ABYA CHAIRMAN UPDATES - OCTOBER 2023 NEWSLETTER
Published: 31 October 2023
Code of Conduct
As you will have seen, your ABYA Committee in association with LA Marine Law, Winter & Co, and Stoneways Insurance, have been working on a new Code of Conduct for all ABYA Brokers.
The new Code of Conduct has been developed and written in such a way as to try and supply a day-to-day guide for both new and experienced brokers. In particular, it aims to try and guide brokers through what are becoming more stringent anti-money laundering rules and regulations and in particular the need to evidence where your purchaser has sourced their funds from.
The Code of Conduct has now been agreed and we are currently putting together a series of 1-hour webinars which will be rolled out in the first months of 2024.
Every ABYA Broker will have to attend a Code of Conduct webinar before March 1st 2024.
Please look out for these dates over the coming weeks and make sure you book your place.
Yachtworld
Our Chairman’s email inbox has been inundated with emails from very disgruntled Yachtworld ABYA Brokers who have been advised that over the coming months they will see anything between 100% and 300% increase in their monthly fees. The quality of the recent changes to the Yachtworld platform has resulted in brokers not being able to find their listings on the Yachtworld website.
One broker also reported that they are being asked to pay a 250% increase in fees, but has not had a single lead generated from Yachtworld for over 2 months, according to their Yachtworld ‘Leads Dashboard’.
When our Chairman spoke to Yachtworld, the message was very clear. In summary, Yachtworld said: “We have a multitude of different tariffs and discounts that have been negotiated and agreed over a significant number of years and it’s time to reset the marketplace.”
Yachtworld seem to have accepted that they will lose several of its very loyal customers that have stood by them during their IT issues, poor performance in the past and, promises on a new CRM system which they have not delivered.
Yachtworld have refused to publish its new global tariff saying that it wants to work with brokers that wish to stay on a suitable package. Again, from the information provided you come away with the feeling that to get your fees anywhere near manageable you will have to accept lower functionality, lower levels of advertising and, significant less access to useful data including soldboats.com.
ABYA Chairman, Peter Norris said: “Whilst Yachtworld has been the key platform for many over the years, maybe it’s time to revisit the other marketing platforms that are available and maybe look at focusing what you would have spent on the new Yachtworld on other forms of on-line marketing including social media.”
