All posts by Ben H. Sherwood

About Ben H. Sherwood

Ben H. Sherwood is a marine industry veteran and a marketing consultant who operates Sherwood Marine Marketing in Pleasant Prairie, Wis. For more info, click About on the main menu.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

I am not what is often referred to as a “politically correct” guy so I am wishing all of you a very Merry Christmas…not a vanilla “Happy Holidays.” If perchance my Christmas greeting makes you uncomfortable, what can I say, except to point out that Christmas is what the December 25th holiday is all about.

I also wish everyone a Happy New Year. And we all hope that 2010 will be a happy year. All of us involved in this industry hope and pray that this upcoming year will be much better than 2009. Frankly, I am enough of an optimist to believe that it will be better based on my 50 years of involvement in the marine industry. I have seen several recessions come and go over the years. The economy and the marine industry have always rebounded from the downturns and this one will be no different. It will come back… and I think we will see it rebound in 2010. Continue reading Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Horse Trading – Really!

We trade for anything!
We Trade for Anything!

One time when I was a Chevy dealer, I ran some ads with the headline, “We trade for anything” just to see if it would generate some traffic and sales. I even put my old restored pony buggy in the showroom with a sign that read the same.

Shortly after the ad ran, a retired farmer stopped by to check out a used pickup truck that I had on the lot. It had high miles but the engine and body were both good. One of the salesmen took him for a test drive and he seemed very interested. He came back a couple of days later and talked to the salesman again about the truck, expressed strong interest but then left. A day or two after that back he came again, but this time he insisted he had to talk to me. He said he wanted to buy the truck but didn’t quite have enough money. He then asked if I would take his horse on trade. Really. I didn’t expect a horse trade from my ads. Continue reading Horse Trading – Really!

Dealer inventory… It’s time for manufacturers to step up

Dealer trading
Dealer trading

Kudos to Scout Boats for their new Dealer Linked Inventory program! It lets dealers list their current boat inventory so other dealers can quickly locate a boat they need but don’t have in inventory. More manufacturers need to step up and develop similar programs simply because dealers are just not going to be able to stock as many boats as they did before the bottom fell out of the economy. Continue reading Dealer inventory… It’s time for manufacturers to step up