Testimonials

Stacy Greenwood

Cleveland Boat Center

Dear David,

Thank you for encouraging me to join your 20 group. I have found it to be amazing (although overwhelming) & am so grateful to have the opportunity. I can't seem to soak up enough information & find myself always looking forward to the next meeting.

Most sincerely,

Stacy Greenwood
Cleveland Boat Center
Cleveland, TN

Tom G Whowell

Gordy's Marine

Joining David's Cobalt 20 Group back in 1999 was one of the best business decisions we have ever made. Over the past 11 years, we have grown our business with the help of David and the Group and the wealth of knowledge that we all share. We walk away from every meeting excited with new ways to improve our business in areas such as: business strategy, budgeting, financial goals, industry trends and useful marketing ideas just to name a few. We have also developed very strong relationships with each and every member of our Group, and with David, and are very fortunate to have such good friends in our industry. The Group is a great resource all year long and especially in challenging economic times like these when you need them most. We value the opportunity of working together with David and the privilege of belonging to his elite group of Cobalt dealers. If you are looking to do one simple thing to ensure the success of your entire business, now and into the future, sign-up for one of David's 20 Groups today.

Tom G Whowell
Owner & Sales Manager
Gordy's Marine
Fontana, WI

Brian Crowe

Crowe Marine

David Parker and Parker Business Planning has made a huge difference in the way we do business. We have known David since 2000 when he was referred to us by a longtime friend. He then came out to do a Dealership Evaluation and spent three days giving us some great feedback. His suggestions and recommendations were presented clearly and his personal follow-up was excellent. We walked away from that visit with a notebook full of opportunity for improvement! Our initial experience was so good that we decided to join his Open 20 Group in the fall of 2002. The last eight years have been quite a ride with changes in the economy, however, we were able to consult David and our 20 Group members for advice and guidance. It is better to stand together than to fall alone!

We have implemented many ideas either suggested by David or shared in a 20 Group meeting from another member. It is easy to say every single area of our business has been impacted by our experiences from the 20 Group meetings. We have generated additional income sources, improved our Gross Margins in each department, completely overhauled our pricing system for boats which led to an increase in profits, and most recently began a formal budget and annual forecasting using David's Online Budgeting program.

David Parker's 20 Group gives us a great look at our business. It allows us three opportunities a year to self-evaluate and to assess our progress through dealership comparison. This is like driving with the lights on versus completely in the dark! You and your business will only benefit from the 20 Group experience. Creating new friendships and networking opportunities are priceless. In addition, the dealership visits really give you a chance to see what other dealers are doing. When a 20 Group comes to visit your dealership, your dealership will never be the same. If you were to implement all of the ideas and suggestions , you would find yourself creating more profit and a better organization. Again, these are priceless opportunities to improve your business!

I , Bill Crowe, have been in the marine business for more than 50 years. Just when I thought I had it all figured out, I met David Parker. My experience with him has reminded me that no matter how long you have been in business there is always something yet to learn.

Thanks for everything, David!

Sincerely,

Bill, Julie, Brian and Beth Crowe
Eatonton, GA (Lake Oconee)

Simon Goyette

S.G. Sport Marine

We have been in the 20 Groupe for a year now and boy what a ride! The help you get from these goupe is priceless; from better ways to manage and do business to simple and easy things to make your life easy the whole experience is great. I come out of every meeting with a full page of "To do things" to improve my dealership and it works. David does a great job of keeping the goupe on trac during the meetings and the 3 days just fly by in no time. I strongly recommend any size marine dealership to join one of David's groups as this is time and money very well spent.

Simon Goyette, pres.
S.G. Sport Marine
Montreal, CANADA

Kevin Isabey

Rayburn's Marine World Ltd.

Our company has been a member of the Cobalt 20 Group and involved with Parker Business Planning since 1999. David Parker brings an incredible amount of knowledge, experience, compassion, and wisdom to our group, our dealership, and our family. Parker Business Planning is the most respected moderating company in our industry and David is sought after by almost every major manufacturer to lead their 20 Groups. David is genuinely committed to the success of your business and never leaves a stone unturned when discovering avenues for you to achieve greatness. David's key strengths are his ability to spot weaknesses in your company and provide the path to rectify the deficiency. It is without question our experience in Cobalt's 20 Group and the guidance of David Parker and Parker Business Planning has catapulted us into one of North America's Top 100 Dealers.

Kevin Isabey
Rayburn's Marine World Ltd.
Kelowna, BC

George Pensel

Boats by George

I have enjoyed the services and consulting relationship with David Parker since I joined the Cobalt 20 Group in 1999.

During that time period to present, I have enjoyed stronger profits, and steady growth in my business. Even during the deep recession that the marine business has been so adversely affected has impacted my dealership in many ways positively. While my competition has faltered, we due to our financial strength has prospered and we have substantially grown our market share to one of the highest in the Cobalt Dealer network.

