Articles by Mike Lessiter

Lessiter
To the Point

2020 Challenges Require Steadfast Commitment

There are things within our control in this business (effort, commitment and focus to name a few), and many things that are not. If we’ve needed any reminders, we’ve found them recently: trade wars, Covid-19 pandemic, and falling stock and commodity prices, including two trade halts. And then there’s the familiar yet always unpredictable face of Mother Nature.
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Sage Wisdom from A Dealership Lifer

Ross Morgan, manager of special projects for H&R Agri-Power, shares how his nearly 60 years in the farm equipment dealership business have helped shape the Case IH dealership group’s success as it’s expanded.
Ross Morgan, a farm equipment dealership lifer, is a face you’ll still see at many industry events, including dealer association meetings and the Dealership Minds Summits.
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Dealership Minds

CFO: ‘Conducting’ the Orchestra

To be honest, I couldn’t tell you if Chief Financial Officer Ronnie Barnett can play or read a single note of music (although there are photos of Barnett, the Hunts and other H&R staff in a Lynyrd Skynyrd lip sync performance at a United Way event). But after observing Barnett and the role he plays within H&R Agri-Power, one could draw a conclusion that he could do well with a baton in his hand.
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Conversations in Ag

Trading Places: Farmer vs. Dealer Expectations

Colorado farmer Todd Olander and Iowa dealer Kendall Havran had to travel 4,700 miles away to meet one another (at Germany’s 2019 Agritechnica), but they learned of each other’s unique role, and the importance of shared expectations. The pair spoke candidly about what farmers and dealers can do together to optimize their relationship and success.
Colorado farmer Todd Olander and Iowa dealer Kendall Havran had to travel 4,700 miles away to meet one another (at Germany’s 2019 Agritechnica), but they learned of each other’s unique role, and the importance of shared expectations. The pair spoke candidly about what farmers and dealers can do together to optimize their relationship and success.
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Conversations in Ag

Research: Can It Be a Dealership’s Business?

An on-farm researcher and iron dealership agronomist share what areas of opportunity exist for machinery dealers to prove out methods of independent seed and chemical sales.
Marion Calmer and Mark Truster sat down during the National No-Tillage Conference to discuss the natural intersection — and blurred lines — between agronomic research and equipment sales, along with opportunities for today's evolving machinery dealer to reduce the risk of assumption based investments by farm customers.
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Conversations in Ag

Early Experience & Advantage in European Brands

Recorded during a 3-hour bus ride between LeMans and Paris, France, two dealer representatives explain the how’s & whys of their decisions to get early starts in selling and servicing European farm machinery and technology such as Claas, Horsch and JCB.
Recorded during a 3-hour bus ride between LeMans and Paris, France, two dealer representatives explain the how’s & whys of their decisions to get early starts in selling and servicing European farm machinery and technology such as Claas, Horsch and JCB.
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Conversations in Ag

Dealer Structures: Europe, North America a World Apart

European dealers differ vastly from their counterparts in many ways, particularly in the concentration of dealers and sizes of the farms they serve. This meeting with a European dealer-principal and a manufacturing exec from a large multinational company showed how data challenge debates exist everywhere, and that dealer-manufacturer relations remain critical, and remain more art that science.
On Day 2 of Farm Equipment’s trip to Agritechnica, Erik Hogervorst, owner of Wout Hogervorst V.O.F.. dealership in the Netherlands, and president of CLIMMAR (European dealer association) and Eric Raby, president/GM-Sales of Claas North America gathered in Hall 9.
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