So, you’ve done the branding work and are ready to align all the pieces of your demand funnel. What’s next?

You need to master the customer interaction using trigger events. 

There are three basic experiences that we as dealers support for our customers. The purchase experience and making sure they’ve got the right equipment. The operating experience, which is putting the machine into the dirt. And the support experience — making sure that it keeps running effectively at total lowest cost.

“Whatever you’re selling — a new or used machine, a rental or product support — there’s a trigger event for that purchase process…”

It starts with customer triggers. Whatever you’re selling — a new or used machine, a rental or product support — there’s a trigger event for that purchase process. For example, a farmer takes on more acres and needs more productivity out of his machines. Or it's yield-driven and the farmer requires better precision tools and that starts the purchase process. Or it could be something operational like weather or input prices. It could be a noise on the machine they didn’t like or an upcoming  preventive maintenance, even telematics informing them something might be happening on the machine.

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Regardless of what you’re selling, marketers must know those triggers for purchase, operation and support. That’s the starting point with any customer. And we need to progressively move from just transactional triggers where we react to the customer phone call, email or store visit to knowing what the customer needs before they do. Then you’re really working as a close partner. This has been the dream of telematics for decades now, but we still have a lot to do.

As marketers, the communication with the customer for each of these trigger events and how you’re leading them through the purchase-operate-support process falls on you, aligning marketing tactics to each touchpoint. Otherwise, you're just casting a net and taking whatever comes in.

Instead of that, move upstream, understand what those triggers are and get  the customer moving forward.

Titan Machinery’s Jeff Bowman: 7 Key Changes to Transform Dealership Marketing

#1. Own Customer Growth: ‘Nobody is Better Suited to Drive the Growth Agenda Than the Head of Marketing.’

#2 Build the Waterfall: Align Marketing, Sales & OEM from Top to Bottom

#3. Brand Beyond the Iron: “Is Our Brand Presenting the Image You Want Across Thousands Upon Thousands of Interactions With Customers?”

#4 Pull The Triggers: From Dirt to Decisions: Unearthing the Value

#5 Make Moments Core to Your Business

#6 Finish Strong Online

#7. Change the Game