John Deere reducing dealerships

[nick...]

Would you want it behind your house though? I’m neither one way or the other but it seems a stupid location when it’s only a little way to the Southern bypass with plenty of sites with potential. The roundabout above Long Stratton is no doubt a good thing but it slows traffic flow along what is already a bad road. Sticking another roundabout in solely for a tractor dealership and not for others benefits just because the chap is charge is stubborn also seems mad.

I can understand both sides of the argument and no,I’d not want it near me.i don’t know where there are large sites available for a huge depot.northern bypass would be ok but then too close to Aylsham depot.it seems ridiculous to have dragged on for over 2 years.a roundabout would defiantly be needed to slow traffic and be better for access in and out of depot.i certainly woukd not want to be footing the bill for it all.
nick...

 

[AlfM]

I can understand both sides of the argument and no,I’d not want it near me.i don’t know where there are large sites available for a huge depot.northern bypass would be ok but then too close to Aylsham depot.it seems ridiculous to have dragged on for over 2 years.a roundabout would defiantly be needed to slow traffic and be better for access in and out of depot.i certainly woukd not want to be footing the bill for it all.
nick...

That’s my point, why should a roundabout be put there that’s to the detriment of every other road user by slowing the trip to norwich? There was the option of at least having it service the other nearby junction but someone put their parts on and refused. There are plenty of areas either at Postwick junction one way or Easton the other.

 

[Bronko]

At no point have I stated that you can sell cow cake like a mobile phone salesman. I don't know if you realise this or not but ruminant nutrition is a highly technical business and not just anyone can do it merely by being a people person- the margin for error is huge and you can cost someone a lot of money very quickly if you don't grasp the science of cattle feeding. I would bet there are now very very few, if any, 'pure' salespeople selling cow cake or even fertiliser in that game now- that kind of mindset is 20 years out of date and won't last long in the business today. Farmers want (and need, in my view) value added services to help them with technical aspects of their business they might not have the skills or time to do themselves.

By way of clarification, I stated in my earlier post that I had no need for a CRM system- a company has a list of active or dormant accounts because they are the ones sending the invoices. Anyone can sit in a truck or at a desk and ring up phone numbers, explain they are the new sales person for the area in question and then make an appointment or, 'just turn up' if that is how they prefer to operate. I could drop into a salesperson's shoes tomorrow if they dropped dead today, all the phone numbers or addresses are there, you don't need an introduction from anyone else- I've seen it done and done it myself as well.

When I started out, I had scant information on who was who or where potential customers lay; I had a map with some names on it but the bulk of them were existing customers being serviced by a colleague already anyway so they were null and void. I went down a million farm drives, sometimes repeatedly, finding out who was where and who to talk to. Sometimes I wasn't even 100% sure of the farmer's name or surname, but I used this as a tool anyway to help me. The first visit down a farm drive is easy peasy- you have a reason to go there. The second and subsequent reasons are harder so you have to engineer or invent them. Once you have a reasonable relationship with people, even if you have never done so much a quids worth of business with them, they will begin to tell you about their neighbours and people they know. It's human nature to want to help people.

Having said that, it is not for everyone and can be a miserable way to earn a living as you are conscious of the fact your income is purely derived from keeping customers on the 'conveyor belt'. It is also extremely difficult to have to hear the inevitable: 'I'll call you if I want anything' line 10 million times.

There are firms out there who put people into the field, brand new at it and expect them to make sales within weeks of starting. That is nonsense in my view. In a technical field and with such long term and tight relationships I would not expect to sell as much as single 25kg bag of anything for the first 12 months. I will never forget my old boss, years ago now, telling me: 'I'm not interested in how much you might sell in the first two years, I want you to tell me how many times you have been invited to sit down at someone's kitchen table and drank coffee with them'.

Transactional sales in agriculture using the hard sell are pretty rare but certainly can be done, often very successfully over the phone, but that is not me or in my character.

It's a dying trade in many ways. One can earn a lot of money from it but I was too much of a perfectionist for my role.

