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A Strong Dealer Network and Product Line – That’s What Market Expansion Takes

Kubota Corporation’s Sales and Marketing Department, Construction Machinery Division is the linchpin of the Kubota Group’s global sales activities. Tetsuaki Nishinobu, Manager of Group 1 (North America, Oceania), is responsible for the North American market. As a local sales company, KTC gathers information on market trends, sales situations, developments of competitors, and product evaluations from users. Nishinobu’s team, on the other hand, uses such information to devise strategies that put the entire business into perspective, while at the same time serving as a bridge between KTC and production and development bases in Japan.
“If we look at the sales data since 2010, we can see that CTL has been a major driving force for our business in the U.S. market, but I don’t think we should be overly optimistic about this. In the past several years, there have been unexpected changes in the market, such as the ongoing shift in needs from SSL to CTL, which is a new category of compact construction machinery. Being a latecomer, I believe that we should always take the offensive. Some of the things we are planning in order to expand our business in the U.S. include adding to the product line by introducing new products, reinforcing sales and service capabilities through collaboration with dealers, and extending the customer base. We will also need to boost business in rental segment. We will remain aggressive in our endeavors without letting our guard down,” explained Nishinobu.
Kubota is currently busy conducting market surveys with local dealers to gain input on its future offerings. They venture into the field to hear what construction machinery users have to say about their problems and needs. The voices of users thus gathered are directly ref lected in product development and model changes, as well as product quality. KTC’s Shoji Kitano is responsible for this vital mission.
“In line with the mid- and long-term product development plan, we involve our dealers and engineers from Kubtoa to conduct the survey. If, for example, we plan to expand the CTL line, we visit users of the previous CTL model to hear what aspects of the model they think need to be improved or they rate highly. Some questions go deeper into detailed specifications. Then, we share the information thus collected with a development team in Japan, so they can use it for new product development,” commented Kitano. “I really feel that the market is changing quickly. To keep abreast with the speed of change, we are required to shorten the development lead time. I personally believe that I should have more contact with users to gather an abundance of information, so that I can have a better understanding than anyone else about how Kubota’s construction machinery is used in the field and what users really want.”
Also from KTC, Tomoyuki Umekawa wishes to meet market needs, but he uses a different approach from Kitano. Umekawa is responsible for sales management; that is, he is the one who places production orders by predicting the supply and demand of the near future based on current market trends. If his predictions turn out to be significantly divergent from reality, there ends up being excess production or product shortage circumstances. Another important responsibility of Umekawa’s is drawing up a sales promotion plan for dealers.
“Simply put, my job is to conceive a strategy for keeping dealers motivated, so that they can put all their energy into selling Kubota’s construction machinery. To this end, I usually offer them incentives, such as special pricing and preferential interest rates, so our dealers have some tools to boost their sales. It is also important that we offer f lexible solutions. For example, when a certain individual dealer or region is in a slump, we offer sales programs to address common causes.” (Umekawa)

At present, a total of some 600 dealers sell Kubota’s construction machinery in the U.S. KTC appoints regional managers of construction machinery business promotion around the country. One such manager is Michael Stanley, who is looking after 55 dealers in the States of Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama, and Mississippi.
“We support our dealers as a construction machinery business specialist. In more concrete terms, we offer detailed support in terms of sales, marketing, customer support and increase in product knowledge. Our mission is to help each dealer to increase its sales; that is, to guide dealers of our products to succeed. This year marks the seventh year since I was assigned to this region. Our dealers’ business has been strong, to say the least, during this period, and Kubota’s construction machinery is steadily gaining a greater share here.” (Stanley)
Of course, he is not resting on his laurels. Of the 55 dealers he supports, 38 deal exclusively in Kubota-branded products. It is the crucial job of a regional manager to convince dealers who also sell non-Kubota products to become a Kubota-exclusive dealer. For this, Stanley says that it is important to increase the amount of contact between dealers’ salespeople and end users. In the next chapter, we will take a closer look at dealers to see what they are doing for users.