The material handling industry, like most other industries, has the goal of providing the best products and services to their consumers. But most manufacturers depend on the middlemen, dealers to sell their products and solutions to the end-users.

To uncover the dealer experience and telematics selling process, we recently sat down with Scott Campbell, Branch Manager at John J. Connell Company in Springfield, MO, and certified dealer for Doosan Industrial Vehicle and Komatsu USA to discuss some of his experiences as well as challenges as a dealer in this industry. In this interview, Scott explores what it means to be a reliable and trusted source for both manufacturer partnerships as well as customer relationships and the common challenges when working with both parties.

Let’s get to know Scott…

1) How long have you been in the material handling industry, and how did you get started?

I’ve been in this industry for over 23 years. I started as a field service technician and spent between 13 and 14 years solving problems and fixing all different brands of lift trucks. I slowly started to transition into sales and made it official in 2014 when I became Account Manager, and a year later joined Connell, primarily selling and increasing awareness of Doosan forklift products.

Dealers overview…

2) What are the reasons for consumers to turn to dealers?

In my experience, customers are looking for someone to quickly solve their problems. My service background enables me to go beyond just offering a product but also understand how it will bring solutions to that operation. I have come to appreciate in this Industry both quality service and relationship building, which will only come if we can get their assets back up and running promptly and without much back and forth to get the job done. I always say that downtime is more expensive than uptime. 

Another aspect of being a dealer that my company has come to value is transparency. I’ve worked with many customers whom their biggest complaint was how confusing their invoices were and how, in some circumstances, they were not fully aware of what they were even paying for. So a clear, detailed invoice and work order are incredibly appealing as well as taking the time to explain to customers what is included with the order. People want to know precisely what is being paid for – this transparency as an organization working with customers, I believe, is critical.

3) What are the biggest challenges of dealers?

The biggest challenge is to be what each customer is going to need exactly. At least the way I see it, it is important to balance selling great products and providing great service. We need to provide the solution at all times, so to be in touch with the right technicians and personnel is essential. The technician is essentially the hero at the end of the day. So having the right personalities on your team who are quality-driven plays a significant role in the customer’s experience with our services.

Another challenge, like any business, is operating off of a smaller team – because we don’t have the same number of technicians, service, and salespeople as our competition does. Because of this, we don’t have the same manpower as the bigger players to cover as much ground. Due to this, our priorities remain to our response times, finding a solution in a timely manner and remaining focused on quality service.

4) What are the challenges of working with manufacturers?

Some of the challenges that I have experienced depends on the type of manufacturer and what they offer. Some manufacturers don’t offer a complete line of products, so we need to be aware of other products in the market to meet the entire needs of our customers. But the biggest challenge I have experienced in manufacturer relationships is communication.

It is common for customers to be frustrated when they don’t receive services from manufacturers as expected. Because of this, there is a trend for manufacturers to acquire the “voice of customer” via emailed surveys or in person. The idea of this open-source of communication between the manufacturer, dealer, and end-user is to update products based on customer’s actual feedback, so their voices are heard. 

5) What are the challenges of working with end-users?

A common challenge when it comes to working with end-users is that a lot of the time, they don’t fully understand how to handle their assets properly. So when we get calls for a potential problem, it could’ve been easily avoided with some best practices and training. 

Another major headache in working with end-users in a bigger operation or in working with different departments is that end users sometimes don’t cooperate with installations or implementations. For example, the IT department or safety manager who don’t communicate appropriately for how assets are being used and set up.

6) What do you look for when partnering up with a manufacturer?

Simple, their products need to be good, and their tech support must be efficient. For us to maintain our reputation as great service and solution providers, the products we sell must meet those standards.

7) Are most customers price sensitive?

Most of the time, yes, everybody always wants the best price. But many customers understand that it may not be worth it to look for the cheaper option and compromise on quality. I like to use that quote that everyone wants “good, cheap and fast.” But in reality, you can only pick two: good and cheap won’t be fast, fast and good won’t be cheap and cheap and fast won’t be good.

Working with Access Control Group…

8) How long have you been working with ACG?

We started talking in 2018 after a customer asked for a telematics solution, and Access was recommended to me as a great telematics service.

9) How has ACG helped your customers?

The biggest impact in a very short term so far has been the reduction of damage to assets; they mentioned it has been like night and day now since the “big brother” product is continuously monitoring the operators, which changes their behavior for the better. Our customers want operation accountability for work efficiency and to ensure proper care for operations.

10) How has ACG helped you and other dealers?

Based on my experience, the fact that our customers and I can always have access to the data in the cloud is a key difference, as other companies you’d have to pay an extra fee for them to install something at their facility to keep data. Full insight into the usage of vehicles and customer support has helped raise the bar even more on deliverability and quality service.

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We hope this interview has given you great insight into what dealers experience and best practices to succeed in the industry. 

Interested in partnering with Access to bring telematics solutions to your customers? Contact us today!

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