Home › Forums › Bass Cat Boats › What was missing from the Classic? Salesmen
panteraIV.
Me and two buddies drove over to the Classic on Friday and spent most of the day at the expo before heading to the weigh in. I saw pretty much every booth and took the time to walk through a large amount of them. It just amazes me that all these companies have pro staffers come in to help promote and sell product but most of them just stand around and talk to each other, talk on their phone or text. I can understand the elite fisherman already being upset that they are working the classic rather than fishing in it but being able to adapt and sell a bunch of product is what makes for good endorsement deals. As far as the other pro staffers, most need to work on their selling ability. Unfortunately I was dissapointed with the guys there to push Basscat. I went over to look at the new Jag and other cats they had there. I would imagine I spent close to an hour total between all three visits. I never had the first person walk up and ask to tell me about the boats. No one asked if I had any questions. Not even a single catalog laid out. I was a little surprised.Granted they were not alone. Looked at the Rangers, no one presented themselse as a rep. Same with Pheonix and Bullet. I stayed away from Skeeter and Triton. I was most bummed that Lucky Craft did not have a booth.On a positive note, I have to say my hats off to the Cliff Pace who was working the Jackall booth. He was quick to engage me, tell me about the product without being pushy, and share the techniques and applications for when he used them. He did exactly what was expected of him and Jackall should be happy for it. The guys/gals at the Costa, did a grea.t job. Brian Snowden was great to visit with and has to be the nicest guy on tour. I dont care much for Motorguide trolling motors but one of their guys was quick to come ask if I had any question. Evinrude had 1 guy who did a good job as did Abu Garcia. I have been in their shoes before (fished for a living for 8 years and I am in sales now), I do not mean to be to harsh but lets face it the facts. If you are going to be on a pro staff and received free products, discount on product, and a cash retainer if your lucky, you owe it to the company to learn all you can about their product, and figure out how to explain to someone why you feel it is the best. That brings up my next pet peeve. If you do not feel the product you are endorsing is the best you do not need to have them as a sponsor. I lose respect for the guy who plugs three different rods in three years. I worked a boat show for Shimano one year in Houston. I knew that I would be asked a lot about their saltwater line of reels which I had very little knowledge of. I studied the master catalog learning all I could about the off shore reels, studied the MSRP on both salt and freshwater reels so I could come accross with some understaning to the product. I even made notes that I kept in my pocket. Guys, learn your company products even the ones that you may not use.Oh yeah, one last thing. Try to look professional, wear some decent clothes which does not mean wear a clean fishing jersey and a ratty pair of jean with holes in the legs.Ok, I am off my soap box now.
bassbroker, I worked most of the time in the booth other than one hour out on company business in the main hall, during the weigh in on Friday. On Friday we had plenty of staff to handle serious inquiries and you must also realize that at the Classic has mostly browsers who really just want to chat. We stayed busy on Friday and had ample staff on sales it appears from results. The sales staff was very tied up and with only one dealer being able to sell in Louisiana it was hard to cover all. We had two factory persons in the booth other than lunch one time. We also had a dealership and two TX dealers in the booth just showing boats who could not sell legally, and two promotional staffers, plus Ron, Jan and myself. Then we had some of the Elite staff at times also including Homer, Niggemeyer, McCaghren, Myers and Short. Overall maximum at one given time there were 13 (thirteen) people covering four boats. There were other complications as the state of Louisiana on Wednesday had restricted the show to a non selling show for display only on marine products. That was relaxed some on Thursday to allow the one local dealership to sell, though no other dealerships could sell a product in the show and there are stiff penalties in place on this by the DMV of LA and they were emphatic on this. Some dealers planned were unable to sell and thus only attended the show as spectators. We were a bit light also with the traffic on top of that. Traffic was a major factor on Friday and even more so on Saturday. While we are there to display boats, we also must spend time having conversations with existing or potential customers that may not really be desiring to buy a boat. Saturdays traffic was even more crowded and we expect Sundays to also be compact. The tackle areas were so tight you could not move in the aisles. There is no way we could have placed enough sales staff on the boats to cover the crowd today.Thats my take and I was diligent in watching for people who looked interested seriously in a boat and broke free from three conversations to try and assist people. We know you have your opinion, though while watching the crowd I felt we did the best we could with what we had to work with and the Louisiana restrictions. I cant speak for others though I am sure they had a similar experience. Rick
Rick, thank you for your post. I appreciate you taking the time to respond. Please know that I think Bass Cat makes an incredible product and for the most part is sells itself in a lot of ways. I sure hope you can look at my comments as constructive critisism rather than bashing Basscat or these other companies. I want to see Basscat do well as I also want to see the fishing industry to survive the slow down. I own a real estate company. I can look at my competitors and tell you why there sales numbers are down. A lot of it could easily be corrected by making a few changes in how they go about business. I am not about to tell them where I see them messing up. I see the same problems in the fishing industry. I could sit here and not say anything but I am wanting to express what I am seeing to hopefully encourage the owners of these companies to push their pro staff to do more and for the pro staffers to think about what it is they can do to help sell more product.Rick, I truly think the world of your family/ business and am not attempting to bash you guys. I am just attempting to say that it is easy to see the companies at the show who are working hard to engage their customers will come out of there successful while the multitudes of companies whos people just sat around will continue to see the same flat sales figures they have been seeing. Yes, by me posting this thread here you have every right to be defensive. I know how much you care about your pro staffers (like family unlike most other boat companies), I just felt like they could have been working harder for you and the company. My sincere best wishes to you, your family and all involved in your company. God Bless.
