Customer Story - Reeder Trausch Marine Doubled Close Rates with Covideo

When marine dealerships look for a north star to determine new tech tools and best practices, they look to Reeder-Trausch Marine. This trendsetting dealership with two Indiana locations attracts buyers from all across the country due to its excellent customer service—and personalized video helps make it happen.

How video made the difference

The team's process for using video is simple: send an introduction video as soon as a lead comes in, then an appointment reminder, and then a post-visit message, whether someone walked away with a boat or not. This could be a request for referrals, a brief check in, or a thank you for their visit.

The process is as effective as it is simple. General Sales Manager Tyler Allen says Reeder-Trausch closed double the business after adopting Covideo. It gives the dealership the edge it needed to stand out in a sea of competition and gave peace of mind to faraway buyers who made significant journeys for their new boat or watercraft.

Video has especially helped Reeder-Trausch suceed in sales to email-only leads, or inquiries that come in online with an email and nothing else. Video ramps up the effectiveness of the dealership's emails when there is very little personal or contact information available. When customers receive the video, they're ready to open up and start moving toward a sale. The human element sells.

Keeping the team on track

From a management perspective, Tyler also appreciates the tracking and analytics Covideo offers. That way, he's able to see who is recording great videos and seeing results. Then, leadership can encourage anyone who needs a little help. While there can be hesitation when adopting a new tool, Tyler said that everyone was quick to get on board when they saw their peers using Covideo were getting great results.

Tyler also advises other dealership leaders to be a "doer." Model how to incorporate new tech into your processes, and your team will surely follow. When Reeder-Trausch opened its second location in Indianapolis, he knew Covideo needed to be one of the first tools up and running for success. With the support of the Covideo team, everything was running smoothly, and Reeder-Trausch continues to dominate the market in marine sales.

Video Transcript from Tyler Allen

VO Tyler Allen: Our open rate, our close rate on the deal is so much higher. I would say probably double because we actually are getting a customer engaged right from the beginning.

Covideo success story

Reeder-Trausch Marine, we're a trendsetting dealership. People are typically following us in the market from advertising, marketing, things like that. We knew we had to separate ourselves. We wanted to stand out from other dealerships. How we could do that was offering a better experience, a better service, which was putting a face to the name to the customer right off the bat, as soon as the lead came in, or even being able to show the customer their boat and do a full video on it and just help the customer to have a better experience.

So, once we got with Covideo, we could make videos easier than using just your, you know, your iPhone or your Android.

We do a Covideo as soon as the lead comes in. We'll do another Covideo once we set an appointment, and then after they're in our showroom, whether they purchase or not, whether we're thanking them for their business and asking for referrals, or just thanking them for coming in.

The benefits now is we're able to actually track from a sales management side, you know, what all of our employees are doing. You know who they're sending the videos to, what videos they're actually sending, we can see who does videos better.

So, if I have sales associate 1 and sales associate 2, if 2's doing a lot better than 1, we talk to one. Say, "Hey, this is what sales 2 is doing." It helped us be able to really just focus on where we could provide a better experience for the customer.

Early wins

You know, there's a little bit of hesitation to get people kind of over the hump to just want to have the camera in front of them. Where it really helped us when our team got to see other people be successful to get email-only leads—you know, that's been the biggest thing. There's no phone number. There's a name and an email address; that's all you got.

We're able to just send them a video, tell them who we are, what we're doing, humanize ourselves with them. Once they've seen that, the hesitation was out the window and we were using it full force.

So on the leadership side of things, you have to be a doer. If you're not getting on the camera, your team's not going to. So you've got to be the first one to jump in, get on the camera, and make it happen, and then add it into your processes and procedures. Use the Covideo to your advantage to grow your dealership and your business.

Destination dealership

In Rockville, we're a destination dealership, so we're getting people to drive hours and hours to get to us from all across the country, from California to New York and everywhere in between. We can send them a video. We can show them everything on the pre-owned boat or new boat, depending on what they're looking at. Talk about scratches, dents, dings on a pre-owned boat, so there's no hesitation when they get there or when the boat gets delivered to them at their house.

I had a customer. It was again, an email-only lead. There was no phone number, but there was something in his email that I was able to feel like I could get on common ground with. I talked about his email in the Covideo, and the guy called me almost right away and then came in the next day and purchased a boat from over 4 hours away.

Growing with Covideo

Once we signed on the dotted line for a second location, we knew that one of the first things that we had to get set up was our Covideo, so our sales team would have that same success and be able to provide that same experience at our Indianapolis location, which is our second location compared to our first one in Rockville.

With Deven, everybody in the [Covideo] office, they've just made it super easy. Anytime I need to get somebody set up, they're right there. They reach out, you know, it's just been a great experience from a customer side of it.

Bring the power of video to your marine dealership

Need to boost responses from leads, appointment shows, and sales at your dealership? Covideo is uniquely designed to increase engagement at each step of your sales cycle. Try out our all-in-one platform for recording, editing, and sharing video messages that get real results.

Double your sales like Reeder-Trausch Marine! Contact our experts to set up a demo and see how.