As a general rule, powerboat dealerships do not share. On the contrary, as direct competitors they tend to silo. They’re not exactly mortal enemies. But they’re also not exactly cherished friends.

With its intriguing new Powered By Performance collaborative dealership program, Performance Boat Center is breaking that traditional mold. The Osage Beach, Mo.-headquartered company has brought on WMF Watercraft and Marine of Cape Coral, Fla., as its first dealer-partner.

WMF Watercraft and Marine will one Sunsation 32 CCX center console in its land-based display and another at the docks and available for demos at the Fort Myers Boat Show this weekend.

As part of the new arrangement, WMF has two 32-foot center consoles from Sunsation Boats, one of three lines carried by Performance Boat Center, at the Fort Myers Boat Show this weekend in Southwest Florida.

Mark Waddington, who co-owns Performance Boat Center with Brett Manire, explained the Powered By Performance program.

“The whole thing is about partnerships with other dealers where they didn’t exist,” he said. “Powered By Performance is about sharing inventory, parts, tech, event planning and execution and more. The sales staff from each dealership also can sell the other’s inventory, which creates added incentive and makes for a more enjoyable but still competitive sales environment.

WMF Watercraft and Marine has plenty of space for new inventory at its Cape Coral facility.

“Powerboat dealerships typically ‘put walls’ around themselves—they don’t help each other and they don’t’ help each other’s customers,” he continued. “That leads to a dealership-focused experienced. With the Powered By Performance program, we are creating a customer-focused experience. The basic idea is that we are going to share everything in our ‘cave,’ and you, as a dealer-partner, are going to share everything in your cave. If a tech at WMF, for example, has a problem he’s struggling to solve, he can reach out to our tech department for help.”

Second only to the Lake of the Ozarks in Central Missouri, Southwest Florida is the hottest go-fast boating market in the country. But until Performance Boat Center began its collaboration with WMF, the dealership had no presence in the region.

Now it does.

“We own the boats and WMF will sells and services them,” Manire explained. “Southwest Florida is a huge market, but until now we had no direct representation there. We’ve increased our presence in South Florida and, obviously, we’re very strong at the lake. But we needed to expand to the Southwest Florida market.”

The owner of WMF Watercraft and Marine, Bill Forenski said he is delighted and optimistic about the new arrangement.

“I have always wanted to sell performance-boat lines in Southwest Florida,” said Forenski “Mark Waddington, Brett and I spoke and I this gives us something performance-oriented to sell.

“Our Powered By Performance partnership is still evolving, but I am really excited about it,” he added. “I think it benefits everybody.”