Wish I could have gone…. I talked with my brother who went with a friend. He really enjoyed the visit with Britt Myers, and Britt talked with him about the layout on his boat, placement of transducers and more (including lift kits and gearing on trucks, lol). Parking 5 blocks away isnt fun, but at least it wasnt raining!96 Eyra/12 Mercury 175 Pro XS with 2015 single axle trailer2017 Victory Gunner
I was there on Friday and truly had an opposite experience. I visited with everyone in the booth, and probably monopolized way too much of their time, but had no lack of attention. I want to thank all of the guys there, including Rick, who were so patient with me asking a ton of questions (knowing that Ive already purchased a boat). I walked briefly through booths with the other manufacturers – found Phoenix was immediately attentive, completely ignored thankfully in Ranger and Skeeter, and briefly interacted with in Nitro. The Mercury booth was a real posotive – the techs there were pleasant and helpful, and had an opportunity to meet and visit briefly with Kevin Short there, which was a real treat. Humminbird was also a posotive with a lot of staff present to answer questions and demonstrate gear. And most of the bait and rod booths I also found to be interactive with staff pros and others as well. I overall had a really great experience at the show. As a sidenote, I also had a posotive interaction with Cliff Pace at the Jackall booth.In light of the reduced demand for high dollar fiberglass boats in recent years, Im honestly surprised that any of the boat companies spend the kind of money now on the displays that I saw at the show. I think the booth at BassCat was appropriate for the size of their company, the market as it stands currently, and the “grass roots” marketing plan that is one of their charateristics. And on top of that, in my opinion (and from the eye of a recent shopper and bar room boat design critic), the Jag and Cougar FTD were the best looking boats at the whole show.
WOW,,,,,, That was a tall soap box !
I was at the expo on Friday w/ my son and walked the entire expo. And I appreciated that we werent approached in every booth by a salesman pushing their wares. If we had a question, we went up to someone in the booth and asked. Nothing turns me off from a sale more then a pushy salesman. Different strokes…
Agree, I went last year in New Orleans. I was in the market and in the BassCat booth was Rick, who was in the boat, one of the Pros and a very nice and helpful sales person. He spent an hour or so with me sorting through the boat I was looking at. I didnt buy on the spot and decided to think on it over night and go back the next day to pick out colors. Long story short I decided to keep what I have a while longer. Sure wish I could remember the guys name, but thank you again. Looking back, if they would have had the boat I wanted there it probably would not have left south La. Great folks who helped me make a good decision. He could tell I was a little concerned about going to a larger boat due to where I fish and let me make a decision based on my needs not on his commission.
I wasnt at the Classic, which is a disappointment, but I do have sponsors and when I work a booth or show for them I do not push product on every person I see. If customers have a question I am there to answer and help them out. You meet a lot of people at any show and you start talking to them and then you see somebody else and start talking to them, next thing you know 30 minutes went by. You might not be talking about the products you represent or you might be talking about them, but thats the nature of the business. We talk and mingle and meet new people and share experiences with them as well as old acquaintances. You cant tell a pro staffer to just talk about the products at the booth and thats it. Thats not good business and its not practical. I agree you should be seen and available, even if you are talking to somebody else.We should be at the booth and available to help anybody. As far as jerseys go, we represent the companies that are advertised on our jerseys so we what better place to advertise than at a fishing show. Ripped holey jeans, yes I agree they shouldnt wear them, they should look a little more professional.
While I have attended several expos, the Classic expo was one of the largest fishing expo. Personally I would rather not be swarmed by salesmen upon walking into a booth. I want to walk around, view their products with no pressure and if I then have a question will wait my turn to get it answered. Ive worked these shows with my former business and folks come in waves, you cannot possibly have enough sales team members for everyone the whole time. I watched the Bass Cat folks and felt they did a great job being there for assistance, yet not pushing on folks with used cars salesmen pressure. They were extremely busy and I even wrestled with even bothering them to say hi, but felt it would be disrespectful to not at least say hello.
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