Lessons From a Goal-Getter

Debbie Brunoforte isn’t just the leader of Little Dealer Little Prices in Arizona — she’s a powerhouse in the industry, too.

“What really propelled my journey was learning and goal setting,” Brunoforte says. “I attended seminars, read books, joined a 20 Group, listened to audio [books] while driving. I was a sponge, always trying different things, looking for an edge.

“If you really dive into your career and challenge yourself, learning is thought-provoking, it’s energizing — continuous improvement can be fun.”

Family Origins

Little Dealer Little Prices, now a Campers Inn RV company, was started in 1966 by Brunoforte’s parents. The dealership has three locations: Mesa, Phoenix and Prescott Valley. In addition to diesel motorhomes, fifth wheels and travel trailers, the dealership also sells folding campers, cargo trailers, truck covers and more.

Brunoforte says that industry-wide, it seems people are taking a “big breath of air” this year. While the dealership took some hits in 2023, as many did, Brunoforte says they’re on the other side of having too much aged inventory on the lot.

“It’s time to reset and get our game plan on. We are more optimistic this year. We do feel like we’re through the struggle,” she says. “I do believe it’ll be a much better year for the manufacturers, because as badly as the dealers were hurting last year, I think it was probably worse for the manufacturers … this will be a much more normal year.

“One of the things I love about the RV industry is it’s very adaptable. They are quicker at adapting than most other industries. We saw that during COVID, and we’re seeing it now.”

Volunteer Leadership

One key thing that Brunoforte says helped her grow as a leader is working with the RV Dealers Association (RVDA) and other industry groups. She says she learned about RVDA through a friend in her 20 Group who asked if she would serve as the Arizona delegate.

“That’s kind of the beginning of most of my journey with volunteer leadership is somebody will come to me with the ask. My belief is, if I can do this, then I will do this,” she says.

Learning about how to delegate responsibilities and let her employees solve problems on their own are two lessons she’s learned during her time as a leader of Little Dealer Little Prices. At first, Brunoforte says she would go away for something like the RVDA conference and business wouldn’t do as well while she was gone.

“One of my goals was to fix that and develop the company where they’re not totally dependent on me,” she says. “And now when I go, they do better than when I’m here.”

She says it was always her first instinct to solve problems that were brought to her. “You have to force yourself to hold back and try to get the other person to come up with their ideas … people learn to problem-solve on their own.”

Hiring the Right People

Finding and retaining valuable employees is an issue across numerous industries, including RVs. Brunoforte says one thing she did early on was invest in a program called Hiring and Developing Winners conducted by Spader Business Management, which provides business coaching and consulting. In fact, she recently went through the course again for a refresher.

When it comes to giving employees feedback, Brunoforte says she believes positive reinforcement is important. “Whether you’re a parent, a manager, a friend, whatever, we can focus on the positive aspects of people’s actions and reinforce that as much as possible. As managers, we’re kind of not wired that way. We only get involved when something goes wrong and now we have to go in and fix it. We’ve been talking about that in our manager meetings — how do we do that? We have to work on finding the good things that people do and saying thank you to them.

“And that way I believe they’re more open to constructive criticism when that’s necessary if we’re also pointing out the good things. Nobody needs to just be criticized all the time. That’s no fun.”

On Top of Her Game

Brunoforte has been lauded for her leadership in the industry for years. Little Dealer Little Prices, which was named for her grandmother Irene (called “little dealer” by her husband), has won customer satisfaction awards from OEMs.

Brunoforte received the Trailblazer Award from the RV Women’s Alliance in 2022 for lifetime achievement. During the presentation of the award, she was described as “a consummate professional, serving in leadership roles across the RV industry for decades, including past chair of the RV Dealers Association and on the Go RVing Coalition and Committee on Excellence. As the owner and operator of one of the most successful RV dealerships in the U.S., Debbie has shown what it takes to be really good in the industry.”

In addition to that accolade, Brunoforte was inducted into the RV Hall of Fame in 2014 and serves on the Hall of Fame board of directors, on the governing board of the joint RV Industry Association and RVDA technician certification program, and received the RVDA Chairman Service Award in 2006 and 2008.

She also received the David J. Humphreys RV Industry Unity Award in 2023, which recognizes who strives to encourage constituencies of the industry to work collectively for growth and betterment of the industry.

Keeping the Fire Lit

When asked how she continues to reignite her passion for the industry, Brunoforte says she goes back to goal setting. She uses the SMART acronym as her go-to strategy, which spells out Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound.

“It can be a real stretch goal. Maybe you don’t know how to achieve it, and that’s perfectly fine,” she says. “But it does have to be something that is achievable. I’m not going to make the goal to be the quarterback for the Arizona Cardinals, right? It has to be relevant right now — that’s what really propels you.”

Brunoforte says you also need to know what your “why” is for any goal.

“That’s what’s going to give you the energy. And it has to be time-bound — you have to have a specific time that you want to accomplish the goal,” she says. “If you don’t accomplish it by that time, that’s OK. You just set another goal, put another time on it. Don’t give up.

“If you have this goal, you make the commitment that you’re going to do something every day, or at least every day that you’re at work. You’re going to do something every single day, no matter how small it is, to get you a little bit closer.”

One last thing Brunoforte adds is not to fall into the trap of giving in to negative internal thoughts.

“We’re our own worst critics, right? So we have to practice being our own cheerleaders as well.”

As for her “why”?

“I really do feel that the RV business makes a difference in people’s lives,” she says. “We have the opportunity to bring so much joy to people by providing them these RVs that they can go out and have fun and adventure and explore and get out into nature. [These are] all positive things — psychological benefits, physical benefits. So we are in an industry where we do make a difference, and I think sometimes people don’t appreciate it as much as they could.”