Someone recently suggested that the reason many of the leading companies in the RV industry are struggling today is due to the fact that corporate executives don't have enough skin in the game.

Sure, the corporate officers and board members are paid excellent salaries with excellent benefits, but when it comes to the company's bottom line and long-term financial conditions, some people feel the executives don't have much to lose. But, is that true?

Some of the companies struggling the most in the RV industry today have lots of stock controlled by corporate insiders. Yet, some of the more steady firms have little stock in the hands of executives and board members.

The loyalty of your salespeople is your greatest asset as an RV Sales Manager.  Loyalty and respect can have some tangible benefits. A good team can produce more sales and profits which reflect upon the leadership provided to them.

Many Sales Managers act in a machine-like manner with a simple message, “You’re hired to just sell and produce results!” in a no-excuse atmosphere. They neither allow or forgive mistakes, resulting in an environment where people are hiding their mistakes and fudging their results to keep the Sales Manager off their backs. They fear their Managers. A common response is that some Managers would rather have their salespeople fear them rather than respect them. But fear doesn’t engender trust and loyalty and it certainly undermines the overall productivity of the sales staff.

In announcing that he was closing all but one of his RV dealerships, California RV king Dan Gamel hinted that he was working on a new concept for bringing RV retail centers to shopping malls.

Apparently Gamel wants to develop stores in malls where customers walk through doors shaped like front caps of RVs, then sit in RV furniture as they shop for new units online. From what I read, I suspect the buyers will also be able to customize an RV and have it special ordered.

Although Gamel didn't disclose any of the details of his plan, it will be interesting to see if he can pull it off. I, myself, am skeptical of this one even though I am a big fan of e-commerce and know more people are shopping online every year.

Gamel's strategy must be to target two primary audiences -- extemely bored husbands or women who find mall shopping exhilarating and refreshing.

There are many things salespeople can do to derail the selling process. So let's discuss the following four mistakes and fixes.

1. They pre-qualify
When you play ‘guess who the buyers are’ you are wrong more often than not. Judging a prospect based on the car they drive up in, their dress or appearance is both arrogant and ignorant. If you think you can tell who can or can’t buy based on these factors, let me take the pressure off you: you’re not that good!

Fix: Treat people like a qualified buyer until they prove otherwise. Give them the same respect you expect when you shop. Even if they can’t or don’t make the purchase, when you treat them well you’ll build goodwill, reinforce good habits and gain a valuable referral source for future sales.

If it had been a championship boxing match it would have gone 15 rounds and lost on a decision. If it had been a marathon, they tripped fifty yards from the finish line and just couldn’t get up. But it wasn’t either of those; it was an attempt to salvage the third Boston RV Expo put on by the New England RV Dealers Association and despite the valiant effort of key dealers and their executive director, they just couldn’t get their membership to commit to a major show, in a major market, given the challenging forces impacting all segments of the RV industry.

Villa International, the maker of high-quality furniture for RVs, announced an innovative and brilliant way to spur demand for RV furniture during a time when other firms are wondering how to stimulate sales. The company will accept shares of common stock as payment for the furniture.

For example, a custom upgrade that would normally cost $2,000 would only require approximately 62 shares of Merrill Lynch common stock, which closed at $32.25 on July 1. Merrill Lynch currently trades at less than half that quotation, $13.05. Villa will accept stock of some 35 companies. The discount from the July 1 price can vary significantly from current prices, reducing the cost of Villa’s furniture appreciably.

This is the kind of innovation that I love about the free enterprise system.  I salute Villa for being on the cutting edge and, more importantly, for deciding "not to participate in the great decline in the stock market."

I got an interesting e-mail this afternoon from an RV dealer upset over the credit freeze that has dealers deathly afraid for the future of the businesses they have built and struggle to maintain.

She does not think it is fair that the banks, which altered the rules they agreed to when setting up floor plan financing accounts in the first place, should be able to benefit in the feeding frenzy that takes place when other RV dealers bid against each other to buy repossessed RVs removed from sales lots because the bank withdrew floorplan lending from someone else.

It's a no-win situation, and I can certainly understand the desire of RV dealers to fight back against the injustice of being treated like deadbeats, when they have done everything banks have asked of them to keep their accounts current.

One thing I do hope happens is that RV dealers have very long memories regarding the way they have been treated by certain companies. And, when times are good again -- which will happen -- that they remember forever which companies stuck with them through the hard times and which ones sought to make their lives more difficult.

I applaud the efforts of the RV Dealers Association and RV Industry Association to raise awareness of the struggling RV industry -- without seeking a handout from Washington.

The RV Dealers Association today asked RV dealers everywhere to send letters to their elected federal representatives to encourage them to make loan money available to finance the purchase of recreation vehicles. In fact, not only are the business owners themselves encouraged to write letters, but other employees of the dealerships are also encouraged to do the same.

There are 150,000 jobs and 8.2 million RV owners who are depending upon a strong, vibrant and healthy RV industry. And that industry rests on the ability of credit-worthy dealers to get floorplan financing to buy RVs from manufacturers and the ability of credit-worthy consumers to get financing to buy RVs from dealers.

Your letter, sent today, may just help our industry recover more quickly.

 Leading your sales team is a complex pursuit with a single objective - to meet and exceed the sales objectives for the dealership you're managing. The variables that can impact your success as a leader are tremendous.

Below is your sales management checklist. Its purpose is to help you stay on top of the primary issues that should have your attention on a regular basis and to avoid letting the important success factors slip through the cracks. Your particular sales world will likely involve a few more points or slight changes that are specific to you and your sales team and dealership.