Sometimes you're the windscreen...

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Yacht Brokerage is a business of swings and roundabouts, and as that wonderful expression says “sometimes you’re the windscreen…and sometimes you’re the bug!”.

That’s especially true as far as Central Agency listings are concerned. For most yacht brokers Central Agency yachts, or in other words the contract that gives you exclusive rights to represent a yacht for sale, are the life blood of their business. When a yacht owner entrusts you with listing their yacht for sale you will attract a lot of enquiries amongst whom there will be yacht owners who you would not otherwise have been in contact with. Of course you hope that one will buy your client’s yacht, but if not at least you now have contact with more potential clients.

The Yacht Broker Master Class goes into some depth to discuss how you can benefit from this, but for the purpose of this newsletter I want to explain that those Central Agency contracts usually last one year, and if you are unable to sell the yacht in that time frame it’s not unusual for you to lose the listing, and the client give it to another competing broker.

It’s especially frustrating if you have been urging the client to lower the price for his yacht, they refuse to do so, and then the yacht is given to another broker to sell…at a much lower price! Believe me, that happens more often than you may think.

However, just as one day you may be the bug, losing the listing to a competing broker, other days you can be the windscreen - when a yacht owner gives you the listing having given up hope of selling their yacht with their previous broker.

There are two lessons to learn here.

Firstly, you should always keep in touch with yacht owners whether they are doing business with you or not. You never know when they may need your services.

Secondly, you should always endeavour to be professional in your approach. Never speak badly about their current broker, never try to bypass an existing Central Agency contract by going directly to the yacht owner. Be professional, and just be available when they need you. The broker that loses the business will of course be upset and will probably have a few choice things to say to you, but as long as you have been honest and professional in your behaviour they will get over it and you’ll be able to do business with them in the future.

Yacht Brokerage is a long term business, take a long term view, and hopefully you’ll be the windscreen far more often than you are the bug.