During the last several years, a growing majority of dealers have either established a separate department for precision farming or designated a precision farming specialist as the primary salesperson for ag technology.

Results of the 5^th Annual Precision Farming Dealer Benchmark study, revealed that dealers operating a separate or independent precision department increased from about 40% last year to 47% in 2017.

But there is also a trend toward a more centralized structure with a precision farming business, as farm equipment dealers acknowledge the need to integrate multiple departments to capitalize on broader service opportunities. 

This is a path that Johnson Tractor, a 4-store Case IH dealership based in Janesville, Wis., is taking to create a more responsive and flexible service team, especially when it comes to supporting customers’ precision needs.

Jason Pennycook, precision farming specialist with Johnson Tractor, shares how he got the inspiration for the ongoing transition at the 2017 Precision Farming Dealer Summit, along with a few of the objectives for creating a more efficient overall service business within the dealership.

“There was a speaker who was talking about why they had moved away from a precision farming department as a completely separate entity, and sort of worked everyone back into service or wholegoods to keep things streamlined for the customers. They (customers) aren’t dealing with multiple people. The tech comes out to work on his combine and he can also work on his GPS. We thought that was a wonderful idea and we’re in the process of trying to get our operation to go that route so we can get more of the precision stuff worked into the service department and not be overlapping areas.”

Service flexibility continues to be a priority within dealerships and will be a topic of discussion at the upcoming 2018 Precision Farming Dealer Summit in Louisville, on Jan. 8-9. Visit PrecisionFarmingDealer.com for more information and to view the full program agenda and speaker lineup.