By CSG Talent
In this episode of Conversations with CSG, John Deignan – Principal Consultant in Heavy Equipment at CSG Talent is joined by Josh Stolpe, General Manager at Papé Machinery.
Papé Machinery is part of The Papé Group, a premier capital equipment dealer in the US, family owned and in operation since 1938. The core part of the business is new, used and rental equipment, plus parts and servicing to a wealth of industry sectors. Papé operates largely within agriculture and construction, dealing with heavy duty construction and equipment such as tractors, often as a John Deere dealer.
In this conversation, Josh Stolpe shares his extensive experience at PAPE, discussing his career journey, the complexities of the equipment dealership industry, and the significant changes brought about by technology and market dynamics. He emphasizes the importance of adaptability in the face of challenges, particularly post-COVID, and highlights the role of AI in transforming dealership operations and enhancing customer experiences.
During the podcast episode, some of the focus areas we delve into include:
If you’re keen to discuss podcast insights in more detail, please get in touch with John Deignan. Alternatively, if you’d like to join us as a guest on Conversations with CSG, to share market insights or tell your career journey story - please get in touch with our marketing team – csgmarketing@csgtalent.com
Full Transcript Below:
CSG Talent (00:32)
Welcome to Conversations with CSG. Today we're joined by Josh Stolpe, General Manager at Pape Machinery. Josh, thank you so much for joining us on the podcast today.
John (00:40)
I appreciate you taking the time it's nice to meet you we obviously recruit specifically for equipment dealerships so it's great for us to be able to speak to people who are actually deeply involved in the front line running of the stores hearing what's going on in the market challenges changes so
the first thing we wanted to, ask, as recruiters we see people at dealerships jump around a lot from place to place. You're one of not that many who have stayed for quite a long time and have some great tenure. What is it about Pape that's made you stay put where you are for such a long time?
Josh Stolpe (01:14)
Yeah, I've worked at PAPE for 15 years, or so. And first of all, I'd say, I just love the equipment industry. I think it's a great business. I spent, as you said, the majority of my career here in various roles, because I just have a fun time doing this every day. I was lucky to get into the forklift side of our business really early in my career.
worked with some really fantastic people along the way, had some really impactful, mentors early on in my career that I still talk to, to this day. And, I just think this business is really exciting because you can start at the bottom and you can work your way up to, running a dealership and I'm proof of that. And it's something I always try to share with, young people trying to figure out where to start their career or maybe.
trying to figure out if they want to work for PAPE It's just a fantastic place to grow your career. then, know, PAPE, think is a great company as well. It's a great family that owns our business to this day. You know, PAPE is almost a hundred year old company, started in the state of Oregon and has grown over the last hundred years or so to, have over a hundred dealerships up and down the West coast and a lot of different
business verticals and you know, as a general manager here, I have a ton of autonomy to just run the business, full responsibility for the P &L and I think, for the right person that's entrepreneurial, wants the responsibility and wants that autonomy. It's just a great, business to invest your career.
John (02:45)
For sure. How did you find the pivot moving from the material handling side of the business to obviously different customers? How's it been for you?
Josh Stolpe (02:53)
It's fine. honestly, I thought the ag business would be simpler than material handling. But, as you may know, or the listeners may know, the ag business is incredibly complex. So it definitely keeps you on your toes every day with what's always changing, in the ag business and even in the consumer side of our business.
John (03:04)
Yeah.
Yeah, for sure. What are some of those biggest changes that you've seen specifically over the last few years? know that technology and precision ag is getting more and more popular. What have been the biggest kind of needle movers for you in terms of change?
Josh Stolpe (03:25)
Yeah, I mean, there's a lot that's impacted us over time. What I think has really been impactful for us is just how dealerships have had to shift in operations, kind of pre-COVID and post-COVID. Coming out of the COVID area, equipment sales represented a really large part of our profitability.
And that sort of hangover effect and the margin decline really impacted our dealerships profitability. that really forced us to work harder at the parts and service parts of the business. And from after COVID-2022 up to now, I think we've done a really good job of making parts and service much more efficient.
John (03:54)
Yeah.
Josh Stolpe (04:09)
more profitable and you know it's been a tough environment to operate in for the last three years or so. and I think you see that same trend in a lot of different businesses right? You know fixed operations in automotive for example you know just has to represent more of a dealer's profitability and I think we've been really able to kind of turn the corner on stuff like that.
