“I’ve seen more engagement of guys selling construction that would typically just stick in their little lane in ag. They’re more comfortable because they’re not having to go through the price books. When you have a quote tool, that makes it less intimidating”

Last week I was on the road traveling in western Minnesota visiting dealers, manufacturers, service providers and even an impromptu stop at Alexandria Technical & Community College to check out the diesel mechanic program. Despite the hard year that North American farmers — and thus farm equipment dealers — have been having, nearly everyone I visited with seemed upbeat and relatively positive. Harvest is going to be a race against time this year.

We all know that marketing can only go so far. Marketing is a tool to bring you leads and foot traffic. But, marketing alone cannot close a sale. That is why you spend so much money on experienced sales staff with connections in the marketplace.

A year ago at the Summit, we talked about marketing’s role in filling the customer pipeline for the sales team and how to build out qualified leads using data. But the work doesn’t stop there.

CRM (and its use for both marketing and sales) is only as good as how committed the entire sales and marketing teams are at entering notes, activities, conversations, inquiries ... How do you measure and hold accountable throughout the organization? What are consequences of not doing it?