What do you think about new technology? Do you want new things as soon as they're available? Or do you wait until a new concept is proven and tested before you adopt it?
Facebook. Twitter. LinkedIn. Friends. Tweets. Connections. Smartphones. Tablets. Page Ranking. Most of these are new and strange terms that are part of social media marketing. As a farm equipment dealer, is social media marketing important to your business? Or is it irrelevant and a passing fad?
My last article was titled “Technology to Exceed Customer Expectations.” In it I cited 5 different real world examples that show how farm equipment dealers use technology to better serve their customers and to improve their dealership’s performance.
I love what I do. Every day I work with leading farm and construction equipment dealers all across the continent as they strive to get better. I continue to learn much from these progressive dealers who are constantly working to better serve a customer base with rapidly rising expectations.
CRM means Customer Relationship Management. The short answer to why you should care is that your future success may depend on if and how you implement CRM. Retail, your business, the business of selling and serving end users, is very competitive. Long term success often depends on doing a lot of little things right. Selling and servicing farm equipment is no different than any other industry where CRM is now a standard practice. But our industry is just starting to learn about its benefits of and to use CRM successfully.
Do you have a cell phone? Do you access the Internet regularly to find information? How about voice mail? Or a digital camera? Word processing or spreadsheets?
As a regular columnist, or writer at any level, you cannot help but wonder if you're hitting the mark with your readers. I've heard from and spoke with enough dealers since I started writing this column for Farm Equipment in early 2009 to believe that the topic areas in this column are generally on the mark. So it was nice to find out that one of my columns from last year ranked as the second most highly read stories on www.farm-equipment.com in 2012.
In this episode of On the Record, brought to you by Associated Equipment Distributors, we look at President Trump's tariff reduction on ag equipment, the latest dealer sales forecasts, and how high input costs are keeping farmer sentiment down.
Since 1980, A&I Products has become a leading manufacturer and wholesale distributor of aftermarket replacement parts for the agricultural, turf, and industrial equipment markets. A&I Products' experience and expertise has greatly contributed to the company's reputation as a top supplier of quality, reasonably priced parts. Founded with roots as a small machine shop and repair facility, the company made the transition by manufacturing new parts to replace those that were identified as commonly needing repair. Throughout the 1980s, the company quickly garnered a reputation for offering quality parts at a reasonable price.
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.
At Machinery Scope, we believe you deserve the best risk management solutions for your investments in heavy equipment. Since 2013, we have been proud to offer extended warranty, appraisals, and inspections. Machinery Scope is a family-owned business built on our experience in farming and equipment dealerships. We understand your business and provide a personalized and professional level of customer service. Machinery Scope has built a strong warranty product with our customers in mind, offering the same professional level of service from the time you get a quote, through the processing of a claim.