Salesmanship

It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood . . .  So why are you trying to sell RV's a thousand miles away?

Let's face it, most of us wouldn't qualify as a replacement for Fred Rogers on television, but there is something to be said for the "neighborhood."

It's amazing how stubborn, confusing, and difficult we can make the sales profession when it comes to finding new business opportunities -- even more so, when it's close to where we actually do business.

The majority of RV dealers are not organizations that span the country with full page color advertisements in consumer publications or attempt to sell nationwide with a backroom operation of telesales people who are driven only by calls and commissions and could care less about customer service or long-term relationships.

Competition is your daily dose of reality when you get out of bed in the morning. It only takes one cup of coffee or a cold glass of orange juice to make you understand that each day is a new adventure and challenge to grow the most important line in your business -- the bottom line.

Net profit.

How much money do you have left over at the end of the day, week, month and year? Growing the bottom line is the very reason you are in business.

Successful companies have a business plan that calls for controlled growth that does not stretch the limits of their human resources or financial capabilities.

What's the best way to do that? Close to home and in the neighborhood.

That doesn't mean you restrict your activity to a one-mile radius from your dealership. It could mean several counties or even several states -- whatever it is, it should be manageable and totally within your control.

Take a trip to your State Department or Registry of Motor Vehicles and purchase a listing of all the trailers and motorhomes in your so-called neighborhood. You are going to be surprised at the number they have listed and even more surprised to find out who sold them.

Hopefully, many of them came from your dealership. However, like many other industries, you are going to find that many of them came from your competition.

The bad news is that you lost the sale. The good news is that you have a new prospect close to home.

Sales people love to sell to the problem customer or the one who is farthest away from their desk -- it must be a basic instinct in order to qualify for any sales position.

How many sales did you miss in your own neighborhood?

By the way, we all make the same mistake. I'm not trying to throw stones from an ivory tower or glass-walled office building. My sales people do it also.

In fact, I had to fire a sales rep a few years ago because he was told to call on the company next door to our company. Why did I fire him?

We are not on a main street -- in fact, you have to go down a long side street to get to our 50,000 square foot warehouse and office complex. Right next door to our building is a mechanical contracting company. This type of business must have engineering and construction drawings. We sell equipment to copy, scan and/or microfilm large format drawings. We also stock the supplies for the equipment we sell. We also have fifteen factory-trained technicians that service the equipment we sell. This is an ideal prospect for the type of business we are in.

I had hired an experienced sales rep who had worked for one of our manufacturers. He knew the business. He understood the technology. He just didn't know how to sell.

For several months I would ask him if he had called on this company -- which he had to drive by every time he came into the office, and every time he left the office.

One day, when he again said no to my question, I told him to get his briefcase -- we were going to make a cold call. When we got outside he went straight for his automobile. He jumped into the drivers seat and seemed confused when I didn't get into the vehicle.

I told him to get out because we were going to walk to the prospect's building.

He still had no idea where I was going to take him!

We walked into the mechanical contractor's office and made a true cold call. It wasn't pretty.

We found out that this was the largest mechanical contractor in Massachusetts -- doing in excess of $ 35,000,000 in sales each year. We also found out that they did indeed have a building full of engineering drawings and had just recently purchased a new engineering copier.

We were then told that they purchased the same product we sell, but purchased it from a competitor who was over 50 miles away.

The competitor found the time to find the prospect that was right next door to our building, but we didn't.

The company had no idea what type of business we were in and couldn't even remember having one of our sales rep make a sales call at the company.

We had $ 500,000 worth of supplies in our building for the machine they had purchased, but were getting them from a company 50 miles away.

What's wrong with this picture?

Do you think our competitor had fun telling this story at their next sales meeting? I know I sure would have.

Do you think our competitor had fun telling this story to the manufacturer's representative? I know I sure would have.

Do you think our competitor sold any other machines close to our building? I'm sure they have.

The moral of the story is that no matter how good we think we are; no matter how successful we may be in our chosen business; no matter how much money we spend on marketing and advertising; we are all missing business right in our own backyard and neighborhood.

How many of you have taken the time to get that listing of RV owners in the states you cover?

Hopefully, if you have, you have entered those names into your contact management program or dealer-specific RV management software so that you know who they are, and where they are.

You can't spend too much time worrying about the ones that you lost because the argument can be made that you were selling somebody else and the business is doing quite well. And, in most cases, you would be right.

But -- you can't just write-off the ones that you lost the last time around and must develop programs that will keep them in the neighborhood next time around. That's where effective management comes in.

Find out who they are. They are not that hard to find -- in fact, it's a lot easier than the business I'm in. I wish we could go to a source that would tell me the people who use my product and whom they purchased it from. Life should be so easy. We don't find out about the ones we lost until we walk through the door of a prospect and/or customer.

You have the ability to purchase listings of known users of your products and services. This listing provides you with prospects for your future RV sales, your factory-trained service technicians, and your parts and accessories store. You can simply drive around the neighborhood and take an inventory of all the RV's parked in driveways -- it's not something they can take inside the house at night .

Oh yes, we lose sales to existing customers also because we didn't let them know about new products or services that could benefit their companies. We all do it.

Sales professionals must continually review their activities and get back to the basics that have made all types of sales people successful in the past. Every once in awhile we need to be reminded that we are not doing the simple things, and often the most obvious, that can increase sales and profits with a lot less effort than we are currently expending on other matters.

Build up a database of local prospects and customers and start to work it with diligence. Give them reasons to visit your dealership.

Let them know when you have new models to showcase and keep them in the neighborhood.

Let them know when you have specials in the parts and accessories store and keep them in the neighborhood.

Let them know that you can handle their service requirements and keep them in the neighborhood.

Give people a reason to stay in the neighborhood.

We can all learn a lesson from the swimming pool industry. Like RV's, it easy to find out who has a swimming pool. You can check the local building permits and tax records or you can drive around the neighborhood.

I have a pool. The company that put it in almost twenty years ago is no longer in business. Every Spring I get at least four or five mailings from companies willing to open the pool and sell me the chemicals for the swimming season. Every Fall I get more mailings on pool closing specials and winterizing chemicals. Most companies offer similar programs and are all in the same price range. So who gets the business? Why the guy in the neighborhood of course.

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood -- go see how much business you can develop out there.

Good luck and good selling.

RVN