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Old 03-12-2018, 07:49 PM   #41
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Originally Posted by Casey6404 View Post
I'm sure they do get board and restless throughout the day but the event started at 10:00 and this vendor took his "stroll" at 11:15.
Ah, that is known as an early lunch.
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Old 03-15-2018, 07:44 PM   #42
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That you perceived a feeling was probably true.

That they were judging your wallet, likely less true. Particularly in the world of boating, I believe sales folks do not judge by appearance of wealth. Just walk through marinas any day, or visit your friends on expensive yachts. Do they dress up? Perhaps some, but most I know do not. I'd actually support the position most buyers/owners are underdressed, as a boat is a far less convenient place to maintain an attention-drawing wardrobe, or even shave and shower.

I believe they assess risk very quickly and are on constant alert for it. Using KK as just one example, the sales folks are acutely aware the boats at the show are not floor plan dealer boats but private boats owned by people they have a relationship with. They can regale you with boat show tales of disappearing items from cupboards or drawers, damaged interior fabrics, flooring and furniture dings. They are responsible for the damage and have to answer to owners.

Your children may indeed be perfectly behaved, they may never pick up an item out of curiosity but accidentally drop it on a new teak floor-- but some less attended child will...and someone fixes the damage and someone pays.

Tiny little colored cloths pins? I though they were odd too- so I inquired about the purpose. But I'm married to some one in real estate who gets inconsolable when a client she has spent many nights, weekends, and days working for ( research, pre screening properties, due diligence , inspections, etc) wanders off perhaps without much thought, and buys a home from another agent. Perhaps not with malicious intent, a client sometimes doesn't see the importance of letting the agent who does the work and supports the client, get the sale. The sales agent may only close a couple deals a year, so yes they are a bit protective of their contacts ( identified by a tiny color pin). It may keep the peace in a small boat builders sales force. Again, I don't believe for a minute it was to establish the builder as being exclusive and I didn't deem it pretentious.

I don't work for any boat builder and I never worked in sales. I've attended too numerous to count boat shows over the decades. All parties are there for a reason- some to learn, some to sell and support a family; some to grow a craft or business. We all benefit from each other- none are there just to serve alone. I've been grateful for the sales folks who spent time with me when I alone knew there was no way I was buying. I've tried to be respectful of their time and needs too.

So sorry if it seems like a lecture; not my intent. However there appeared an irony that the post painting the sales force as judgmental seemed a bit judgmental itself.
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Old 03-16-2018, 05:27 AM   #43
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Stickman.... pretty accurate if not completely true.
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Old 03-16-2018, 05:20 PM   #44
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Stickman View Post
That you perceived a feeling was probably true.

That they were judging your wallet, likely less true. Particularly in the world of boating, I believe sales folks do not judge by appearance of wealth. Just walk through marinas any day, or visit your friends on expensive yachts. Do they dress up? Perhaps some, but most I know do not. I'd actually support the position most buyers/owners are underdressed, as a boat is a far less convenient place to maintain an attention-drawing wardrobe, or even shave and shower.

I believe they assess risk very quickly and are on constant alert for it. Using KK as just one example, the sales folks are acutely aware the boats at the show are not floor plan dealer boats but private boats owned by people they have a relationship with. They can regale you with boat show tales of disappearing items from cupboards or drawers, damaged interior fabrics, flooring and furniture dings. They are responsible for the damage and have to answer to owners.

Your children may indeed be perfectly behaved, they may never pick up an item out of curiosity but accidentally drop it on a new teak floor-- but some less attended child will...and someone fixes the damage and someone pays.

Tiny little colored cloths pins? I though they were odd too- so I inquired about the purpose. But I'm married to some one in real estate who gets inconsolable when a client she has spent many nights, weekends, and days working for ( research, pre screening properties, due diligence , inspections, etc) wanders off perhaps without much thought, and buys a home from another agent. Perhaps not with malicious intent, a client sometimes doesn't see the importance of letting the agent who does the work and supports the client, get the sale. The sales agent may only close a couple deals a year, so yes they are a bit protective of their contacts ( identified by a tiny color pin). It may keep the peace in a small boat builders sales force. Again, I don't believe for a minute it was to establish the builder as being exclusive and I didn't deem it pretentious.

I don't work for any boat builder and I never worked in sales. I've attended too numerous to count boat shows over the decades. All parties are there for a reason- some to learn, some to sell and support a family; some to grow a craft or business. We all benefit from each other- none are there just to serve alone. I've been grateful for the sales folks who spent time with me when I alone knew there was no way I was buying. I've tried to be respectful of their time and needs too.

