When did manufacturers get so exclusive at boat shows?

[chavodelocho]

There´s more companies:-):

https://www.moi.am/projects/mambo

https://composites.umaine.edu/3dirig...-printed-boat/

https://caracol-am.com/beluga-3d-sailing-boat/

Best.

G

[piloto]

Originally Posted by Joh.Ghurt

You don't want to waste time with tire-kicker. Sure, the ragged looked dude might be in the market for a $1.5 Million boat, but in reality, this is rarely the case.

I've done a few trade-shows in my past (in a different industry), and it was very often easy to guess, who will just waste your time. If one ran around with more than one bag of freebies - let the pretty-booth-inventory deal with him.

It must be some 20+ years ago that I was working with a US DOE fellow in St. Vincent at an energy expo and a scruffy guy came by the booth asking questions about solar for lights and fans. My colleague (who lived on the island), after the guy departed, said “that’s the wealthiest guy on the island - he owns a large poultry farm with thousand of birds”.

[Luckybranches]

I went to the Annapolis show (all days), and got onto most of the cars with the exception of Balance. They wouldn’t take any appointments in person, and suggested I come back after 5pm and maybe they’d let me on one. I ended up buying two Seawind cats instead.

[Macrophylla]

Originally Posted by Shrew

If I'm serious about buying a boat in the million dollar range, I'm not waiting in line for 2 hours to talk to someone. The sales people seem to feel the same way. They don't want to clog up the flow with a bunch of looky loos.

So, that is where it stands. You really only have two parties involved here (The Buyer and the Seller) and neither one wants to wade through a 'Times Square' of folks who decided that the cost of admission was worthwhile cost to waste a day with the chance to crawl all over boats they have zero intention of buying.

Amen! We attended Thursday hoping that ‘Preview Day’ would self select for buyers vs dreamers, we had appointments to look at four boats but saw a couple of similar boats from other brands that I wanted to compare and one new boat that I was unaware of that checked some boxes. One that we didn’t have an appointment for and that we probably wouldn’t have bought (but is in our price and size range) we gave up on after waiting twenty minutes to see with little movement in the line. Had a salesperson from that brand realized that a qualified potential buyer didn’t even get to look at it because of the tire kickers he’d be rightfully upset.

And sure we could go up and down the east coast looking at boats as they randomly come available but for us the big draw of the show is walking from boat ‘A’ to boat ‘B’ to compare our thoughts in near real time.

It would be fantastic to have a day set aside that was only for those who have been in ongoing contact with one or more of the dealer/manufacturer reps. Then let the weekend be a free for all.

I’m sure the show organizers love all the extra ticket sales, I’m sure the sales folks wish the tickets cost more 😉

[Joh.Ghurt]

Macrophylla,

the easy solution is either to give the representative a nice call telling them, you saw their boat at the show but the queue was too long to bother, but you'd still be interested to check their wares out. Or do the same at the show, walk up to them with your business card and tell them to give you a call when they have time for you.

Works a lot better if you're seriously in the market for new boat. It also weeds out the sales-organisations that can't be arsed.

[goboatingnow]

Firstly I always dress well at boat shows ( kinda of business casual ). I know my boats and I can tell a salesman what he needs to hear

Never had any issue seeing any boat I want.

Clearly however if you go to say Cannes boat show , and you in the 2 million plus market you need to be over 60 and the wife under 30 to actually get on the big cats and mobos!

I never go to big shows at weekends full of sticky finger kids and tyre kicker adults , “ oh look honey this one has a nice set of cushions “


I did buy new at the Paris boat show once having scouted my market at Southampton boat show. Paris was a much better show to “do a deal “ this was a while ago now.

[Na Mara]

I remember one time going into a shop to buy a suit in Edinburgh. I was dressed scruffily but I literally had over a thousand pounds in my pocket ready to buy one of their suits. The salesperson on the counter took one look at me and told me "I'm sorry sir but I'm afraid we don't have anything in your size." I went to the next shop 5 doors down and bought the thousand pound suit I was in the market to buy. It was the first shop's loss, not mine. I have never since gone to that shop to buy a suit and I have bought a few suits since then.

[Na Mara]

I do agree that for the really top end yachts there is little incentive for the sellers to show it to the general public. But then why are they even at the show. If you are flogging a product in the millions of dollars range, then your prospective clients are the kind of people who can fly to where you are and come and see the product, and how it is built, at the factory. Boat shows are for the general public, the boats shown should therefore be within the price range of the general public and the boats should be accessible to said public at the show.

