I just returned from our 2 national events in St. Louis, including the 5th Annual Precision Farming Dealer Summit. More top-level dealer attendance at the event this year confirms that precision remains both a challenge and opportunity to be figured out.

I try to attend as many industry conferences as I can each year. They are great places to network, talk best practices, listen to industry speakers and catch up with old friends.

What makes a dealership good? And what does it take to move a dealership from good to great? These questions are our subject for this column in 2020.

Canadian firm developing ultra-high-pressure water jet system for planting through heavy residues and in hard soils with little soil disturbance. Look for possible retrofit kits for popular planters.

It’s just about a wrap on the second decade of the 2000s and from my perspective things are looking a “little” better than they have in a while in some respects, but not so much in others. For the most part, the first half of the last decade is very different from the second half. But it’s simply a matter of ag cycles and plateaus, according to some.

Every piece of content we create for Farm Equipment involves “Conversations in Ag,” but for the second time now our team embarked on a special project that involved coordinating conversations with a variety of individuals from across all aspects of the ag industry.

John Deere Harvester Works factory notes S Series combine will have a life of 17 years and 5 different owners. Do you agree?

By establishing value and knowing how to communicate that to a prospect, the closing ratio goes up dramatically, but so do the margins. A sales-driven organization takes time, energy and the correct vision to have a highly competent team.

Do you know how many customers that your sales team talks to every week? For many organizations, they don’t know the answer and are leaving thousands of dollars on the table for a competitor to get.

This is the first article in a 3-part series about four key elements of professional selling and marketing: 1) relationship selling tips and strategies, 2) hiring, training and leading a sales force, 3) integrating marketing and sales teams to perform as a whole unit, and 4) tips and strategies to measure sales and marketing effectiveness and performance.