greensouth’s gutsy showroom strategy

(THOMASVILLE, GA) The slash, longleaf and loblolly piney woods stretching out from Florida’s Big Bend up through Georgia’s Thomas County and beyond are responsible for a big chunk of the nation’s wood pulp, and what isn’t turned into plywood, paper towels and decking has been turned over to watermelon, corn, peanut and cotton farming.

Cross the border heading north out of Tallahassee and you’ll also find plenty of traditional quail and deer sporting tours offered by straight from Hollywood antebellum plantations that dot the region. The area isn’t flashy. Sweet tea and bisquits, grits and gravy. Saturdays in the fall mean football and pickups are the transport of choice, whether hauling hay or heading to church or both.

What this means is that most folks in the region are involved in, are related to, or know someone who is, farming. Farming requires a serious investment in the durable goods’ — sales of which as of this writing are down for the fifth month in a row — ag equipment sector when it comes to the machinery necessary to plant, harvest, cut, haul, sow, spray, disc, mow and otherwise coax a living from a not always willing nature.

Discretionary spending is a new sport bike and a half-a-G helmet with Bold New Graphics. Non-discretionary spending is a down payment on a new combine and the triple GPS onboard guidance system. And that got me to wondering, how important is marketing when the product you’re selling is a necessity, not a luxury?

october, 2005 So there I was, returning from a trip to the great cuisine and good people of Louisiana via an overnight detour spent in Thomasville, Georgia, because all the Tallahassee motels were sold out on account of a Florida State home game and questioning if my well-used but now well worn out Sears Craftsman 16-inch chain saw was even worth repairing. Driving south on U.S. 19 towards St. Petersburg and home 250 miles away, the Stihl banner hung on the side of the store caught my eye and impulse kicked in. Impulse. Impulse is what drives a significant amount of purchasing — for better or worse. And so it would again on this fresh and fine fall day in 2005.

Then still known as Jones Tractor Company, a three-store local chain selling and servicing John Deere farm machinery that was in the midst of transitioning to a spot in GreenSouth Equipment’s three-state lineup, I wasn’t sure what I’d find in the way of selection but I was pretty sure I only wanted information for now. None of those fancy, high-pressure sales tactics for me — no sirree bob!

GreenSouth’s showroom and parts department is about the size of a stand-alone independent powersports dealer — in other words, not overly spacious. The service department out back, on the other hand, is part of a 12-acre site built to accomodate massive, multi-wheeled tractors, so the overall impression is a little disconcerting.

Used to shopping in an impersonal but irritatingly ignorant big box environment or, more recently, online guided only by stranger’s reviews, I was determined to avoid having the “sucker” label slapped on my back while I investigated the well known saw brand. I was greeted — not assaulted — just inside the door and then handed off to Jim Stalvey, who let me babble on about how, where, when and why I used a chain saw.

too much power? we don’t think so I explained my casual interest in Stihl, and the fact that I was just looking. Maybe 15 minutes later I was the proud owner of a new premium brand tool that wouldn’t see service until my next trip west in another six months. Jim had read my requirements perfectly and knew that while a larger model wouldn’t hurt, the MS210, just a rung or two up from basic, would be more than adequate for my amateur, bi-annual logging needs.

And that’s how it was that I replaced my tired and leaky Craftsman in a tractor store 250 miles from home. Upsold me, Jim did. Spent twice what I thought I needed to and glad to do so. Marketing driven impulse. Need, meet opportunity. Brand allegiance — switched. And without a pang of remorse.

A few days later I received a personal followup congratulating me on my purchase and welcoming me as a customer. Hand-signed Christmas cards were sent regularly, even though it was pretty obvious my needs would never include a 530-hp tracked scraper like the 9630T with AirCushion suspension and GreenStar AutoTrac. But would I drive 250 miles for a spark plug and a filter element? No, but…

Last October I stopped in again, for a spare chain and curious about GreenSouth’s approach to marketing. Jim now heads the store marketing, responsible in part for an annual volume of $15-20M in sales, and they’d just beat out the parent’s 13 other locations for the best promotions award.

real partnering synergy We discussed John Deere’s freshly announced partnering with Stihl and its potential impact on store revenue. JD would discontinue their branded hand held power tool program — Portable Power Equipment (PPE) — and their dealers would now feature the OE premium Stihl line throughout the network.

He emphasized that the goal has to be service, convenience and quality, and that the ability to offer several national manufacturers of complimentary product line was expected to translate into increased customer loyalty and retention. So far it’s paid off, as the store’s been able to maintain share in tough times while others are losing ground even as fixed costs remain constant or increase. “We’re holding our head above water,” when asked how they’re surviving the recession. “Our competition, in many cases, isn’t so fortunate, for a variety of reasons — overstocked, too much inventory are the main factors.”

Also confirmed — they’re not afraid to go head to head with the big box stores on a variety of items, like garden and lawn tractors, mowers and power hand tools. And they cross into the powersports channels by virtue of the JD Gator XUV, the utility side of the SXS equation that’s increasingly popular with baby boomers as well as farm hands. Jim’s main concern is that customers are increasingly sensitive to price versus content. If you’re discussing chain saws, that means a minimum two or two and a half to one price differential of branded disposables versus top brands like Stihl. It’s his job to sell the investment in quality.

GreenSouth’s own dedicated customer service specialist takes the market pulse by continually shopping other stores for a baseline comparison. When asked how he rated his store against the competition, Jim thinks they rank a 4 or 4.5 out of 5.

Now, tractors being what they are, you’ll never mistake GreenSouth Equipment in Thomasville for a Tommy Bahama shopping spree at the Venetian in Vegas. Instead, they’re illustrative of what can be done when local effort and imagination embrace manufacturers’ marketing programs to develop a sense of individuality that says we’re commited to the consumer. Take that, Home Depot.