cat for several years, have kids who will be in college in the next 2 years, a retirement/sabbatical plan that revolves around sailing on a cat for at least a couple years when the kids leave the house, and the money available to buy any of the boats I was interested in looking at. Two years away is where the order books start to peter out or get speculative, seems like exactly the person they would be targeting as a customer and the last person who would be considered a "false lead", no?

I didn't actually get to see any cats except the Leopards, and am being told I as the customer am at fault for that and I am the one who needs to take extraordinary effort to see what the sales guy is selling? Silly me going to a boat show and expecting to see boats! Again, seems like poor business from my perspective starting and running a successful business. And it's a big departure from this same boat show in years past, when the grubby fingers were just as grubby and the unwashed masses just as objectionable, so that doesn't seem like much of an explanation. In fact if it's a sellers market than it seems the sellers have even more leverage to get buyers to show their personal boats than in years past.

Unfortunately the vast majority of these companies are going to go under at some point in the next 5 years when the next economic downturn inevitably happens, in part because they can't think longer term than a year apparently.

[Joh.Ghurt]

Originally Posted by chavodelocho

3d means cheaper boats.[...] It´s only about time.Adapt or die..

This is highly optimistic and isn't reflected in reality when dealing with plastic items.

3D-printing is wonderful for one-off items or very small series. In this area, it found its place and it is going to stay.

However, even today, there are no mass produced items with 3D-printing because it's simply so much more expensive than other production methods. If KM-yachts want to save costs, they better go to have standardised keel-bulbs for their ships instead of printing customised ones for each one.