Palm RV Centers

You hear it again and again: Take Care of Your Customers.

It's rule number one in RV sales and service, but practicing the principal day in and day out with every kind of human being is what distinguishes success from mere cliché.

This is why Richard Demers, RV General Sales Manager at Palm RV Centers in Region 2, has tripled his business in the last year.

Demers is a family man: his father-in-law, Vic Weiger, owns the business, his brother-in-law, David, is president, and his wife, Deborah, is CFO and Vice President.

Although the business has been in existence 38 years, the Weigers took up RV sales in 1996, adding that branch to their long-standing truck sales and service.

Right away, recalls Demers, Vic Weiger asked him to leave his corporate job in medical collections and billings to come on board as manager of customized RV development, creating RVs for special purposes.

"These were for people using RVs for commercial applications mostly, like mobile offices or police demo units," Demers explains. "Then about 18 months ago the general sales manager position opened up and I took that."

Operating with about 10 sales employees at any one time (the full business includes 150 total employees), Demers began establishing new and ambitious goals. First he tripled sales of the company's single line, Winnebago Itasca. Now he averages 18 sales a month from a lot of 40 to 50 in-stock units, he says. Next he's going to expand the number of lines and increase sales again.

"In five years," he predicts, "we'll be selling at least three more lines and triple the numbers of RVs we're doing today."

One of the things Palm RV Centers does well is the "Good Idea." For example, the company stocks 21 for-rent RVs, 16 of which are owned by private individuals, all customers of Palm RV. Owner Vic Weiger heard about that approach at a trade association workshop and capitalized on it several years ago.

"It's almost like a time-share RV," Demers says. "We're the only dealer who rents brand new units. We turn them over every year. And with our program, our vehicles are not stripped, they're loaded."

Then there's service, and nobody does it better than Palm RV Centers. "We're the only full-fledged RV service in all South Florida," Demers says. "We're a body shop, we do customizing, cabinet fabrication, chassis and we're a turnkey shop."

At 41, Demers is especially aware of the growing younger market for RV sales–the baby boomers and those even younger.

"Young people have a different approach to RVs than the older generation," he explains. "They tend to approach an RV as a weekender solution, or a vehicle with purposes nobody thought of, like tailgating at sporting events."

Fortunately, there are plenty of sporting events in South Florida, which means ample market opportunity for Palm RVs.

Or, says Demers, "They might be into fishing, for example, and they use their RV as a place to stay, instead of paying a hotel." Maybe that's not so different than the older generation!

Whatever the use or desire of a customer, Demers and his staff always employ the company motto first: "We Don't Say No."
What that means, he says, is the deal will get done, no matter what the customer requires.

"Listen to your customers," Demers advises. "Gather as much information from them as you can, and then give them exactly what they want. Customers are very picky. They know what they want, they know how they want it, and if you're doing it right, they'll know you can give it to them. So don't try to hide anything, just pay attention to the customer."

How did Demers learn this kind of wisdom? In part through the Florida RV Trade Association, he says. Which is one of the reasons he's now "Show Coordinator" for his region. "I just found that out," he notes with a chuckle. "It'll be good."

At Palm RV Centers, it already is."

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