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Video Transcript for “Tips for Attending an RV Show | Pete's RV Buyer Info”
Phil: Cougar, Outback, Sprinter, Chad it's show season. I'm confused. I'm looking at
all these vehicles. What do I do here? Chad: You're a 100% right. We uh, show season
is here. A lot of RVs are bought at show season, and a lot of people go to shows and they don't
know what they're looking for. They get confused, don't know what to buy. You're exactly right.
If things start looking the same, you probably went to a show this weekend, and before you
know it all the RVs start looking the same. Phil: Well I'm losing my hair over it. (laughs)
Chad: I do the same as well. Hey guys, just for two seconds, let's just take a minute
here. I'm gonna take off my Pete's RV name tag. And uh, we're gonna look at ... And I
say this to you as a shopper not as a salesperson here. There's things you can do to go to a
show to get your best deal on an RV, and also at the same time make sure you get the RV
you want. Phil has been around the RV business for a
long time now. And you came from outside the RV industry, so when you came here and started
looking at RVs everybody has got the best deal. I think you can agree to that when you
go to a show, or they say they got the best deal.
Phil: Well it's very con ... You know this is a very concentrated time show season one
is about eight weeks, twelve weeks? Chad: Yeah.
Phil: Right around there, and all of a sudden consumers are just getting bamboozled. Not
only to come to our shows, but everybody gets the best price, they get the newest everything,
and it's very easy for consumers who have an idea of what they want to get distracted
and potentially end up with something that they don't really want.
Chad: We see it. We have people that are trading in 2012 trailers that they bought at a show
last season. I see it every day. Let's take two seconds. I feel in three minute or four
minutes here I can educate you guys enough so you can see before you go to the show.
The normal buyer that thinks they've done their research [02:01] they look at their
tow rating. They decide on a family budget before they go to the show, whether it'd be
monthly or a cash price. And in their minds they kinda, if they're
questionable on credit sometimes they get pre-approved. And that's the buyer that really
thinks they've done their homework, but there's a lot more to it than that Phil. I can tell
you right here, uh a smart buyer, uh when I'm working with a customer and I can tell
a smart buyer and not that … or an educated buyer. Let's just use that term.
A customer who's got their trade in, you'd be surprised how many people come to the show
and what do you got for a trade? "Oh it's a white Prowler. What year is it?” “97,
98, maybe it's a 2000.” It makes a difference ‘cause when I look
it up in the book, or we look it up in the book, or the sales manager, and they're not
exactly sure. They're gonna give you the trailer that's got the lowest value on it because
it's risky on their part. So when you come to the show, get your trade
information. Know your year, know your make, know your model. Get an idea. If it's got
slide toppers on it or you got vent covers on it, you need to get the most for your trade-in
by doing that. If you give the sales person the most accurate information, you're gonna
get the most for your trade so. If you have your title, bring your title with
you, bring your registration with you, ‘cause a lot of times we can pull that information
up from the websites. Financing packages, and this is different. This is different than
the customer who's pre-approved or feels they're going to be pre-approved. At show ... show
season, banks make better financing packages a lot of times. They know for instance if
we're going to a show this weekend, the banks are not only competing, you know we're not
only competing to sell you a trailer but banks are competing for you to finance with them.
And at our dealership here, we probably work with 15 … 10, 15 different lenders. So they're
constantly going back and forth with programs on. And that's why at our dealership with
the amount of trailers we sell, we have a lot of lenders that can give people a better
value. So there are programs out there. A lot of times show season, money down, sometimes
there's no money down. Be cognizant. If your family can afford to
put $5000 down, let the sales guy, you know, you may want to bring that up because you
may fit it into a better financing package when you get into [04:03] the F & I office.
Say ‘hey, you know what? I realize with $2000 down, my payment is $200 a month. Maybe
if I told you I could up with $5000, does that put me in a lower interest rate? And
that's different than this customer who just went and is looking to get pre-approved. Now
we're shopping. So now we're actually getting a better rate, and you’ll save a lot of
money over the course of the loan. Aftermarket items, and this is something you
brought up Phil, I wasn't thinking of it at first. You know, you were talking about slide
toppers and vent covers, and this goes right into financing. So when you come in to purchase
your trailer, you can add slide toppers to your brand new camper. Say if you brought
a brand new Cougar from us, you can add slide toppers for $15 a month and it covers all
the slides; $7 a month, you'll only get a couple slides. And that's what a smart shopper
knows. You can write the interest off on that loan
most of the time. So if there's an advantage to putting those slide toppers, vent covers
stuff in the financing. And plus now you can shop price on this. When we go to shows, we're
gonna have special pricing on our vent covers. We're gonna have special pricing on our slide
toppers, Phil, and you can save yourself more money there. So you’re not only saving money
on the trailer that we sale with the discounted pricing, we're saving money on our extra items
here. Do you need to have a screen room? You know
those items like that. You've seen it. Customers come in and they come to pick their trailer
up and they, "You know what? We wish we got slide toppers for that."
