Meeting and learning from industry experts in the agriculture equipment dealer space is a great way to gain fresh resources for our readers. Such was the case with the 2025 Associated Equipment Distributors AED Summit recently held in Orlando, Fla.
A voracious reader, I’m always eager to connect with authors and learn what motivates them. Having seen a session on managing service departments on the schedule, I made a point to attend and learn from John Dowling. A process guy through and through, and now a published author, John is passionate about learning, adapting, improving and results. He’s found a way to utilize his experience with a broad range of big brands — John Deere, Hitachi, Case Construction, Case IH, Kubota, New Holland, Gradall, Wirtgen Group, Pettibone and others. At this stage of the game, he says that with so many mentors throughout his career who have pushed, coached and taught him, he now wants to give back to the industry that has given him the opportunity to be successful.
His delivery is engaging, his message is often blunt but attention-getting, and his passion for helping the equipment dealers in his audience seemed sure signs that his new book, Service by the Boxes, will be well received. Here are some insights he shared, both during the session and in a small but lively group discussion we found ourselves in later that day.
From Marine Veteran to Industry Veteran, a Calling to Give Back
Dowling is a United States Marine veteran who is leveraging his successful 25-year career in the Product Support Industry with the book’s publication and expansion of his recruiting (at the time of this writing with the heavy equipment executive recruiting team at Jordan Sitter Associates) and executive coaching consulting work.
Here’s how he explains why he wrote the book: “Most dealerships do not have a process, they have controlled chaos,” he says. Why? Because as he sees it, most owners and store managers don’t understand service and as a result they ignore it and hope for the best. He explains that often their plan is to hire an all-star service manager with 20 years experience who knows service, is great with customers and can work with the sales department.
“I’m in the recruiting industry and have found this guy doesn’t exist, but this is the vast majority of the dealerships in the heavy equipment industry’s plan to deliver best-in-class customer service. Hire someone who doesn’t even exist,” Dowling added. Then he asks these questions: “What if the owner or store manager understood service? What if a dealership could develop and document a service process? Then they could hire a service manager who does exist, is within budget, and still delivers best-in-class customer service.”
“When I was a Director of Product Support, I wanted to find a book I could give to my service managers that we could use as a training manual that would help us coach them consistently. I searched for a book on service management within the heavy equipment industry. I did find a lot of books tailored toward the automotive industry but nothing for heavy equipment. At one point I literally went on LinkedIn and posted the question, ‘Does anybody know of a book on service management?’ The answer was, ‘No.’ While I did find one book after months of searching, from a consulting firm, I found that you were required to hire them as consultants to get their free book.”
It was then he knew there was most definitely a need for a book on service management tailored specifically to the equipment industry. He settled on a short easy-to-read book that would give the reader an understanding of the process of service.
“Any dealership that reads and applies the principles in the book to their service department will see improvement on day one. Remember service is a process and you must know your process,” he explains.
Four Fundamentals for Service Success
From online training to group, management and executive coaching, his drive to help others is fueled by having seen, and wanting to mend, gaps. As Dowling explains it, he started out as an equipment mechanic, worked his way up to field service mechanic, was promoted to service manager and eventually to branch manager of a heavy equipment dealership. Then he accepted a position as a field service representative for a major heavy equipment manufacturer. In his last role before entering the recruiting and consulting industries, Dowling was Director of Product Support at a 9-location heavy equipment dealership. As Director of Product Support, he had great success in developing, documenting and implementing processes. As he sees it, training and coaching are key to building a successful product support team. Consistency is equally as important.
Dowling offered these 4 takeaways that get to the core of his message for equipment dealers striving for success in 2025 and beyond:
- Learn service by creating an open and transparent culture
- Give service a seat at the table, which means including and listening to them
- Let service show a profit
- Support service with technologies and training
Keep reading and keep learning. And for more aftermarket best practices, be sure to join us in Iowa City July 29-30 for the 2025 Dealership Minds Summit, which will be centered around the theme The Fully Absorbed Dealer.