When the lock-down was announced, David Withers, md of Iseki UK wondered how he was going to promote and sell his product range at the start of the growing season.

“As a company we were only two years old, and the blanket restrictions were obviously going to have a negative impact,” he says. “So with my wife and family as film crew and with a paddock alongside my house, we immediately set about making product videos, model by model.

“The response was almost immediate, people were ringing up saying ‘Yes, just what I want’ and placing an order there and then.

“Because they had a rather home-made feel to them, and because we could focus on the features that mattered and show the machine at work in typical UK conditions, I think they had more authenticity than slicker corporate videos.

“I think they were also impressed when they rang up and discovered that it was the MD doing the demonstrating!” He adds, “Also feedback from dealers has been terrific, they feel that it really helps their sales team and their customers”.

The success of the product videos and their likely future place in marketing by dealers is part of a wide-ranging conversation, David had recently with TurfPro founder Chris Biddle for his new series of podcasts, Inside Agri-Turf. 

During the podcast, David also talks about the cultural differences between the UK and US dealers and suppliers gained from his 6-year term as President of Jacobsen based in Charlotte, North Carolina; about future of robotics in the commercial turfcare market and the advantages of selling a single brand rather than a ‘stable of brands’.

You can listen to the full podcast here.