By Greg Gerber on
11/26/2008 5:30 PM
Every couple of days I get an e-mail message or a news tip submitted through our website asking me why we aren't reporting on a specific story, or a certain company or a particular event.
It's not as though we are on the payroll of certain companies (as one guy suggested today).
It's not as though we are protecting our advertisers (as another suggested last week).
It's not as though we shy away from controversy.
It's likely because we don't know about the story or the issue.
If you don't see a story posted, send me an e-mail or submit a news tip through our website. I can assure people they will remain completely anonymous. A good journalist always protects his sources. But, it is helpful if details can be provided or if the tipster provides a way for us to contact him to get more information. That way, we can follow-up when we get the official explanation so the source knows what's really going on -- or he can confirm that the "official" explanation is bunk.
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By Greg Gerber on
11/25/2008 4:17 PM
I was touched to see how Marathon Coach ensured its laid off employees have something to be thankful for this holiday season.
According to a local television station, Marathon Coach President Steve Schoellhorn ensured that the 150 temporarily laid off employees would retain their health benefits through the end of the year. The company also announced the workers would receive their holiday pay when they return to work in January, plus they would receive a full bag of groceries this week including an entire turkey.
I am sure December will be a difficult time for the 150 employees, but I applaud Marathon Coach for doing what it can for its employees even when the firm must make difficult decisions to ensure the company's survival.
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By Bob Zagami on
11/25/2008 4:23 PM
All of the Baby Boomer prospects that the RV industry has been cultivating through the Go RVing campaign have disappeared from dealer showrooms across the nation. The fallout of the current financial meltdown has impacted the RV industry beyond the expectations of anybody closely tied to RVs. Nobody could have predicted the devastation that has turned this industry upside down or the loss of dealers, suppliers and manufacturers that we have witnessed this year.
The Baby Boom Bubble has burst, and it will be a long time before the target audiences of the current Go RVing campaign come back into the lifestyle.
So where do we go from here? How do we use the Go RVing campaign to keep a spotlight, however dim, on the great pleasures that our industry provides to millions of people in 2009?
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By Mike Whitty on
11/23/2008 10:51 AM
Every Sales Manager’s dream: The Perfect Salesperson. High personal sales production. Eager to come to work on time. Excited about the department reaching its quotas. Tactful, polite, and well-behaved at Christmas parties.
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By Mike Whitty on
11/23/2008 10:44 AM
Do you spend a lot of time and energy trying to attract new customers to your dealership, hoping to pump up your bottom line? If so, you're probably missing an untapped source of sales that exists right inside your dealership - there's truth in the statement that your customer base is your most valuable asset.
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By Mike Whitty on
11/23/2008 10:16 AM
Are you giving your customers the "personal touch?"
Do you always use pre-programmed autoresponders for your email leads? Why? If a lead is received during your business day and you can respond to it immediately, do it personally. Turn your autoresponders back on when you leave for the evening or if you are delivering an RV.
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By Greg Gerber on
11/20/2008 11:49 AM
I had to chuckle this morning when one of our more astute readers commenting on an article we had posted attempted to tie together two vastly different stories.
He suggested the 2007 Sunseeker RV stopped in Memphis Wednesday with 357 pounds of marijuana stuffed into the motorhome's cabinets was actually destined for RVIA headquarters in Reston, Va., where the staff there issued a report yesterday suggesting that RV financing really was available for creditworthy customers.
We have all come to expect a certain amount of spin from the staff of the RV Industry Association. After all, it is their job to paint the industry in a positive light and the industry pays them handsomely every year through Go RVing assessments to do just that.
But, there also comes a time when spin sounds silly.
Someone has it wrong. Is it the media reporting what dealers and manufacturers are offering as excuses for poor sales? Or is it the trade association which is also reporting what dealers are telling them?
As the black smoke of bankrupt companies rises in the distance and tanks of a recessionary market rumble down Main Street, there can only be one reality. The rest is spin. Which way is the industry spinning?
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By Greg Gerber on
11/18/2008 9:48 AM
A few months ago, the manufactured housing industry was plunged into a credit crisis after GE Commercial Distribution Finance announced that it was pulling out of that market.
The decision sent the industry into a financial tailspin. Worried dealers scrambled to cobble together financial arrangements with local and national banks -- many times even a conglomerate of banks shared the risk. Some dealers couldn't get the financing they needed and faced the unfortunate prospect of going out of business.
The Manufactured Housing Institute responded quickly to the industry's financial crisis by suggesting an immediate course of action for members, as well as several opportunities that MHI intends to aggressively pursue in the coming weeks. Some of the suggestions offered by MHI have immediate and direct implications for the RV industry as well.
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By Greg Gerber on
11/17/2008 4:21 PM
Dealers and manufacturers have been contacting me since Friday evening after receiving word that GE Commercial Distribution Finance has made the decision to suspend floorplan financing for dealers across the country.
With all due respect to the fine staff at GE Commercial Distribution Finance (who I am sure are caught in PR purgatory) the fact that these letters were sent out on a Friday afternoon without an official explanation even at close of business Monday is like raising a guillotine blade above the industry.
Yes, GE is one of the largest, best managed companies in the world. But, its size doesn't excuse it from its responsibility to be forthcoming and open regarding any decision or change in policy that could cause grievous harm for many, many businesses.
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By Steven Webster on
11/17/2008 11:00 AM
Last night I was watching a documentary on CNBC about WalMart. No matter what you think about this mega retailer it is still the undeniable king of information management and corporate culture. A culture that seamlessly folds data from their operations into useful information for "in the store" managers. As a "technology guy" I know it's easy to get caught up in the "data" within an organization. Inventory turns, Door Counts, Website Visitors, Page Views, etc but at the end of the day it is all worthless unless we can turn that into information that is useful for the mission of the store management. Typically in our business that either means a reducing an expense through efficiencies, or increasing revenue through sales. Of course, somewhere in that difference is something we would all like to have more of - profits.
One of the things on the program that hit me in the head was that WalMart figured out that if one customer in any of their stores had a bad customer experience and left WalMart forever,...
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