Years ago, as a child, I remember riding by Nelson Tractor and being amazed by all the tractors and cool implements I saw on their lot. We only had a couple of acres and had no large property by any means. However, we always grew a garden in the spring, had grass to cut in the summer, and spent countless hours raking leaves in the fall. That made for a lot of work with only the use of a riding lawnmower for any help. I dreamed of having a tractor with a front-end loader, rotary tiller, and a deck to cut the grass. I thought,
“With one of those tractors, I could conquer any job!”
As I grew up, I became more and more interested in tractors and equipment. I learned how to fix things around the house and eventually decided to become a mechanic. I started working at Nelson Tractor in 2005 as a technician and learned anything I could about everything we have here on the lot. The older folks that have been in the business for much longer took me in and taught me how to work on all the amazing equipment I had dreamed of owning as a boy.
I soon realized there was a lot more to tractors than just machines. I got to know a lot of our customers, which soon became friends. I found that the atmosphere here is like that of being with an extended family. That’s the way folks here treat everyone. Whether they drive up in a brand-new Lexus or a 40-year-old Ford pickup, everybody who walks through the doors at Nelson Tractor gets treated with respect and is greeted as a friend.
I loved working on the equipment we have here and getting our friends out of a bind when they broke down. However, I started taking more of an interest in the people that we served than the equipment that we sold. Once I started in sales, I was able to have much more contact with our customers, although in a much different setting.
I did notice, however, that the same way we tried to help our customers solve problems in the service department carried over to the sales side as well. Instead of asking someone what they are looking for, we try to help them solve the problem of how they can complete the work they are trying to accomplish. We do our best to help explain why a scrape blade might be better than a box blade for the job they are doing, or why R4 tires are a better choice than R1 tires for a particular job.
Some folks have come in here thinking they need something much more expensive than what they really need to tackle their job. We have explained the benefits of the less expensive machine, and end up saving them money. We have folks ask all the time,
“What kind of packages do you guys have?”
We explain it this way:
“Not everybody has the exact same needs in their equipment capabilities and therefore we don’t really advertise any packages. Let’s decide what you are going to do with the equipment, then we can match the tool to the task.”
For example, you can go online and find countless “packages” with a tractor, loader, scrape blade, and rotary mower. Just about every “package” that I have investigated online includes the lightest duty of the implements. The rotary cutters won’t have a slip-clutch for protection. Also, most of them have “pin-on” buckets. A lot of people want to put something other than a bucket on the front of their loader and driving out pins is no fun. We configure our loaders with a quick attach on most models, allowing the operator to change the attachment with ease. If you have a quarter-mile driveway, then the light duty box or scrape blade will work just fine. However, if you have more than that, you will need more steel behind that tractor.
There are several grades of implements that offer you the ability to perform different jobs. You wouldn’t buy a ton truck to drive 100 miles each day, you’d buy the economical four-cylinder car. On the same turn, you wouldn’t buy a four-cylinder car to pull a skid-steer loader from job to job, you’d buy the ton truck. The same is true for tractors and equipment. You either need to spend months researching what you need and what option is the most economical solution for your task at hand or you can just come see your friends at Nelson Tractor where the folks here have been doing the research for decades. Come experience the difference at Nelson Tractor.
