Woody Ferrell, vice president sales & marketing of Champion Motor Graders, recently announced that Southeastern Equipment Company Inc. has signed on with its 15 branches in Ohio and southern Michigan as the authorized dealer for Champion Motor Graders.
According to Charles Patterson, president of Southeastern Equipment, what attracted his company to Champion was the company’s solid brand name and its reputation for quality design.
“Our knowledge of the industry and product convinced us that the Champion line of compact motorgraders would round out our current grader offering quite nicely for our customers — especially paving and parking-lot contractors and municipalities.”
“With 52 years of proven experience in construction equipment sales and service and 19 branch locations spread across Ohio, Michigan, Indiana and Kentucky, Southeastern is a valuable addition to the Champion network of dealers,” said Ferrell.
Southeastern Builds Relationships
Founded by Bill and Nancy Baker in 1957, Southeastern Equipment expanded from one store covering the southeastern quarter of Ohio to 19 stores covering Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky and Michigan and from two employees to more than 200 employees. In addition to Champion, the other major lines that Southeastern represents include Case, Kobelco, Gradall, Bomag and Etnyre.
“We have always had a very strong relationship with our municipal customers,” said Patterson. “These relationships were built years ago and still hold strong today. The same can be said for all of our customers, including paving and parking lot contractors. This business is built on relationship selling.”
In addition to its strong lineup of new and used equipment, Southeastern considers its experienced staff and parts and service support, and the fact that the company is family-owned, as its major competitive strengths. Proximity to its customers also remains a company goal. Southeastern has tried to locate its facilities in convenient locations with visibility from major and/or interstate highways.
“We like to be as close as we can to our customers,” said Patterson. “We know that it takes good equipment to make the first sale, but it takes great parts, service and after-sales support to build a relationship.”
Southeastern’s Champion Line
Sparks Interest
Direct mailers, industry and municipal tradeshows and customer demos are being employed to promote the new Champion line, while Woody Ferrell continues to train Southeastern Equipment’s sales staff.
“Woody has been great in helping bring us to speed and we will continue to stock Champion graders and parts as demand increases,” said Patterson. “We already have several potential deals in the works thanks to customer demonstrations. We’re pleased to be able to offer our customers another quality choice in Champion motorgraders to meet their equipment and application needs.”
For more information on Champion Motor Graders, call 704/392-1038 or visit www.championmotorgraders.us.
