TOOLS AND EQUIPMENT

Photos provided by STEC Equipment

Relationships and support are key to success in sports field management . Not just relationships with other sports field managers , but relationships with equipment dealers , distributors , suppliers and manufacturers . SportsField Management magazine recently spoke with David Taylor , president and CEO of STEC Equipment , about the importance of industry relationships and support .

SportsField Management ( SFM ): As an equipment provider , what advice do you have for building relationships with the sports field manager , the golf course superintendent , the parks and rec professional ? What is the key to gaining their trust and building those relationships ? Taylor : With anything I do or anything I sell , I want to be there to help that person when they are down . If someone has been struggling , banging their head against the wall , and can ’ t find any help , we want to be the go-to resource for them . A lot of our relationships are built on wanting to sell them the nut and the bolt , and when they come back looking for a tractor , they are going to give us an opportunity , because we weren ’ t out there trying to sell them a $ 30,000 thing . I ’ m happy to sell them a $ 3 part if it ’ s going to build a relationship . Service for me is very important . Sales sells the first one , but parts and service sell the second , third and fourth and build on that relationship — it ’ s not just one

and done . There ’ s way more money in service and parts than there is in actually selling the whole good . So building relationships , and building trust is very important . We want to help them out and do whatever we can .

SFM : You have a dealership and service center . Can you tell us a bit about your clients and the service side of your business ? Taylor : Eighty percent of what we do is in our area of responsibility ( AOR ) locally . The 20 % not in our AOR is literally North America because we have relationships all over . For example , we just sold a tractor to the Chicago Bears . The local Kioti dealer is typically smaller lawn and garden dealers , and they ’ re not going to be calling on the Chicago Bears . We are calling on the Chicago Bears , and they needed a tractor . We support that product through STEC and our mobile service team . We encourage them to go through their local dealer , but they ’ re usually buying a package of equipment that ’ s on a lease deal . If they don ’ t have a tractor , they will let us sell the tractor in the package for them — they ’ re leasing it and financing it .

When we do our demos , we travel the country with Kioti tractors on our trailer — that ’ s what ’ s hooked to our equipment . We end up selling a lot of equipment packaged

36 SportsField Management | August 2024 sportsfieldmanagementonline . com