It has been a little over 6 months since Daniela Petrozzi began her role as Sales Director for Benetti Yachts. Daily Nautica interviews this professional who has years of experience in the industry and in particular in the dynamics of the Benetti brand, after working for twenty years for the shipyard. We spoke about a number of topics with Ms Petrozzi during our interview: from the objectives that guide her actions, to the characteristics of new Benetti clients and her opinion on the role of women in the boating industry. Enjoy!

Ms Petrozzi, from 1 June you have taken on the role of Sales Director for Benetti: can you share with us the main objectives which guide you?

“The main objective I follow in my role is to continue guiding this successful brand guaranteeing our clients are provided with our excellent products, which we achieve by working with some of the best designers in the world. My work, alongside that of my colleges in the sales department is to therefore consolidate those areas of the market where we are present and expand in others. For example, we have recently participated in the first edition of the Qatar Boat Show, reinforcing our presence in the Middle East where there is a growing number of potential clients, as well as marinas which are signs that encourage us to invest even more in the area.”

You have had a long career in the industry and worked for Benetti for twenty years. Is the fact that you have advanced in your career inside the shipyard an added value?

“Absolutely. Having grown in the company and having covered a number of strategic roles is a significant added value because I was able to work in fundamental aspects within the company that help in my current role. For started, I started working as Project Manager for over 10 years, and this time helped me truly get to know the product well, as well as the commercial elements of managing a contract, a mandatory thing to know in order to move onto my next role in the sales office where I worked as Sales Coordinator, contributing to reorganising the sales department to make it more efficient and accommodating for the market. This experience helped me to fully understand the dynamics in every department. And this helped me learn to dialogue and negotiate while easily manoeuvring within the business’s dynamics.”

Over the years, how has the market changed? What are the characteristics of today’s Benetti client?

“Today’s yacht owners are certainly younger, more informed and connected. Nowadays, the overage age of a yacht owner is 54 years old and 20% of the vessels purchased over the past 5 years belong to owners under 50. The new generations have a number of channels to interact directly and this makes our relationship with our buyers more dynamic and less formal compared to the past. Today’s client wants to enjoy the excitement of fulfilling their dream of purchasing a superyacht, projecting their lifestyle into a new way of enjoying the sea.”

I’m going to ask you the same question in a different way. Over the years, how has, if it has, Benetti Yachts changed in the way they approach the market?

For many years Benetti has adopted a ‘client-centric’ approach because the yachts we make are made specifically for each client, with the quality and design that characterise our brand. Benetti creates trends that yacht owners love, one example is the success of the Oasis Deck, but we expect a lot from the recent innovations we presented at Monaco, like the Veranda Deck for the Motopanfilo 45M, the new B.LOFT 65M which marks a revolution in layout, and the B.YOND, the greenest line for the brand. In order to support new market demands, Benetti have adopted a more dynamic approach in like with evolving trends. For example, during the post-Covid boom, Benetti was able to take advantage of the opportunities thanks to the solid organisation of the Sales Department,”

It is often said that the boating industry is male-dominated. Do you think that’s the case? Is it still hard for a female professional to have a successful career in the industry?

“Personally, I believe in the skills of the individual, independently from their gender. However, until now, the boating industry has been dominated mostly by men, but as we have seen with the president of the Azimut Benetti Group, Giovanna Vitelli, recently nominated entrepreneur of the year in the twenty-seventh edition of the  “EY L’Imprenditore dell’Anno“ award, times are changing. Indeed, now in Benetti there are a number of young women in strategic roles, for example in marketing management, among the project managers, the managers of the Style Department in Viareggio and Livorno and the legal department,”

What would you say to young female professionals starting in the workforce?

“Today’s young professionals certainly have an easier path than in the past, but they also have more responsibility. They are inheriting the hard work of many other women and the vision of companies, like Benetti, who have been able to give people their right value. So to the young women starting work I advise that you be consistent professionals but also mentally flexible so that you can take advantages of opportunities as they present themselves. In any case, never forget a touch of femininity.”