John (04:13)
Yeah.
Yeah, for sure. That was one of the topics I wanted to cover as well. think new equipment sales obviously have been soft for everybody who I speak to over the last year or two. Parts and service, you have to get right if you're to do well in this current environment. What kind of strategies have you implemented, to maximise the changes that have happened in the market around the shift to rental, used equipment, things like that.
Josh Stolpe (04:51)
Yeah, I think you hit the nail on the head. used equipment is been, a big focus for us. It's been something we've really been working on this year in specifically with new equipment being hard to move. You know, there's a huge excess of used inventory on the market and inventory carrying costs are so high with current interest rates.
So we've really been hyper-focused on managing our inventory, managing the turn of used equipment faster. And that's worked out really, really well for us this year. In my stores, our used equipment sales are up over 100%. So I think we're doing a fantastic job controlling interest expense and managing our used aged inventory.
John (05:28)
Thank
Josh Stolpe (05:35)
at a really low level. I think being able to pivot in this market has been really important for us. And, I get a lot of credit to our sales team for the results, they've been able to achieve specifically in used equipment.
John (05:49)
Yeah, for sure. And the relationship I think between the OEM and the dealer has to be good as well, right? I mean, if the demand isn't there from the end user for the new machinery, the last thing you need is deer or Volvo or cat or whoever it might be to just be pushing inventory onto you guys. Sounds like you've got a good balance there,
Josh Stolpe (06:08)
Yeah,
yeah, we try to. it's never perfect, right? you've either got the customers that you don't have enough inventory or you've got too much inventory and no customer.
John (06:10)
Hahaha
How has technology side of things changed for you guys? I mentioned Procedure and Ag already on the construction side it would be machine control from Topcon, Trimble, brands like that. Has it changed your business much over the last couple of years?
Josh Stolpe (06:31)
Yeah, technology, from my perspective, is really going to reinvent the way a lot of dealerships operate, whether you're running an equipment dealership or an auto dealership or really any, customer facing business. So, from my perspective, I'm incredibly excited about the future of technology and what it's allowing us to do and what it's going to continue to allow us to do.
John (06:52)
Yeah.
Josh Stolpe (06:55)
over the coming years. for example, AI, I know everybody talks about AI constantly, but I think it's gonna enable us to really essentially reinvent the customer experience on everything from ordering parts to scheduling service, how we submit and manage warranty claims, which as people listening might know is one of the messiest and most time consuming processes in the dealership.
So, I'm really excited about stuff like that. And I'll give you another example too that I talk about often. you think about a technician that we're billing out at about $200 an hour now. In an eight hour day, they're probably spending two hours of the day writing narratives for work orders, ordering parts and other tasks. So, you know, 25 % of their day.
John (07:32)
Hmm.
Josh Stolpe (07:46)
And a lot of that could be revenue producing. So I think AI is going to solve a lot of those types of problems and just make us much more productive in some of those examples. And then even today, I think we all know from a data management perspective, it's already doing a lot to make us more efficient as employees, analyze data better and things like that. So overall,
John (07:46)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Josh Stolpe (08:11)
Again, I think it's an exciting time and it's important time for technology for us in the equipment industry. Cause I think a lot of dealerships tend to be stuck in a mode of doing things the same way if they're working for them. And, you know, I think the operators that are just focused on this are going to get a big productivity gain and probably a big competitive advantage over time.
John (08:21)
No.
Yeah, for sure. We've got on my side as a recruiter, we've got a couple of tools that are...
use AI, lean on AI to eliminate admin work wherever possible, the stuff that is time consuming that doesn't use the skills that were paid for in exactly the same way.
John (08:57)
Is there anything on the product support side, technology wise, that you guys are finding really useful? I know that on the construction equipment side of things, dealerships have been leaning into telematics a lot for fleet management and things like that. Have you seen much of that in your world in the green iron?
Josh (09:15)
Yeah, we've done a lot of that actually successfully for quite a long time and we utilize, John Deere's what's called Operation Center and JD link to, remotely diagnose machines and monitor for machine health. So that's something our customers have found to be really, really valuable over time is, when they have a machine that codes, a lot of times the owner of the farm may not know that.
