As a cruiser, I dislike going to boat shows and seeing all the "must have" gear that you really don't need to happily cast of the dock lines, but as a vendor, well it's a love-hate relationship. Boat shows give cruisers in planning a chance to see and touch several brands of equipment that pouring over internet photos and specifications really doesn't equal, but it's easy to go into information and budget overload. If the show-goer survives the urge to buy things he doesn't really need, then there is the famous sales game of the "Boat Show Special", as old as any sales trick in the book and one we decided not to play. A little discount is given at the show and the special only last during the show, as a way to force a buying decision. Not being a salesman, but a Cruiser, we decided that we didn't want to play those games, but rather have one Low Price that we can live with selling the water maker for on a daily basis. A) it keeps me from having to remember discounted prices and B) it keeps me from having to play "salesman" by pressuring people into making their buying decision at the show in a restricted time frame.

If the pre-sales are any indication, then our simplified approach is paying off because as we load our truck and trailer to start the two day drive to Seattle today we will be loading 9 sold water makers for folks to pick-up at the show as a way to save them the shipping charges. Add in the water maker sales that will happen at the show and it could just make my freezing to death worth it....well maybe, but I doubt I'll find as good a street taco stand on the frozen streets of Seattle.

The above photo is of our new water maker display that my partner charlie is just about to finish this morning. Rather than just showing lose parts at the boat shows, we mount and assemble the 5 modules and plumb them all together so potential clients can see and walk through the complete system all hooked together and then start imagining where all the pieces will fit on their boat. I've also brought my video camera and gear along because we are going to film a "virtual boat show" video for posting on the net. The basic idea here is to film the standard boat show walk through of the system and then answer the top questions that almost everyone asks at the shows. Not everyone can attend a boat show that we are at, so we figured it would be good to bring the boat show experience to them, everything except the high pressure sales pitch, buy now only specials, $7 slices of pizza and $4 bottled water.