After two years of unprecedented equipment demand, limited fulfillment from OEMs, and high farm profitability, dealerships are seeing signs of a slow-down in the ag equipment market. To maintain the bottom line, they need to be nimble and employ new strategies using the skills and tools they’ve acquired over the past few cycles.
In a
webinar hosted by Tractor Zoom and Anvil App Works, three dealership leaders discuss how they are navigating the transition using data insights, technology, and partnerships.
Finding Proactive Data and Leaning into Partnerships
Duane Kautzman, Vice President of Asset Management at Hutson, says one of the biggest challenges most dealerships face is finding proactive data to better anticipate what will happen in the next 24 months.
“Historically, we don’t react quickly as an industry and part of that is we haven’t looked at data and part of it is that it’s hard to find data to help you do that,” Kautzman says. “We track our own {data}, but we’ve partnered with Anvil App Works and Tractor Zoom to track trends earlier than we used to and react faster.”
Kautzman searches for new sources of data that help gauge customer behavior and regularly reviews the Purdue monthly Ag Economy Barometer and Federal Reserve Banks’ websites, both of which provide insights into future trends.
Brian Knotts, Vice President of Asset Management at Koenig, says one of the biggest challenges for dealerships now is how they overlap each other.
“We can have all the best data and processes, we can be executing, but we overlap each other,” Knotts says. “If your neighboring dealers, whom you’re trying to compete for market share on, if they’re not on the same page and they’re overvaluing equipment, you have to overvalue equipment. Dealers need to become more economically and data-mature and not be overreacting.”
Trent Giles, Regional & Wholegoods Program Manager at KanEquip, says they’ve begun partnering with dealers throughout North America to build a network of trusted advisors and a process to move inventory across the country based on regional need.
In addition, KanEquip partners with systems providers to find and present data to teams on the ground, creating transparency and supporting a data-driven culture.
Giles says, “We use Anvil and Tractor Zoom to try to bring all that into one place so we can have meaningful conversations and so everyone is on the same page moving forward."