Six days a week there’s an 8:30am, thirty minute sales meeting. For nearly five years, that daily meeting was the worst part of the day due to the discussions, disagreements & messaging from management.
Management is very receptive to listen and empathize with the sales team, but when it comes to taking action, being proactive vs. being reactive to a situation or issue; out of sight / out of mind is the standard operating procedure.
Salesman have a base salary of $10k/yr or approximately $5/hr; you’re not considered an independent contractor. With that said, corporate takes $7.50 out of your paycheck twice monthly. This charge is to cover the cost of the dated IPads that we are given to use. These are the same IPads that are given to the Service department; Sales is charged to use them to generate hundreds of millions of dollars but Service isn’t charged a cent. The answer to “why” the sales team is charged has still never been explained to date.
The lot is the Sales’s show room for hundreds of towable RVs and motor homes. If the lot is not organized and taken care of, the Sales team looks unprofessional and it undermines the sales process that is so important for one’s success as a commission salesman. For the last five years the lot is generally in disarray. Because lot porters come and go so frequently, that is the excuse management gives for all the complaints that are pointed out by the team. Rather than driving the lot daily to make sure things look good, management will chose to avoid it; out of site out of mind. If information about the lot is brought to the attention of management, four of the five managers will smile, empathize with you and then assure you that a plan will be put in place to fix the lot. That never happens and if you continue to reach out to management that is a sure fire way to be marked as being negative.
Morning meeting messages change from week to week and occasionally on a daily basis. Again, if you’re an assertive individual that cares about the company, the store and your ability to generate an income that is enough to pay your family bills, don’t ask questions of management during morning meetings or you will then be considered negative and not a team player.
Prior to the ever growing Internet Department, as a retail RV salesman, if one aggressively answered incoming calls they could generate quite a few deals monthly. As things have changed since 2019, the Huntley, IL store barely gets incoming calls from potential customers, even ones calling from Huntley. Calls to the company are directed to the Internet department and at times customers don’t understand why they’re talking to someone in Michigan rather than a local salesman at the store they would like to shop at. From a corporate perspective it doesn’t matter how a sale is generated, but from the perspective of the local salesman it matters quite a bit. Sales opportunities at the store level have been greatly slashed. When someone calls the company it’s the Internet department’s job to either sell over the phone or set an appointment for the local store. Here’s the rub. When the Internet department sets an appointment the commission split could either be 75/25 or up to 50/50 if the Internet takes a deposit to “hold” a unit. In the past an Internet appointment meant that a customer was actually coming in to look at a particular unit and the in store salesman spent an hour or two closing the customer on their RV selection. Presently, an Internet appointment means nothing. As management puts it, “just be happy and look at it as a fresh Up; don’t think about giving up 25%, assume that they haven’t spoken to the Internet department and you’re starting from scratch. Sounds good from a corporate perspective, but when you spend hours or days working with a customer and the Internet department get 25% of you deal… it’s not a win/win; rather, it’s a lot of work to not be compensated fairly.
General RV does not advertise the major strength that is drilled into ours heads from day one; Keep You Camping. There needs to be a reason as to why a customer wants to buy from GRV and pay the fees that they do. Keep You Camping is the one thing that sets GRV apart from the rest of the dealers. Instead of advertising on this major strength the company chooses to market themselves like all the rest of the dealers in the market place; lowest price dealer in the market place.
When it come to marketing and advertising for the Huntley location, there is nothing that corporate or local management does to help increase store foot traffic. Unlike one competitor that advertises everywhere nationaly to offset their terrible customer service and salesmanship, at the store level management feels that AI written verbiage and posting by the sales team to their own Tic-Toc and Facebook accounts will drive business to the store. There’s no cost with self promotion or using your own cell phone for business purposes but there is a major cost if you don’t want to participate; you’re now viewed as not being a team player.
The corporate sales director that is not located at the Huntley store will tell you not to fear being fired for asking questions. The reality is, asking questions and pointing out issues at the store will eventually get you fired by the store managers.
