Kingline Equipment Market Share


10 15 20 25 30


0 5


2007 2008 2009


In the past 3 years, Kingline Equipment has seen its market share increase to almost 28%.


Year


Kingline Equipment Sales Growth, 2007-09 2007


2008 Total Sales


Sales Growth Growth %


$2,868,761 $ -173,299 - 5.7%


don’t want to have to educate people on a brand of equipment. We want the consumer to know who they are.” The Kings are philosophically opposed to being a “Heinz 57 deal- ership” and carrying too many lines, so initially they resisted fre- quent overtures from Toro Co. to stock their mowers. But they changed their minds and agreed to carry Toro consumer and com- mercial mowers, citing the name recognition and huge market for parts and service sales in northwest Florida. “The whole game plan was to create more traffic. Some dealers have different thoughts on that, but we want people in and out of this place,” Todd says.


Even the philosophy about selling toys and retail items had to change. Todd says toys should be set up at the level where kids can reach them — not on shelves behind the parts counter, where the previous owner stored them.


“If the customer is a man, they’re not going to say, ‘Can I see that toy


$3,380,676 $511,915 + 17.9%


27.9%


Dealers of the Future: What Does it Mean?


12.5% 10%


Times haven’t been easy for New Holland dealers lately because of shortages of equipment, high turn- over at the top levels of manage- ment and, now, a demerger of par- ent CNH Global from Fiat, creating even more uncertainty.


But one thing is certain: Summer and Todd King, and their youthful energy, have been a breath of fresh air to New Holland reps, one of whom dubbed the couple “dealers of the future.”


2009


$3,489,531 $108,854 +3.3%


tractor?’ It’s a pride issue,” Todd says. “Second of all, if a grandfather brings a grandson in here and the kid grabs it, the grandfather will buy them any- thing. So we brought the toys down and we started selling them.”


A Positive Outcome The Kings say it’s satisfying to not only run a dealership that is successful, but also see employees growing in their jobs after initially fighting the changes.


Some employees swore that cer- tain customers would never return to the store, only to see them come back and make purchases. “If you make changes and there’s a positive out- come,” Todd says, “they start believ- ing in what you’re doing.”


“The economy is not good for a lot of folks, and we’ve felt some of that,” adds Hillman. “But we’ve been really busy through the whole time because of the diversified things we sell and do. Tractor places down here come and go all the time, but we succeed by helping everybody we can.” RLD


“They don’t get hung up on preconceived notions,” says Ron Wilwert, New Holland’s southeast- ern U.S. regional sales director. “They’re always on the fore- front of advertising and marketing. Summer takes walks in neighbor- hoods and hangs door tags. They’re always running TV ads, or pulling down information from the New Holland YouTube channel, and push- ing us to think of things in a broader sense. They go until someone tells them to stop.”


The Kings don’t disagree with the label. In their travels the past few years, they’ve met many deal- ers who run the business “like their granddads used to run it,” Todd says. “We don’t have any history. We just came in here and made changes, and we do our own thing. Some of it works and some of it doesn’t, and if it doesn’t we move in a different direction.” “We’re about the only dealership asking for more co-op money. I’ll run out every year, by September at least,” Summer says.


It took some getting used to. Knowing nothing about equipment retailing, Todd went to his first New Holland dealer meeting in February 2006 and was surprised at how out- spoken the dealers were with their comments and questions.


“I called Summer one night and said, ‘Boy, these guys don’t hold back.’ We would go into breakout sessions, where the company was talking about the new equipment being introduced, but the dealers were asking questions like, ‘Why are you changing the model number again?’


“We’re seeing two different types of dealers out there now, but the transition will happen eventually. It’s got to happen.”


DEALERSHIP OF THE YEAR SPECIAL REPORT JUNE 2013  RURAL LIFESTYLE DEALER 17


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