JUNE 2018 INSIGHT. Monthly Employee Newsletter.
As we start the second half of 2018 our plates are full and our outlook is very promising! As you already know, earlier this year Matt and Peter announced that Noteboom Implement will be joining C&B, taking us from 29 stores to 38, and adding several counties in Iowa into our Area Of Responsibility (AOR). This announcement came right on the heels of the closing for Farm Equipment Sales, which also added four locations and several counties in NE Montana. Although these additions will increase our revenues, geography, and long term sustainability, they also are very demanding for our team. In addition, with the significant increase in same-store (those with us prior to 2018) sales activity we’re experiencing growth in several ways! The net result is that our plates are full and our outlook is very promising!
How busy are we? In total our revenues are 128% of the prior year with NEW John Deere Sales leading the way at 148% over YTD 2017! We are also seeing significant increases in USED Equipment, Parts and Service; which are all above 16% growth in revenues! This growth has also driven our Market Share to be 8% points higher than last year at this time. As we are experiencing growth, our competition, in most regions, are experiencing declines in market share and sales. Why the difference? I believe our success is largely due to you and your ability to provide value to our customers greater than the competition! Great job and thank you! Another great point is that much of this growth was planned in the 2018 budget that was largely created by our local store, parts, and service managers! Nice job! While we are growing our current locations, we also have a building project in Luverne, we are trying to integrate our NE Montana stores and we are going through the Due Diligence at Noteboom Implement ahead of the closing. The great news is that Glasgow, Plentywood, Circle, and Culbertson are coming along well--having great success with all the additional whole goods inventory available--and we are well on our way to an awesome new shop, showroom, and parts area at Luverne! In addition, we are very busy working with Noteboom and have already done the majority of the employee interviews, inventoried the used equipment on hand, and set dates for the parts, service tools, and attachment inventories! Thanks to all the people who have helped with these additional projects while also creating excellent results, as noted above! Remember, we will be looking for a lot of help in July when we do the parts and attachment inventories. As we step into the last half of 2018, I am confident we will continue to drive excellent results and look forward to getting all these extra projects done. Our Sold Not Invoiced of new and used whole goods remains significantly higher than last year at this time and, according to our Regional Aftermarket Managers, our parts and service departments will continue to hit the mark! As we get ready to celebrate our Independence Day (4th of July), I want to express my sincere appreciation and wish you a wonderful holiday and summer! Thank you! We appreciate you!
Kent Senf
SELBY
TRACTOR RUN & SELBY DAYS PARADE Marlys Starks with Oakley & Jerzie Wudel
Josh Wudel
Reid Kaiser
The Selby store sponsored a tractor run, organized by Store Manager Josh Wudel, on June 9. Several C & B employees and many customers drove 7 miles to Java, SD, where they enjoyed lunch and returned to Selby just in time to join the C & B entry in the Selby Days Parade. Randy & Brandon Leavitt
Alan Schorg
EDGERTON
GORD GROEN RETIRES Gord with 4 of his 7 grandkids
C & B - Edgerton is sad to say goodbye to Gord Groen after 22 years. Gord has been with the Edgerton store for his whole JD sales career. He was an active volunteer in the community and a true friend to his C & B colleagues. They suspect that he will not slow down in retirement! He told the local paper that he planned to “continue to enjoy life.� Congrats to Gord from everyone at C & B!
Staying in touch with customers is important in many ways. Not just to sell our product and services to our customers but to find out their needs for their future which will in turn continue to support our future. We need to get back to the core by taking the time to see them in person and listen to them. Face to face visits, as we all know, are hard to achieve on a frequent basis. But making sure they are done a few times each year, followed by phone calls and e-mails, is what builds our relationship and trust with our customers. This also shows we care about them and their operation.
