Cory Rothmann loves selling. The McFarlanes’ salesperson has been working in outside sales since he was 18.
His time at Kimball Midwest, a maintenance and repair operations distributor that specializes in American-made bolts, is what nurtured the salesman inside of him. The company sent him all over the U.S. for key account training, and that’s where he learned and mastered his craft.
Rothmann has always used key accounts as his sales strategy and focuses on building his relationship with each account.
“Key accounting takes sales 101 out of the equation, and the biggest thing you’re selling is yourself,” he says. “I want to sell a relationship with a customer.
“I get to go to sleep really happy most nights because I’ve built these relationships around friends and customers who I want to deal with,” he says. “I’m cold calling them like anybody else would but really pushed myself as the person who help them make decisions.”
When Rothmann joined McFarlanes’ large ag sales team, he came into the job not wanting to work with existing McFarlanes’ customers.
"He said, if my AGCO dealer can do this for me, why can’t you..."
“If I’m going to get customers, I’m going to get customers the way I used to,” he says. “That’s what I enjoy doing. Cold calling is either the scariest thing you’ll ever do in your life, or it can be one of the most fun, rewarding things you could ever have when you actually land customers.”
Another stipulation he had was being a salaried employee vs. 100% commission based.
“When I was 100% commissioned before, I felt like I had to be more concerned about myself and my family and how we were going to make money vs. 100% being there for the customer,” Rothmann says.
Meet the Players in the Color Conversion
The Customer: Tim Pfeil and his son Noah own and operate Pfeil Family Farm in Lodi, Wis., a 600-acre soybean and 1,000-head beef cattle operation. Tim also owns E80, a large construction and engineering firm that does business in over 20 states.
The Dealer Salesman: Rothmann has been with the dealership since 2016, starting off in the rental department before moving into sales.
The Dealer Product Specialist: Jon Wyttenbach is actually a former McFarlanes’ customer — one of the original Fendt tractor purchasers in 2004 — who has now been part of the team since 2019, assisting the McFarlanes’ team as a product specialist.
Guerilla Selling
This color conversion story starts on the construction side of McFarlanes’ business. Rothmann was familiar with E80, a construction and engineering company, from his time at Kimball. The company had done some business with McFarlanes’, but purchases were limited to chainsaws and the like.
“It’s one of those places I knew was bigger than it looked from the road,” he says.
Rothmann knew he didn’t want to get stuck with a gatekeeper and was going to have to do something different to get his foot in the door.
As the story goes, Rothmann pulled into the E80 yard with a Kubota skid steer and slowly started to unload it.
McFarlanes’ Retail & Service Center
Majorline: AGCO & Kubota
Stores: 1 (Sauk City, Wis.)
Shortlines: McFarlane, H&S, Pottinger, Land Pride, Stihl, Cub Cadet
Founded: 1917
Owners: John McFarlane, Dick McFarlane, Tom McFarlane & Stan McFarlane
Customer Base: Most customers farm less than 1,000 acres and largely grow corn and soybeans, but there are a few pockets of vegetables like potatoes and peas. There are also several dairy customers — both large and small.
“I took my time. I wanted to make sure somebody noticed I was here unloading this skid steer for no apparent reason,” he says.
Once he got the skid steer unloaded, he started to flip up the ramps thinking it was all for nothing and no one was going to stop him when a man came out and asked what he was doing.
That man was Tim Pfeil, the owner of E80. Here’s how Rothmann says that exchange went:
Pfeil: “What are you doing?”
Rothmann: “I’m dropping this skid steer off.”
Pfeil: “Why are you dropping the skid steer off?”
Rothmann: “They said you’re going to demo it.”
Pfeil: “We’re not interested.”
Rothmann: “Well, I’ll tell you what, I’m going to leave it here for a week. Keys are in it. I’ll know if you used it or not. We’ll go from there.”
Pfeil: “You’re serious, aren’t you?”
Rothmann: “Yeah, I’m leaving it here. I’m not coming back until next week to pick this thing up.”
A week later when Rothmann returned for the skid steer, it was sitting almost exactly where he left it, which typically isn’t a good sign, he says. He flipped the key on and discovered they had logged some hours on it. Perhaps this experiment was going better than he thought.
Tag-Team Selling
McFarlane’s salesperson Cory Rothmann knows selling is built around relationships. But, it takes more than just a one-on-one conversation to get the deal done. Enter product specialist Jon Wyttenbach.
“As our product specialist, Jon allows me to not have all the answers,” Rothmann says.
Wyttenabach joins Rothmann on a number of customer visits, so between the two of them, they are more likely to be able to answer all the customer’s questions.
“Nobody’s going to know everything about every piece of equipment,” Rothmann says. “When I have a customer who asks a more challenging question about a particular piece of equipment, Jon should have better answers than I do if I don’t know the answer.”