Phil: Hitches. Chad: Great id … hitches as well, yep, a
100% right. Do you need a fifth wheel hitch. I mean that stuff's not cheap. A fifth wheel
hitch can run installed up to $14, $1500, yep, good example.
This is one of my favorite here, extended warranties. With RVs nowadays, there's a lot
of electronics in these, almost like a car where we've got blue tooth technology. We've
got slide systems that run off you know electrical current as well. So extended warranties cover
that coach, you know it can go up to about five years.
Those things, often times again when we're at shows, you can get those additional extended
warranty discounts. So at that same token if you want to care for your unit, you get
these slide toppers, and vent covers in extended warranty, again just another small, monthly
[06:02] increase. But long term it makes a huge difference when you’re … And the
good part about this is in four, five years you go to trade this in you actually get a
rebate back. At our dealership, we offer you money back.
If you got an extended warranty, you can actually cash that in and get the unused portion back
on it. I had a show as well free storage, what do you do with this trailer? Obviously,
the manufacturers charge the dealers less money in these seasons of the year when they're
not selling as many campers. So we can offer, you know, free storage. Heck, if you want
to buy your trailer now before the net price increase comes out, we'll store it for you
for free until say June 1, May 1 whenever you want to be there.
I know your family. You guys, you could have got snow in your yard. This allows you to
get that trailer at the discounted price, store it for free, and then uh, move on from
there. Phil: Or take it right to the camp ground.
Chad: Or take it right to the camp ground. You come in. You're exactly right. You want
to buy a seasonal, use it for a seasonal, get it right to the camp ground. A lot of
dealerships don't have that ability to ... I'm gonna put my name tag on here for a minute.
But we stock 700 units a lot of times. So we have that storage facility to carry, you
know a thousand units at certain times of the year, whether we're storing them for customers
that sort of stuff, so. It's real important when you're shopping.
Make sure your ... You don't have to take delivery of it right away. Phil this is one
that you've built up over the years. A camp ground relationships. I know you put together
a program where when people come in and pick their camper up, uh we've got that, you know
that two hour walk through, and then you've got free camping from it at the end of the
day. I know you’ve developed that program, and some of the camp grounds you work with,
they kinda keep that you know that warm fuzzy feeling. They go to the local camp ground.
I'm just going to mention one here that works with us by name, Lone Pine Campground or Baileys
camping resort and they kinda almost keep that Big Brother. They look after them when
they're there camping for the first few times. Phil: It's really nice for ... Again it's
a starter package for new campers that are ... You know, this is their first RV. They
can get to the camp ground. [08:02] And between Pete's RV and the camp ground management,
they have somebody to kind of walk them through this and get started and you know and get
it right. So it's a great, you know first weekend for camping.
Chad: Ideally, so trade information, make sure you get all the specifics on your unit.
If you've got a pay off on it, have that pay off number ready for it. In 15 minutes you
can gather everything we got here. Trade information, the financing. You know how much money can
you come up with if you ... Have that in mind before you go. After market items, do you
want to have the new slide toppers, those sort of stuff uh.
What do we do when we get to the show? Now this is kinda pre-show homework. This is for
when we're at the show. A lot of times you've seen it, and you talk about that ‘zombie’
thing. I just went to the show, there's 200 trailers and I looked through every one of
them and I couldn't find the right unit. They all start looking the same; you've seen it.
You've seen those people walking around and next thing you know they're drinking beer,
cutting it easy so. When I'm at this show, I tell these people
the number one rule make a plan. Don't go to the RV show, just ... If you're looking
to buy a trailer and save some money, make a plan for it. At the RV show, it's an all
day event. It takes 45 minutes for me to show you everything, everything you should know
about a Sprinter Travel trailer, about a Cougar travel trailer, about a Premier travel trailer.
