04-29-2014, 01:16 AM
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#7
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King P.V. is currently offline
Status: First Lieutenant
Join Date: Apr 2014
Thanks: 0
Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post
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Re: just another new guy....
One day in 1989, a traveling salesman from the mid-west came into our store in Moses Lake Washington in an attempt to sell yet another dealer his "fantastic" line of boats that were built like no other! Marine dealers often get salesman trying to hype their wares all the time and often you don't want NOR need their products. Danial Hahn was his name and one of the first things he did was a handstand off the top of the windshield........ Ya wanna boat built strong?? Well......?? And it had a pad under the keel!! We were a fairly small dealership selling Smokercraft, Evinrude and Mercury engines, and usually only bass boats had pads on them. We were located on the water, so getting us out on the water, behind the wheel didn't take much and Danial had us drooling in short order as the boat responded unlike any other 18 ft hulls I had ever run before. Turn on a dime?? Hold On !!!
Danial went on to be a very successful sales guy for Mariah and probably made big time commissions on all the boats dealers bought from him. Last I heard he went on to Monteray Boats . Though we didn't sell the big numbers all the other dealers did in terms of quanity, we sold a very high percentage in relation to our market area. Eventually, dealers in the bigger markets, (Spokane, Boise and Seattle) sign'd on with Mariah but usually they didn't have the staffing, knowledge or determination over the long term to sell a more expensive product. Mariah's kept getting higher in price (as did everybody) and it was a struggle to provide a 18 to 22 ft boat that people could afford! However, I always told my potential customers, after a Mariah demo. "You may not buy my boat, but you'll know you should of"!!! And they did!!
So, day in and day out, we had boats show, demos, deliverys to far off places. Our customers often sold boats for us which I would give them $100 for a good "bird dog" referal. Bird dog ment that the guy actuall bought the boat versus went for a joy ride. We were young and dumb back then, Work'd too many hours for too little pay!! I still see many Mariah's on our lake here and made many friends. After Mariah closed, we waited for SeaFox or whatever their name was to contact us to continue being a dealer but they never did. We continued to sell fishing boats and let the recreational sports boat market go on without us. Too competitive trying to sell boats and make very little little money. The flooring companies probably convinced us to stay out of it. Yes!! I'm sure of it!
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