Grand Design University’s fifth and final session of the year will host approximately 50 RV salespeople next week in Middlebury, Indiana, for two days of education on the manufacturer’s towable brands.
The 2025 Grand Design University schedule kicked off in October. This year marked the first time the manufacturer had conducted a motorized session. Grand Design introduced the Lineage motorhome brand in 2024.
Three Grand Design University sessions followed for dealers based in the Midwest, the Northeast and the South. The sessions focused on Grand Design’s towable lines—Imagine, Influence, Momentum, Reflection, Serenova, Solitude and Transcend. West Coast attendees at next week’s final towable session will arrive Monday for a welcome dinner. They will spend Tuesday and half of Wednesday on plant tours and in educational sessions.
Sales Development Manager Jeff Muffoletto said he limits each of the four towable sessions to approximately 50 attendees to spark interaction.
“They are more interactive because it is more intimate,” Muffoletto said. “They ask better questions when they get to know each other on a more personal level.”
The welcome dinner provides an opportunity to develop relationships among the group and the Grand Design team. Muffoletto said approximately 80% of attendees have not previously attended Grand Design University. He said some have been selling RVs for only a few weeks, while others have 30 years of industry experience. Most have less than two years of Grand Design RV sales experience.
“This gives them the freedom and the permission to ask questions that they want to ask,” Muffoletto said, “knowing they are not going to be judged for not having the right experience.”
Muffoletto said sessions address what makes Grand Design different as a company. This year’s theme is “First Things First.”
“The way I look at the event, it is half-education and half-appreciation,” Muffoletto said. “We want to both educate our dealer partners and then show them that we really appreciate what they do for our company.”
Grand Design University began roughly a decade ago, Muffoletto said, but was much more informal in the early years.
“We did not have a curriculum like we do today,” he said. “That is because we are a more mature company now, and we have more to offer. Our product lines have expanded, so there is a lot more to see and learn.”
Attendees will tour three to four Grand Design plants. Muffoletto said the lamination facility, a laminated trailer plant and the conventional-built Transcend plant are usually on the schedule. An additional stop is the company’s 300,000-square-foot Customer Service Center. The facility houses a repair shop, a body shop, a paint booth and the company’s parts warehouse. The Customer Service Center is also home to Grand Design RV’s Service Response Team, mobile technicians who travel the country to assist customers and dealers.
“The entire purpose of that building is customer service and customer goodwill,” Muffoletto said. “When they go through that building, they are seeing all of the things we do to take care of our customers.”
The sessions include a fireside chat with Grand Design President and CEO Don Clark. Muffoletto said the intimate experience offers attendees insight into the company’s past, present and future.
Grand Design Vice President of Marketing Danie Antonelli said the opportunity for dealership salespeople to meet the Grand Design team is among Grand Design University’s benefits.
“They actually get to talk to production,” she said. “They get to talk to marketing and to other departments. They get a better holistic view because they have access to so many people from our organization.”
Muffoletto said the experience makes for better salespeople.
“We have found on dealers’ lots, some of the salespeople camp and they have an advantage over the ones who do not because they can relate to the customer,” Muffoletto said. “Beyond that, if a salesperson can say, ‘I have been to the factory. I have been to the customer service facility. I have seen it all in action,’ then it is really a career-changer for a lot of people in sales, because now they can speak with conviction.”
