Boating Industry

December 2014

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EDITORS' CHOICE www.BoatingIndustry.com December 2014 | Boating Industry | 55 I HAD THE OPPORTUNITY to speak with Chuck at Lynnhaven Marine about his unique training days this year, but Guthrie's novel approach to team building and mar- keting is just one of the many things he and his team does right. Looking at the numbers, Lynnhaven looks like scores of other marine dealers. It has a good mix of services, sales and finance. It has a good CSI score, good ef- ficiency in its service department and the team keeps up to date with certifications. That's all normal stuff that any dealer- ship should be doing, but what prompted me to pick Lynnhaven Marine as my fa- vorite dealer of the year wasn't something that's easy to spot when looking at the numbers: they care! They care about their community, they care about their employees, they care about the environment and they care about the en- tire recreational marine industry a whole lot. Sure, plenty of dealerships put in the extra hours to help the industry out, but you'll be hard pressed to find an industry advocate with Guthrie's long list of involvement. A former board member with the Mid- coast Regional Redevelopment author- ity, Guthrie helped marine businesses lay groundwork in his area. As a member of the City of Virginia Beach Advisory Panel, Guthrie sponsors tournaments and pro- motes fishing in the area. And as a former president of the Virginia Association of Ma- rine Industries -- where he is still a board member –- he championed marine issues in the state. He also contributes and works with several environmental groups in the area and efforts to be a green dealership. "We do a bit of green marketing and promotion by being visibly involved with 'Lynnhaven River Now;' which is a river restoration program," said Guthrie. "We became the first clean marina (Virginia pro- gram) in our market area." Nationally, Lynnhaven Marine was a member of a Spader 20 Group and is a member of the Boy Scouts of America (boats for camps). Guthrie has been suc- cessful in his role with the Boating Personal Property Tax lobby and he serves on sev- eral manufacturer and dealer councils. And that's not all for the busy business owner. "Lynnhaven Marine was one of the 17 original dealers to pilot the Marine Industry Certified Dealership Program and helped re- fine the program requirements," said Guthrie, who also speaks with dealers and manufac- tures about the benefits of certification. Back at the dealership, Guthrie and the management team put a lot of effort into showing they care for their employees. The company training day has become a legendary event among the staff, who are always guessing what group activities Guth- rie has in store. He said there are always a lot of laughs, a bit of embarrassment sometimes but mostly a whole lot of fun away from work. To keep things even more interesting, Guthrie doles out bonuses throughout the day's event. "We put a bucket of money in, maybe $10,000. We give all the employees cash re- wards for doing little things all day long," said Guthrie. He said the event goes a long way to bond his team, though not much gets done the next day. "Morale bounces, but productivity gets a little bit of a hit because they're all talk- ing about how much fun they had the day before," said Guthrie. The training day and continual on-the- job training and certification keeps the staff learning all the time. Lynnhaven Marine offers several yearly training schools focus- ing on every department, monthly webinars and other online courses and sends his sales staff to seminars and provides weekly online courses. Of course a well-trained staff keeps things running smooth, but Guthrie said there is one problem with so much training. "Everyone tries to steal our younger, well trained staff," said Guthrie. To keep those people around, he's imple- mented several ways to recognize his staff. From raises or bonuses for good attitudes, $2,000 bonus for employee of the year ran- dom cash awards for on-the-spot recogni- tion and a culture of "thank you" and "great job," Guthrie almost makes me want to trade in my press pass for a wrench. NICHOLAS UPTON ASSOCIATE EDITOR Nupton@BoatingIndustry.com LYNNHAVEN MARINE VIRGINIA BEACH, VA.

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