But we can see that that machine out in a field somewhere with an operator is having an issue or maybe the machine's overheating and the operator keeps ignoring the code. that's something that customers I think are really impressed by with the technology that we're able to do is call them. They may not even know.
one of their machines is having a problem and we can get out there, triage the problem, make sure we've got the parts and get them going quickly. So it's been really good for us.
John (10:14)
So it's kind of a, it's a one hit where the technician knows what the problem is when he goes out into the field and can go prepared rather than doing the shuttle run, right? Benefits. What's the adoption been like there? Because we all know that ⁓ sometimes customers can be a little bit reluctant to pick up new technologies that may be brand new and might be to somebody who's never used it before a little bit intimidating. ⁓
Josh (10:22)
Yep,
John (10:41)
Has it just been the largest customers that have picked that up for you guys? does it take lot of pushing actively as well to try and sell them on the solution? What has the adoption been like?
Josh (10:51)
You know, it's varied. I think on new machines, the adoption is, you know, I would say approaching 100 % of customers that want to be connected out of the gate and obviously monitor the machine for health of the machine. That's a no-brainer. But then also being able to manage productivity and fuel costs and idle time and all those things as well.
Customers tend to not always want to adopt technology. I mean they want to hit the easy button, right? That's one of the biggest I think disconnects in the equipment business right now is you know the manufacturers and to some extent the dealers are really pushing customers to adopt this technology and learn the technologies that the machines are capable of and a lot of times the customers are like well I want to hit the easy button. I believe in the technology, but I want you to do it so
We're trying to figure all that out because as you know, there's just so much data coming off these machines and a lot of it is great data, but it's all about who's going to interpret that data and help the customer make good decisions with it.
John (11:56)
Yeah, so it sounds like you guys, as I think Cat dealerships do and some other even multi-line dealers who might have brand agnostic telematics products, will have people in the back end on your side in let's call it the war room, looking at the dashboards, keeping track of all the customers machines all the time. Do you have people full time doing that for PAPE?
Josh (12:14)
Yeah, yeah, we do have we have multiple people. have people, obviously in our in our service departments, service writers, service managers are monitoring it. Field technicians themselves, they have a kind of area or a group of machines that a lot of times they, are nearby and work on often. So they're getting those alerts. And then we have a dedicated team at the corporate level that.
manages those alerts as well and just make sure that everybody knows when there's a potential problem occurring. Then the next level, think if you want to start to look a couple more years down the road, it's about connecting what's actually going on with the machines to we have a machine population in our area of a certain age.
And we know through data that an alternator or a water pump goes out on this specific type of equipment at around 2000 hours. So now if we know we've got that populations of machines that are nearing that age, now we can proactively stock the parts and have them on the shelf when the customer fails.
John (13:23)
Yeah, yeah, that's high level stuff and it's really valuable to the customer at the end of the day in terms of uptime because if you know that happens regularly, it happens as it always does and then you haven't got the part there. If you've got the data, there isn't really much of an excuse is there?
Josh (13:37)
Yeah, it's so hard to do. we've got an incredibly complex business and a really diverse product line that we have to manage. so, you can't stock every part despite what a customer would like you to do. And so you have to use data and use technology to try to overcome those challenges and still keep the customer going.
John (13:55)
For sure. So would you offer tiered service contracts, i.e. a base level where it might just be whatever goes wrong, the tech will go out, we'll send the part, we'll fix it, tiered up to full preventative maintenance, remote diagnostics, everything? Or would it just be a one or the other opt in, opt out situation? Because I know different dealerships do it differently.
Josh (14:16)
Yeah, that's something we're constantly trying to get better at all the time. You know, typically when a person buys a new machine, things are so expensive these days that, we really encourage customers to, put a warranty on that machine for as long as they can, right? Because, you know, particularly technology related repairs, it might be a hundred dollar sensor, but you might have to take off the cab to get to that sensor. And it, you know, it could end up being a 15, 20, $30,000 repair. So.
That's important. We haven't got as much into preventative maintenance contracts as we'd like to, and that's always a conversation internally. Some of our other businesses on the John Deere construction side and the forklift side of our business have really done a fantastic job with selling preventative maintenance upfront. that's big evolution that we have yet to figure out and ag.
What the reason for that is, a little bit specific to our area is that the use season is so short in our area. So, you have a customer who owns a combine and they only run that combine, three weeks out of the year. So they've got a lot of downtime in the winter time to, do the winter service on that stuff themselves. And that's, you know,
I think part of the reason why we struggle with figuring out a preventative maintenance solution that works.
