Joel Romero has been in the boating industry for most of his life. After spending a good deal of his childhood around boats, he eventually moved on to start an apprenticeship in the field taking working and classes. In 2001, after a few years in Australia,  he came the U.S. and found himself in line to become one of the next salespeople and operators of California Coast Yachts, the West Coast dealership of Sunseeker International, one of the top yacht brands in the world.

Romero’s company solely sells Sunseeker Yachts, a brand that’s been putting luxury craft to sea for 45 years. It has gained international status in the boating world that is akin to names like Bentley and Rolls Royce in the automotive industry. But they are not just a sales organization. California Coast also helps clients manage and maintain these floating residences long after the sale is over. Luxury CE sat down with Romero to discuss the successes and challenges of selling in this dynamic luxury category.

Luxury CE: Had you sold boats of this size and calibre before?

Joel Romero: No, when I first got involved with the company, I was working for the guy who owned it before me. I worked with him for a very short time until I took it over. I was always involved in the back-end of the business, in the management and service end of it—looking after the clients and their boats. From there I actually grew into the sales, I’ve only really truly been in the sales aspect of it since 2001.
LCE: When you started selling, was it a huge change to sell boats of this size to this kind of clientele?

JR: It’s a little bit intimidating. I was relatively young and the caliber and mentality of the client is different. Whensomeone is going to drop over $1 million, minimum, and spend that kind of money—the cheapest boat we sell is $1.4 million—they’ve researched it. It’s been a dream for them to buy a Sunseeker. To put it into perspective, let’s say you always wanted to have a Ferrari or a Bentley and when it comes time in your life when you’ve got the money, and you are ready to make that move, you may know more about that Bentley than the salesperson. So, when a client is coming to us to buy a boat, he knows a lot about the manufacturing and a lot about the brand. Also, there are always people who can be quite domineering and very forceful as far as their point of view. It actually can take a bit of time to understand this and get used to it.
So, you have to really listen to your clientele, because they know the product very well. By listening you get a full-on understanding of what they are looking for. By giving them some insight on that, they can really get to an understanding of how they’re going to be using the boat. Even though they know what boat they want, you can actually sometimes direct them and help them make a better decision on a particular model.
LCE: What makes dealing with clientele at this level different? What do you need to look out for?

JR: You have to approach things without busting their egos—that doesn’t make any sense with clientele of this kind. The main thing is that you have to give them availability. You have to give them the time and let them call you when they want to call you. When they want to have a conference call, you have to make that happen. Even if you are with family and friends, you have to make the time because their time is very limited. You also have to write everything down that they want. You have to make sure that everything you told them you’re going to do gets done because they expect it from you. That’s extremely important.
This means you have to give them quality time, whether that be by phone or face-to-face at their houses. Sometimes they cannot meet during regular business hours. You might have to meet them at the dinner hour. You have to keep a totally different schedule than normal, then. I get phone calls from clients at 9:30 at night, telling me that we’re going to meet at a certain restaurant to go over stuff, or they’ll say, “come to my house and my butler will cook us some dinner.”
And I understand that because the majority of them are running huge companies, so timing to them is very, very important.

LCE: How much time do you spend with a client up until the sale of the boat? When do you begin to discuss price?

JR: It’s maybe within a week that the deal is inked. From there it’s a matter of getting down to picking the right model and style.
Pricing doesn’t really come up until the very end, because people at this level buy things from people. The amount of money and what things costs doesn’t really matter as much as getting looked after and getting things right. Obviously, everyone has their “ballpark” [of what they want to spend], but often they can add on another million dollars.

LCE: After the sale is done, what kinds of support do you offer?

JR: After the sale is the start of a relationship. It’s not the sort of product where you shake hands, transfer the money, and then you don’t see them again. From the start of it all, depending on the size of the boat, it can be 18 months before it hits the water and they even step foot on the boat. Obviously, you build a relationship with the client, then. We manage every aspect: We hire the captains and interview crew for them. We also set them up with a concierge so they can get an understanding of what they want on their boats all the time (amenities, etc.). It never ends.

LCE: What would you say are your top sales techniques and strategies?

JR: I think honesty. If you’re telling someone you’re going to do something, you really have to make sure you get that done for him or her. If something doesn’t happen that you promised, you can’t give an excuse why. Follow-through is the most important thing that you can do for anybody. If you’re going to sell a custom boat and the client goes through all the detail and hours of time to spec that out, you need to deliver. The owner won’t see the end result for many months. It’s all just plans and little swatches, so when they actually come and see the boat for the first time, well, I’ve seen clients cry. They are just so overwhelmed that everything they talked about is there and all the little stuff that they thought might get missed is there. Those things add up. It’s about making your word your bond.

