we’ll be getting our training room fi n- ished in house and will be able to bring more people into the offi ce to do that. “With the amount of phone support
we have, we sell more service than we do hardware because we pick up so much business from dealers who have poor service. We don’t pick up the hardware sales, but we pick up their service and expand off of that. “The service agreements are a way
to get the customers locked in so they don’t have to worry about it. I usually tell them my guys are going to take care of those customers with service agreements fi rst. They’ve dedicated themselves to us. We’ll dedicate our- selves to them on a fi rst-come basis.”
Q
What criteria are essential in a precision farming
dealer’s job description today, and how do you
expect that will change during the next fi ve years?
Carlson: “Software confl icts right now, and that accounts for
probably 75% of the problems with precision farming. We have customers who have a John Deere combine and a John Deere sprayer, but then maybe they have a white, yellow or red seeder. “That’s a big stumbling block, so our agronomists are trained to deal with those and that’s crucial. That’s going to stay the same until we get the ISO compatibility straightened out. Having an agronomist willing to learn to work with all this equipment is a huge thing. I tip my hat to them because they have to learn to drive all types of equipment. They have to know how to operate it and actually run it and make sure it works. They have to be fl uent. “In order for a dealership to be suc- cessful in this industry with precision
farming, they have to have a depart- ment that’s going to be able to tie it all together.”
Strunk: “That’s a good question because I think technology is go-
ing to continue to progress in the ma- chines and will probably become more integrated, meaning today application machines may come from the factory pretty well installed with all technolo- gy. Tractors for the most part now come auto- steer ready and we can add whatever they want, whether it’s Trim- ble or Ag Leader or Topcon or what- ever. There may be a few things we add depending on what the customer wants. “What companies are going toward
is auto-steering that will be built into the equipment, so you can back it off the trailer and it’s ready to steer. It may be our group who works to make the yellow tractor work with the green planter or the red planter. I don’t think it’s going to happen tomorrow. But it may require our salespeople and our
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