John (15:37)
Yeah, you would have to structure it in a specific way for ag customers because as you say, it's seasonal and so if the contract is monthly, if it was an excavator, for example, they're going to think whilst that combine is sat idle, why am I paying a monthly preventative maintenance fee when it's not doing anything? So I get that. On the talent side, and this is something that I did want to cover off whilst I had you.
We all know technicians are in short supply. I think that's the obvious topic to cover when we're speaking about hiring. Are there any other areas within the business where you've really struggled to find skilled staff beyond skilled labor? How has it been for you with the landscape in that sense?
Josh (16:16)
Yeah, mean technicians definitely and we can talk about that are super difficult and we've had to get really creative there. But you know, I think in any business, good talent is hard to find. You know, particularly if you're trying to do it, recruiting from other businesses and you know it. It's just tough. It's hard to get good people. It's hard to keep good people so.
I think it's just something as an operator in 2025, have to have your eyes open all the time looking for talent. And I think that's really, again, manifested itself the most in the battle for technicians.
John (16:56)
sure. We don't recruit for technicians, we only do management level and above, but pretty much every single conversation I have with clients is, hey, can you find me some technicians? And it seems as though because they're in such short supply, you see techs bounce from company to company each year, get a pay rise each year, and now it's like a bidding war for the guys who can fix the equipment. And it must be a headache for you guys.
Josh (17:20)
Yeah, growing our technician base or for even keeping up with the attrition of technician retirements in our industry has been just a big focus, for me and the dealerships that I manage. So, yeah, it's like you've got to almost have two strategies. You got to think about, what are we doing today about the technician shortage? And then, what are we doing for the long term?
to recruit more technicians and be better off two, three, five years from now than we are today. So we can get into any of that you want too.
John (17:52)
Yeah, so have you invested in your training programs and trying to go to the trade schools and things like that to pick up, let's call it grassroots investment rather than necessarily just poaching experienced tech from competitors? Is that an angle that you've taken as well?
Josh (18:09)
Yeah, absolutely. Again, I sort of look at it like two strategies, right? You know, today, you want to be the wage leader for technicians in our area so we can sort of recruit and retain the best guys. And that's easy to say, but that's hard to actually do in practicality because you have to run a really efficient business in order to be able to pay technicians, that industry leading wage and,
It's important to us. We give a lot of our technicians a lot of autonomy and empower our people to do what they need to do to take care of customers, ⁓ which is what any good employee wants, right? They want to naturally do the right thing for the customer. So we allow them to do that. And that's helped us a lot over time to have really low turnover in technicians.
Yeah, as you mentioned, long term, I'd say if you're trying to, grow your business, by hiring from competitors, probably the worst strategy I think you could have, cause you're just going to get less loyal technicians who are always to your point, threatening to leave for their next raise. And you can bet that if they left their previous employer to come to you, it's a matter of time before they do the same thing to you. Right. So.
We really invest heavily in recruiting young talent, perspective technicians, do tons of work with local high schools, shop programs, college tech programs, trade schools to recruit talent to grow within the organization. And that gives us a lot of loyalty and better technicians ultimately that kind of grew themselves and grew their career in our culture.
and in our way of doing business. I'll tell you another thing that was one of the best events I've been involved with recently is we had an event called our technician signing day where we brought in four recent high school graduates who we signed up into our John Deere technician training program, which is a two-year program that
we pay for all their schooling and all their tools if they come to work with us after school. So we invited the recruits, their families, all their friends from school to come into the dealership for a big event, sort of a lot like a football draft day. And it was an opportunity for us to really just recognize those kids for their accomplishments and choosing to start their career.
at PAPE and then it really allowed us to kind of spread the message about great career opportunities in our company and in the industry and hopefully just find a new way to sort of generate more buzz around that. So that was a real success.
John (20:46)
Yeah, that's really interesting. dealerships doing kind of open days for young techs and things like that, but it sounds like you kind of hit the nail on the head with that one. Was it your idea?
Josh (20:58)
Yeah, I think we I think we copied somebody I'm sure in some way, but I don't actually have any of my own good ideas. But it was a was a it was a fun day. And that's what you got to do is you got to go out and any any type of recruiting, you have to go out and and be able to touch, you know, other people who, are kind of off on these tangents and try to open their eyes to, you know, the great careers you can have in equipment and you can make fantastic, money doing this. So
That was really successful.
