Construction World May 2019

MARKETPLACE

PLANTING AND HARVESTING Dennis Vietze was appointed as Managing Director of Wacker Neuson sub-Saharan Africa in June 2017. In the financial year 2017/2018 the company grew by 10%, regained market share and cemented at least one of its business units as a market leader in the region. Construction World asked Vietze – a German native who has had 17 years’ experience in sales and marketing, and who has been instrumental in this turnaround – how he is bringing renewed energy and success to the brand.

What is the unique selling point of Wacker Neuron? Quality and service. We are a premium manufacturer of construction equipment and even though this comes at a premium, customers also know that quality and service are inherent to the brand. We have a dual brand strategy whereby we offer premium and value lines: Instead of losing the customer to a less expensive Eastern brand, we offer them an entry level machine and later attempt to promote them to a premium line machine – thereby keeping the customer in the Wacker Neuson brand. What gives Wacker Neuson construction equipment and compact machines the edge over brands that offer similar products? Wacker Neuson is a premium manufacturer, it has a nationwide footprint, with professional back-up service that takes cognisance of the size of the country so as to minimise downtime. We are, in addition, customer-centric driven. Describe Wacker Neuson’s approach to marketing? For most, a marketing mix consists of four elements: products, pricing, place, and promotion. I prefer to extend this to a marketing mix that consists of seven elements and therefore add people, process and physical facilities. With ‘people’ I mean having the right people for the job; with ‘processes’ I refer to everything needed before and after a new product is launched and with ‘physical facilities’ I mean having stock available on the yard for potential customers. I was a tough task when I took over in June 2017, but my target was to streamline all the marketing and business activities into these seven elements. How important are dealers in your total marketing plan? Dealers are vital. When I took over, Wacker Neuson had a direct sales approach: there were 12 area sales representatives for a country that is roughly 3,5 times the size of Germany where we had 120 sales representatives together with dealerships in a hybrid model. Even though South Africa, as opposed to Europe, is a very different market with challenging cultural conditions, it is – at the end of the day – still about a customer expecting service. For this reason I changed the sales structure to an indirect sales structure whereby we establish dealers in the different territories. These dealers are responsible for service, sales, and backup should Wacker Neuson itself not be able to be present in a certain territory. In June 2017 we had 18 randomly chosen dealers who were selected without any structure. Now we have 10 dealers in the country – which means that dealers are situated roughly 300 km apart. If it is not a Wacker Neuson dealer, one of our own sales representatives, territory managers or field service technicians is out to feel the pulse of the customer’s needs and interacting with them. How do you go about selecting dealers? Dealers must fit into the Wacker Neuson marketing structure and strategy. Whether they approach us or vice versa, I want to see commitment from such a dealer. Wacker Neuson, as a brand, has

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CONSTRUCTION WORLD MAY 2019