John Deere is rooting for their clients! This is what they did at It’s Grow Time

Knowledge is power! This is also the belief of John Deere. That is why they presented the It’s Grow Time event.

At this event, farmers had the opportunity to move around to different stations, learning about the ins and outs of all John Deere’s equipment. Questions were asked, goodie bags were received and knowledge was acquired. The stations depict the different stages of farming, like planting, spraying, harvesting and soil preparation.

This is how each of the stations looked. This specific station was all about harvesting.

“It’s Grow Time means for us that it is the beginning of the planting season, but it is also so much more than that. We have got all this technology captured in our equipment, but we realised that we did not do a good job in selling all this value. This week marks the beginning of us selling our value as well as the value of our dealers to the customer,” says Managing Director of John Deere Africa and Middle East, Stephan Gouws. He has been working for John Deere for twenty years, and has been Managing Director since January this year.

Stephan Gouws, Managing Director of John Deere for Africa and the Middle East.

“It’s Grow Time falls over two weeks. During the first week we were focused on our dealers. Every day we had our dealers here and they had long, three hour sessions where the value in the equipment was explained and demonstrated. This week, we have three days where we bring in close to 600 customers from all over South Africa.”

This kind of event demands immense planning, but John Deere spared no effort or expense in delivering only the best to their customers, as usual.

“To help us convey the message of value to our customers, we had specialists from our factories. They came from all over the world – India, Germany, the US … We have seen that sometimes you need a reminder on some of the values of our equipment. Our customers say to us: ‘We knew all of it, but we forgot some of it.’ So, it is great, if you have a foreign accent, they sit up straight and listen and take it all in,” Stephan laughs.

This young man is listening attentively to the value that can be unlocked in John Deere equipment.

One happy customer also reported that he had a specific question for one of the dealers. The John Deere employee called the factory directly to get the best answer possible to his question. This is the kind of personal help that John Deere strived to achieve during this event.

John Deere – your family away from home

“Our company is not a company without people. We absolutely love the people whom we work with and who work for us. We have two employee days during these two weeks as well. Unless we can believe that there is value in the product, we cannot sell it. My first question and request to the employee is, what needs to change for us to believe that there is value in our equipment? And the second is, what needs to happen for us to stop believing that?”

During these staff days, one of the employees mentioned that this was his first opportunity to drive a tractor!

Only the best for their customers

This event was hosted at the Irene Country Lodge just outside of Pretoria. Guests were greeted with smiles and gift bags. John Deere also provided breakfast, lunch, dinner, accommodation and transport to everyone who attended the event.

It is all smiles for Gideon Koegelenberg, Wessel Visagie and Sarel Kok.

“A number of our customers have asked us why we are hosting this event in Irene, in the city. The reason for that is, it is a big venue, and you can showcase your equipment. We also have enough facilities for the customers to stay over, relax and interact with us. We did not want them to travel at night. We want to spend time with them so that we can understand what their requests are and whether we meet the needs of the customers.”

Never too old to learn

“A call to action for our farmers, young and old: The young guys, utilise our technology. Make sure that you are the leader in our technology. For the older folks, I say with a lot of respect: It is not as difficult as you think. If you leave it, your productivity is going to go down. Embrace the technology, it is easy to use,” Stephan concludes.