Rural Lifestyle Dealership of the Year
Mid-State Equipment, Janesville, Wis.
Mid-State Equipment earns Rural Lifestyle Dealer’s top honor for its sound performance and innovative approaches to serving the rural lifestyle market.
Lynn Marcinkowski Woolf, Managing Editor
id-State Equipment’s success in the rural lifestyle market comes down to one word: Focus. Focus on the rural lifestyle cus- tomer. Focus on customer satisfaction. Focus on performance metrics to guide dealership strategies. This Wisconsin- based John Deere dealership is Rural Lifestyle Dealer’s 2012 Dealership of the Year.
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Mid-State has seven locations in southern Wisconsin, including a sepa- rate rural lifestyle store in Janesville. Bryan Hanson and Chris Frodel, a brother-and-sister team, are the sec- ond-generation owners who defined the approach for winning rural life- style customers.
“We drill down and focus attention
on those people who are important to our success,” says Frodel, vice president. “Our staff doesn’t have to prioritize their focus,” adds Hanson, president. “I’m not a big believer in a salesperson having to learn everything from a weed trimmer up to a forage chopper. It’s too much to ask of them.”
The Janesville rural lifestyle store opened in 2000, but the dealership group is now in its 38th year in business.
Deliberate Growth
Mid-State’s beginnings were similar to many other dealerships. It was a single-store operation focused on ag customers. Curt and Linda Hanson, Hanson and Frodel’s parents, began the operation in 1974 in Columbus, Wis. Prior to owning the dealership, Curt Hanson had been a John Deere terri- tory manager.
Publisher Michael Ellis (left) and Managing Editor Lynn Woolf (right) present the 2012 Dealership of the Year award to Mid-State Equipment’s Bryan Hanson and Chris Frodel.
Mid-State Equipment, Janesville, Wis.
Founded: 2000, rural lifestyle store in Janesville, Wis. Dealership founded in 1974 in Columbus, Wis.
Locations: 7 (two locations in Columbus, Jackson, Janesville, Salem, Sauk Prairie and Watertown, Wis.)
Employees: 12 in Janesville; 178 for entire dealership group
2010-11 Revenue (Janesville location only): $4.2 million ($2.5 million whole goods; $1.2 million parts; $500,000 service)
2010-11 Parts/Service Absorption Rate for dealership overall: 98%
Three-Year Sales Growth Figures for Janesville location: $3.1 million in 2008-09; $3.5 million in 2009-10; and $4.2 million in 2010-11
4 RURAL LIFESTYLE DEALER DEALERSHIP OF THE YEAR SPECIAL REPORT JUNE 2013
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