So sorry if it seems like a lecture; not my intent. However there appeared an irony that the post painting the sales force as judgmental seemed a bit judgmental itself.
Thanks for the reply and information. You answered many my questions and cleared a few things up for me. No need to apologize for the "lecture" as I appreciate the honest feedback.
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Old 03-19-2018, 08:49 PM   #45
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Stickman View Post
That you perceived a feeling was probably true.

That they were judging your wallet, likely less true. Particularly in the world of boating, I believe sales folks do not judge by appearance of wealth. Just walk through marinas any day, or visit your friends on expensive yachts. Do they dress up? Perhaps some, but most I know do not. I'd actually support the position most buyers/owners are underdressed, as a boat is a far less convenient place to maintain an attention-drawing wardrobe, or even shave and shower.

I believe they assess risk very quickly and are on constant alert for it. Using KK as just one example, the sales folks are acutely aware the boats at the show are not floor plan dealer boats but private boats owned by people they have a relationship with. They can regale you with boat show tales of disappearing items from cupboards or drawers, damaged interior fabrics, flooring and furniture dings. They are responsible for the damage and have to answer to owners.

Your children may indeed be perfectly behaved, they may never pick up an item out of curiosity but accidentally drop it on a new teak floor-- but some less attended child will...and someone fixes the damage and someone pays.

Tiny little colored cloths pins? I though they were odd too- so I inquired about the purpose. But I'm married to some one in real estate who gets inconsolable when a client she has spent many nights, weekends, and days working for ( research, pre screening properties, due diligence , inspections, etc) wanders off perhaps without much thought, and buys a home from another agent. Perhaps not with malicious intent, a client sometimes doesn't see the importance of letting the agent who does the work and supports the client, get the sale. The sales agent may only close a couple deals a year, so yes they are a bit protective of their contacts ( identified by a tiny color pin). It may keep the peace in a small boat builders sales force. Again, I don't believe for a minute it was to establish the builder as being exclusive and I didn't deem it pretentious.

I don't work for any boat builder and I never worked in sales. I've attended too numerous to count boat shows over the decades. All parties are there for a reason- some to learn, some to sell and support a family; some to grow a craft or business. We all benefit from each other- none are there just to serve alone. I've been grateful for the sales folks who spent time with me when I alone knew there was no way I was buying. I've tried to be respectful of their time and needs too.

So sorry if it seems like a lecture; not my intent. However there appeared an irony that the post painting the sales force as judgmental seemed a bit judgmental itself.
Great comments.

When I was looking a few years ago, and at decent money boats, I was using a local broker as a buyer's broker who was doing a lot of leg work for us. Including a wasted weekend from Jax to Fort Myers on a fools errand.

We told him we were off to the Miami show and would be hitting a number of boats at the show and at Collins Ave.

He handed us a number of his cards and requested that we make it known to the broker on board that we were working with him. I felt a bit awkward doing this but was respectful and did so.

I met two types of show brokers. Those who said "yep got it," and those who said "you don't need to waste the card by leaving it on the table."

Only little guilty feeling I had (which in contrast to your real estate example) is the fact that the selling brokerage paid a goodly sum of money to position that boat at the show. Whereas a home seller just leaves the house in the soil it was built in!
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Old 03-19-2018, 10:37 PM   #46
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Quote:
Originally Posted by menzies View Post
...
I met two types of show brokers. Those who said "yep got it," and those who said "you don't need to waste the card by leaving it on the table."

Only little guilty feeling I had (which in contrast to your real estate example) is the fact that the selling brokerage paid a goodly sum of money to position that boat at the show. Whereas a home seller just leaves the house in the soil it was built in!
1. The guys who said ‘don’t waste the card” may be fine working with your broker, and were just telling you they don’t need the card. They don’t care who your broker is unless you want to make an offer.
2. The brokerage company may pay to be in the show, but the boat seller pays a substantial fee for their boat to be there. That seller doesn’t care how many brokers are in the deal as long as his boat sells.
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Old 10-28-2018, 03:00 PM   #47
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I saw this thread from the spring, and thought it was interesting as we enjoyed going to the recent TrawlerFest in Baltimore. I am also from NC, and find that any boat show around here is pretty much about fishing boats. If you are interested in a trawler or cruiser, there just aren't many boats to look at. So, our trip to Baltimore was part a weekend getaway and part opportunity to go to TrawlerFest.

I enjoyed the event, and there were some good speakers for those of us that are looking to get into cruising on a bigger boat. Having had small boats for most of my life, I am pretty comfortable with a lot of aspects of being on the water, but the speakers talking about maintenance, navigation, and making the move to a boat were all interesting. I will also echo the one comment about meeting Capt. Alyse with Captain Chris boat training....she was so nice and made my wife feel that she could get trained to be capable of operating a boat this size. Quite a compliment!

