As the ag equipment market remains variable, dealerships are leveraging data insights to make pricing decisions for their inventory. In a recent webinar about the market transition, hosted by Tractor Zoom and
Anvil App Works, three seasoned dealership professionals share the tools and strategies they use to ensure success for their business.
Maintain Consistent Inventory Review Practices
“Consistency is key. We have to be consistent no matter what the buying environment is,” Duane Kautzman, Vice President of Asset Management at Hutson, says.
Kautzman and the team at Hutson utilize tools like Anvil Enterprise CRM from Anvil App Works and Tractor Zoom Pro to regularly review the average listing price of their equipment and make adjustments if necessary. They analyze metrics like pending trades, aged and excess inventory, net sale amount versus listing price, and the new-to-used inventory ratio.
He says, “The biggest piece with inventory is just making sure we’re priced right and we’re aggressive with interest rates and programs.”
Utilize Many Resources to Analyze Inventory
“There’s no silver bullet. It’s all about execution,” Brian Knotts, Vice President of Asset Management at Koenig, says.
Knotts and his team create analyses for each piece of equipment in their inventory utilizing the same tools as Kautzman at Hutson.
“We have an API connection to Anvil to bring in a quote volume, our website data, and then third-party data to see who else is looking at a piece,” Knotts explains. “When you take pricing and supply and predictability data from [Tractor Zoom Pro], local quotes, internal and external website traffic, we get a pretty good idea about what’s going on. That’s what we rely upon for inventory.”
A common saying at Koenig is that the “AG” in the ag business stands for Analysis and Gut. The best decisions often are led by 80% analysis and 20% gut. If those are flipped, Knotts says, it’s likely you’ll overreact and offload equipment, which is not suited to today’s transitioning market.
Don’t Discount the Groundwork
Trent Giles, Regional & Wholegoods Program Manager, KanEquip, and his team are currently adopting DealerConnect CRM from Anvil App Works and Tractor Zoom Pro to do more with their data. “Tractor Zoom enables us to analyze our own sales and understand that versus the whole market,” he says.
In addition, KanEquip has invested more in their remarketing team who help find opportunities outside of their region with other dealerships. They utilize Tractor Zoom and other resources to bring more information into their process, like web traffic and quoting activity, which helps to confirm their on-ground suspicions.
“There are no shortcuts,” Giles says. “You must have conversations with your people. You can comb through the data all day long, but at the end of the day, you have to sit down with someone who is accountable for the piece and understand what’s happening on the ground.”
Learn more about inventory management, data, and
how these three dealerships adapt to the market by watching the full webinar hosted by Anvil App Works and Tractor Zoom.