The one thing I did take away from my time in technical sales was the very valuable sales training I was given and a wide appreciation on dealing with people which will serve someone well in virtually any role. There is also a lot of subtle psychology at work and I still find people fascinating to this day.

I guess that’s why when you see ag sales jobs advertised they often say you get a guaranteed commission for the first year or two

 

[ollie989898]

I guess that’s why when you see ag sales jobs advertised they often say you get a guaranteed commission for the first year or two

Possibly, there aren't exactly millions of folk leaving college with an NDA and a burning desire to sell cow cake, minerals or fertiliser these days. Of course, sales skills are transferable: if you can sell tractors you can sell cars, mobile phones, laptops, whatever. Marketing is a skill and very lucrative sector of business.

 

[thesilentone]

At no point have I stated that you can sell cow cake like a mobile phone salesman. I don't know if you realise this or not but ruminant nutrition is a highly technical business and not just anyone can do it merely by being a people person- the margin for error is huge and you can cost someone a lot of money very quickly if you don't grasp the science of cattle feeding. I would bet there are now very very few, if any, 'pure' salespeople selling cow cake or even fertiliser in that game now- that kind of mindset is 20 years out of date and won't last long in the business today. Farmers want (and need, in my view) value added services to help them with technical aspects of their business they might not have the skills or time to do themselves.

By way of clarification, I stated in my earlier post that I had no need for a CRM system- a company has a list of active or dormant accounts because they are the ones sending the invoices. Anyone can sit in a truck or at a desk and ring up phone numbers, explain they are the new sales person for the area in question and then make an appointment or, 'just turn up' if that is how they prefer to operate. I could drop into a salesperson's shoes tomorrow if they dropped dead today, all the phone numbers or addresses are there, you don't need an introduction from anyone else- I've seen it done and done it myself as well.

When I started out, I had scant information on who was who or where potential customers lay; I had a map with some names on it but the bulk of them were existing customers being serviced by a colleague already anyway so they were null and void. I went down a million farm drives, sometimes repeatedly, finding out who was where and who to talk to. Sometimes I wasn't even 100% sure of the farmer's name or surname, but I used this as a tool anyway to help me. The first visit down a farm drive is easy peasy- you have a reason to go there. The second and subsequent reasons are harder so you have to engineer or invent them. Once you have a reasonable relationship with people, even if you have never done so much a quids worth of business with them, they will begin to tell you about their neighbours and people they know. It's human nature to want to help people.

Having said that, it is not for everyone and can be a miserable way to earn a living as you are conscious of the fact your income is purely derived from keeping customers on the 'conveyor belt'. It is also extremely difficult to have to hear the inevitable: 'I'll call you if I want anything' line 10 million times.

There are firms out there who put people into the field, brand new at it and expect them to make sales within weeks of starting. That is nonsense in my view. In a technical field and with such long term and tight relationships I would not expect to sell as much as single 25kg bag of anything for the first 12 months. I will never forget my old boss, years ago now, telling me: 'I'm not interested in how much you might sell in the first two years, I want you to tell me how many times you have been invited to sit down at someone's kitchen table and drank coffee with them'.

Transactional sales in agriculture using the hard sell are pretty rare but certainly can be done, often very successfully over the phone, but that is not me or in my character.

It's a dying trade in many ways. One can earn a lot of money from it but I was too much of a perfectionist for my role.

The one thing I did take away from my time in technical sales was the very valuable sales training I was given and a wide appreciation on dealing with people which will serve someone well in virtually any role. There is also a lot of subtle psychology at work and I still find people fascinating to this day.

You make some good points, however several things to consider.

1) Every business must have a plan, whether that be as simple as the jobs that need done, or as complex as growth, cash flows, banking service requirement, resources, etc, etc To achieve these objectives often requires the help/assistence/involvment of third parties, so someone has to not only come up with that plan, but also convince all stakeholders (including his/her own staff) that not only is it achievable, but it is very believable. Pie in the sky objectives, and wish lists turn people off, good solid plans devised from detailed information and market research based on fact is what we all buy into,

2) In the case of Ag machinery dealers there are three principal areas to generate revenue. Sales, service and spare parts (or whichever order you see the importance) lets look at sales only and what the Directors must consider.
Products, markets awareness, (market leader or follower), profitability, volumes, range, demand, pricing, supply, stock-levels etc and most importantly resources to achieve the plan.