So if we're gonna look at four, five brands, you know we're close to 3 1/2, 4 hours just
in the shopping and to compare it to make sure that you get the unit you want.
And if you go through every trailer at the unit, every unit at the show, you're never
gonna have time. I see it where people get to my trailer. They've got this bag over their
shoulder that says KOA on it, and it is bulging at the seams and brochures.
They've got … It must be 200 brochures in this bag and they're buying a fifth wheel
camper, and they've got pop-up brochures in their bag. And they just wasted all that valuable
time that they can spend getting those financing packages, those extended warranties. They
just totally wasted all that time. So don't go in every unit. If you're looking
for a travel trailer bunkhouse, don't look at fifth wheel travels … Don't look at fifth
wheels. Don't look at [10:03] pop-ups. Find the right trailer. You'll get it done. You'll
have a couple of hours at the end of the show then to go back and look at all these units.
You know what? Remember when we first started camping, we had a pop-up just like this? Save
that for those types. This is my favorite thing right here. And this not only goes at
the RV show, compare like style units. A lot of people coming to me and say, "Hey, you
know what? We're looking at a full profile fifth wheel and an ultralight fifth wheel."
They don't compete against each other, so you need to find like style units, and the
reason people have a hard time is because they're fooled by price. When you go to an
RV show, some dealerships, manufacturers or manufacturers? Some dealerships advertise
you know retail pricing on it, and you have to ask for a better price. Some dealerships
just offer hey my show special, those types of things.
You've seen it before where you get customers ... And you mentioned to me probably more
than anybody, people are so determined that it all comes down to price. I mean you see
it, and that's why we get these people who have 2012 trailers or fifth wheels trading
them in, and uh, they've only owned it for a short period of time.
Phil: Because they compromised on a certain floor plan or a certain interior decor.
Chad: Yeah, you're a 100% right and they thought was the best price, but they're not 100% sure.
So let's use that 10% rule, Phil. And this is something that I kind of developed and
I share it with everybody who comes on the yard. If the trailer fifth wheel or pop-up
is within 10% the weight, 10% the length and 10% the price, then that trailer is under
that umbrella, where we've got to compare them.
So if we're looking at $20,000 trailer, monthly payment on it, I'm just gonna ball park it,
$200 a month. You know we can creep up to $220 a month. You know a $180 month a trailer,
we can creep to almost that $200 a month payment. So we're looking at $400, $450 a month, something
like that $440 a month. That 10% rule works really, really well, and
it keeps us comparing like style trailers. Just cuts down that whole access there so
[12:04] enough said. When we're at the show, make a plan. Don't
to go in every unit right off the bat. Make ... only look at … If you're looking at
travel trailers, just go to travel trailers, and that 10% rule is my favorite on that,
so I really enjoy that. I do want to take a minute and put my name
tag back on for this. When you're looking at pricing, Pete's RV Center is, if not the
most competitive dealer at any show, even non show stuff, we're definitely one of the
most competitive in the country, and the reason I know is because dealers complain about our
pricing all the time. When we go to a show dealers wonder why we're able to sell at that
price. When we're shopping over the phone, people call in, you know? How do you shop
that price? How do you sell at that price? We do it through a lot of … We sell a lot
of trailers to the dealership. We talk about those things. We have these holding areas.
That’s where it all comes together. It's a big commitment by the dealership. When you're
at a show, and you're shopping for a brand that we carry or even a brand that we don't
carry, reach out to us. You know you're talking to sales. We decided this Sprinter 311 bunk
house travel trailer is the right unit for my family. We carry that trailer at our dealership.
So even though if we're not at that show, if you're in Missouri, and you see this trailer
at your show, say ‘you know what guy? I really like that trailer. We want to look
at one more. Go over, grab a water, relax for a minute, call Pete's RV Center, and 99.9%
of the time, I can get you a better price, on a better equipped trailer, at you know,
delivered to your home, and save you a couple thousand dollars at the same token, so.
That's one thing I can tell you. Pete's RV Center, you're looking for the best price,
and great customer service after the sale is what we can really provide for you.
And that's my name tag, and that's my two cents on it there. As far as this show stuff,
I hope you call Pete's RV Center or buy a trailer from us, but if you don't … We can
save you all kinds of money and you'll have a much better buying experience and buy the
right trailer for your family when you're at the show.
The video of this presentation by Pete’s RV Center is available at: http://youtu.be/qONKjrwg83s