Brookfield, Wis. — The Precision Farming Dealer Summit, held at the historic Galt House Hotel in Louisville, Ky., Jan. 8-9, for the 3rd consecutive year drew a sold out crowd of 165 precision farming professionals from more than 70 different dealerships across 26 states and 4 countries.

The 2018 program was centered on the theme “Bridging the Precision Profitability Gap." From precision department staffing strategies (Implementing Innovative & Effective Training to Accelerate Precision Growth) to proactive approaches for building customer relationships (Dissecting the Dynamics of a Profitable Precision Partnership), session topics explored a variety of themes critical to ensuring success in the evolving precision market.

During a focused 2-day program consisting of dealer-to-dealer roundtables sessions, panel presentations and general sessions, opportunities were in abundance for attendees to compare challenges and discuss solutions with their peers. Expanding on a highly rated component of past Summits, this year's event added a 3rd set of dealer-to-dealer roundtable sessions to offer additional opportunities for face-to-face learning and networking.

Precision Farming Dealer managing editor Jack Zemlicka noted during opening remarks, "The goal of the Summit is to help dealers find answers to important questions that will define their precision farming business for years to come, including how can we successfully leverage agronomic services into our precision business? What’s the secret to high productivity and low turnover with my precision staff? And how can we more effectively track and measure billable time to increase precision sales?"

Among the highlights of the 2018 Summit was a presentation featuring precision ag recruiter and consultant T.J. Stauffer from Agri-Search. Stauffer shared his advice for maximizing performance, retention and stability within a precision business, challenging attendees to clearly define a pathway to success for their employees.

From the single-location independent dealer to the multi-store farm equipment retailer, from the veteran precision ag manager to the newly hired specialist, the discussion of precision challenges and trading of solutions were in abundance. Attendees cited immediate takeaways and newfound precision allies before heading home.

And announced at the Summit, for the first time publicly, was the return of the Dealership Minds Summit, which will be held July 24-25, 2018, at the Marriott Coralville Hotel & Conference Center in Iowa City, IA, with a theme of "Intelligence Driven Marketing: Targeting, Automation, Analytics, Content."

The 2018 Summit was made possible with the support of these title sponsors: Farmers Edge, e-Emphasys Technologies, Topcon Agriculture Americas, HBS Systems, DigiFarm, Yetter Manufacturing, Reichhardt Electronic Innovations, Laforge Systems, Charter Software, Montag Manufacturing, Trimble and AgriSync.

For more information on the 2018 Precision Farming Dealer Summit, visit PrecisionSummit.com. A recap of the Summit, including key session takeaways, will be featured in the Winter Edition of Precision Farming Dealer coming this February.