Mason Kniffen, Cody Spreckels, Cole Humpal
I came to Wagner the last week of May 2015, and for our store that means haying season. We had many days with all techs in the field on service calls for baler problems. And if you have hay down there is no time for a broken down baler! I spend a majority of my time talking with upset customers or upset techs that could not get the work done fast enough. I found out that we had an awesome baler inspection program that my shop foreman, Courtney, had been implementing for years and also had been using to train one of our new techs, Cody. I asked Courtney why we only had 10 customers take advantage of the baler inspection program, and he replied that customers did not want to spend the money. The message on the street was that inspections cost too much and no one had ever showed the value of an inspection to the customer. A lot of inspections were only being done on high baled machines and the cost were high. In 2016 we did 19 inspections and in 2017 we did 32. I found out that most customers were spending less on inspections before season, more money on repairs in-season, and having a lot of down time. After that first season I made a list of every service call that we did, called those customers to go over what they spent on service calls, and offered up a free inspection. I wanted to get those customers in our shop with those same techs off-season. It was a whole different atmosphere for the customer and the techs. Customers started building trust in our techs and our techs started to build confidence in themselves. After the trust was built for some customers I had the tech, Courtney or Cody call the customer for the inspection for the next year. The customers have realized that the cost are much less if they use the inspection program every year and there is hardly any down time any more. And now that we are partnered with the parts department with the net wrap program, the list keeps growing. We have expanded our inspection list from 10 in 2015 to 51 in 2018, and are averaging about $3500 per machine. It has also helped sales as there is a lot more history on the machines and the salespeople know when a customer is thinking of trading and how many bales they make per year. We plan to use the same strategy with the tractor inspection program this summer. There are currently 26 tractors on my list, but we all know there are at least 2 or 3 tractors for every baler or combine in our area. Knowing this, I am thinking that my tractor goal should be somewhere between 100-150. I am going to use the summer inspection program that our regional team has put together as a great tool to achieve this goal.
Joe Blaha Service Manager, Wagner
One thing I found when going out and visiting with our customers is that there are rumors floating around about us: we are becoming a bigger company, we will have no competition and are cornering the market, we have high employee turnover, and being a corporate company we can’t stock a lot of parts. These are just a few, but it is very important for us as a store and a company to communicate and educate our customers as to what our goals are and what our commitments are to help their operation. We are in this together as a team and we need each other to continue to make a successful future for all of us. As a team we set out early in the year to visit with customers and we were able to work on these concerns with our customers. We are continuing to make it our goal to educate our customers regarding all of their concerns. We have had some great conversations with customers about our changes, setting the rumors straight, stocking the parts they need and what we are doing to continue to support them in our service department. Communication and asking for ideas from the customer and all our employees will help us continue to build team work. Last, but not least, sharing the positive things with them that will help their business. Like being able to purchase certain products in bulk for better pricing and passing it on to them. Support from our sister stores to better accommodate their needs including equipment, parts and service. Letting them know we are here to do the best we can for them.
Joanie Niedge Store Manger, Miles City
C&B JUNE INSIGHT.
MITCHELL
FAMILY PICNIC
Store Manager Corey Thelen gets the scavenger hunt going.
Mitchell employees and their families enjoyed a family picnic at Camp Arroya on Lake Mitchell on June 23rd, complete with supper, games and a fire pit with s’mores.
Aubree Soulek
Kiahna Bork
Dads Nick Bartscher, Matt Geidel, and Chris Shelton judge the best scavenger hunt team.
JUNE
CALENDAR CUSTOMERS
Brandts Family Farms St. James, MN
Vanoverschelde Farms Letcher, SD
Cross W Livestock Ekalaka, MT
C&B JUNE INSIGHT.
SHERIDAN
CHAMBER OF COMMERCE AFTER HOURS EVENT
Sheridan recently hosted a Chamber After Hours event at the store. They had a great turn out - about 75 people from the community and other chamber members. They had door prizes and great food, not to mention great conversation with all!
Ashley Dubbs (Sales), Travis Harbaugh (Sales), Joella Dirette (Parts), Ed Detavernier (Service Mgr)
RAM Nate Balstad & Store Manager Andy Ward
ACCIDENT FREE DAYS (as of June 15)
Headquarters
3178 Rexburg
5
Gettysburg
249
Blackfoot
186
Selby
131
St. James
27
Miller
285
Jackson
645
Roscoe
15
Truman
117
Billings
39
Luverne
701
Axel Patrick Starks
Miles City
81
Edgerton
930
was born on June 12th. His par-
Glendive
391
Pipestone
62
ents are Zach & Ashia Starks and
Glasgow
71
Worthington
50
his proud grandmother is Marlys
Circle
71
Tracy
18
Starks, Admin in Selby, SD.
