How Suppliers, Customers & Staff Can Shape Your RV Parts Strategy

For this month’s column, I believe it is worth looking at your parts and accessories operations from the standpoint of being inclusive. Here are three aspects of your parts and accessories operations that could be considered from an inclusionary perspective:

• suppliers of parts, accessories and related materials
• types of RV lifestyles that make up your customer base
• involvement of managers/personnel from other departments when considering inventory mix and depth

Parts & Accessory Suppliers

How many of your suppliers would you consider as primary suppliers? These would be vendors from which you regularly purchase the parts, accessories and related materials that are needed to support your customer base.

What criteria do you apply when you decide to use these suppliers as your primary source(s)? How important are costs, availability of goods when you require them, product mix, return policy and merchandising support in your decision process?

With the possible changes to supply chains impacted by tariff policies, will you be considering adding any new suppliers?

Regarding stocked parts and accessories, if tariffs increase your cost for goods, and if you have budgeted an inventory value established for that investment, then you might have to stock fewer of each of these items (the inventory depth) or perhaps limit the variety of items that you can offer (the inventory mix).

As for those items that are special requests, what is the lead time for goods from each of your primary suppliers? What changes have tariffs made on the depth and mix of those suppliers’ inventories, and how will these changes impact your choice of vendors?

Customer requests should be included in your decisions as to what items are needed, so that leads us to the next inclusionary factor.

Your Customer Base: RV Lifestyles

How do your customers use their RVs? With what frequency do your customers use their RVs? By knowing your customers’ usage patterns, you can better decide what goods are necessary to stock and what goods might be required on an as-needed basis.

For instance, what types of RVs do you sell and service in your market? Towables used by young families who are recent entrants to the RV lifestyle and who only use them for one or two vacations per year might require a different mix of goods than full-timers with a full-size Class A. Adventure RVers going off-grid will most likely require a different set of parts and accessories than either of these other two owner groups. The quantity of RVs in each of the RV groups within your market could be a factor in determining the mix of parts and accessories that you carry.

Speaking of customers, I feel obligated to include a separate group of customers who might not own any of the RVs in your market yet might provide important feedback — the employees around you.

Managers & Staff of the Other Departments

As a parts manager/director, I considered members of the other departments proxy customers. These personnel represent your retail customer base and might have valuable input.

Consider that almost every RV owner has only one RV. Yet your RV sales agents might sell several of the same brand/model RV in a year. And your service technicians might maintain or repair the same brand/model several times in a year. By soliciting the input of these other staff members, you could have a broader mix of input.

What if the service manager decided to offer a special on a certain maintenance process? If she contacted the parts and accessories manager in advance, there is a better chance that the parts and materials used for that maintenance special would be on hand in the appropriate quantity.

Suppose the RV sales manager was able to get a deal on a specific brand/model of RV. If he told the parts and accessories manager about the deal, any accessories that the sales agents might offer, and the anticipated fill rate for these accessories, then there is a better opportunity that the sale will be made.

In previous columns, I have recommended that each demand for an item should be recorded, especially for those demands for which a sale didn’t occur. These are lost sales that should also be recorded.

What if each service technician and RV sales agent also recorded each demand for an item that didn’t result in a sale? If the parts and accessories manager invited the service manager and the RV sales manager to a discussion as to what parts and accessories might be required to fill more customer demands, could that result in a more effective stocked inventory of parts and accessories?

As a parts manager/director, within the first week of my employment, I met with each of the other department managers and asked them how the parts and accessories department could better serve them. This improved the interdepartmental communications and set the tone for future brainstorming sessions among the several departments.

By including staff from all departments, you might enhance the overall performance of your RV business operations.

Find more business advice from Mel Selway HERE.