3) The sales departments costs need to reflect the resources needed to achieve the plan, such as salaries and benefits, vehicles, office space, training the list go's on, most dealers know the approximate cost of a salesperson and how much revenue they need to generate to cover those costs, at what % return so there is some profit left over for the business.

4) The salesperson has a job, and usually a target to achieve that reflects his/her part of the plan. This should be designed when the plan is being devised and mutually agreed, they then become engaged and motivated and feel part of it.

5) How that salesperson performs can be influenced by several things, if the market is good or bad can very much be influenced by outside forces such as commodity prices, the weather, particularly aggressive competition. If things are good it is generally high price items that sell well, if not only necessity equipment in the case of bad weather desperation (which is not always bad for the machinery industry). But, whatever the stakes or influences, the primary objective remains, the achievement of the plan. Often this focus gets lost.

6) CRM is the key component to achieving that plan. The information collected in the field can influence many things such as stock levels, resources and support, as well as turnover and cash flow, however not in isolation, it is only part of the whole picture, however a very important one.

7) Once CRM is operating, the open view the Company then has makes management more integrated and transparent, the simple information that is fed in produces as much or as little information as is needed to keep the ship on course.

8) The part of the Company plan that is in ' you're head ' regarding your current sales activity, belongs to the company, and is a very important part of the overall plan. All that, needs to be in a CRM system so Management can Manage and measure the Company direction of travel. If you are run over by a bus, run off with a Babooshka or leave to join the Competition is a vulnerability to the overall plan, if you're current sales intelligence and information go's with you.

Without getting into the technicalities again of what CRM is for, what is key, is understanding how important it is to any business, and how it makes most people's lives easier and better organised.

 

[Ducati899]

.

 

[db9go]

That will take a lot of swallowing and still not make the magic 100M

 

[barleybasher]

"This means our turnover will nearly be enough to quench the insatiable thirst of John Deere UK for about a year"

 

[puntabrava]

.

What becomes of Jcb I wonder!

 

[Ducati899]

What becomes of Jcb I wonder!

certainly interesting,I’m told no change but with the Kramer tie up something will change maybe

 

[puntabrava]

certainly interesting,I’m told no change but with the Kramer tie up something will change maybe

Jcb may have a say as well.
When you posted that last night I assumed it was JD orchestrated the whole thing as I would not have Tim Hunt down as a Megalomaniac.
I was thinking smarts would continue with Jcb and another tractor make but seemingly not.

 

[AlfM]

What becomes of Jcb I wonder!

One of our local JD dealers has stayed JCB as well and it's been like that a long time. They've just expanded their JD patch a lot further south as well by taking on someone else.

 

[ollie989898]

You make some good points, however several things to consider.

1) Every business must have a plan, whether that be as simple as the jobs that need done, or as complex as growth, cash flows, banking service requirement, resources, etc, etc To achieve these objectives often requires the help/assistence/involvment of third parties, so someone has to not only come up with that plan, but also convince all stakeholders (including his/her own staff) that not only is it achievable, but it is very believable. Pie in the sky objectives, and wish lists turn people off, good solid plans devised from detailed information and market research based on fact is what we all buy into,

2) In the case of Ag machinery dealers there are three principal areas to generate revenue. Sales, service and spare parts (or whichever order you see the importance) lets look at sales only and what the Directors must consider.
Products, markets awareness, (market leader or follower), profitability, volumes, range, demand, pricing, supply, stock-levels etc and most importantly resources to achieve the plan.

3) The sales departments costs need to reflect the resources needed to achieve the plan, such as salaries and benefits, vehicles, office space, training the list go's on, most dealers know the approximate cost of a salesperson and how much revenue they need to generate to cover those costs, at what % return so there is some profit left over for the business.

4) The salesperson has a job, and usually a target to achieve that reflects his/her part of the plan. This should be designed when the plan is being devised and mutually agreed, they then become engaged and motivated and feel part of it.

