A mainline dealer whose shortline business is critical to success sets up a separate location to quiet the major about the competitive attention at the primary location. The idea has also been talked about as a hedge move to protect a dealership whose contract or future transition of that contract could be questionable.
Jason Pennycook, precision specialist at Johnson Tractor (4 stores in Wisconsin and Illinois), says Johnson is still working on the internal management issues, including how service plans are billed, who is responsible and how to get all locations on the same page, as many farmers will use one or more stores. “We’re working on ways to make sure every service manager at every store knows when a farmer is on a service plan so he doesn’t get billed incorrectly.”
Jason Pennycook, precision specialist, Johnson Tractor, Janesville, Wis., has had 3 years of precision service plan experience. Johnson Tractor offers a basic (phone support and training class) and a premium (also including onsite visit). Other individual packages include precision training on-farm, spring planter checkups and yield monitor checkups.
With less equipment being rolled, precision service plan sales could see a shot in the arm. These dealers share their advice for getting them in place.
After years of “giving unapplied service labor away for free when it came to precision technologies” the dealer panel presentation on capturing revenue in service plans for precision was of keen interest for Summit attendees.
During last month’s National Farm Machinery show, I bumped into a precision ag manager for a large co-op. It didn’t take long to discover he was less than enthusiastic about hearing the major OEM dealers creeping into the agronomy territory, on top of the competition from the likes of the Monsantos of the world. He also wasn’t buying the “PR” that dealers’ on-staff agronomists would be stopping at casual support only.
During last month’s National Farm Machinery show, I bumped into a precision ag manager for a large co-op. It didn’t take long to discover he was less than enthusiastic about hearing the major OEM dealers creeping into the agronomy territory, on top of the competition from the likes of the Monsantos of the world. He also wasn’t buying the “PR” that dealers’ on-staff agronomists would be stopping at casual support only.
Kern Machinery has not been satisfied to merely distribute farm machinery to its customer base. With the wide diversity of crops — from almonds and pistachios to table grapes and pomegranates — grown at the south end of California’s Central Valley, many of its customers’ challenges are unique to the region and not necessarily economically feasible for its major supplier to address.
As part of one of the liveliest discussions Farm Equipment editors have had on the accounting topics with equipment dealerships, Kern Machinery CFO Marty Buck shared some takeaway value for some who wonder what their bean-counting teammates are up to, or what some of their words mean.
Marty Buck, the CFO for Kern Machinery and the other Camp family entities (based in Bakersfield, Calif.), explained to Farm Equipment some of the differences in financial management responsibilities as dealerships grow in scale. He joined Kern 7 years ago, after previously leading financial departments at Unisys and Bolthouse Farms.
In this episode of On the Record, brought to you by Associated Equipment Distributors, Marc Johnson, principal with Pinion, provides 4 factors that will be important for dealers to watch in 2025 that will impact their business.
Built on 90 years of expertise, Yetter Farm Equipment leads the agriculture industry in designing effective and innovative equipment for residue management, seedbed preparation, precision fertilizer placement, harvest attachments, strip-tillage, and more.
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