“40 Million Card Accounts Affected by Security Breach at Target” was the alarming headline in December 2013, describing one of the largest data breaches in history. Millions of Target’s customers’ credit and debit cards were compromised and it cost Target over $100 million to rectify. On the heels of this announcement, 2014 didn’t miss a beat on big data breaches. Several corporations fell victim to credit card breaches, including Neiman Marcus, Sally Beauty, Michaels, United Parcel Service, Dairy Queen and Home Depot.

More than half of the customers who enter a rural lifestyle dealership have a brand in mind most of the time or almost always. This gives salespeople a head start in making the sale. They can start talking needs and solutions with customers, knowing they already may be sold on the manufacturer.

Sales managers have a difficult relationship with luck. They love it when it's helping their teams, but they know how unreliable it is. They've seen it occasionally give a lift to morale, but they're probably familiar with studies showing that attributing success or failure to random outside factors drains salespeople’s willingness to try new strategies.

The talk among dealerships this time of year is being prepared for the spring rush — assembling mowers, arranging indoor and outdoor displays, hiring staff, catching up on repairs and hosting open houses. The assumption is that because the calendar has flipped to April that customers are headed in to buy.

Sam Zimmerer, dealer principal at Zimmerer Kubota in Fort Worth, Texas, discusses what's necessary to run a top-notch rental program at his dealerships.

Sam Zimmerer, dealer principal at Zimmerer Kubota in Fort Worth, Texas, discusses the level of hard work and effort required of employees to ensure the network's 5 locations are all Kubota Certified Dealerships.

Sam Zimmerer, dealer principal at Zimmerer Kubota in Fort Worth, Texas, discusses the value of cooperative purchasing in terms of equipment sales, and why the business assigned a salesperson full-time to handle this business.

Fifteen seconds. According to statistics, that's how long you will spend on this page. I've read that piece of information so many times it almost makes me sick. I know for a fact that successful websites like mine will engage readers for far longer. I have the statistics to prove it.

Zimmerer Kubota in Gainesville, Texas, named Diana Mead as a winner in the Kubota-Texas A&M Aggies football sweepstakes.