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Six Mile Joins the ShoreMaster Family of Dealers

Sat, 23 May 2009 18:38:22 +0100

Shoremaster welcomes Six Mile Corner to it's dealer network!

Six Mile Corner
Carey Gieser, Owner
1607 Hwy 83
NW Garrison, ND 58540
Phone: 701-337-5704 or toll free at 877-895-6480
Fax: 701-337-5706
www.sixmilecorner.com

ShoreMaster's Northwestern Territory Sales Manager, Rob Rein sent me the link below that points to an excellent write up about Six Mile Corner at www.fishinbuddy.com.

To read the article, click on the link below;

http://www.fishingbuddy.com/articles/six_mile_corner_now_dealer_of_shoremaster_docks

Amarillo's Finest

Wed, 20 May 2009 21:10:24 +0100

Well I just spent a few days with Shane Schramm, owner of Shane Schramm Construction out of Amarillo, TX - Lake Tanglewood and Mike Spilde, ShoreMaster Territory Manager in Amarillo, TX. I had a great time, and as usually happens with these sort of outings I learned alot about myself, our products and the good folks that sell, install and service them.

Shane Schramm has been in the industry for many years, but teamed up with ShoreMaster in about 2004. His main reason, he says, is that ShoreMaster's products are simply the best on the market, and his Sales Manager, Mike Spilde, does a great job at helping Shane realize his potential.

It's apparent to me that at least in Texas, a business relationship is more important than simply "taking an order"!

Shane Schramm and Mike Spilde are each building their own websites now, and I would bet that they'll both have them up and running before the weekend is over. I can't wait to visit their pages!

The Truth In Advertising

Fri, 15 May 2009 17:11:24 +0100

When reading any editorial about specific products in any magazine, brochure, or catalog it's a good idea to remember that the products featured in the editorial (if a magazine) are, many times, only included because the product's manufacturer advertises in the magazine.

This is the nature of the print media. It costs a lot of money to print out these cumbersome, instantly dated, aqueous coated piles of yesterday. Not all magazines are guilty of this, but when the content is limited to only those who advertise in the magazine, and then limited to only the good points of the product or manufacturer, completely wiping out any of their weaknesses, what kind of value is the reader getting? This is a rhetorical question, but I'm going to answer it. Very little. To start, the reader may only get information about 10 percent (or less) of the products or manufacturers that would ordinarily fit in the category of the editorial. Then to top it off, the reader is usually only getting 50 percent of the information about the product or manufacturer (only the good or positive info!). So, 50 percent of 10 percent that is available. That doesn't sound like a lot of information, let alone value for the reader.

Perhaps that is one of the many reasons that many smart companies continue to reduce their print advertising efforts and focus on something that is more, let's call it, conversational. Online and digital sources of information are where many smart consumers are beginning to look for information, especially those that allow consumers to report and comment to everyone about their own experiences with the product or company.

I suppose that for many companies, the idea of customers sharing their experiences about their products or services scares the heck out of them. And perhaps, those companies will continue to be the ones having a one-way conversation about themselves through some form of print media.

My wife inspired this post because of her relentless need to research nearly every product we buy (she especially loves the user reviews sections of websites). I realized what she was doing when I would hand over a catalog, brochure or magazine ad about anything that we were considering purchasing (you name it: lawn tractors, patio furniture, baby toys) and she would say to me "yeah, it has this widget, it comes in this color, and this company has been in business since nineteen blah blah blah, but what do other people think about it?". She then proceeds to tell me that "Joeschmoe123" who lives in Name your City and has similar interests and needs for the product as I do, really hates the John Deer Lawn Master, but "ben_round_here" really loves it. And because of their reviews she can also tell me why they love or hate it. You know what, that's a really powerful thing!

Whoa, where am I going with this? To get back to the moral of the story. Don't always believe all of the hype in a magazine editorial about a particular product or company as many times the company is paying to be included in the editorial. Now anytime I come across an article about "What Type of Product Works Best" or Who Manufactures the Best, I'll jump online and do a little research and 90 percent of the time I can find the missing 90 percent of the products or manufacturers who were excluded from the editorial, and 100 percent of the time (usually through user reviews) I can find the missing 50 percent of the information that was left out of the editorial.

If I was a manufacturer trying to either sell myself or sell my products, I would take most of my money traditionally spent on print advertising, and use it to make the product better. Then I would use the rest to find a way to get others to discuss it in an open forum for everyone to see (good or bad), because many times, people don't trust companies, they trust other people who have already dealt with the company or used it's products.

Of course that's just me and I'm just saying...;)

ShoreMaster Customer Service Testimonial

Tue, 12 May 2009 14:33:16 +0100

I was cleaning out some of my old files this morning and ran across this email (from 2005) of an interaction with a customer that I had back then with a customer from Florida. Over several emails, and a couple of phone calls I was finally able to help out the customer. Unbeknownst to me at the time was that fact that the customer was

Major General Douglas Burnett of the USAF, appointed the Adjutant General of Florida by Govenor Bush on November 3, 2001. I just hope that this feeling of customer service lives on today at ShoreMaster!

Aviva Products in the Media!

Mon, 11 May 2009 14:30:54 +0100

Check out this video featuring Aviva Products in the media! The particular video shows Aviva's 14' Iceberg with a great price from overstock.com.

Updating site

Mon, 11 May 2009 14:24:57 +0100

This blog has gotten quite stale lately but there are a lot of great new things coming out from ShoreMaster. The new Hydraulic boat Lift has been named the Revolution. I'm working on creating the decals, and marketing materials right now. The new lift should be ready to ship near the first week of June. I'll keep you posted.

We are also creating new marketing materials for ShoreMaster / Galva-Foam Kit Dock and floating lifts. Hopefully these will be good to go by the end of May (that's the goal anyway!).

Gary J>

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 14:57:53 +0100

While sifting through the flotsam and jetsam of cyber space I ran across an interesting website. Check out the link below…

Gary whipped this one out pretty quick in his spare time in the hotel room and is using it to learn so that he can show dealers that do not have a website how to build one, etc. Very cool!

http://garyjohnsonsales.synthasite.com/

Traveling and Blogging

Sun, 26 Apr 2009 21:11:41 +0100

I'm traveling with Robert Rein on I 29 thorugh South Dakota on our way to Omaha, NE and blogging at the same time. Technology is pretty cool when you can have internet access while traveling down the road (now if I could just find some content to write about that would be beneficial to readers of this blog!). Maybe later.

Website Waterfront Accessories

Wed, 22 Apr 2009 15:59:30 +0100

This just in...

The updates to the WaterfrontAccessories tab at www.shoremaster.com will be finalized by the end of next week or so.

Updates To The Waterfront Accessories Tab

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 21:10:49 +0100

Finally,

We are making updates to the Waterfront Accessories Tab on the ShoreMaster website. previously and currently this included links to the Shoreline Website, which in many cases, did not offer these products. So, after nearly 8 hours of gathering and compiling "more Info" on each of the products listed within all of the sub-categories of Waterfront Accessories, we should soon actually have more info, as opposed to a link to the Shoreline website. Whoo Hoo! As soon as all of these changes are finalized I'll update you here! I'm hoping that the updates should be finalized by weeks end, but we'll see!