Casey Dray of CNH, Bob Armstrong of Claas and Jake Ridenour of PTx Trimble, addressed some of the top dealers in the U.S. during an OEM panel discussion at the 2025 Precision Farming Dealer Summit in Louisville, Ky. The panelists explained how their top-performing precision dealers separated themselves from the rest of the pack in 2024.
“Definitely their intimacy with the grower,” Ridenour said. “The sales strategy with precision agriculture moved from just being able to provide an ROI on paper to more of a consultive sales style where you’re going to a farm and looking at their entire operation to provide a more holistic solution instead of focusing on an individual product.”
“It’s all about two main components — sales and service (after the sale),” Armstrong said. “I think that’s what separated our top dealers on the precision side. They made sure that their whole team was prepared to support the product after the sale to make it a good experience for the end user. We have dealers that are doing a fantastic job at this and others that are still evolving and trying to get their staff on board to support the product the way they’d like to.”
“The other piece I would add in is training,” Dray said. “It’s one thing to buy a piece of technology, and it’s another thing to use it. The dealers that take the time to do the setup and truly understand how to use the technology on the customer’s operation are going to get much better results. Those are the dealers that separate themselves.”
The panelists also discussed their company’s approach to training dealerships on how to sell and service new technology.
“The key to me is training, training, training,” Armstrong said. “As we went through COVID, we used more e-learning methods. Those are valuable tools, but nothing beats in-field training. We call it an ‘expert camp,’ where we bring them in for a particular product. Salespeople have evolved to the point, too, where they realize they need to be well-versed on the precision side just as much as the iron side because the buying decision encompasses both.”
“AGCO and PTx Trimble have partnered with colleges and high schools to set up locations for educational demonstrations and training sessions,” Ridenour said. “We’ve tried to spread the locations out across North America, so it’s a little cheaper for our dealers to attend the training sessions, instead of having to go to our main facility.”
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