This blog comes to you from Fort Lauderdale, where I have been attending the Annual General Meeting of Northrop & Johnson, one of the largest yacht brokerage companies in the world.

The meeting gathers together the Heads of each Department to discuss the company financials, year-end results, and goals.

Every year I am hugely impressed with the behind the scenes work that goes into a successful brokerage company. Hundreds of millions of dollars are processed through a large accounts department. They don’t just handle commission payments for brokers, but also deposits and balances for yacht sales and charters as well as payments to hundreds of suppliers.

Added to that, a large marketing department is constantly trying to think of new, creative ways to sell superyachts. They have multiple events such as Boat Shows to organise, and have specialists researching lead generation, SEO, and PPC results. 

Our Intelligence department is constantly updating information so that brokers know of the latest prices and locations of yachts, new yachts to the market, and vessels that have been sold. An IT department is developing tools that the company can benefit from, and a crew department is looking for placements for positions on yachts.

This doesn’t even cover half of the presentations that are covered in the AGM. Yacht brokerage is a complex, exciting, and growing business.

The message that I wanted to bring to you in this newsletter is one that I have mentioned a few times before, but it is important. One of the biggest challenges that the yachting industry faces is finding new, talented, and effective brokers. Sure, there are over 2000 yacht brokers worldwide, but the number of yacht brokers who are consistently bringing in business, converting leads into sales, and bringing in commission year after year are very few. 

In my opinion there are at least three reasons for this; 

- many of the world’s greatest yacht brokers are now close to retirement and no longer have the energy and passion they once had.

- young yacht brokers are often more interested in the lifestyle than the real work of selling yachts

- there is a dire lack of training available for new yacht brokers.

This results in a wonderful opportunity for you. Take a look at the yacht broker masterclass, watch the various videos I have produced about “breaking in to brokerage”, and maybe 2024 will be the year that you become a much needed addition to the yachting industry.

A talented yacht broker!