Lynnhaven Marine - An E-Business Savvy Dealership Ahead of Its Time

As a leading provider of Web site and lead management solutions in the marine industry, Channel Blade has had the opportunity to interact and work with thousands of dealers over the last eight years. Lynnhaven Marine, a two-location, state-of-the-art dealership in Virginia Beach, Va., was one of Channel Blade's first clients and is a wonderful example of a successful e-business savvy dealership ahead of its time.

Lynnhaven Marine was one of the first marine dealerships to use Channel Blade's proven lead management solution - Footsteps^TM - to further streamline the sales process and accelerate the buying cycle, enhancing its ability to turn more prospects into customers. Footsteps enabled the dealership to quickly route, segment, market and work leads from all sources, increasing sales. Lynnhaven Marine was also an early adopter of Channel Blade's eXceleratePro Web site platform, providing the dealership with a compelling, information-packed Web site designed to engage prospects and generate leads with full boat descriptions, real-time inventory, "About Us" streaming videos, up-to-date events and more.

As a result, Lynnhaven Marine's online presence is as impressive as its brick and mortar location and represents over 30 percent of its sales today. In fact, Lynnhaven Marine has enjoyed an ongoing and significant increase in Web leads since its adoption of Footsteps in 2003.

Today, Lynnhaven Marine's average response time is less than 3.5 hours, compared to more than 21 hours when they first adopted Footsteps. It's an excellent average, including all leads, even the ones received after hours which are attended to the next morning.

Over the years, Lynnhaven Marine has also strived for continuous improvement on all fronts - one of its guiding principles. The dealership provides on-going education and training curriculums to its sales team from the best instructors on the market, including Channel Blade. Chuck Guthrie, president of Lynnhaven Marine, understands that having an award-winning Web site and a world-class lead management solution is not enough, embracing Channel Blade's education offerings to continuously enhance his investment. Chuck is always on the look out for new and innovative ways to keep his dealership's Web site appealing and user-friendly, including re-designs and streaming videos.

In addition, Chuck has positioned himself as an ambassador of Web site and lead management solutions across the industry. Over the last eight years, he has never missed an opportunity to spread the word at dealer meetings, educating manufacturers and dealers, and convincing them of the importance to use these solutions in order to grow their business. Chuck's take on e-business solutions is that the more manufacturers and dealers adopt them, the more successful his business and the industry as a whole will be, enhancing the level of customer satisfaction and therefore positively impacting sales. He has been a major catalyst in convincing OEMs to support these solutions in the industry, including Albemarle Boats, Godfrey Marine, Rinker and US Marine.

Chuck always goes out of his way to motivate OEMs he represents to capture and distribute leads and provide a great experience for those prospects. He also encourages OEMs to deliver leads in a format that is compatible with third-party classified sites and lead management solutions that dealers are using to increase traffic and sales.

Chuck has also been an invaluable resource for Channel Blade, acting as a sounding board during the original development of Footsteps. Since then, he has regularly provided suggestions and ideas aimed at continuously improving the solution and its positive impact on the growth of Channel Blade's clients.

Chuck understands the critical role world-class Web site and lead management solutions play in his dealership's success. For the third consecutive year, Lynnhaven Marine made the highly coveted Boating Industry magazine's 2007 Top 100 Dealers, a testimony to outstanding results and best practices in all areas of business, including online marketing.

At Channel Blade, we are all very proud to count Chuck among our customers, advisors and friends. We look forward to remaining a prominent partner in Lynnhaven Marine's future growth.