But the biggest difference, that David has made was in fulfilling my life's dream to own a marina on Lake George. It was the consulting services of David Parker, that not only left a very positive impression on my banking relationships, but through diligent budgeting, made it possible for me to go into this multi million dollar investment with the confidence that we could support and make the numbers work. Now almost 6 years in, and through a deep recession, we are thriving, and continuing to grow our market share on Lake George.

David, Thank you for helping me fulfill my life's dream. You were most instrumental in this process.

Sincerely,

George Pensel
Boats by George
Lake George, NY

Mike Herbert

Texas Marine

How long have you been working with David?

We have been working with David for 2 years.

How would you describe your experiences working with David as a consultant?

David has consulted with us numerous times, both on location, and by teleconference. We have benefited from his insight and have implemented many of his suggestions and recommendations. We were quite aware that we needed to make some changes in certain areas, but David effectively pointed out other operational changes that we needed to make which we never would have considered.

Our experiences with David are ongoing. He doesn't just come in, suggest changes and then leave. He is very valuable in the ongoing process of implementing change and is a valuabale resource for us on a continuing basis. As new needs arise, David is always there to help us whenever we need him.

What have you learned from working with David?

David helped us restructure our organization. First by showing us how to better track the proper financial trends, and then helped us make the necessary changes to improve upon these trends. The results are we have an even more focused bottom line driven system in place that we can more easily manage each departments bottom line.

What do you believe are David's key strengths?

David is very knowledgeable in all aspects of the retail marine industry. He is very familiar with the inner workings and details of every department in a Marine Dealership. He can very quickly understand how your organization works, and then effectively target area for improvement. He is an outstanding problem solver, who can quickly grasp the detials of a problem and then come up with an effectiev solution to that problem.

David has been able to bring valuable and useful information to us that made an immediate impact on our revenue and profitability. We have seen sales increase, and costs go down as a direct result of his processes. We are now much more aware of the details of our operation, and in a much better position to effect change when needed.

Mike Herbert
Texas Marine

Taylor Richards

Taylor's Boats

David,

Just thought I would drop you a note about my week. I have just spent the last few days at the Correct Craft College that was held in Salt Lake City. It was presented by the Stemnock group. This is the second time I have been through their training. I went through it a couple of years ago when Cobalt used them.

I think my opinion is a pretty good one when you consider I was a very struggling dealer who has been to just about every dealer training experience and program out there. You know where I am at today. I am making a lot more money than I ever thought possible and except for the boat show weeks I can't remember the last time I worked a 40 hour work week, meaning I haven't worked that much. After all the training and coaching I have been through there is no training more effective than Spader to lay the foundation and David Parker to take you to the next level and that level would be the maximum potential of a dealership. I have found all others to be basically ineffective for bringing about any major changes or having any long term or lasting effect in my dealership.

I guess what I am trying to say in this email is that you are the best and thanks for all of your help in getting me where I am. Your coaching and the 20 group has just been awesome! It was all I could do to sit through this weeks training listening to poor and ineffective training from so called experts and see the amount of money Correct Craft had spent. They put on a good show but dealers who showed up hungry to learn left hungry although with maybe a little bit of motivation and having enjoyed some entertainment. They did have better jokes than you!!! I really felt for the struggling dealers in attendance and wished I could share with all of them my experience and get them working with you.

I am going to talk to Terry McNew with my opinion of the training. I am going to suggest to him that if he really wants to get his moneys worth he should talk to you.

Thanks again for all you have helped me to accomplish. I will always be grateful to you and I will always believe that sitting next to you on that bus at the Cobalt dealer meeting was an answer to my prayers.

Taylor Richards

Tom Mack

South Shore Marina

David -

I'm overdue in sending my not of Sincere Thanks & Appreciation for the training week in February at our dealership. Without question it was the most concentrated and valuable training in our company's 25 year history. Your hands-on style and dive right in approach to training really targeted some key areas for improvement opportunities. Unlike most training, there's a lot of "meat" and the benefits are not short-lived.

The part for which I'm most grateful has to do with simplification of processes. From budgeting, to pricing strategies, to margin objectives, you helped us to gain clarity and understanding without adding complexity. As you know, our dealership has invested a lot of dollars in training over many years, but the action items we identified and acted upon have made very positive changes even at this early point after the training. It was all practical, attainable, and most importantly understandable. Today, "David Parker" is a very common name and phrase here in our dealership since our time together. We refer very regularly to all the insights and benefits we've learned. Many improvement areas now becoming realities have your name all over it.

I have three larger boat deals over the last three days ALL benefiting from your pricing strategy All have better margins than we never would have attained with our earlier ways. This change alone equates to real improvement in our overall results. We have much more breathing room and ease in handling trades with your strategy. It all made good sense to me, but honestly I needed to see it in action for a while to really trust it. Today … I fully trust it and it will change our results this year!

Last, your budgeting and monthly management financial report is so helpful. Again, we understand it, know it's value, and we TRUST IT.

Your friendship and concern for our business' improvement really means a lot to me. You are very gifted for marine dealership. Please use me as a source for any customers considering your service. The overall experience exceeded my expectations.

Gratefully

Tom Mack
South Shore Marina
Huron, OH