In June 2007, Ditch Witch of West Texas marked their 35-year Anniversary. Read the complete store below.
It is not unusual for someone who grows up in Perry, Oklahoma, to go to work for the town's flagship company, The Charles Machine Works, Inc., manufacturer of Ditch Witch underground construction equipment. Lenny Sadler seemed destined for the same fate.
His father, J.D., worked there for 32 years, retiring as chief financial officer. Lots of his friends and their fathers worked there. So, in 1968, while enrolled at Central State College in Edmond (now the University of Central Oklahoma),
Sadler started getting a taste of the business by working at the Ditch Witch of Oklahoma dealership in Oklahoma City, where his uncle, Russell Sadler, was the owner.
After college, he moved to Tulsa to help open a new Ditch Witch of Oklahoma dealership. And that's when his career with the Ditch Witch organization almost ended.
"I was getting old — I was all of 23 — and needed a change," Sadler jokes. "I called the [Ditch Witch] plant in Perry to tell them I wasn't all that happy with the way things were going. They told me about an opening in Amarillo. I didn't know anything about Texas, but we packed up and went. It was August 16, 1972. I remember it because our first daughter was born within a week of moving."
Sadler's Ditch Witch of West Texas, Inc. was a one-man operation for the first year. He applied what he had learned from his uncle in Edmond, what his father had shared with him over the years about the Ditch Witch equipment line and his experience from starting a business in Tulsa. One of his first tasks was getting to know the customers his predecessor had served, learning their businesses and the type of equipment they used, and developing ideas for other types of equipment they could use. The Okie had a natural rapport with his new Texas neighbors, and his face-to-face service style would serve him well for the next 35 years. Having a good relationship with his banker helped, too.
"When I started out, I borrowed $25,000, and I paid it back in 10 months," he says. "That's when things really started to take off." Sadler steadily grew Ditch Witch of West Texas each year. By 2005, it was the No. 3 Ditch Witch dealer in the world, a ranking based on parts and equipment sold, customer satisfaction, and other factors. The next year saw a 50-percent increase in business.
That sense of pride in being among the top dealers is being passed on to Sadler's son, Jake, who has been working with his father for six years and is now the dealership's sales manager. "Jake has really invigorated [the dealership staff] with his enthusiasm and his concern for the customer," says Sadler. The Ditch Witch of West Texas family connection also includes Sadler's brother Tony, who manages the parts department and has been with the dealership for 30 years, and son-in-law Phillip Rodriquez, manager of the rental department. Ron Ford manages the service department.
"I usually buy something from Lenny about every year," says Jack Reiser, who works for Panhandle Telephone Co. in Guymon, Oklahoma, about 125 miles from Amarillo. "Good service means a lot to me, which is why I keep buying from him. He's real good about not letting my machines sit around in the shop for a week when they need service." Panhandle Telephone lays DSL fiber in rural areas and continuously updates old telephone line, laying an average of 150,000 feet of cable per month.
One of Sadler's oldest customers is Mid-Plains Rural Telephone Cooperative in Tulia, Texas, about 40 miles south of the dealership. Sadler's uncle Russell sold the phone company one of the original Ditch Witch trenchers back in the mid-1950s. "Their salespeople are always good," says Danny Johnson, general manager of Mid-Plains. "They're close to us, too, so if we ever have trouble, Lenny comes right over."
