Whayne Supply Co., a Caterpillar, AGCO and Claas dealer that has been in business for 104 years recently underwent a facility and brand renovation. “We’re a Caterpillar dealer; we serve construction, mining, power systems and many other markets. Ag was getting lost in our facilities,” says Richard Scott, vice president and general manager of Whayne Supply.

Customers are getting hit with advertising messages from every angle — TV, radio, print, social media and even in their email. “People are being absolutely inundated with messaging. So you’ve got to be able to break through with something else,” says Tyler Musson, corporate marketing manager for Washington Tractor, a 12-store John Deere dealership in Washington state.

Eric Woodford left a successful farming and custom baling operation to start a shortline dealership focused on biomass harvesting equipment.

Brand diversity allows Flaman Ag to negotiate with suppliers and meet its customers needs. The dealership group carries 59 different product categories from 46 different suppliers, with grain handling, storage and drying equipment as their primary product areas. “We’re constantly looking for new things, and every year or two we’ll take on a new line or the odd thing will drop off,” Flaman says.

For many business owners or even a department managers, letting go of responsibilities and trusting someone else with them can be hard to do. After all if you want something done right, you should do it yourself, right?

In over 30 years of working in the parts department at Kern Machinery, Chris Schott has seen a lot of changes. When he first started, a 24-hour turnaround on getting a part was amazing. “That’s not good enough any more. There are thousands and thousands of dollars on the line, so 24 hours is too long,” he says. “That creates the need for more inventory because customers want solutions and they want to be rolling now. If they have a piece of equipment down, they may have 3 pieces that operate behind it that can’t operate because the other one’s down. Well that adds up to big money fast. Downtime is a big thing for our customers and they’re under a lot more pressure.”

Richard Knott is a parts department lifer. The parts manager started his career off working for another John Deere dealership north of Kern Machinery’s stores. After a 3.5-year stint in the parts department at that dealership, Knott came to Kern Machinery and 31 years later is still keeping the parts department on goal at the Buttonwillow location.