5) How that salesperson performs can be influenced by several things, if the market is good or bad can very much be influenced by outside forces such as commodity prices, the weather, particularly aggressive competition. If things are good it is generally high price items that sell well, if not only necessity equipment in the case of bad weather desperation (which is not always bad for the machinery industry). But, whatever the stakes or influences, the primary objective remains, the achievement of the plan. Often this focus gets lost.

6) CRM is the key component to achieving that plan. The information collected in the field can influence many things such as stock levels, resources and support, as well as turnover and cash flow, however not in isolation, it is only part of the whole picture, however a very important one.

7) Once CRM is operating, the open view the Company then has makes management more integrated and transparent, the simple information that is fed in produces as much or as little information as is needed to keep the ship on course.

8) The part of the Company plan that is in ' you're head ' regarding your current sales activity, belongs to the company, and is a very important part of the overall plan. All that, needs to be in a CRM system so Management can Manage and measure the Company direction of travel. If you are run over by a bus, run off with a Babooshka or leave to join the Competition is a vulnerability to the overall plan, if you're current sales intelligence and information go's with you.

Without getting into the technicalities again of what CRM is for, what is key, is understanding how important it is to any business, and how it makes most people's lives easier and better organised.

I know what CRM is, I know what it is for. It's for collecting data that you can later mine or sell. Are you trying to flog software or something?

A sales manager needs only one set of information from an individual sales person and that is overall sales figures for the year. How the sales person arrives at that figure and whether it meets the requirements of the business is another matter. How I managed my clients could differ hugely from someone working in Norfolk or Scotland.

Again, the company has all the names and addresses because they are sending the invoices.

 

[Robt]

I know what CRM is, I know what it is for. It's for collecting data that you can later mine or sell. Are you trying to flog software or something?

A sales manager needs only one set of information from an individual sales person and that is overall sales figures for the year. How the sales person arrives at that figure and whether it meets the requirements of the business is another matter. How I managed my clients could differ hugely from someone working in Norfolk or Scotland.

Again, the company has all the names and addresses because they are sending the invoices.

I disagree. If you have a salesman that quotes way more than his colleagues yet his success rate is very low ( even break it down into product groups) you can identify a training need.
people change job roles, change companies. Keeping names of the key roles up to date is crucial . Sending a letter to the “owner” rather than Kevin could be essential. You can also record who is in accounts, who is best to prompt for payment. Log potential orders to streamline buying and factory needs. You can log when machines finish finance. Log who asked about “ a nice clean used 6920, etc etc...

 

[db9go]

I disagree. If you have a salesman that quotes way more than his colleagues yet his success rate is very low ( even break it down into product groups) you can identify a training need.
people change job roles, change companies. Keeping names of the key roles up to date is crucial . Sending a letter to the “owner” rather than Kevin could be essential. You can also record who is in accounts, who is best to prompt for payment. Log potential orders to streamline buying and factory needs. You can log when machines finish finance. Log who asked about “ a nice clean used 6920, etc etc...

Are you still on furlough

 

[thesilentone]

I know what CRM is, I know what it is for. It's for collecting data that you can later mine or sell. Are you trying to flog software or something?

A sales manager needs only one set of information from an individual sales person and that is overall sales figures for the year. How the sales person arrives at that figure and whether it meets the requirements of the business is another matter. How I managed my clients could differ hugely from someone working in Norfolk or Scotland.

Again, the company has all the names and addresses because they are sending the invoices.

Sorry Ollie, you don't have the slightest idea what CRM is I'm afraid, end of debate.

 

[ollie989898]

Sorry Ollie, you don't have the slightest idea what CRM is I'm afraid, end of debate.

We'll just have to agree to disagree then.

 

[MrNuts]

 

[Robt]

Are you still on furlough

No, should I be?

 

[warksfarmer]

Slightly off the topic of JD but watching the Doe online auction and hardly any large items like tractors and combines have sold. Surely that in itself is enough of a message to the machinery industry enough is enough with these stupidly high prices.