John (21:26)
Fantastic, yeah, no, that's great. You guys are going about it the right way rather than getting sucked into the bidding war, I think. It's a long-term thing and it will definitely pay off down the line, For the five stores that you manage,
I know that you've got an interesting customer base where there's a mix of, you know, we'll call it consumer, end user, some commercial farms as well, I would imagine. Which are some of the key things that you use in your leadership to make sure that each of these customers is getting seen to properly and giving the right attention from your staff in the different stores? Because it is challenging.
working with such a varied customer base, right?
Josh (22:05)
Yeah, yeah, it is. I think there's a lot to unpack on leadership and running dealerships in, 2025. you know, running a large business with a lot of employees, lots of complexity in our business, as you mentioned, what I think is most important is that you have to really run it.
for me, kind of the day-to-day analysis of our business, what are we doing well, what's not working, and then really just kind of undressing of our own performance every month, that's really important, you know? I kind of call it the good, the bad, and the ugly, right? What are we doing well, what's not working, and what do we really need to fix right now?
I think too often managers just aren't curious enough, the going out to the store, listening to what's going on. You know, too many leaders just aren't asking, real questions of their people because I think they don't want to hear about their mistakes, I guess. But, it's, I think that's just incredibly important.
You know, something I say a lot in our business is the problems are in the spreadsheets and in the data. The answers are in the stores and with our people. And so what I mean by that is, most managers, they see, your margins are down here, there, this expense is too high. But the only way to really get to the root of those kinds of problems is, is talk to the people and, listen to their ideas and then fix things, you know, listen.
Listen to people figure out how to make their lives easier. Do what you say you're going to do. Follow up. You know and and try to just, motivate your people. I always try to kind of connect how. An individual and the job they do affects the overall result. You know we're trying to achieve so whether you're a front desk person or.
a salesperson or someone in HR, you need to know how your work contributes to the overall goal. So, that type of stuff is just, incredibly important, I ask a lot of our people, but I also think they know, generally, I come in from a really good place for what I'm asking them to do.
I just want to help to make this business all it can be. Because I want us to be there to serve our customers. That's something that's important to remind our people of every day is what we're trying to do is to be here to serve them in the good markets and then especially in the bad markets, like what we're in right now. You know that when it gets tough, that's when you really figure out how good your dealer is. When times are bad,
Do they do the right thing? Do they do what they say they're going to do? And that means that, sometimes we have to push ourselves to get more efficient and profitable, which isn't always easy. But, we're going to be here forever to serve our customers. And that takes hard work to run a good business, to make sure we're here to serve our customers. But we try to have fun, while we're doing it and make it a good place to work while we're
pushing hard to get the results we want.
John (25:09)
100 % 100 % of that's good stuff and I think I'm conscious of time, but a final one that I wanted to cover off, is an interesting one in the equipment industry, but it's one that our team internally at CSG are big on and it's something that they've tried to support whenever people are moving in this direction is with DE and I the equipment industry is obviously very
male dominated, we all know this. How important is it to you trying to give equal opportunity? Are there any specific, initiatives you have in place to try and open doors for people ⁓ And how's that gone for you?
Josh (25:47)
Yeah, I mean, I think it's really important. And you're correct. the equipment business is and the ag business, generally are very male dominated, so I think it's the answer, as best as I know, is similar to what I said about, recruiting technicians to PAPE in a very active and intentional way. And then, same approach applies here it's on us.
to make sure we're recruiting from diverse pools of candidates and trying to really message out to everyone, not just guys, about the opportunities in this industry. So I think that's the answer.
John (26:27)
Yeah, for sure. I really enjoyed the conversation. the technology stuff I felt like I could have gone on for hours about because I find that really interesting.
Josh (26:35)
It's been a really interesting conversation.
John (26:38)
Yeah,
I really appreciate you doing this. it was fantastic. I really enjoyed meeting you. It was a good conversation. feel like I have a better understanding of what the people I talk to every single day do off the back of it. And hopefully there was some value to it in you as well. I really appreciate it.
Josh (26:53)
Yeah, absolutely. Anytime, John.
John (26:55)
Fantastic. It was great meeting you, Josh. You too. Thank you. Bye.
Josh (26:57)
Yeah, have a good one.