LCE: When a customer walks in, how do you start the conversation?

JR: If a guy just literally walks in, I sit him down and try to get an understanding of what he’s been looking at already and what made him come across our office and our boats. Once you build that foundation, then you can more forward to the next level, which is to go see the boats. You listen for what they like and dislike about each model. This will give you and understanding of what they feel is important. Then you start to talk about time of delivery, where he needs the boat to be—here or Europe, for example—and then you start getting into price.

LCE: How long does the relationship with the client last? Do they become repeat customers?

JR: Yes. Actually, we just did a survey recently and we found that we have almost a 90 percent return. Once a client buys a boat from us, they will buy a boat from us again. The loyalty that we have to the Sunseeker brand is incredible; it’s extremely high. We’ve lost just a couple of clients to boats of other brands. I think that’s a very strong statement to make. When we look back at all of our sales and see how many people are on a third and fourth boat, it’s amazing. And they keep their boats for a while—three to four years on average. We’ll then take it on trade or they’ll buy another boat. Some guys have two boats—one on the East Coast and one on the West Coast—or somewhere foreign, such as the Mediterranean.

LCE: How many new boats do you sell a year?

JR: We sell anywhere between 9 and 14 new custom boats a year. This year was a lot busier than last year and we received a lot more new boat orders. Half way through this year we exceeded all of what we did last year.

LCE: Are people more confident with their money?

JR: The people that we deal with are extremely wealthy, so my understanding is that in 2007 they saw the writing on the wall, and they started liquidating and doing certain things because they thought 2008 was going to be a bad year. Then, 2008 hit and was, indeed, a bad year. While 2009 isn’t a great year, they know where things are at and feel more confident even though the economy is not good. Now they have a better “read” of what’s happening.

LCE: Do you hold special events for your clients? How do you keep them in the loop?

JR: We always e-mail them when new models are out and we have events at the boat shows. Every year we host a “get-together” event where we host all of the owners, or at least the ones that are available. They meet each other and some of them actually do business together now, because of this event. So, it’s a good marketing event for them, too, because they network with people that are of the same stature.

LCE: Do you subcontract to other specialists, such as A/V installers, for example?

JR: Yes, for example, we had a client that wanted everything on the boat, as far as the TVs and other A/V went, to be Bang & Olufsen (B&O) products. So, a B&O consultant came and met with them to look at drawings of the boats and to map out where the client wanted all of the TVs and speakers to be. The B&O guy got involved with the build of the boat and instructed us on the correct placement of the speakers, etc. As far as other boats, clients often know what they want. Obviously, iPods are very important, as are movies. We have subcontracted out to Kaleidescape and Bose, as well as number of other companies, as well.

LCE: Do you work with professional A/V 
installation companies?

JR: If a boat were being built [with B&O product, for example], the B&O rep would have installers that he uses. They would go out to the factory while the boat was being built and organize it. Pretty much for whatever product we’re using, the product specialist will make the recommendation because they know the installers well. They’ll work with the build manager to set the schedule the installation of, say, the cable or amplifiers.

LCE: What’s the largest project you’ve worked on?

JR: We did a yacht with a lot of pop-up TVs. They wanted the TVs in certain places and then all of the controls had to look a certain way. It was not that the equipment was that expensive, it was that the installation of it all was complicated and therefore expensive. Some clients have heavy requests. Some don’t want any of the speakers or equipment to be seen, for example. It can be quite challenging.

LCE: Any project stick out in your mind?

JR: Just recently there was a client who is an artist and a designer and he wanted things extremely specific. Things had to be a certain way. He wanted the boat to have the dashboard of a Bentley—he wanted that exact look. So, we basically had to find out where Bentley gets its dashboards from. Then we had to get the client to go to that factory to get the template for that dashboard, including where the keys and controls go, and then match the aluminum look that’s on the Bentley GT today. He also wanted a particular shade, so we had to make all of these patterns and pre-cut the holes for all of the controls and install them. Normally, the dashboards that the factory makes have been tested for water resistance, etc. This material was made for a car interior, not for out in the ocean, so we had to put a protective coating on it. Finally, he wanted a particular style of gauges that would match the dashboard, so we had to go to a manufacturer to make custom gauges. The needles had to be red to match the color of the steering wheel and the piping on the seats. It sounds like a tiny item but it was not easy. It was quite an ordeal to get it right. When the boat finally arrived and he saw it, he was completely blown away by that. It turned out just fantastic.