The new leader of New Holland Construction’s North American business has big goals for the company, including selling 10,000 machines and having 1,000 dealership stores in its network by 2030.
Brian Weisbaum, a 12-year CNH Industrial employee, was appointed Head of New Holland Construction North America in February. During his career at parent company CNH Industrial, he has served as a dealer marketing manager, dealer development manager and the head of network development and sales support for both New Holland and Case construction brands in North America.
Equipment World sat down with Weisbaum to discuss his goals for New Holland and its dealer network over the next five years.
New Business Autonomy
Weisbaum’s arrival at the helm of New Holland Construction coincides with last year’s decision by CNH Industrial leadership to change its construction business philosophy. CNH Industrial CEO Gerrit Marx started his first earnings call last fall by announcing the company would designate agriculture as its “core business” and that its construction business would be treated as a “distinct and fairly independent operation.”
Brian Weisbaum speaks during the first ever New Holland Construction dealer meeting.New Holland
A good example of this can be seen in the recent inaugural New Holland Construction dealer meeting. Weisbaum said that construction topics had previously been rolled into the already established New Holland Agriculture dealer meetings, but the division’s newfound autonomy allowed New Holland Construction to craft its own agenda.
“We were able to really focus our efforts on where we are as a business, as a brand, and where we're going,” says Weisbaum.
Strengthening the Network
Weisbaum plans to exercise this autonomy in building New Holland Construction’s dealer network. Where previously New Holland Agriculture oversaw many decisions regarding the full agriculture and construction network, Weisbaum wants to take a closer look at the brand’s construction reach and where it might grow independent of the agriculture dealers.
“We certainly have a very well represented group of dealers that are New Holland Agriculture and New Holland Construction dealers,” he says. “But whereas in the past, that was a little bit of the limitation, Ag and CE moved together, now we have the ability to go out and put New Holland Construction with what we would call some more nontraditional dealer groups.”
The current North American New Holland Construction network consists of 350 dealership groups at about 725 locations, ranging from single-store enterprises to its largest dealer, Titan Machinery. Weisbaum says the company wants to have 1,000 individual dealership locations in its North American network five years from now to properly cover its territory and compete in the market.
In addition to helping Case IH and New Holland Agriculture dealers fill out their compact equipment lineup, they’ve found success with dealers near large cities who carry heavy equipment but lack compact offerings.
“In some instances, [these dealers] have multiple lines to fill the 10 product lines that we have in their offering,” he says. “And we've been able to put our foot in the door into some of those dealerships where, again, in the past, we haven't.”
Part of strengthening the network also means properly vetting potential dealers. Weisbaum says New Holland Construction wants dealers that can be with the brand for a long time.
“We look at dealers who have the capability and the desire to grow their businesses, to invest in product support, to support customers, and are with us for a long period of time, so that we're not having this management of turnover within the network,” says Weisbaum.
Pushing Digital Retailing
Another initiative Weisbaum wants to grow is digital retailing through the New Holland Construction Marketplace, where customers can shop for custom machines before heading to their dealer to finish the sale.
He says this helps New Holland arm the dealer with the necessary information to close the sale, while also allowing the end user to benefit from consumers’ ever-growing desire to shop online. Dealers know how customers plan to pay, what attachments they are looking for, and more.
“That digital retailing platform goes hand in hand with the strengthening of our network, because the stronger the network, the quicker reaction time we have to those customers who are shopping online, the more likely the closing of the transactions,” Weisbaum says. “And then, obviously, once we sell the first piece, it's that product support that is most important in selling the second, third, fourth pieces after that.”
New Holland is “Back on the Map”
Weisbaum sees the last few years at New Holland Construction as a turning point for the brand. The addition of new machines and categories to the lineup, such as the E90D mini excavator and new compact track loaders, increased the brand’s ability to compete and gave dealers new tools to close sales.
He admits the brand lost market share from its peak when the equipment market “was just skid steers and backhoes,” but recent decisions and assessments about where New Holland Construction was losing ground prompted the new product launches.
“All of those steps had to be taken in order to kind of put us back on the map,” says Weisbaum. “We started to take those actions many years ago. Obviously, they've been accelerated in the last 12 to 18 months since the construction segment took the autonomy of the brand. But those were all things for us that were really important to help set us on a path for growth.”
Part of continuing this growth is setting clear goals, he says. Weisbaum wants 10,000 New Holland Construction machines sold in North America in 2030, which would be double its current volume. He admits it’s a clear goal to understand but not an easy one to achieve.
“I think there is a really important alignment with our dealer network, that I think fundamentally across the majority of our dealer partners already exists, which is kind of having a growth mindset,” says Weisbaum. “Making sure that our dealer partners not only understand the numbers that I threw out, but that [we] are aligned and understand, what are the actions that I need to take at my own dealership in order to support those objectives?”
