GARAGES AND THE TRACTOR TRADE.
Page 13
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Is the Farm Tractor Business Getting the Attention it Deserves from the Garages ? The Writer is of Opinion that it is Not.
By "Vim."
WHEN .travelling by car about the country I have again and again been struck by the small amount of interest displayed in the farm tractor trade by the garages in rural districts. Here and there are garages which have developed a prosperous department devoted to the selling and repairing of motor farm plant; but, far from being a staple line of business with all garages in agricultural areas, the tractor is very much a side-show. It must be admitted that British farmers have not all been converted to power cultivation, and that if the whole business at present to be done in that direction were lumped together it would not make a colossal figure, but the movement is in its infancy as yet. The motor is as certain to replace the horse in farming as it is in goods transportation, and the garage proprietor who actively caters for the tractor trade is bound to turn it into a paying proposition.
Farmers have long since taken to motoring as a means for getting about, and it is their custom that is. the mainstay of many garage,s situated in country towns and villages. Why not take advantage of this ready-made goodwill by using it to work an agency for a motor plough or tractor? Such machines are more nearly related to cars than to ordinary agricultural implements, yet intending purchasers are often driven into the arms of implement merchants through the lack of interest in the new branch of the motor trade which is commonly to be met with in garages. .
Small blame to the implement merchant if he endeavours to open up a tractor department, and to Rrovide facilities for repairs. He has full right to compete in the market, and would be foolish if he did not do so. But I think that, other things being equal, a garage has the better chance of being successful, for an intimate and sound knowledge of internal combustion engines and motor. mechanics, in general is a stronger recommendation, from the point of view of after-service, than a long experience of handling horse-drawn implements.
Proprietors of rural, garages—I mean, of course, all garages which serve farming distriets—must scoop in the tractor trade as it grows, or lose it altogether. "Wait and see " never was a paying principle in either politics or .business, for what you see is generally the reverse of what you had hoped would come into the line of vision. If the garage industry neglects the welfare of this infant it can hardly expect to gain its affection when it has grown up. The first step is to secure an agency for a really good make of machine. As a man is known by his friends, so is the reputation of a business man founded on the class of stuff he handles. Rather than take up any agency that happens to be available, irrespective of whether it is likely, in the long run to reflect credit on its holder or not, it is more prudent to be content with a sub-agency. A mistake in selection may crab the tractor trade for a local garage at the start. On the other hand, a happy cha-nee in the way of securing a live proposition for which to act as agent has made a comfortable, if not an enormous, fortune for many a member of the retail motor trade. Farmers are -cautious buyers, and they rarely allow themselves to be bitten twice in the same place, or their friends to be bitten once, if they can help it. Unusual commission, favour able deliveries, and all such advantages to the agent, must be sacrificed, if need be, to quality.
The onlY machine that will sell, and go on selling, is one that is suited to the district, and is capable of doing its work consistently and well, besides being economical to run. These are the points by which the farmers around will judge it. Attractive mechanical features will not appeal to them :unless they conduce to one or all of the merits specified. The private motorist has his preferences for this, that, or the other type of valve mechanism, or clutch, or bodywork, and will often put up with many drawbacks in pursuance of hi pet theories, but the farmer's ideas are entirely different from those of the private motorist, and he doesn't care at all—or rather, he cares very little—bow the results are produced, provided they are satisfactory. This is not to say that the agriculturist who is out to buy a tractor knows nothing about design, or that it is possible to sell him a freak but it is to say that a garage proprietor must guard against his own natural inclination to be carried away 'by features of design that appeal to him because he is a mechanic.
The motor trader who knows a great deal about motor vehicles, but hardly anything about farming, will -be well advised if he consults a. farmer before negotiating for an agency. Modern agriculturists are keen on finding out all they can about' tractors, and the two kinds of knowledge combined will be a safeguard against fixing up a " dud " agency, even though the consultant may not be a tractor owner.
Having secured the app-ointment of agent for, a good make of tractor, the next thing is to sell it. To achieve this there is no form of.publicity equal to demonStrating its prowess on the land, so that all who care to come can see or themselves what it can do under conditions familiar to them. As a rule there is no difficulty in getting permission to use land for this purpose, and agents who have organized demonstrations have generally met with warm co-operation on the part of the go-ahead farmers whom they have approached on the subject: By issuing invitations to local newspapers to send representatives to be present at the trials wider publicity is assured, because cultivation by motor is, and will be for some time to come, of high topical interest to the public they serve.
After selling comes service. The tractor user must receive the fullest service, or the best of agencies will quickly become worthless. A breakdown in the midst of ploughing or reaping might spell an exceedingly heavy financial loss, and it is this which tends to make many farmers reluctant to do away with horses, which can be replaced without seriously holding up operations, for there is no doubt that, by substituting a tractor for horses, they place most of their eggs in one basket, The agent who wants to be successful must keep on hand a full range of every spare at all likely to .be wanted in a hurry, and must always have ready a breakdown vehicle, so as to be in the position to rush to the scene of
a stoppage. Without these facilities for giving service a garage proprietor had better leave the tractor trade alone, for' it may easily prove to be a' boomerang, which will return to the thrower, and probably administer a nasty knock to his touring car business as a. wind-up to its brief career.