Dalton’s RV in Sheridan, Wy., recently opened a second location in Buffalo that boasts five full-service bays.
“It’s bigger than us now,” said Dalton Frederickson, co-owner of Dalton’s RV. “If we do this right, we can pass this on to our kids, grandkids, and great-grandkids.”
Frederickson and his wife, Chari, have been in business together for 15 years. After working for his family’s RV dealership in Montana for several years, the two decided to move nearly 300 miles away with their daughters and only $2,000 and decided to start selling RVs out of a “tiny cabin on a tiny leased lot.”
The two sold their home and basically everything they owned to pursue their dream. Working extra jobs at night to make ends meet, Frederickson would spend many of his days making trips to Indiana to haul new trailers while Chari was in the store.
When customers came in wanting to buy parts, the two didn’t have any – so the couple sold a spare tire from their own 37-foot trailer and then continued to strip it down as more requests for parts kept coming in.
“A lot of people didn’t think we would make it, but we just kept saving and paying,” said Frederickson.
As the lease on their small lot was coming to an end, Chari worked tirelessly to put together a loan and the two worked non-stop all summer long to come up with the money for a new location along the interstate, where the Sheridan store remains to this day.
Much of that success was likely due to the commitment that the couple have always made to their customers.
Frederickson tells a recent story about a customer who was camping in their new RV and having an issue with the thermostat. Chari drove out of her way to meet the customer in person at their campsite and help them correct the operational error. She also drove by again the next day to make sure everything was still going well.
“Why did I stop again? Because they were my customers,” she said.
Typical of many RV industry professionals, Frederickson admits he was resistant to the changes that came with updates to his dealership’s website as well as digital marketing services like search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM). SEO and SEM services pushed the dealership to the top of search results, the couple said, by working with Dealer Spike since 2012.
“Dealer Spike is specifically watching out for us,” said Chari. “They’re always saying, ‘What can we do to get you more business?’ And that’s been really cool for us.”
