Conducting business honestly and offering outstanding service are two ways this dealership succeeds in the Yellowhammer State.
This article originally appeared in RV Pro magazine and was written by Jennifer King.
For one father-and-son dealer team, the American dream is pretty simple: run a successful business that allows them to make a living.
A bonus? Employing good people, allowing them to make a living for their families, too.
Rodney Johnston and his son Nick Johnston of Johnston RV Center in Decatur and Cullman, Alabama, both say that’s what it all comes down to.
“I love the industry,” says Rodney, owner of the dealership. “There’s opportunity for people like me and Nick to come in and do an honest, good dealership and take care of things, work hard at it. I’m an old-school ‘American dream’ capitalist, I guess, but it really is true.
“The products that we sell are manufactured and put together in Elkhart or Topeka or Shipshewana – they’re coming from the heartland of America. And we employ 50 people, so that’s 50 families that make their living through what we envision. I’m just really proud of that.”
HUMBLE BEGINNINGS
In his early 20s, Rodney started out working in manufactured homes in Winston County, Alabama, which he likened to Elkhart, Indiana, in terms of an area being known for producing a particular product.
“I worked for a retail company and then I ended up owning that business after a period of time,” Rodney says. “I bought the business when Nick was still in school and young. And then we sold that business to…a big manufactured home company. They actually had a factory here in north Alabama, because there was a workforce here, kind of like Elkhart.”
Rodney says he then did a few other things, but eventually started looking at the RV industry and his interest piqued after RVing with his family when his kids were young.
At the end of 2013, an existing dealership went up for sale after the owner principal experienced health issues. In February 2014, Hood RV Center in Decatur, Alabama, became Johnston RV Center, and Rodney and Nick – who is the general manager – have worked together ever since, opening a second location in Cullman in 2016. They also employ Rodney’s daughter and Nick’s sister, Kelsi Nuss, as web director and her husband, Cody Nuss, as operations manager. Nick and Kelsi’s cousin, William Cockrell, is the desk manager.
“We had a goal of having a very good customer center,” Rodney says. “Our goal was to have the customer-facing part to be really warm and friendly and a family deal.”
Johnston RV Center worked with Forest River from the get-go but went exclusive with Forest River in 2015.
“Having a relationship like we do with Forest River, if we have an issue, if something comes up…they’ll help us,” Nick says. “I have a 100% confidence in what Forest River does. I love having that relationship as opposed to being the candy store that handles absolutely everything. I want our salespeople to be proud of that. That’s something I want our service folks to be proud of.”
EMPLOYEES WHO ARE FAMILY & FAMILY WHO ARE EMPLOYEES
The Johnstons take pride in having employees who feel like family – and family members who have become excellent employees.
“My sister Kelsi is an integral part of the business on one side, and her husband, Cody, is an unbelievably integral part on another when it comes to operations,” Nick says.
Most dealers have trouble finding quality trained technicians, Rodney says. At Johnston RV Centers,
Cody introduced a key performance indicator (KPI) program that employees are graded on and provide incentives for doing well.
“He has a weekly main meeting where we grade where we were, where we’re going,” Rodney says.
There are a lot of young people who need training, he says, but the workforce is out there. “Once you can get a good process in place, you can find out people’s talents,” Rodney says.
Nick and Rodney both speak very highly of their employees. “I feel like right now we have the best staff that we’ve ever had – they do an incredible job for us,” Nick says.
“I’m very proud to have each and every one of them.”
“We’ve been very fortunate that they’ve come our way,” Rodney continues. “We’ve had turnover like everybody else, but our core group of people have stuck with us through thick and thin.”
FINDING THEIR FOOTING, AND THEN SOME
Despite starting out with only eight or so units on the lot when they purchased the business, the Johnstons managed to grow the company from roughly 10 employees to 50, and went from selling a couple hundred units a year to more than 800 a year by 2018 and 2019.
Rodney and Nick agree that those were stellar years for their business and then the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020 and accelerated sales even more due to the record number of people turning to RVs as the safest possible way to travel in such an uncertain time, leading Johnston RV Center to deliver more than 1,000 campers in the years 2020 and 2021 to people not only in the Southeast, but across the U.S.
According to Statistical Surveys, Johnston RV Center was the No. 1 travel trailer dealer in Alabama in 2021.
Things are still looking good so far this year, Rodney says, using the term “bullish” to describe 2023. But with lessened demand for RVs post-pandemic, the reasons behind the success are a little different.
Service has always been a big focus for Johnston RV Center, and post-pandemic it became even more important. Also, dropping inventory to pre-pandemic levels was crucial to the business’s health, Rodney says.
Affordable campers have always been the bread and butter at Johnston RV Center, he says, with Cherokee being a big seller for them.
“That’s our niche. We’re very active with toy haulers and we were the No. 1 toy hauler dealer in Alabama for several years,” he says.
“We do a lot of promotional stuff. We’re active in our communities and that was something that came natural to us,” Rodney says. “We have a big concert here in town that’s called Rock the South. This year, Chris Stapleton’s going to be at, [and] we’re one of the title sponsors.”
The Johnston family is passionate about the outdoor lifestyle – with their location near Guntersville State Park and the Tennessee River in north Alabama, there are a lot of outdoor enthusiasts in the community.
“We’re kind of small-town guys and a small-town mentality. Everybody knows everybody,” Rodney says. “It was extremely important for our reputation to be as impeccable as much as possible. We worked on process a lot and, all of a sudden, we started following the stats, and we were climbing.
“We’re just like everybody else, we watch trends and all,” he says. “Our staffing [has] dropped a little. Our inventory level we’ve dropped accordingly.
You know, [we’re] small potatoes compared to the big companies that are consolidating and have 50 lots or a hundred lots or whatever. But we just focus on our two lots to try to do the very best we can, and it’s been very successful for us.”
A LIFETIME WARRANTY – JOHNSTON RV’S DIFFERENTIATOR
One thing Johnston RV Centers is known for doing differently is offering a lifetime warranty on their units through Assurant.
“We pay a premium on each camper on behalf of the customer to have this warranty, and to keep that warranty in place, customers have to bring it back to the shop each year for an annual inspection. It doesn’t have to be ours, which is useful for customers who purchased from Johnston for states away. He explains that while some dealers offer extended warranties, the coverage is not typically as good as the Johnstons’ lifetime offering.
“We believe in it,” Rodney says. “It’s something that separates us from the crowd.”
Word of mouth among other campers has benefited the Johnstons, Rodney says.
“Our percentage is pretty high that our customers come back to us. We have sold some five and six campers to the same family. But [it’s] something where they sat around the campfire, roasting marshmallows, generally talking about dealers, like, ‘Where did you buy yours? Mine’s got a lifetime warranty.’”
