Nearly 40 years ago, I was hired by a consulting firm whose major client was International Harvester, the once venerable leader in agricultural equipment sales. This consulting firm had designed the XL program for IH that recognized and rewarded their dealer organization for implementing a series of sensible, yet stringent, operational and financial standards. The same firm conceived and implemented a training program for the IH dealer organization that was then perceived as cutting edge.

After a succession of years where equipment sales continued to increase, not because of dealership marketing efforts or sales force contacts, but rather because of increasing commodity prices and end-user ebullience, many dealership sales forces now find themselves in a sales funk. Regular updates by Farm Equipment continue to provide evidence of declining sales — actual and forecasted — as quarterly results are released by leading manufacturers.

While previous articles have addressed dominating a market, initiating a strategy and executing with speed, all using the precepts of Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War,” this column will use the same source to identify the leadership attributes necessary to win a protracted war of attrition.