Salesmanship

Show Off The RV LifeStyle To Your Friends And Families

An American Crisis
Time to Spend With Families

Our society is crying out for more time to relax and more time with their families. We have the perfect vehicle to reunite the family and bring everyone closer together -- and many don't know the RV industry exists, or at least, view it as a viable solution.

Several employee studies show that the people are willing to give up pay raises and promotions so that they can spend more time with their families. It's an American crisis and we have a solution that we should be introducing them to at every opportunity.

If they are not ready to buy an RV, then let's at least get them into our campgrounds and resorts so that they can see what the rest of us get all excited about.

The RV industry has a tremendous marketing tool that is not taken advantage of enough to create new interest in a family-oriented outdoor experience. I'm speaking of the camping cabins that are being built in many campgrounds and RV resorts throughout the USA and Canada. Trailer rentals are also included in this category and more campgrounds are including this option in their brochures this year.

This is a wonderful way to introduce the RV lifestyle to friends and relatives who may never have been camping, or who may have had a bad experience earlier in life that has caused them to avoid RVs.

You don't have to own a trailer, fifth-wheel or motorhome to enjoy the outdoors.

If prospects never realize the benefit of an outdoor vacation in an RV then they may never own one.

If we can introduce these prospects to the RV lifestyle via the camping cabin then we have taken the first step to bringing them to a dealer lot to learn more about RVs.

Let's face it, while staying at a camping cabin -- in a campground or RV resort -- they are going to see plenty of RVs and talk to plenty of RVers. They will become curious about the lifestyle and will have an opportunity to interact with new friends and meet families who are enjoying the time of their life while vacationing in their RV.

When you hear about people making vacation plans, do you ever suggest that they consider taking the family camping and renting a camping cabin instead of a hotel room?

Would you rather wake up looking at four walls or four trees? Would you rather hear the running water in the shower of the room next door or the tranquil melodic sound of water flowing over rocks in the neighboring brook?

Would you like to sit in your hotel room, eat pizza and read a book or would you rather throw a fish or steak on the grill and relax with your favorite beverage while socializing with new friends or family.

Let's spread the word. You can enjoy RVing without even owning an RV, and many people don't have the slightest idea that this option is available to them.

We know from experience that people like RVing, once they understand it.

We know from experience that families really do want to spend more time together, especially in today's hectic home/work environments we all are subjected to.

Here are some suggestions on how you can help to introduce more people to the RV lifestyle through the camping cabin and on to your dealer lot.

Family vacations
Several families can vacation together at a campground. The family that owns the RV simply invites other family members to join them and they rent the camping cabin. They are not in the bedroom down the hall in your house or the room next door in your motel.

Everybody gets to enjoy the campground activities, tour local attractions, and enjoy family dinners over the campfire.

Traveling across the country
After graduating from college this year, my oldest daughter is going to travel cross-country with friends for about six weeks before settling into the working world. I have suggested that instead of hotels and motels along the highway, they should consider camping cabins and back roads.

This is an inexpensive and enjoyable way to visit the many attractions and areas of the country that they will see on this journey. They can travel without ever having to spend a penny in an over-rated hotel room that you only wind up sleeping in for a few hours.

Campgrounds afford their guests the opportunity to arrive early, relax, get a good night's rest, and then ease them into the next day with breakfast under the trees before continuing the journey.

These will be memorable times that just might convince some of them to join the RV lifestyle later in life. The important thing is that the enjoyment seed has been planted early and will continue to grow until they one day visit your dealership to make an investment in the RV lifestyle.

Local promotions between dealer and campground
Many people visit your dealership each month that are investigating the RV lifestyle. If they don't buy something from you, do you just let them walk away without ever giving them the chance to experience the RV lifestyle?

What if you have a free drawing every month for a one or two night stay at a local campground in a camping cabin or rental trailer?

Find out if they own an RV. If they don't, then you enter them in your monthly drawing for the chance to experience the RV lifestyle and take their family away for the weekend and spend it outdoors. Let them enter the drawing every month if they want to. If they are entering the drawing every month, then they are visiting your dealership every month.

Sooner or later, they are going to buy an RV if we are all doing our job the right way.

The secret is in the exposure. Get more people out of their homes and into the campgrounds and resorts.

Pay for their camping experience
When was the last time you saw one of your sales reps showing that thick campground directory to a prospective customer? Probably never.

Why not?

Are you still selling RVs or have you started to sell the lifestyle?

If you are selling the lifestyle, then introducing them to the directory will show them the vast selection of campgrounds and RV resorts that are located in the vicinity of their next planned vacation. Show them the campground ads and the amenities each has to offer.

If they are not ready to buy the RV yet, tell them that they should try a camping vacation and if they come back and visit the dealership and buy an RV from you, then deduct the cost of the campground fee from the selling price of the RV.

It didn't cost you anything until they purchased an RV from you, but you got them to try the lifestyle.

It's a numbers game. The more people you expose to the product, the more people buy.

Our product is the RV experience not the trailer or motorhome. Sell the benefits of the lifestyle and introduce your prospects to it anyway that you can.

KOA and Kamping Kabins™
Check out the KOA web site (www.koakampgrounds.com) and show your prospects how they can travel throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico and stay at Kamping Kabins on the entire journey. Show them the proximity to National Parks, theme parks, historical sites, and major cities.

Contact your local KOA campgrounds and work up some joint promotions that will increase the traffic to the dealership and allow people to learn about the RV lifestyle through a KOA vacation.

Family reunions
Families are trying to find more ways to spend time together. They are also planning a lot of family reunions so that the family history can be passed on to future generations. Each year thousands of families gather throughout the country to meet with their relatives and share life experiences and meet new family members.

If the families from out of state rented camping cabins instead of motel rooms, they would be surrounded by other families who are already experiencing the RV lifestyle and some of them are bound to be curious and will want to learn more about it.

Employee training
How many of your sales reps actually participate in the RV lifestyle? I know many sales people who sell RVs who have never actually been camping -- even worse; they don't even own an RV.

I won't hire a sales rep that doesn't own his or her own computer. We have to use computers in our business. We have to know how they work, and what happens when they don't work.

We have to use them to demonstrate our products to our prospects and customers and we have to use them in many aspects of our business.

Why should it be any different at an RV dealership?

If your sales rep doesn't own an RV, then do they really understand the business from the customer's viewpoint and not the commission viewpoint.

Don't get me wrong, I like commissions -- but I also like to make sure that I am serving my customer's requirements and not just selling for the sake of selling something.

If your sales rep doesn't go camping, then they will never know what the people who buy the product are saying about the product or the lifestyle.

The more we know about our customers, the better we are able to serve them.

Set up a program with a local campground and let your employees experience the RV lifestyle first hand so that they will have an appreciation for the people who pay their salary -- the customers who purchase your products.

Introduce your prospects to the RV lifestyle through camping cabins and rental trailers and you may find that many of them will return to do business with you. Now wouldn't that be a pleasant experience!

An American crisis? Not if we do our part to educate as many as possible about the RV lifestyle.

Good luck and good selling.

RVN