Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/184881
Management Building Relationships at an Open House To gain a bit of insight into what makes West Side Tractor so successful, we observed General Sales Manager Tom Stern working an open house hosted by the dealership to introduce a new four-wheel drive loader from John Deere. This new 644K loader is Deere's first machine with a hybrid drive train. The loader's diesel engine runs an electrical generator that in turn powers an electrical motor to drive the transmission. West Side Tractor invited customers from northern Indiana to attend the open house, which was held at the dealership's store in South Bend, Ind. Deere provided one model of the 644K Hybrid for customers to operate, and two factory representatives were on hand to introduce the hybrid concept. Here's how it played out. It's 10 a.m. and customers begin drifting into the dealership – conversations over the product are starting with the factory representatives and West Side sales people. "The industry is going green," says an enthusiastic Stern. "This is an important concept that we're now selling to customers – the hybrid loader. The competition has a couple of hybrid machines, and Deere has chosen to introduce the concept on a wheel loader. This machine saves 25 percent on fuel, compared to a conventional power train. And the loader is 3 decibels quieter than a conventional machine, which makes a big difference. People are more concerned about noise these days." Stern, who has an excellent memory for customers' projects, people and situations, asks one contractor about delays in construction at an airport project. "We should be more than half-finished with the paving by now," says the contractor. "The delays are related to surveying and design issues. We try to stay out of it." With an older customer, Stern harks back to the days when construction equipment belched black smoke. "You probably remember the days when the project superintendent would tell you that you're not moving dirt unless the dozer is spewing out black smoke," says Stern. The customer grins and nods. particular product that they're having trouble with," Stern said. What then? "We communicate that product at risk to the OEM," was his answer. "That is with some certainty, especially if it's a new machine that still has warranty. But even if the machine is out of warranty, we're still communicating that to the OEM," said Stern. 2010 Acquisition West Side acquired Holt Equipment Co. in Indiana in 2010, a time when Stern turns to a group of customers from the city of Elkhart, Ind., and flat out tells them that West Side is not interested in selling just one machine. "We're interested in building long-term relationships," he says. "We want to build repeat business. The turnover at our company is very low. We've been around for 50 years, and we're owned by the same family that started the business in 1962. So the chances are that the person you're dealing with today will be the same person you deal with in five or 10 years." To keep a close watch on customer activity, West Side uses a new customer relationship management tool – software called "Handle" from Customer TRAX. "We've just had this software for about 90 days," Stern tells CED. "It's Web-based, so that any sales person can access it from anyplace they have the Internet. Customers are listed on a spreadsheet along with their respective sales people, who can log in with daily sales activity regarding that customer. We keep notes about quotes needed, service agreements, alerts for new business, that kind of thing. It serves to remind us about the next step we need to take with customers. We have 24 sales people now, so it's difficult to keep track of it all with paper forms. "We use this program for sales forecasting," he says. "We are ordering millions of dollars of equipment for stock, and you just can't do that blindly. We look at past sales settlements over a rolling 12-month average, and a rolling 24 months as well. We use the numbers, but part of what goes into it is gut feel as well." the former ownership had reduced the number of sales people significantly. "So to restore it to where it was viable again we hired quite a few people back," Stern explained. "We hired people back who had worked for Holt before – technicians as well as sales people." He says the Indiana territory is much larger than West Side's Illinois area of responsibility. "We only deal with a very small territory in northern Illinois," he said. "It's 15 counties – largely Cook County (Chicago) and the surrounding counties." We're glad to have had the opportunity to get better acquainted with this AED member, which celebrated its 50th year in business in 2012. It's plain to see that Stern and West Side management have the right people and practices in place to succeed for another 50 years. n Daniel Brown is a long-time construction writer based in the northwest suburbs of Chicago. He can be reached at danbrown4@msn.com. October 2013 | Construction Equipment Distribution | www.cedmag.com | 43 40_Tom_Stern_Feature_KP.indd 43 9/27/13 1:58 PM