A few years ago when I was a boat broker, a prospect came to my office and started talking to me about a new local company called NorthPacificYachts, started by a young 24-year-old. This customer kept going on and on about how amazing the boats were, how he wanted one and they had a much better price and value than all the other similar boats on the market. Fast forward 11 years later. The owner and founder Trevor Brice has sold over 100 yachts and put an amazing line together.

But what is even more fascinating is the business model he has built.

He was one of our first clients and is now a friend so I asked him if he could help our community of brokers, dealers and boat builders to learn about his fascinating approach to boat sales.

Here is the interview:

1) Can you briefly introduce yourself and your brand to our audience?

North Pacific Yachts, Next Generation, is a line top quality trawlers from 28-49’ (and soon 59'). As you mentioned we offer these vessels at competitive prices and make sure to back them up with attentive customer service.

When we looked at working through the traditional channels, we found that we would have another good boat at the same price as everyone else, so we decided to offer them direct with a low overhead marketing model. A lot of our ideas for our business model came from my Dad’s business model in a highly competitive high-volume low-margin business. For brokers reading this, we do offer a co-brokerage commission for leads that result in sales.

3) There are many things that I like about the way you sell boats. For instance, the fact that you hire current boat owners to commission your new boats or don't take boats in inventory but pay owners a fee to show their boats. Can you tell me a bit more about how you got the idea to do so and what results you got from implementing those interesting strategies?

We knew if we didn’t have a dealer network we had to rely on the best salesmen we had and that was and still is our customers. This also gives us the incentive to make sure they are 100%+ satisfied with their boats because we rely on their satisfaction and their willingness to share their feelings with other boaters. I also noticed that a few of our owners had a career in technical fields such as engineering or manufacturing and had a real passion for boating. So I asked some of them if they would be interested in being compensated by commissioning other customers boats. They were passionate about boating and knew our product inside and out. They also had the time as they were retired so it was a perfect fit.

4) If you were to restart NorthPacificYachts with the knowledge that you have today, what would you do differently?

We're happy with the way things went and where we are today. There is very little we’d change. We look forward to building our brand for decades into the future.