2023 FORECAST
how do you feel about the future state of the economy for 2023 ?
Optimistic 13 %
Neutral 18 %
69 % OF RESPONDENTS
are pessimistic about the state of the economy for 2023
Pessimistic 69 %
how do you think the economy is doing compared to this time last year ?
Better 5 %
About the same 14 %
Source : MyVoiceRewards , Current Economic Survey , 2022
Worse 81 % where most of our volume is ,” says Wooden . “ We think there ’ s some oversupply there .”
While dealers focus on the economy , MRAA cautions against overlooking internal practices as consumers tighten their budgets . Sales departments will be put to the test against the potential recession . “ There are changing dynamics in the marketplace from a sales standpoint that we need to address . We refer to this as the post-pandemic marketplace because there ’ s no longer the demand . We ’ re seeing inventory levels have returned to normal , and we ’ re finding that dealerships are really having to focus on how to sell boats again . We ’ ve been taking orders for the past two or three years , and we have a lot of long-time salespeople who got away from truly having to get in there and sell . We ’ ve also got a lot of new people in our industry who ’ ve never had to overcome objections to secure a sale .”
MRAA also reiterates the ongoing challenge of upholding customer satisfaction , and the underlying roots of that challenge . “ This isn ’ t a sudden or surprising thing , but the other challenge we have out there is certainly the management and effectiveness of our service departments ,” says Gruhn .
“ We ’ ve been talking a lot at MRAA about repair event cycle time – the length of time that it takes from when a customer drops off their boat to the day they can pick it up and get back on the water . Our repair event cycle times have been really hampered by the technician shortage we ’ ve faced for many years , and by the supply chain issues that hampered everyone during the pandemic . While the supply chain issues are improving , the technician shortage is not . What needs to happen is dealers and manufacturers need to figure out how to work together to get customers serviced and back on the water .”
As these issues are faced within the industry , NMMA also foresees challenges regarding legislation . “ Unfortunately , the biggest challenges we face may be unnecessary self-inflicted wounds created by policymakers ,” Hugelmeyer says . “ At present , I ’ m most concerned about government regulatory overreach related to the proposed NOAA speed restrictions or damaging partisan political posturing around the federal debt limit . If either of these threats materialize , our members and boat sales will be negatively impacted .”
18 february 2023 www . boatingindustry . com