Seeking to more fully blend its hardware and agronomic-based solutions, Trimble Agriculture recently announced a new distribution channel to deliver the company’s diverse line of precision products. Known as Vantage, the new dealer network will be purely a distribution model, while Trimble will remain the primary brand for products and services.

Recently, I had a chance to talk Thomas Utzmeier, director of distribution development for Trimble Ag, about his vision for the new network. The goal is to convert interested existing Trimble dealers into the Vantage channel and establish what he hopes will be regional precision ag equivalent of Best Buy’s Geek Squad.

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Video Transcript

Seeking to more fully blend its hardware and agronomic-based solutions, Trimble Agriculture recently announced a new distribution channel to deliver the company’s diverse line of precision products.

Known as Vantage, the new dealer network will be purely a distribution model, while Trimble will remain the primary brand for products and services.

According to Thomas Utzmeier, director of distribution development for Trimble Agriculture, the vision for the new network is to convert interested existing Trimble dealers into the Vantage channel and establish what he hopes will be regional precision ag equivalent of Best Buy’s Geek Squad.

While some dealers have already broadened their service offerings on their own, Utzmeier says that others interested in becoming a part of the Vantage network will likely have to make additional investments in training and resources to provide full-farm technology solutions.

However, he adds that transition into the Vantage network won’t be mandatory and Trimble is working with its existing retailers to scale and customize their involvement in the new distribution channel.

“Our dealers have different starting points. Their sizes are different, their revenue levels are different and their skillsets are different. So we would adapt the requirement in terms of the type of plan to the reality of the dealer organization today. Eventually, we would want them to develop the same skillsets, but some dealers might just take longer. A dealer who has an organization of 5 people, probably will take them longer to develop the expertise, let’s say in the irrigation or agronomic service than a dealer who has 15 people.”

So far, Trimble has established four Vantage distribution partners in the U.S. and overseas. Utzmeier says the goal is to grow that network to 120 dealers worldwide during the next 36 months.