A complete course in relationship-driven, high-value repower selling: listen and diagnose, prescribe as care, sell certainty and outcomes, manage the build relationship, and turn every repower into recurring service and referrals.
Before you start
A complete consultative-sales course for high-end, relationship-driven repower work. Each chapter is a full lesson — objectives, the why, what to say, and the consultative move — mapped to a real moment in the sale, ending with a check. An in-depth final exam unlocks your ESI certificate. The original Yanmar slide decks are a separate supplement.
Diagnose before you prescribe; sell certainty and outcomes, never price.
Reference Docs A & B and the estimate form launch from the relevant chapters.
The repower starts a relationship — recurring service and referrals.
Chapter 1
A customer is on the dock, on the phone, or in the showroom.
High-end, repeat customers do not want to be sold to — they want an expert who listens and tells them the truth. Your first job is not to pitch the 4JH-CR; it's to become the person they trust with the boat they love. That posture is what turns one repower into a decade of service work and referrals.
Introduce yourself and ESI as the authorized Yanmar dealer — quiet authority, not a sales pitch. Then get curious about them. Ask how they use the boat, where they cruise, what they love about the boat, what's been nagging at them. Aim to listen far more than you talk.
Catch the cues a repower is on their mind: rising frustration with reliability, talk of a big trip or keeping the boat "for the long haul," worry about being let down offshore, or simply "it's getting tired." Those are openings — note them, don't pounce on them.
Close the first conversation by giving them a clear path: either the start of an estimate, or a concrete plan to get one (a measurement visit, the information you need). They leave feeling heard and guided — not sold.
Chapter 2
Turning interest into a real, well-understood project.
Discovery is where consultative selling is won. You're not collecting specs — you're helping the customer understand their own situation more clearly than they did before they spoke to you. Do that well and they sell themselves.
Move from facts to feeling. Start with the situation (boat, engine, use), surface the problems (reliability, corrosion, parts availability, fuel, noise), then gently draw out the implications: a missed season, a ruined charter week, worry with family aboard, a softening resale value.
Name corrosion and parts availability explicitly — they're often the real reasons and they reframe the decision from "want" to "need." An engine that can't be supported with parts is a permanent downtime risk; corrosion is a moving deadline.
Collect vessel, current engine, drive type and usage, and a drivetrain snapshot. The cleaner the intake, the faster and more accurate the estimate that comes back from Yanmar / YMI.
Chapter 3
Proving you're the expert they should trust.
With a discerning buyer, competence and candor are your two best tools. Showing you understand exactly what the job involves — and being straight about what you still need to confirm — earns the trust that makes every later recommendation believable.
Explain plainly that engine footprints don't carry across generations, so fit and side clearances must be measured, not assumed. That single piece of expertise signals you've done this before.
If the fit is tight or ambiguous, say so and bring in a technician for a site visit. Reaching for the right expertise is a strength, not a weakness — and it protects the customer from a bad surprise.
Chapter 4
Recommending the right full scope — as care, not as add-ons.
A repower touches the whole drivetrain. The consultative seller prescribes what the job genuinely needs and explains why — never tacks on extras. Done right, the customer feels cared for, not sold to.
Recommend the complete package — new gearbox (our standard), GLIDE seal and cutless, fresh mounts, shaft and coupler attention, the right prop pitch — and tie each to an outcome: reliability, a dry bilge, smoothness, years without worry.
Be clear which job it is. Saildrive (e.g. SD60): replace the hull diaphragm, focus on corrosion and bonding. Propshaft: coupler, GLIDE seal and cutless, alignment, prop pitch. Quoting the right path is part of being the expert.
Chapter 5
Walking the customer through the number — and where the value really sits.
A repower estimate has two parts: the engine & parts package, priced by Yanmar / YMI (our distributor), and ESI's labor — the installation. The labor is the largest line and it is where the value lives. The engine costs about the same wherever you buy it; what the customer is really buying is who installs it, and to what standard.
If a customer fixates on the engine's sticker, gently move them: the engine is a known quantity — it's the easy part. What actually determines whether they get ten worry-free seasons is the install. That install is the labor, and it's the main price point.
