The prospect likes the boat. He can see the family enjoying it. The salesperson has cast all the right visions. There’s no apparent objection to the price or interest rates. Still, no close.
Finally, the prospect says it: “I’d like to buy a boat, but I have no time for a boat.”
This is a scenario many salespeople face these days. After all, we’re living in the fastest-paced world ever. It reminds me of the old expression: Stop the world I wanna get off. If it rang true way back when, look out for today.
My son triggered the subject of today’s post. He’s a Gen Xer, a key demographic every dealer should be pursuing. I recently asked why he doesn’t own a boat. After all, he lives on beautiful Lake Erie and certainly knows boats and fishing, having grown up in a boating-and-fishing family. It’s not a question of money, and he likes boating. So why not buy?
“No time,” he said.
That got me concerned that finding time to own and enjoy a boat is making it tougher to close sales.
With the sales boom of the pandemic in our wake, we’re again faced with the challenge of attracting new boaters, and Gen X is a prime target. They are well into their careers and high-earning years. They’re homeowners. The kids are grown. And some are recipients of wealth passed down from the baby-boom generation. Talk about prime prospects.
Some time ago, author Seth Godin — All Marketers Are Liars, Free Prize Inside, The Practice and others — penned a great blog post titled: “I Don’t Have Time.” He suggested that when people utter those words, what they’re really saying is, “It isn’t important enough,” or “It’s not a priority,” or “It’s not urgent enough.”
For the astute salesperson, when lack of time enters the conversation, it signals that the boat hasn’t quite made it to the top of the priority list. Time to hone in on the sizzle of the boating lifestyle by emphasizing the escape from life’s daily fast-paced hassle that a boat provides.
A boat’s attraction is that something magical happens every time we cast off from the dock. The daily pressures and stresses are left ashore. As boaters, we’re free to steer port or starboard, go fast or slow, catch a fish or a tan, wakeboard or sail — just experience and absorb the real sense of freedom.
It’s time to pull out some special considerations and incentives. Since time is a factor, a major incentive could be a package that takes care of the maintenance and service requirements. Or offer free hands-on training so they’re confident in their handling skills.
Our connected lives soak up hours of our spare time, but what did we do before we could text? Weren’t’ we busy before digital took over our lives?
When it comes to time, prospects are constantly recalibrating — where to go, what to watch, what to do. In that framework, the road to selling boats has nothing to do with giving people more time. It’s about casting a vision that enjoying time on board is a priority.
Our boats create experiences, escape, peace of mind, relaxation, joy, mental refreshment and physical rest. When it comes to selling more boats, Godin is right: It has “everything to do with creating more urgency, more of an itch, more desire.”