I asked several attendees if this was a "normal" number of boats, and they said it was a bit smaller than usual. The economy might explain that, as I understand the number of brokerage boats is pretty low, and manufacturers might have enough of a backlog to not go to the event. There were a couple of new boats there, but the larger boats were brokerage boats. All the sales people were very pleasant. No, we didn't have kids and we look to fit the demographic (around 60), so maybe that was it. No, we didn't have to wear anything to get on the Kadey-Krogens, but several did ask us to fill out a contact form. It was pretty casual and a bit after the fact...we were already on the boat.

All in all, I enjoyed the experience but would have liked to have seen a few more of the brands I have been interested it (American Tug, for one) that chose not be be there. I do think for those just getting into the process, it offered an opportunity to see quite a few different boats of a range of sizes that can help define interest moving forward. And there were a lot of people there who seemed to be a similar age as we are, and using the event for the same purpose.

From what I hear, the Stuart location doesn't have a lot else to offer in the way of interest. The Harbor East area was very nice. Clean, safe, and an easy walk to several interesting venues. We went to the National Aquarium, Camden Yards for a baseball game (even though the Os are the worst team in baseball) and up to Little Italy for a meal. All walkable from the host hotel.

Just thought I would share an opinion from a first timer's experience in Baltimore. And on Saturday there were a lot more people on the dock, many with kids.....as you might expect on a weekend.

Mark
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Old 10-28-2018, 04:57 PM   #48
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I went to the Atlanta boat show once. If you were considering a fishing/bass boat, that is a good show. Even the 'toy section' was a disappointment to me.

I ALWAYS dress in my 'everyday's ie wrinkled clothes when I go to a boat show.
IF a broker wants to judge me by my clothes, so be it. I really doubt if I would ever buy a boat at a boat show when the used market so large.

I guess about 15 years ago I went to the Stuart show, it was small but, still afforded many opportunities for potential buyers. I am told the Stuart boat show has really grown. I do like the Stuart area because everything is 'close' and the 'mom and pop' restaurants are pretty good.

I stopped going to the Ft L and Miami boat shows..... too much walking for my old legs and knees.
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Old 11-02-2018, 08:48 AM   #49
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Like geoleo we bought our boat at TF last year. The event itself was small 'taters after growing up around the Annapolis shows but we knew that going in. This was last year but the vendors were nice, Capt. Chris and Alyse nice as always and the insurance and broker guys like used car salesmen. Know what you are going to before you go. It's an afternoon hanging around trawlers and some education if you go to the seminars. Take the kids, they will love it. Someone gives you an attitude about having a child with you them make sure you go on their boat.
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Old 12-12-2018, 09:47 AM   #50
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September 2016 Trawlerfest at Kent Island Marina was fantastic. I came alone, went to all the seminars I could schedule Thursday through Saturday, learned so much from top industry veterans, bought a boat the following summer. Steve Zimmerman's pre-purchase seminar was very influential, and he was gracious in answering my many questions. A boat builder's discussion of construction methods was also influential. Insurance/legal presentation was very informative. Other seminar attendees were so willing to share experiences and preferences. The vendors were so helpful, too.

Trawlerfest is clearly not primarily a boat show, although there were nifty boats present, larger and smaller than what I eventually bought, and the selection at Trawlerfest greatly influenced what I eventually decided to buy. One big improvement they could make - give a huge discount for "the Admirals" who attend. That would raise total attendance a bunch, and put the REAL boat purchase decision exec on board. (As one boat dealer told me, "If the Admiral says a boat is cute, I know I've got the sale!") I plan to go back for more seminars, and will doubtlessly go on board every boat present....never can tell what might happen!

Maybe being a guy alone over 7 hours from home qualified me as a "prospect", or maybe it was the notebook and furious note taking at every seminar and onboard every boat. I will go when one is scheduled for the Chesapeake again, probably take the Admiral this time, as I spent at least an hour every night at Kent Island telling her about the seminars and amazing array of boats (Rosboroughs, Ranger Tugs to Flemings, Kadys, new and used). Stuart, Florida is simply too far from Charlotte NC, and Florida is so uninteresting in every way. Besides, Kent Island has some good crab shacks and Galway Bay in Annapolis is our favorite bar on the planet. (4 hour thunderstorm blocked our exit years ago....wonderful!)

Someday I will go to either the Fort Lauderdale or Miami boat shows, when I'm in a boat show mood, but going to Trawlerfest just to look at the boats would not be a good use of my time.
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