The uniqueness and diversity of agriculture in California’s Central Valley present some interesting challenges when it comes to selling farm machinery. But it’s been the switch to permanent crops and away from traditional row crops in the region that has altered how dealerships approach the sales process.

Larry Sitzman, general sales manager for Kern Machinery, explains, “The acreage of permanent crops has just been blossoming. So there hasn’t been the need for these customers to replace equipment so much as it’s been to add to what they already have.”

Kern Machinery’s first location was in Buttonwillow, Calif., and according to Gabriel Giesick, it was the growth of cotton in the area that prompted Don Camp to open the family’s first John Deere dealership. “It’s been here since 1969,” says Giesick, who took over as sales manager at Buttonwillow in 2014. “It was out in the sticks when they opened this location, but the black dirt is ideal for row crops like cotton.”

While some farmers at the time would have preferred a store closer to their operations, “Don Camp was smart enough to know that this location is where they needed to be,” Giesick says. “This location was built and expanded on selling cotton pickers, now we can hardly give cotton away. We haven’t sold a picker since I’ve been here.”

Crops like pomegranates, watermelons, peppers and garlic are important to the area around Buttonwillow, but cotton, along with other row crops that dominated the agriculture scene in the region for decades have given way to permanent crops, such as almonds, pistachios, citrus and grapes for raisins.

Anticipate & Forecast

According to Giesick, the key to selling in the permanent cropping environment isn’t distinctly different than that in regions where row crops are predominant. “You have to anticipate, you have to forecast, you have to think,” he says. Rather, it often takes a longer-term view of what customers will be doing.

For example, Giesick explains, “For the first 3-5 years after it’s planted, a pistachio tree doesn’t do anything but cost the farmer money. During this period, our salespeople need to forecast what the harvest equipment needs will be and anticipate when it will be needed. By the sixth year, the tree starts to produce and the custom harvesters need to be ready to go to work. That’s not the time to be trying to sell them something.

“We must be prepared,” he says. “I would rather have 4 or 5 of these specialized machines on the ground than to tell a customer it will take 18 months to get it to him. There’s a short time period where the demand hasn’t caught up with supply, but it’s also an opportunity. So forecasting becomes super important for us.”

Another prime example of anticipating the customer’s need comes at the end of a tree’s productive life. An almond tree, according Giesick, has a life expectancy of about 25 years. “Usually after about year 22, the tree’s production begins to diminish, and the farmer is looking at its yield very closely. At about year 23 or 24, they’re going to push it over, take it out, redo the lines, rip everything out, put acids and gypsum in the ground, clean it all up and fertilize. Basically, they start from scratch and put new baby trees in.

“My sales professionals must be on top of it and know that their customer has a 25-year old orchard, and the farmer is going to need just about everything in the way of equipment. They’re going to need moisture probes, a weather station, probably they’ll need a big ripper and a tractor with enough horsepower to pull it.”

Early Orders are Key

Most production farmers have come to understand that dealers don’t generally keep an inventory of big ag equipment on their lots as they did in years past. As a result, Giesick says most of his customers have learned to take advantage of Deere’s early order programs. “They order their equipment knowing they’re not going to get it for 8 months. So our staff starts pushing in October anticipating our farmers will need a big tractor in February or March.”

With the very specialized equipment for maintaining and harvesting permanent crops, like fruit and nuts, early ordering is critical, as much of it is made to order. “I’m blessed with some fabulous salespeople who understand forecasting. Throwing a dart at a target and using that as our method of forecasting isn’t acceptable. We’re very precise in what we do,” says Giesick.

How do they do it? “We ask, we ask again, and then we ask again,” he says. “Lost sales are something we take very serious around here.”

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