Ed pointed toward the field.
“That one handled it.”
“For one pass.”
“How long does a pass have to be before it counts?”
A few men smiled.
Rick remained composed.
“Sustained draft over hundreds of acres is different from a four-minute demonstration.”
Carl Dietrich stepped closer.
“Wasn't your Deere run a four-minute demonstration?”
That landed harder.
Rick replied,
“The 9530 is engineered specifically for this class of work.”
Carl nodded.
“I'm sure it is.”
He pointed toward the Massey's furrows.
“But if the other tractor isn't engineered for it, why did it do it?”
Rick shifted into technical explanation.
Weight class.
Power reserve.
Cooling capacity.
Hydraulic architecture.
Duty cycle.
All legitimate points.
The problem was timing.
Twenty minutes earlier, the technical discussion had sounded authoritative.
Now it sounded defensive.
Another farmer asked,
“What's Vernon's tractor worth?”
Rick said,
“That isn't an apples-to-apples comparison.”
“Why not?”
“Because the machines serve different markets.”
“Same plow.”
“Different long-term expectations.”
“Same field.”
“Different design.”
“Same depth.”
Rick stopped.
The questions continued for nearly ten minutes.
Not hostile.
Worse.
Curious.
Farmers wanted numbers now.
Cost per horsepower.
Fuel use.
Service intervals.
Hydraulic flow.
What did an 8680 sell for?
What did used ones cost?
How many hours did Vernon's have?
Who serviced them?
Was the dealer in Poplar Bluff any good?
The crowd had stopped discussing John Deere.
That was the real damage.
By eleven thirty, Rick ended the demonstration and walked back toward the Torrence Ag Solutions tent.
His sales manager followed.
“You okay?”
Rick looked at him.
“Why wouldn't I be?”
The manager glanced toward the field.
“Because that didn't go the way we planned.”
“The Deere won.”
“Did it?”
Rick turned.
“Nine seconds.”
The manager lowered his voice.
“That's not what they're talking about.”
Rick looked around.
Groups of farmers stood near the field edge.
Some were still pointing toward the parallel furrows.
One had his phone out, writing down information.
Another was talking about Poplar Bluff.
Rick felt something settle in his stomach.
Not panic.
Not yet.
Irritation.
He believed the moment would pass.
Field demonstrations were forgotten.
Farmers went home.
Harvest arrived.
Winter came.
By spring, everyone would be discussing something else.
He was wrong.
Ed Pulliam went home that afternoon and placed the John Deere quote he had been studying on the kitchen table.
His wife, Louise, was making supper.
She looked at the papers.
“Thought you already decided.”
“So did I.”
“What happened?”
Ed sat down.
“Watched a Massey pull twelve bottoms.”
Louise continued chopping vegetables.
“That sentence means nothing to me.”
Ed laughed.
“Rick Torrence told everybody it couldn't.”
“And it did?”
“Yep.”
“Then what's the issue?”
Ed stared at the quote.
The Deere deal was not bad.
Good dealer.
Good machine.
Reasonable trade.
But until that morning, Ed had never seriously considered Massey Ferguson.
Not because he had tested one and rejected it.
Because it had never entered the conversation.
Rick had changed that.
By criticizing it.
Ed called Frank Elbert's Massey Ferguson dealership in Poplar Bluff two days later.
Frank answered himself.
“Elbert Equipment.”
“Frank, Ed Pulliam.”
A pause.
“I know the name.”
“You heard about Saturday?”
Frank laughed.
“Vernon called me that night.”
Ed leaned back.
“What'd he say?”
“Mostly that my used tractor embarrassed a green one.”
“That sounds like Vernon.”
“Actually, I added the embarrassed part.”
Ed smiled.
“I want to run an 8680.”
Frank did not start selling.
“When?”
“Thursday.”
“I'll have one ready.”
Ed spent two hours on Frank's demo ground.
Chisel plow.
Grain cart.
Transport.
Hydraulics.
Low-speed work.
High-speed work.
He deliberately tried to find something he disliked.
There were things.
Dealer cab controls felt unfamiliar.
Visibility differed.
Some service access points were not where he expected.
But the tractor worked.
More importantly, the numbers worked.
Ed bought one.
When Torrence Ag called to follow up on the John Deere quote, the salesman expected negotiation.
Ed said,
“I already bought.”
“What?”
“Massey.”
Silence.
“Ed, you had an offer here.”
“I had numbers.”
“We thought we were close.”
“So did I.”
“What changed?”
Ed answered honestly.
“Saturday.”
The salesman knew immediately.
“That plow demonstration?”
“Yep.”
“Ed, that was one pass.”
“Then Rick shouldn't have built his argument around one pass.”
The salesman tried again.
“You know our service. You know our resale.”
“I do.”
“You know Massey's dealer network isn't ours.”
“I know that too.”
“Then why switch?”
“Because I tested one.”
Ed paused.
“And I wouldn't have tested it if Rick hadn't told me it couldn't do something I watched it do.”
The salesman had no answer.
Carl Dietrich was next.
Then Raymond Stoll.
Not all at once.
Not because everyone suddenly believed Massey Ferguson was superior.
That would have been unrealistic.
John Deere remained strong.
Case IH remained strong.
Many farmers watched the demonstration and bought exactly what they had planned to buy anyway.
But a smaller group did something far more dangerous to Rick's dealership.
They started comparing.
Before September 17, Massey Ferguson had barely been on their list.
Afterward, it was.
And once farmers ran actual numbers, some chose red.
Carl Dietrich traded equipment toward a Massey tractor and later a used Massey combine.
Raymond Stoll had nearly decided on a Deere before asking Frank Elbert for a test drive.
He bought the Massey instead.
When Torrence Ag's sales manager asked why, Raymond said,
“Rick told me no Massey could work the way I needed.”
“And?”
“So I checked.”
He smiled.
“Turns out checking is expensive for you boys.”
By the end of the first quarter of 2012, Rick had numbers he could no longer dismiss.
Several deals lost.
Existing customers visiting competing dealerships.
Quotes being compared that would never have been compared before.
At a sales meeting, Rick stood in front of his team.
“What are you hearing?”
Nobody answered immediately.
Finally his sales manager, Dale Merritt, spoke.
“Same thing everywhere.”
“What thing?”
“The field demo.”
Rick's shoulders tightened.
“That was six months ago.”
“Doesn't matter.”
“Vernon made one pass.”