Wyttenbach used to be a McFarlane’s customer. His farm, which is about a mile down the road from the dealership, was one of the original purchasers of a 2004 Fendt tractor. Rothmann uses that story to introduce Wyttenbach to the customer as someone who was sitting in their seat a couple years ago but joined the staff because he felt so strongly about his experience with the dealership.
“I hand that conversation off, and then Jon talks a little bit more about their family farm,” Rothmann says. “Usually it's two farmers then, and they get a little bit calmer about it.”
Rothmann says customers want to know more about Wyttenbach’s operation, and in discussing what they have in common, they have a more equal conversation.
“To me, that's where that relationship starts to build a little bit more. They already know who I am. Now I want to sell my next person down the line,” he says.
After meeting a new potential customer for the first time, Rothmann and Wyttenbach agree they both have to like the customer and see them as a good fit. They don’t always agree.
“I spend so much time with the man that we disagree just as much as we agree,” Rothmann says. “Do I care about making someone I’ve never sold to before in my life happy at this point? Or do I care about this guy who's sitting right next to me? I care about him a hell of a lot more than the person who we're working with in that situation. I vetoed him once, and he's been very happy that we vetoed him because that customer has turned out to be a really good new Fendt customer of ours.”
Rothmann refuses to give customers pricing over the phone and insists on having them come into the dealership. This gives him the opportunity to show the customer everything McFarlane’s has to offer. He’ll talk about the tenure of the service technicians and walk the customer through the parts department.
“I personally walk them into the bay on the large ag side and introduce them to the 2-3 technicians they’ll be dealing with,” Rothmann says. “I let them tell their stories. To me, that’s where we’ve now built my relationship. We’re starting to build Jon’s relationship and Charlie and Eric’s.”
It’s important to build that service relationship because with Fendt’s Gold Star Warranty, the techs will be out on the customer’s farm for the first 3 years or 3,000 hours whether the equipment breaks down or not, Rothmann says.
Much like when he dropped it off, he arrived unannounced and again slowly got to work loading the skid steer back on the truck. Pfeil once again stopped and asked him what he was doing. They liked the skid steer. From there, it was a matter of paperwork and working hard at building the relationship.
McFarlanes’ worked with its Kubota rep and signed E80 as the first large fleet in Kubota’s system in the state of Wisconsin.
“That gave them awesome pricing, right out of the gate,” Rothmann says. “I wanted my success story with Tim on a very high-level construction fleet to be something that this gentleman would share throughout the industry.”
McFarlanes’ is a single-store AGCO and Kubota dealer in Sauk City, Wis. Photo by: Kim Schmidt
E80 does work in over 20 states, and once a year, Rothmann conducts training with all its staff.
“I wanted to make sure that it wasn’t just Tim who I was building a relationship with,” he says. “It was Tim’s people underneath him and operators who’ll work through all those problems you have when you got a brand new piece of equipment.”
Converting the Ag Business
Historically, the Pfeil Family Farm was an all-Deere farm that operated new or late model equipment. While the farm wasn’t doing any business with McFarlane, Rothmann knew he needed to be seen as a partner for the Pfeils like he was for E80.
To help build the on-farm relationship, Rothmann offered to help do whatever Pfeil needed, be it loading a truck, running a tractor or anything in between. Eventually, Pfeil took him up on the offer.
McFarlanes’ Utilizes Tag-Team Selling to Gain Dealer-Wide Confidence
McFarlanes’ salesperson Cory Rothmann knows selling is built around relationships. But, it takes more than just a one-on-one conversation to get the deal done. Enter product specialist Jon Wyttenbach.
“As our product specialist, Jon allows me to not have to have all the answers,” Rothmann says.
Wyttenbach joins Rothmann on a number of customer visits, so between the two of them, they are more likely to be able to answer the customer’s questions.
“Nobody’s going to know everything about every piece of equipment,” Rothmann says. “When I have a customer who asks a challenging question about a particular piece of equipment, Jon will have better answers than I do.”
Wyttenbach once was a McFarlanes’ customer himself. His farm, which is about a mile down the road from the dealership, was one of the original purchasers of a 2004 Fendt tractor. Rothmann uses that story to introduce Wyttenbach to the customer as someone who was sitting in their seat a couple years ago but joined the staff because he felt so strongly about his experience with the dealership.
“I hand that conversation off, and then Jon talks a little about their family farm,” Rothmann says. “Usually it’s two farmers then, and they get a little bit calmer about it.”
Rothmann says customers want to know more about Wyttenbach’s operation, and in discussing what they have in common, they have a more balanced conversation.
“That’s where that relationship starts to build a little bit more. They already know who I am. Now I want to sell my next person down the line,” Rothmann says.
After meeting a new potential customer for the first time, Rothmann and Wyttenbach agree they both have to like the customer and see them as a good fit. They don’t always agree.
“I spend so much time with the man that we disagree just as much as we agree,” Rothmann says. “I vetoed Jon once on a customer, and he’s been happy I did because that customer has turned out to be a really good new Fendt customer of ours.”
