efits by not having to look up as many part numbers. “It just saves a lot of hassle of bring- ing other people into a situation and the customer can work one-on-one and the salesman has the company in a book, in a nutshell,” Draude says. “Between our parts catalog and the kit books, that salesman is kind of a standalone sup- plier. He has us a phone call away, but he has his first reference with him all the time.”
Brokaw offers a single precision service package for $500 to include on-site visits, priority phone support and in-field customer training. The agreements also allocate a set number of service hours for customers, and then include a reduced hourly rate for additional service needs.
tablishing the kits, Harthoorn explains. This starts with identifying the need and engineering the right combination of products.
“That responsibility almost always
falls on Phil because he does the R&D to figure out what it takes to make it work,” Harthoorn explains. “That also includes the installation. He goes from being the precision ag manager to the installation tech, and he’s figuring the pin-outs he needs to use on the harness- es, and everything down to the length of the harness.” Prior to the Yield Center, Harthoorn
says all of Brokaw’s precision offer- ings “stopped at the hitch pin.” When
salespeople sold a piece of iron, they would have to send a customer else- where if they wanted to add technology in the tractor cab. Now, Brokaw has gotten to the point with their kits that they are essentially the “company in a book,” Draude says. This means the precision kits are cat- egorized and listed in a database, and then updated as new ones are devel- oped — a handy resource for custom- ers and technicians.
For the salespeople, turnaround time on quotes is quicker and the kits save a lot of phone calls between the sales force and the precision techni- cians. Plus, the parts department ben-
Time is Money With the growing popularity of the precision kits and the success Brokaw has had partnering new equipment sales with technology, the company plans to expand its precision service offering in the future. In 2012, the dealership’s precision specialists billed about 900 service hours, but Harthoorn acknowledges that charging for customer service is a challenge. “You have to show the value,” he says. “You have to prove that there is a value to us being on call for when you need us.” While the majority of Brokaw’s pre- cision revenue comes from hardware sales, the dealership has increased its precision service revenue during the last three years, as well. In 2010, preci- sion ag service revenue accounted for 5% of Brokaw’s overall precision ag profits. This grew to 7% in 2011 and 10% last year. The dealership has had success with providing on-site customer train-
What the Judges Say…
“A very good program put together without the support of a major manufacturer, using multiple suppliers to fill customer needs.”
“Actively building their own brand with a good sense of where they are headed and where the additional growth will come from in the next three years.”
“Their attention to detail in providing training for their technical staff and support for customers helps them stand out among other dealers.”
“Working across several product lines means that they don’t have a single solution, but they can meet the needs of producers in many ways.”
020 PRECISION FARMING DEALER ••••• 2013
“I was particularly pleased to learn about their innova- tions in customer support, including training events and the development of precision kits for their various prod- uct lines to help implement the precision technology.”
“The kits they’ve created utilizing various products and the broad training to make sure each member of the precision staff is knowledgeable on all product lines is innovative.”
“They have demonstrated a unique ability to pull together — from a variety of suppliers — a compre- hensive precision farming ‘package’ that can be used to develop a precision management system for their customers.”
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