Give EM Some Respect, Eh	Back to the Current Issue Back to Features
The RV salesperson’s side of the story by Murray J. Jackson

It’s high time the public heard our side of the story.

“Why don’t you write an article about us?” urged my sales colleagues one tiring day.

“OK, OK,” was my reluctant reply while wondering if readers would actually believe any of it. But, here we go anyway.

“WHAT, that sticker price includes taxes too, doesn’t it? The salesperson never told us it didn’t!”

Well readers, this is just one of a thousand things buyers will try in the business office. It is also one of the thousand things the salesperson (SPN henceforth) gets blamed for.

Like, “Where is our SPN anyway?” The couple had been in once and had booked Saturday at 10:00 AM for a demo drive. They show up at 2:00 PM in the afternoon and expect the SPN to be sitting waiting. To my tally, only 10 percent of the buying public keep their times or appointments with an RV dealership. Yet, they’d sure not want that done to them.

Your penman spent a few months in RV sales before heading south for the 97/98 winter. What an eye-opener! The first thing observed was that a high percentage of the buying public work to avoid an SPN on the sales lot. Why is this! I do not know for sure, but maybe they fear being pressured into the wrong RV. My lengthy experience as a buyer and short experience as an SPN contradicts this assumption. Most SPNs are very knowledgeable about their product lines and RVs in general. They truly like assisting and informing, but too seldom get the opportunity to do so. Take advantage, ask for their help, rather than browsing twenty units and leaving confused.

Those of you who have visited RV dealerships in the USA will have immediately sensed the difference in approach there. In an interesting little book by American JD Gallant, entitled How To Buy An RV Without Getting Ripped Off, the salesperson is called Smoothy throughout. There, buying an RV is like a battle against the big bad wolf; the buyer being Little Red Riding Hood. Or at least he paints that picture throughout. True enough, they do many things differently in the land of Uncle Sam.

“Why isn’t my new RV ready today?” demands the loud voice on the phone the next morning.

“Well sir, it’s June, the shop is in overload, but I’ll sure call you the moment it’s ready.”

Does the shop, the season and the purchaser’s unreasonable expectations get the blame? Uh Uh, it’s the SPN who gets it on the eardrum.

Next thing. Buyers of used units invariably expect the dealer to put it into virtually new condition. Fine, so on the purchase form a number of fix-it items are written down by the SPN. The General Sales Manager is finally convinced after two long tries and agrees to the offer presented. Next day purchaser is back in combing through the unit and pressuring the SPN that six more things get done as well. We can’t, it was not in the agreement. Who gets the blame for being disagreeable? Only one guess allowed.

A keen looking couple drive in the gate and an SPN responds. Yes they’d sure like to buy one of our X-brand RVs. But first, how much is their trade-in worth, they want to know? So the SPN does a presentation, goes through the write-up and prevails upon the busy Sales Manager to do an appraisal right now. Now we’re ready to deal, or are we? They want to go uptown to think it over, drive off and are never heard from again. They’re the professional browsers who get multiple appraisals just for the sake of doing so. A phone call reveals they drove back home up-country and bought there. Or sold it privately back there and quit RVing for awhile. All of this takes away the SPN’s time, patience, and sense of humour to boot. The phone rings and it is someone who inherited grandpa’s RV, wants to sell it privately and what’s it worth? At 200 miles distance it’s tough for an SPN to do an appraisal. When the SPN cannot provide an exact dollar figure, the caller disparages the dealership and abruptly hangs up; click. True story. Both above types of appraisals are asked for quite often, especially in peak season when the yard is full of customers.

Many buyers are either new to RVing, or buy a more complex rig than the one previously owned. They require a thorough show-and-tell presentation of all the systems at delivery time. Again, that is the job for the SPN. Helping with the hitch-up and going through everything can take anywhere from half an hour to half a day, depending on many factors. This takes the SPN away from his/her primary role. One tiny request. If you brought the wife and three kids along when buying, please leave them home when taking delivery. That way the SPN’s instructions will be audible and more of it will be remembered. It will also do wonders for the SPN’s nerves. There’s still more. SPN’s work a rotating shift and do get days off. Sometimes two days in a row. Often they try to schedule your delivery at your convenience, even if it is on their day off. All of which means they do not get many days off. Now knowing this, they fully appreciate if you do not demand delivery at 9:00 PM Saturday evening in July on the SPN’s day off. And no excuse is suitable if the SPN has to phone at 9:30 PM that evening to enquire about your no-show.

Now then, in contrast there are people who like advice and full guidance from the SPN. They are attentive, they listen, they’re earnest nice folks. Their trade-in is at home twenty miles away, so we go out for an appraisal. Finally, we close a deal and it took over half a day. Oh yes, they also want financing, ten years worth. Fine, the business office looks after that and the credit checking as well. Everyone’s happy. Three days later, a sober manager calls in the SPN and says, sorry but those folks have no credit rating whatsoever. All their plastic cards are up to the limit and they’re missing payments. How would you feel as an SPN after all that?

Awh, heck, try another case. The buyer has a trade-in on the unit to be purchased. The deal gets concluded and the buyer is in a hurry to be off home on the weekend many miles away.

Comes Monday and the business manager discovers an unpaid lien against the trade-in. Phoning goes on. The unit can only be brought back at some late night off-hour and be met. More phoning and an SPN gets sworn at; not a nice buyer. The whole affair costs the SPN a lot of time, trouble and lost sales opportunities; all for absolutely no commission at all.

Ah yes, next comes the buyer of a new fiver who needs to have the axles flipped on the trailer. This raises the unit up about four inches to help match the height of his 4X4 truck. At delivery time the buyer creates a great fuss that the rear stabilizers are now too short. Implying of course that it is the SPN’s fault for not supplying the longer more expensive ones as part of the deal. Buyer asks the installed price of the bigger ones. When told the price, there is considerable complaining that that’s totally unreasonable and the SPN gets the blame for that too. None of that was raised at the time of purchase. Then there is the buyer from another province who pays cash and wants us to store the new unit for two months. No problem, we will. One week later comes the call. The buyer wants the money back. Why? Many stories get supplied, but finally the buyer admits it is the relatives who are pressing that a local purchase be made. Guess what happened to the SPN’s commission when the cheque was sent back.

This is only a tiny sample of what happens.

In virtually all Canadian dealerships I know of, the SPN does not have authority to bargain or approve the final selling price. That role belongs to the Sales Manager. Such being the case, the SPN is not in cahoots when up to see the Manager. Your SPN is trying his or her level best to get the best deal for the buyer. No deal, no commission. They work hard on your behalf, yes they really do.

Many people think SPNs are rolling in dough. Well, I know of a case where a SPN sold the very same trailer three times over. That’s right, three times running none of his would-be buyers could get the financing required. Imagine having to tell his family that one after a two-week dry spell. Zero earning dry spells can run up to a month or more. And that’s a fact. It even makes one wonder that there are any SPNs out there at all. Their job is constantly stressful, yet they persist time after time trying to provide the utmost in service to whoever walks in. In return, all they ask for is a little consideration from the RV shopper at large. Remember, they too are trying hard to earn an honest living. It’s no easy job.

So the least you can do is like the man said, just give them a little respect eh, the next time in. It costs very little to do so.