Case Study: Skipper Bud’s

Skipper Marine has grown into one of the largest boat dealerships and marine service companies in the country. However in the mid 1980’s during our formative growth years, Skipper Marine (a.k.a. Skipper Buds) wanted better lead management, better inventory management, ability to control rigging costs and more control over major unit sales in all of our locations. Today, we have the controls we need with the help of DockMaster.

Skipper Marine facilities are one-stop shops for all boating needs. We offer sales, service, and storage, marina slip rental, in/out service, restaurants and more. We are a full service dealer for Cabo, Carver, Four Winns, Meridian, Sea Ray and Silverton with 22 sales locations in six states. Each sales facility is staffed by knowledgeable sales professionals dedicated to delivering the finest in boating lifestyles while maintaining profitability.

Why DockMaster

After researching every applicable software option in the industry, it was clear that DockMaster was the clear and best choice. The number of quality marine businesses using DockMaster, specifically those with multi-location operations was impressive. A company the size of Skipper Marine must have an information system with the ability to track prospects, inventory, and sales across all locations with one central database. Over the years I have worked closely with DockMaster’s staff to develop several features in the system to achieve our goals.

As it relates to the software: The service module could be as simple or as comprehensive as needed. The inventory and purchasing module was rock solid and I liked the process logic. The financial tables and accounting modules are customizable and appear straight forward. The VisualMarina and reservation module had the potential of expanding our slip knowledge to anyone who had access. The program could be completely customized to capture any level of information via its Report Generator. The security levels were sufficient and entirely customizable.

What They Provided

A laser focus on customer satisfaction and addressing our particular needs. We have undergone a major migration from the legacy (text-based) DockMaster system to their new Windows platform. DockMaster has remained professional and customer service oriented by understanding our needs, our timeline and our capabilities. We have been able to convert 22 locations from the legacy system to their Windows-based marine management system.

Result

Lead Management - Prior to installing DockMaster, each Skipper Bud’s marine location had a database of prospective boat buyers, but no central database existed. A boat buyer would at times go from one Skipper Bud’s location to another shopping for a better price creating unknown competition amongst sister locations. A big problem with the prior system was that sales personnel could back date contact records making it seem as if they started with the prospect earlier than they actually did creating a nightmare for sales managers during a dispute over which salesperson “owns the sale”. There were also cases where the same prospect would end up in the system several times and work with several different sales people in several different locations. LeadMaster has freed us from these issues. With the LeadMaster security features, we are able to define which sales people and which managers have access to which prospects. One sales manager may have access to modify leads in two locations, but only have “read” access to the others. This is facilitated by the fact that all Skipper Bud’s locations share a central prospect or leads database. If a salesperson begins entering a prospect, DockMaster will check for similar names in both the prospect and customer files regardless of what location they were created in.

Furthermore, LeadMaster not only manages boat sales leads, it manages leads for storage and service customers as well. In the slow time of our service calendar year we will set-up calling campaigns whereby we follow-up with customers that need scheduled maintenance on their boat. Using the Action Code system, salespeople can be prompted by a calendar reminder to make a call, send a letter, send an e-mail, etc. LeadMaster has an interface to Microsoft Outlook such that calendar items (e.g. reminders) and contacts can be synchronized. This allows sales personnel to synchronize contacts and reminders with their handheld (mobile) devices.

Inventory Management - Rather than having to call each location to check for a boat or fax inventory lists back and forth, any sales rep on the network can search for a boat to fit a prospect or a prospect to fit a boat. Since DockMaster tracks the number of days in inventory for a unit, a Skipper Bud’s sales manager can choose to deliver a boat from another location that has been in inventory longer to reduce the floor plan expense. Skipper Marine’s CFO, Tony Donarski, has the system setup by location to handle accounting entries automatically. When a boat is moved from one location to another, DockMaster creates the proper “due to” and “due from” entries to the general ledger eliminating the need for user input and creating possible errors.

When a boat is received into inventory, DockMaster creates an Accounts Payable invoice with the terms of the financial institution. When the unit is sold, the due date of the Accounts Payable invoice is updated by the system.

Rigging & Prep Work Orders - With the help of DockMaster, Skipper Bud’s created a “Rigging Police” program whereby a sales manager can set an estimated rigging price on a unit which will not allow the Service Department to bill rigging charges to the unit above the rigging amount set on the unit without approval from a manager. Rigging templates for each model reduce the time required to create work orders for received units. These work orders can be automatically generated at receiving time.

Sales Management - DockMaster has drastically reduced the time to close a sale by calculating profits and commissions as well as printing all forms required for a deal. Skipper Bud’s, as all DockMaster dealers, has a custom commission program that can be viewed during contract closing. Split commissions are now easier than ever. A journal transaction is created by the system with the proper accounting entries by location; again reducing the time required by accounting personnel. These journal transactions can be viewed and edited while closing the contract or at a later time prior to posting to the general ledger.

Glenn Pollock
MIS Director
Skipper Marine Holding’s