UTV manufacturer American LandMaster has been focusing more attention on building dealer partners following a change in leadership, Trent Marsh, marketing analyst for the company, told Powersports Finance.
“We’ve just recently, over the last year, kind of refocused on the dealer base again,” Marsh said. “We’ve had a change in leadership, a change in focus, so previous regimes previously chased after the big box [retailers] and not the independent dealers. We’re heading in the other direction now and working that back up.”
American LandMaster replaced the majority of its executive team in mid-to-late 2016 and has been focused on growing its dealer base over the past 18 months under the leadership of Chief Executive and President Pat Morello. However, the manufacturer was already making changes to its operations during the leadership transition, such as consolidating its administrative and production offices to one building in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
The company is using an outside sales force to reach new dealerships beyond its current 200 dealership network and has hired new additions to the marketing team to focus on consumer-facing advertisements to spread the message about the brand.
While the manufacturer reaches new dealerships, it is also implementing new programs based on recommendations from its current dealer partners.
“We doubled the product offering for the new [2018] model, and made some new options and changes that for a long time our dealer base has asked for,” Marsh said. “We’re addressing some of the things that they had asked for in the past, taking that back to them and saying, ‘Alright, we’re listening, we’re making the changes, what else can we do now?’”
