Caravan Shows – Article by Darren Bull

Caravan shows are a fantastic place to see every caravan made by every manufacturer in the market. It is a great day out and a good place to order your new caravan.

Over the past five years I have worked at a number of caravan shows, mainly at the NEC but a few elsewhere. I have spoken to a lot of people over the years, some have brought caravans, the vast majority have not. After talking to customers at the shows I started to notice two patterns emerging. The first was that many people were confused as to which caravan would best suit their needs. The second was that they were not aware as to how the show worked.

Which Caravan Layout?

This was the first problem, it inspired me to produce www.myidealcaravan.co.uk Caravan shows can confuse a customer to the point where they feel they can not make a decision. There are so many different caravan manufactures, modes, layouts and prices. On each stand there can be up to fifty sales staff all telling the customer different things. The incorrect layout can be easily purchased by a first time buyer due to lack of the correct relevant information. One of the most important parts of my job, is making sure the customer gets the best caravan for their needs.
Many times a customer has come into my dealership with one idea on layout, and gone out with another. I have sold caravans to every type of caravanner from a two berth couple with a VW Golf, to a family of six with two dogs.
This experience allows me to match a caravan layout to the customer I am dealing with at the time.
Experienced caravanners will know what they want, they have had several caravans, and their next purchase will be on the experience of the last. Being new to caravanning, time and money can be wasted in getting it wrong, not understanding the everyday implications of owning a particular layout. My Ideal Caravan allows a perspective purchaser to make in informed decision in their own time.

With an ideal caravan layout selected all that needs to be done is go to a show or caravan dealer and view the different manufactures and modes that are available in the chosen layout. There may be still a lot to chose from but the important decision of which layout will best suit an individuals needs has been addressed.

How the Shows Work.

This was the second issue, which I found out to my cost!
It is important for a customer to understand how the shows work. It could save all involved time and money. The main issue is to understand who the caravan is being purchased from.
The caravan manufacturer will supply the caravans and set up the stand. Dealers are then invited to attend the show (sometimes for a fee to cover costs) and sell the product for their own companies.

This is the important part

If a caravan is purchased from the show, it is being purchased from the caravan dealer, not the manufacturer. The caravan will be handed over at the dealership, this could be anywhere in the country. If you wish to purchase locally, make sure your local dealer will be present at the show, or do the research at the show then visit your local dealer when you get back.

Why buy Local?

One of the best reasons to deal locally is warrantee service backup. In theory a dealer deals direct with a manufacturer and should do all warrantee work, regardless of who sold the customer the caravan. Unlike the car dealer network, caravan dealers are under no obligation to carry out such work and can refuse to do so. This is a little short sighted as a potential customer could be secured for the future but the situation can be a bit more complicated than that.

From a dealers point of view, warrantee work on caravans can cost money. This is due to how the system works and the amount of time spent processing the claim. Sometimes it just is not worth the bother. The dealer my not get paid for diagnosis, if a caravan has an intermittent fault with an RCD, it takes two hours to find the problem, and ten minutes to fix, the amount paid may only be for the ten minutes! Add this to the fact that they may not be able to cope with the amount of work they have with their own customers, who will always come first, is it worth buying else where just to save a few pounds. This can depend on several factors and is down to the individual situation.

(Personally, I recommend buying all your caravans from south east Cornwall!)

A salesman’s point of view.

As sales people we are at the show to find customers who want to purchase caravans. There are thousands of people at the shows. how do we do our job?

The shows are a totally different selling environment than being back at the dealership. At the dealership we can sit a customer down, have a chat, go through what they need in a caravan. look at all the options in a relaxed environment. At the shows its different, there is a lot more pressure on the salesperson.
There is a certain amount of custom with a certain number of sales staff in the hall. The best way to find people who are at the show to buy, is to ask!
We do not just walk around and go up to people and say “do you want to buy a caravan” (well not all of us!), we qualify potential customers. Different sales staff have different ways of doing this. We do not have the time to get to know a customer as we would at the dealership, the hard line is, we need to find people who want to buy today. This is not as easy as it sounds! there is a fine line between getting to the point and being pushy.

As we all know, the last thing we want is a pushy salesperson. We are there to help, but more important to us is we are there to sell. I have learned over the years that if I do not ask the right questions in the right way, I can spend a lot of time talking to people who are not ready to buy but who are going through the research process. In the two hours I have been with someone who is looking to buy next year, I have missed may be three or four opportunities to talk to someone who is ready to purchase at the show.

(Having said that, I have done this before, been at the show the next year and sold a van on the back of the work I had done the previous year. This doesn’t happen very often and is not something to rely on.)

 So, what questions do we ask and how. The important things I need to know are, 1) Are you looking to buy at the show? 2) What, if any, is the part exchange? 3) Where are you from?

The first question I have explained, the second question is, what is the part exchange. This is also important to us. The part exchange is an opportunity to make more out of the deal or get stuck with something we cannot sell. This is where our experience and judgment comes in. We have to value the part exchange. This is not just a case of how much is it worth. We also have to take into account our market and what we currently have in stock . If I had a pound for every time I was told that a customers caravan is immaculate, I would not have to bother selling caravans. It might be the case but the problem we have is that we may not see the part exchange until the handover of the new caravan. We price on the part exchange being in good condition for the year. If the part exchange has an issue which is picked up at the dealership, the dealer may have to adjust the figures to suit. It is important to tell the sales person anything you know about the condition of your part exchange to avoid complications on handover day. Where the customer is from is also an important question.

The customer may want to buy at the show and they may have a good part exchange, but if the dealership is in Cornwall and the customer lives in Scotland, the distance could be an issue. It is not in every case, but eight times out of ten it would be. I always find out if the customer would like to deal locally, if they do I pass them on to their local agent. It is frustrating to spend an hour with someone only to find out that they have a strong relationship with their local dealer and I could never sell them a caravan, however hard I try.

A large part of buying a caravan from a show is trust. Thousands of pounds can be handed over to a relative stranger within hours of meeting them. This is where the how to ask the above questions comes in, that is a hard thing to learn and would take a long time to explain, also if I did that, every one would be as good as me…. can’t have that!!

Darren Bull

Contact :
Darren 
01579 321041
Website – Atlantic Caravans