Across the marine industry, dealers are battling rising flooring costs, shrinking margins, exhausted staff and customers who seem hard to please and even harder to retain.  

But what if these aren’t isolated issues? What if they’re symptoms of a deeper problem? We invited Max Materne to answer those questions through a session that challenges conventional thinking about dealership structure and customer engagement. 

Drawing on hundreds of in-store consulting visits and years of behavioral data, Max will make the case that most dealerships are unintentionally optimized for transactions rather than long-term relationships. Then, he will introduce you to the concept of Enthusiast Lifecycle Value (ELV), a new way of measuring, managing and growing customer loyalty across the entire ownership journey. 

That’s when the real work begins. You and your fellow dealership leaders will identify the cross-departmental breakdowns impacting loyalty today and begin mapping a plan for how to fix it in your dealership.  

By the end of the session, you will have fresh insight and tools to rebuild the ownership experience you offer your customers to compel more of them to return more often. 

• Identify common pain points across departments that hinder customer loyalty 

• Understand the difference between optimizing for transactions vs. optimizing for ELV 

• Map the customer lifecycle to expose retention gaps and missed touchpoints 

• Learn how to create internal alignment around post-sale experience 

• Pick-up practical tools to diagnose and drive change 
   

You’ll see Max Materne presenting at MRAA’s Dealer Week event as both a lead trainer with Garage Composites and the Co-Founder & CEO of Ownex. With over 20 years in the marine, powersports, and RV industries — including 17 years running a successful New Orleans dealership and nearly a decade consulting — Max brings a unique blend of operational expertise and future-focused innovation. At Garage Composites, he trains dealers on the fundamentals of profitability and performance. At Ownex, he leads research and software development focused on customer lifecycle management, helping dealerships turn first-time buyers into lifelong customers through tools like DELV Analysis and Lifecycle Management Coaching.