RV Dealers: Why You Should Post Price Info in Ads
Most individuals who advertise RVs for sale in online classified ads post their asking price, but few RV dealers include pricing information when they list RVs for sale on RVT.com. RV dealerships may be alienating potential RV customers by failing to post this critical piece of information when they formulate their online ads. The No. 1 complaint RVT.com receives from our website shoppers is the omission of pricing info on dealer ads.
The philosophy behind price omission is a time-honored marketing technique used by sales personnel in every industry. It’s the reason RV dealers don’t include prices in online ads and jewelers turn over price tags in display cabinets. Sales people believe omitting the price of an item will encourage buyers to contact the seller to obtain pricing information.
When dealing with online RV sales, however, it’s a sales technique that seems to be backfiring on RV dealers by annoying shoppers. When people go to buy a car or any big ticket item, one of the first things they look at is the price. If they can’t afford it, shoppers don’t want to waste time checking the details. There are so many options, why shop outside your price range?
Instead of urging RV buyers to contact the dealership, price omissions in online ads annoy shoppers, placing one more stumbling block between buyers and sales. If RV dealerships removed that stumbling block and gave shoppers the pricing information they want up front, they could earn the gratitude of shoppers and potentially increase sales.
We do understand that some RV Manufacturers will only allow RV Dealers to put the retail price in an online advertisement. In this case, we provide dealer units without price, and a “Contact Us For Best Price Link” in the ad. When the link is clicked the shopper can submit their contact information and the can respond directly to the customer so that they can disclose their best selling price. We try to make our online site flexible to work with both RV Dealers and individual sellers.
We do however recommend when ever possible that the selling price be listed in an advertisement, but do understand that this is not an option in all cases.
October 28th, 2010 at 9:12 am
Ashley – A vital piece you fail to mention in your post is that most RV manufacturer prohibit dealers from posting a price lower than the MSRP outside of their geographic territory for usually about a year. The rules vary depending on the manufacturer and there are severe penalties for doing so, including possible loss of carrying the brand.
That said, you are right about the consumer. They do want to see the price. I can tell you that here, at White Horse RV, just about every unit that is allowed to have a price listed does, which would include used inventory and any new inventory that is now past the manufacturer grace period.
In the future, it would be appreciated if you would talk to a few dealers first and not assume that everyone is trying to pull something. Yes, we’re obviously in business to make money, but here we try to ensure that the customer gets a fair price.
October 28th, 2010 at 12:29 pm
You are so true, my mistake on that Todd. You are right, some manufacturers will not allow their dealers to post pricing online as part of their sales agreements. If you can post a price we know that consumers like that. Although it does add another layer of communication, if you have the right item, consumers will send a note to ask for the price even if the price does not show in an online ad. Wish that it could be different and everyone could post prices, but sometimes that is simply not the case. Thanks for the correction.
October 28th, 2010 at 12:05 pm
Thanks for sharing Todd, that’s a great point that needs to be mentioned. I am looking into having that info added into the article.
Shawn Friesen
Managing Director
RVT.com
October 29th, 2010 at 10:27 am
[…] post, we noted that RVT.com shoppers often complain about the omission of pricing information on RV dealer ads. We recommended that RV dealers include prices in their online ads to accommodate shoppers whenever […]
November 2nd, 2010 at 11:08 am
For you dealers: If it doesen’t have a price listed, i am NOT going to call you and waste my time talking with a salesman who has no bargining position at all, all he wants is an answer to his question: how much am i willing to pay?!
You list the price, I’ll evaluate it with the pictures you post, then, if I like it, i will call you !