Managing Your Business in our New Reality: A Discussion From the 2021 AED Summit

On May 24-26, the Associated Equipment Distributors (AED) hosted their annual summit in Las Vegas, Nevada. The AED Summit is held as an opportunity for professionals across the heavy equipment industry to convene and form valuable connections within the field. This year, DLL North American Sales Lead Greg Stangl had the opportunity to lead a panel titled “Managing your business in our new reality.”

The panel featured four industry leaders and DLL partners from across the country: Astec Regional Sales Director Charlie Bagnall, Beiac President Ron Barlet, Mecalac North American General Manager Peter Bigwood and Vermeer Mid-South General Manager Corey Vander Molen. They addressed the different trends the industry has experienced over the past year and developing trends that will help those in the industry prepare for changes in business operations in the future.

Evolving buying behaviors

The first two questions were centered on the changing buying habits of both customers and partners and how this will affect the future of businesses. Many on the panel stressed the importance of having strong online ways for potential customers to learn about products, as more research is being done online on what type of equipment to purchase. In addition, though the COVID-19 Pandemic is lessening in severity in the US and in-person meetings are becoming more feasible in many areas of the country, many expressed they did not see video calls and virtual meetings going away completely. When the other party is comfortable with the technology, they can save time in travel and create efficiencies.

Finding and keeping valued employees

The panel also reflected on the challenges many in the industry have faced in both a lack of supply and a lack of labor. In efforts to combat supply issues, Mecalac, Astec and Vermeer have all incorporated more planning into the forecasting process. “I think we’ve all become a little bit better at what we do,” Bagnall said. “We’ve become a little bit more professional, and we found out forecasting was not as hard as we thought because we had about 20 years of data showing us the sales cycle that had been going on. So, you just follow that data and use that as your guideline and then look at some other market indicators and hopefully you get it close.”

In order to support their employee bases, many stressed the importance of increased and clear communications as well as maintaining employee recognition. In addition, because many businesses are receiving less applications than in years past, they are allowing more flexibility in the hiring process. Nonetheless, there is still a strong need to be more cognizant of applications received and to focus on retaining existing employees.

Keeping pace with technology

In terms of keeping up with technological developments in the industry, the panel noted the importance of consistent conversations with customers to see how their needs are changing. “There is a shift to exploring usage-based offerings for utilizing equipment,” observed Bigwood. “We are working with our dealers and distributors to explore options that will maximize the life cycle of the equipment they purchase.”

DLL now offers Pay-Per-Use solutions via subscription, on-demand and performance models. Attending industry events, such as the AED Summit, were also brought up as an effective means to see where different types of trends are developing.

DLL is a longtime supporter of AED and has been a platinum sponsor of the summit for over five years. Stangl and other DLL members who attended this year were excited to meet in person safely again for the event. DLL Chief Commercial Officer Tom Meredith had the opportunity later in the summit to introduce the keynote speaker, Former Speaker of the House of Representatives Paul Ryan.

AED is an international trade association representing companies involved in the distribution, rental and support of equipment used in construction, mining, forestry, power generation, agriculture and industrial applications. It prides itself on its ability to speak with one unified voice as an industry and its aptness for maintaining excellent relationships with dealer principles and professionals in manufacturing through understanding the challenges they face in their specific business operations.