Rothmann refuses to give customers pricing over the phone and insists on having them come into the dealership. This gives him the opportunity to show the customer everything McFarlanes’ has to offer. He’ll talk about the tenure of the service technicians and walk the customer through the parts department.
“I personally walk them into the bay on the large ag side and introduce them to 2-3 technicians they’ll be dealing with,” Rothmann says. “I let them tell their stories. That’s where we’ve now built my relationship. We’re starting to build Jon’s relationship and Charlie and Eric’s.”
It’s important to build that service relationship because with Fendt’s Gold Star Warranty, the techs will be out on the customer’s farm for the first 3 years or 3,000 hours whether the equipment breaks down or not, Rothmann says.
After that, Rothmann convinced the Pfeil to demo a tractor, but he didn’t buy it. Then one day Pfeil came in and asked about a Fendt 516 tractor with a loader. He ultimately purchased it.
“Now that you have that business, how do you maintain that business?” Rothmann says. “I wanted to make sure that I was doing a heck of a lot better job than the Deere dealership. I knew nothing about the Deere dealership that he was purchasing from before except I wanted to do a better job.”
Sealing the Deal
Rothmann and Pfeil’s business relationship had grown to a point where they became friends. One day Pfeil called Rothmann because he was frustrated with his new tractor that wouldn’t start. It had just 10 hours on it.
“I took his frustration as a problem and said, ‘I can solve this problem. What do you need,’” Rothmann says.
Pfeil ’s Deere dealer didn’t have the battery in stock. Rothmann and McFarlane stepped in with 2 solutions to the problem. First, they brought out a battery, installed it in the tractor and offered it as a loaner battery. After the installation, Rothmann also told the Pfeil s he’d bring out another piece of equipment.
Noah Pfeil (l) runs most of the farm operations at Pfeil Family Farms. McFarlanes' first started with Pfeil's father, Tim (r) who owns construction company E80.
“We brought the same piece of equipment they had passed on the first time we demoed, but now they had a Fendt tractor on their farm, and it was easier to comparatively run through the technology and the differences between the two,” Rothmann says.
“He told his John Deere dealer, ‘If my AGCO dealer can do this for me, why can’t you do this for me?’ The last nail the coffin was the Deere dealer found a battery, but, he dropped it off on his front steps — couldn’t even install it into the tractor,” Rothmann says.
“This is a tractor that had 10 hours on it. It’s every bit of a brand new piece. When he knows that the extra mile we’re going to go through with him, that’s where we gain that business.”
Within a few weeks of dropping off the battery, Pfeil bought the tractor.
Repeat Business
The big sale, Rothmann says, happened in 2023. Pfeil had originally bought a Deere 8R 310, but it was going to take awhile to take delivery on it from the factory. In the meantime, he was looking for another tractor and was considering another Deere tractor or a Fendt 933.
“We sold him the 933,” Rothmann says. “He loved it so much that he ended up buying another 933 before the 8R 310 even arrived. The 8R 310 showed up, he put about 15 hours on it, and the transmission blew up.”
Pfeil Family Farms previously ran all Deere equipment and only bought new. McFarlanes’ salesperson Cory Rothmann converted their entire fleet to AGCO over a couple years. Photo by: McFarlanes'
McFarlanes’ brought out a Fendt 720 for Pfeil to use, and he ended up buying t the 720.
Rothmann never thought he’d get the opportunity to sell Pfeil a combine, but last year Rothmann again got a call that Pfeil had a piece of equipment down. This time it was a combine — during harvest. The Deere dealership didn’t have anything it could loan or rent him, and Pfeil was too busy harvesting to get it into the shop for service. Rothmann offered a used Gleaner with 3,000 hours on it.
“I said, ‘I’ve got another salesman who also owns a Gleaner. We’ll put a head on it. Let’s at least get your beans off,” Rothmann says.
At the same time, Charlie Fuerstenberg, a McFarlanes’ mechanic who had also built a relationship with Pfeil, said it wouldn’t take much to fix the Deere combine.
"I knew nothing about the Deere dealership that he was purchasing from before except I wanted to do a better job…"
McFarlanes’ repaired the green combine for Pfeil. But while it was being serviced, Pfeil continued on with harvest using the used Gleaner. He liked what he saw, and Pfeil is a new buyer, Rothmann says. Luckily, McFarlanes’ had a nearly identical Gleaner in inventory, and he bought it.
Solutions-Based Service
The full-fleet color conversion was the result of a number of challenges and the McFarlane team working to find solutions to them. Rothmann is quick to point out that it’s not just his relationship with Pfeil that led to converting the entire fleet of equipment.
Learn More Online
For more exclusive content on McFarlanes’ and its “Color Conversion” success, including a video interview with Cory Rothmann, visit this link.
“I couldn’t do this by myself,” he says. “It’s been me, Jon Wyttenbach and Charlie who have all built that relationship with Tim, Noah and the Pfeil Family Farm. That’s what’s gotten us to the point we’re at today — they trusted us with a large amount of equipment last year and know we have their back.
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