Benchmark Data Reveals Members’ Sales Methods, Biggest Threats, and More
Participants who completed the benchmark survey distributed this spring are diving into dozens of pages of data in a company report card as well as overall survey findings.
The detailed results of the 2019 Business Profile & Financial Performance Report are available only to survey respondents, but we wanted to offer a glimpse of the data in Shortliner. Among findings:
The labor shortage is most on members’ minds. Almost 72 percent of you said the shortage is among top threats to your profitability this year. Another 69.2 percent identified the health of the agriculture economy as such a threat. Lower on the list were the cost of health insurance (38.5 percent), distribution/dealer purity issues (30.8 percent), and federal regulations (28.2 percent.) Respondents could choose multiple answers.
In terms of how you sell equipment, 43.3 percent of all respondents report selling direct to dealer. Among the most profitable companies, that percentage is 30.6. Another 23.6 percent of all respondents sell wholesale to dealer; the most profitable companies report 27.6 percent wholesale to dealer. OEM sales represent 19.3 percent of sales for all respondents and 22.6 percent among the most profitable.
Sales through independent reps and farm supply stores are in the single-digit percentages. Internet-direct sales are less than 1 percent.
The results also offer insights into return on net worth, return on assets, turnover rates, changes in labor costs, and much more.
The Association offers this survey as a service to members. It will retain Industry Insights in 2020 to conduct a third consecutive survey, which likely will be distributed in April.