[ol1970]

Originally Posted by Luckybranches

I went to the Annapolis show (all days), and got onto most of the cars with the exception of Balance. They wouldn’t take any appointments in person, and suggested I come back after 5pm and maybe they’d let me on one. I ended up buying two Seawind cats instead.

This is simply not true. I had no issue getting on, but I showed up early before they were jam packed. This is kind of like complaining that there is a 3 hour wait for a table when you show up to a popular restaurant at 7:30 on a Friday night.

[Juggerknot]

Originally Posted by Chotu

Did you buy a $500k- $1mil boat?

That’s what these cats in question are selling for. Ragged, disheveled people are not buying these boats. Sure, they may look that way after a passage on the boat, but that’s not who is buying them.

Appearance matters just as much when they size you up to decide to permit you to look at the boat show as it does when the Coast Guard is looking for people to inspect or when a marina is deciding to let you stay long term.

Things need to be ship shape when you’re looking for approval or permission from someone.

I’m afraid to admit this bit of treachery on a public forum but Mr Johnstone personally showed me a gunboat at his facility. I feel bad, but I needed a good look at them to figure things out on my own build. I’ve been aboard all the most expensive high performance cats to gather ideas on how to best do mine. It’s all appearances and how you present yourself.

And yet, you were the biggest time waster of them all, perpetrating a deception with absolutely no intention or interest of buying...but you dressed the part. There is an old adage in sales, "buyers are liars" and the ones that drip in jewelry, overdressed and driving the new car are often times the ones that have overextended themselves to the point of breaking. Never underestimate the ones that are not pretentious peacocks, John D. McArthur used to drive an old rusted out Cadillac, wore the same suit daily and ate the old seafood from his hotel kitchen at the Colonnades. He amassed over 40 miles of coastal property in Palm Beach County and even though long dead, his foundation still supports public television and many other philanthropic endeavours. A disheveled bum or a billionaire, you never know!

[Chotu]

Originally Posted by Juggerknot

And yet, you were the biggest time waster of them all, perpetrating a deception with absolutely no intention or interest of buying...but you dressed the part. There is an old adage in sales, "buyers are liars" and the ones that drip in jewelry, overdressed and driving the new car are often times the ones that have overextended themselves to the point of breaking. Never underestimate the ones that are not pretentious peacocks, John D. McArthur used to drive an old rusted out Cadillac, wore the same suit daily and ate the old seafood from his hotel kitchen at the Colonnades. He amassed over 40 miles of coastal property in Palm Beach County and even though long dead, his foundation still supports public television and many other philanthropic endeavours. A disheveled bum or a billionaire, you never know!

I was FAR worse than a time waster. I was essentially on an espionage trip. I knew the game so I played it. There is a lot more to pseudo-qualifying a potential lead than their appearance, but that is a part of it. I didn’t just dress the part, I acted the part. I had all the right answers to their questions. I needed to see how several things were done to make sure I did them correctly.


I have a story too, just like yours, about a guy who you’d never guess was a billionaire.

Do you know why we have such memorable stories about the very wealthy? Because it’s so interesting due to the fact that it’s exceedingly rare. Not because it is common. If it was common, it wouldn’t make for a good story. Just like the news. Murders and things aren’t in the news because they are common. They are reported on because their rarity makes them fascinating for people to read about. Same as your stories above.

People dripping in ridiculous jewels and all that definitely are just how you said. I agree. They are also typically extremely difficult clients. But a hobo is quite often not a billionaire.

[Dave Noosa]

I dunno I’d say the well dressed is the guy that can maybe just afford it, the totally dishevelled guy is probably the guy that can afford four of them

[Bowdrie]

It's the middle '70s, I'm doing commissioning work on new sailboats for a sales firm that had their office on the waterfront.
Next door was the Hatteras dealer.
One afternoon, this guy rides up to the office on a bicycle, one of those "beach cruiser" fat tire bikes, it's a girls bike with a basket in front of the handlebars.
In the basket is a brown paper grocery bag with the top folded/scrunched closed.
He walks into the Hatteras office and dumps out the cash for a Hatteras 42.
Not all that easy to "read" people sometimes.