“I haven’t sold a new boat since December.” That’s the raw, unfiltered voice of a dealer from the Marine Retailers Association of the Americas’ June Pulse Report — and it’s not an isolated quote.
Across North America, dealers are sharing similar frustrations. Aged inventory is stacking up. Interest payments are ballooning. Leads are going cold. Promotions are not working. Service departments are stressed. Staff morale is slipping. One dealer called June the “worst month we’ve had since 2008.” Another said, “It’s not just sales that are soft. Customers aren’t even using their boats.” Still another warned, “We might have to lay off techs for the first time in years just to make it through the winter.”
If it feels like everything is harder right now, it’s because it is. And I don’t believe we’re talking enough about the magnitude of what we’re facing. This isn’t just a typical slowdown. This isn’t just a soft market. This is a convergence of forces that are fundamentally reshaping our industry.
Sales are back at 2012 levels. Consumer expectations have radically changed. From showroom to service, customers expect mobile-first, digital-first, always-on experiences. Meanwhile, the speed of technology is accelerating faster than any of us can keep up. AI, agents, automation, data, personalization — these aren’t tomorrow’s tools. They’re shaping the buying journey right now. And here’s the hardest part: Many dealers are too busy just trying to get through the day to notice how quickly the ground is shifting beneath them.
That’s not a criticism; it’s an acknowledgment of the brutal pressure that dealers are under. But it’s also a wake-up call. Because if dealers keep their heads down much longer, they may look up one day to find that their business model, their value proposition, even their relevance have been left behind. I say this with great humility and empathy, and after talking with dozens of dealers and manufacturers who are validating the realities our industry faces. Their request is simple: Tell me how to respond.
On the flip side, I wouldn’t be writing this column if I thought the situation was hopeless. When faced with change of this magnitude, the surest path to failure is inaction, and dealers who are first to adapt to today’s realities and customer expectations can create a huge competitive advantage.
As a dealer association, it is the MRAA’s job not just to advocate for these businesses, not just to provide them with programs and services, and not just to offer education. The MRAA’s job is to look out over the horizon, identify what’s coming and ensure that we make these businesses aware of the trends that will have an impact.
Keeping watch gives us all an incredible opportunity to deliver programs, services, advocacy and education with deep insights from dealers. The pain dealers are experiencing isn’t hypothetical. And I believe this is the most important thing I can say in this moment: Dealer Week 2025 is the program these businesses need right now, because it was built entirely by and for dealers who are living through this disruption.
Let me explain. When we sat down to design this year’s Dealer Week — scheduled for Dec. 7-10 in Tampa, Fla. — we didn’t start with content ideas. We started by asking dealers one question: What are the most important challenges you’re facing today?
We collected their answers. We listened to their frustrations. We studied the MRAA’s Pulse Report results. We mapped the major shifts dealers are trying to navigate. And then we worked with our team of education advisors, subject matter experts and curriculum designers to build a dealer-driven playbook that tackles those challenges head-on.
With slow sales and shrinking margins, Dealer Week will explore how to reverse-engineer the sales process, reconnect with high-quality leads, and negotiate deals based on trust and value, not price cuts. In today’s environment, sales and marketing must work smarter, and sessions like “Reverse Engineer Your Sales Outcomes,” “Negotiate Win-Win Watercraft Deals” and “Stop Missing Marketing Opportunities” will give teams real tools they can use the moment they get back to the dealership. And to accentuate the focus on helping to drive sales, Dealer Week is offering an all-day, preconference “Boat Show Bootcamp” to help start the model year out on the right foot.
Customers are showing up in dealerships with more knowledge and more skepticism than ever. They want self-service, instant answers and seamless online-to-showroom transitions. At Dealer Week, we’ll talk about how to build a customer journey that matches today’s expectations, not the last decade’s. Sessions like “How to Market and Sell to a Changing Boat Shopper in the AI Era,” “Rethink Dealership Operations for a Loyalty-Driven Future” and “Get WISER: 33 Ways to Improve CX” are designed to help evolve the approach and build a loyalty machine instead of a leaky funnel.
Dealer Week’s opening keynote, by world-renowned author and retail expert Doug Stephens, will lay the foundation, provide insights into the forces threatening these businesses, and offer practical models for evolving the go-to-market approach.
The stress of the current climate is wearing teams down. Service is slipping. Accountability is unclear. Dealer Week’s Leadership Pathway offers tools for resetting a team’s mindset, culture and clarity. “See It, Solve It” will help rebuild ownership and accountability. “7 Levers to Boost Efficiency and Margins” will help lead businesses through uncertainty with confidence.
These are but a few of the key takeaways available at Dealer Week. And, importantly, they aren’t just about theory. Dealers will gain direct access to real-world tools, templates, worksheets and frameworks, all designed to help fix what’s broken, sharpen what’s working and prepare for what’s next.
Dealers will also get time: time to lift up their heads, get out of the weeds and reconnect with people who are walking the same road. They’ll meet other dealers who are asking the same questions and will find answers they didn’t know they needed.
This isn’t just another slowdown. And Dealer Week isn’t just another conference. This is a once-in-a-decade inflection point. And the absolute worst thing any dealer could do in response to it is to go it alone. Dealer Week is the one place — the only place — in this industry where dealers will find the comprehensive strategy, insight and community to help face it with confidence.
To get ahead of what’s coming, and to lead a business through this instead of just surviving, dealers need to be at Dealer Week. Get started at DealerWeek.com.
Matt Gruhn is president of the Marine Retailers Association of the Americas.
