Rob Soucy, President, Port Harbor Marine, said Dealer Week preview event attendance was much different than he expected it would be. Soucy and some of his team attended the preview event, then went on a group luncheon to discuss, critique the experience and develop their Dealer Week attendance plan, based off of this initial event, which he described as good and well done.
“I think that us all being in the same room, even though we had laptops or iPads in front of us, it was still very valuable,” he explained. “I think if I let them stay in their offices, they wouldn’t be as engaged. For us, come December, that’s how we’re going to do it for Dealer Week. We’re going to have everyone registered and then we’ll sit all in the same conference room together. If it’s different session presentations, we’ll find different rooms to set up in.”
Port Harbor Marine mostly has its sales people signed up for Dealer Week, but Soucy added that there are some good sessions for his service team, too. “What I’m going to do, anyone I know that’s going to get something from multiple sessions, I’m going to register them. And I’m going to say every service tech has to watch this specific course, for example.”
Soucy recommends that all Dealer Week attendees should be sure to spend time in the platform to avoid any frustrations before gameday. “We were having some technical difficulties on our end,” he said. “When we broke out into the Zoom room, my camera and phone didn’t work, but that was good to find out now instead of the day of the event.”
One aspect of the preview that he appreciated was the live feel of it all. “There were some times where people screwed up and it didn’t feel super polished. But I thought that was great. It made it feel live and real,” he added. “I did a couple virtual dealer meetings. They were too canned and boring. This was great."
“The other thing the guys liked a lot was the platform,” he said. “They liked how you could navigate through it and still have the education going in the little window. I’m excited about the event now, and I think these guys are now, too.”