Culbertson
71
Slayton
85
Congratulations!
Plentywood
71
Freeman
165
Sheridan
113
Wagner
127
Powell
120
Yankton
278
Idaho Falls
76
Mitchell
154
NEW ARRIVAL
C&B JUNE INSIGHT.
WELCOME
NEW EMPLOYEES Matt Dellman
Grant Morken
John Vermillion
Brett Barney
Service
Service Student
Parts Manager
Parts Manager
Kylan Summers
Lane Nickels
Willie Bentz
Sylvan Rathfon
Parts
Service Student
Service Student Wagner, SD
Idaho Falls, ID
DJ Dixon
Tyrell Curnutt
Michael Aman
Ashley Dubbs
Luverne, MN
Idaho Falls, ID
Store Mgr
Glasgow, MT
Glasgow, MT
Jackson, MN
Rexburg, ID
Sales
Plentywood, MT
Blackfoot, ID
Service
Service Student Roscoe, SD
Sheridan, WY
Joella Dirette
Devon Carroll
Andrew Raak
Nathan Wallenberg
Parts
Service Student
Sheridan, WY
Miller, SD
Dustin McCauley Not Pictured:
Ryan Williams Service Tech Student Billings, MT
Service Student Miller, SD
Service
Luverne, MN
SAME FACE, NEW ROLE Congratulations on your new position!
Sales
Service
Luverne, MN
Travis Zimmerman
Store Manager St. James, MN
HAPPY RETIREMENT!
The team from Truman rocked the Fairmont parade on June 14th. In all they will drive in 3 southern Minnesota parades this summer.
Dean Brown, salesman at C & B - Blackfoot (Bingham County Implement), retired June 14th with an open house at the store. This year Dean is celebrating his 42nd year working with John Deere equipment! Dean recalls that when he started back in 1976, the 4430 was the tractor of choice and he worked on many of the 7700 combines. He began his JD career at Demott Tractor in Idaho Falls in 1976, spending 16 years there as a service tech. He became a salesman for the dealer in February of 1992 and sold equipment until C&B Operations purchased Demott Tractor on April 1st, 1997. He worked for C&B in Idaho Falls until March of 2014 when he transferred to Bingham County Implement in Blackfoot, Idaho. Deere celebrated their 100year anniversary in the tractor business this year and Dean has been around for 42 years of them. Thanks, Dean, for your many years of service and friendship, while being an integral part of growing C&B’s business in Idaho. Enjoy spending time with your grandkids and fishing!
Congratulations!
Who let the Parts Manager drive?
JULY BIRTHDAYS Stacy Edlefsen Michele Green
1 1
Chris Scholten Andy Valdovinos
15 15
Bill Aaby John Homan
23 23
Cody Spreckels
1
Clay Wittmeier
16
Carol Jorgenson
24
Ray Murnion
2
Terry Helmers
18
Luke Anderson
25
Kerry Thomason
2
Gary Maczka
18
Tony Marlow
25
Jack Gabel
3
Nick Wendell
18
Dustin McCloy
26
Steven Derby
4
Mike Frette
20
Dallas Hurtig
27
Riley Danielson
5
Mike Nieuwboer
20
Tyler Schmidt
27
Ryan Ellefson
5
Duane Dixon
21
Carlos Gonzalez
28
Steven Nanninga
6
Jaden Hoesel
21
Aaron Torgerson
28
Brandon Coons
7
Doug Sieve
21
Paige Zachariasen
28
Brent Smith
7
Rachel Soulek
21
Tony Brown
29
Wyatt McBrayer
8
Michael Dickey
22
John Carda
29
Mitch Belus
10
Ray Hanson
22
Dexter Wobig
29
Kyle OToole
10
Austin Malsam
22
Ryan Knudson
30
Tim Lytle
11
Mike Mumm
22
Nick Roth
30
Alex Busch
15
Dennis Pehl
22
Chad Fox
31
Grant Morken
15
Tanner Penning
22
Dale Junkermeier
31
Dennis Portra
15
Dean with his wife, Kathleen, showing off his new “retirement bib”, a gift from his friends at the Blackfoot store.