The engine/parts pricing comes back from YMI from your intake; ESI quotes the labor and the value-adds. Present them as one coherent investment in a properly repowered boat — value first, figure second.
The labor figure is never guessed at the dock — it comes from a technician's visit to the vessel. A 4JH-CR repower typically runs 80–120 hours of labor, depending on access, the drivetrain work and the value-adds. Your job is to set up that visit and present the number as what it is: a real assessment of real work, by the person who'll do it.
Chapter 6
De-risking the decision for a high-value buyer.
For a premium customer, hassle and uncertainty are scarier than cost. Warranty, the dealer network, and proper registration are how you sell certainty.
Chapter 7
Differentiating on craftsmanship — and the labor-driven upsells.
This is where the relationship — and a good part of the labor value — is cemented. You win a discerning customer by describing concretely how you do the work, then offering the value-adds the open engine bay makes possible.
We don't just drop an engine in — we commission it properly and include the initial break-in service and the first oil change(s) up front. The engine leaves running right, checked and documented.
Chapter 8
Advising on what they'll want next — before they ask.
Anticipating needs is advisor behaviour. While the engine bay is open, the smart move is to set the customer up for a modern lithium house bank — now or whenever they're ready.
Recommend a high-capacity, externally regulated alternator at install. It's what makes a future LiFePO4 house bank straightforward and safe (external regulation protects the alternator if the lithium BMS disconnects).
Chapter 9
Proactive communication on a big, anxious purchase.
A repower is a large, emotional purchase. The build period is not downtime in the relationship — it's where trust is either built or lost. Silence breeds anxiety; proactive updates build loyalty.
Update the customer at least weekly through the cycle: removal → order placed → shipping → preparing → installing. Speak credibly to the work — the gearbox comes off first, the engine lifts by crane or derrick, then alignment.
For customers who commit early, the timeline compresses — engine availability, scheduling priority, and pre-ordering long-lead parts (gearbox, shaft, GLIDE seal/cutless, paint). Offer it as a benefit of moving now.
Chapter 10
Delivering an experience that earns the referral.
The handover is the experience the customer remembers and repeats to friends. We ensure everything works before they take the keys — start, charging, controls, panel/DTCs, cooling, sea trial.
Hand over a clean boat, walk them through the new system, and set the follow-up plan. The bar isn't "it works" — it's "that was the best yard experience I've had."
Chapter 11
Where recurring revenue actually comes from.
High-end, recurring revenue isn't won at the close — it's won after it. The repower is the start of a relationship that should produce service work, the next project, and introductions to a high-value network.
Set a follow-up cadence and service reminders (the break-in oil change, then the intervals). Be the yard that remembers them before they remember the service is due.
Final certification
A short check ran at the end of each chapter. Pass this final at 80% to unlock your certificate.
Record: stern tube (bore/OD, length); shaft diameter (vernier, several points) and length to the back of the coupler (selects GLIDE GMS vs GMSS); coupler type/bolt pattern; cutless ID×OD×length.
| Check | Standard / rule |
|---|---|
| Shaft straightness | ABYC P-6-2021 / Aqualoy table by length (run the Shaft Go/No-Go tool) |
| Surface | GLIDE lip seal needs a smooth shaft; scored/pitted → replace |
| Cutless | ID×OD×length; length ≈ 4× shaft dia; ~1 mm play = plan replace, ~2 mm max |
| GLIDE seal | GMS vs GMSS by length to coupler; fit with the supplied tool (warranty) |
Footprints differ by generation — measure, don't assume. Record the bay envelope, side clearances and service access; compare to the 4JH-CR footprint (gearbox/saildrive adds length).
| Model | Aspiration | Approx width | Approx ht f/centre | Dry wt |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4JH45/57-CR | NA | 588 mm | 459 mm | 220 kg |
| 4JH80/110-CR | Turbo | 613 mm | 473 mm | 229 kg |
Approximate, OCR-derived — verify against current Yanmar outline drawings.