Ag Sales Professional's Podcast by Greg Martinelli

Selling to farmers in tough times.

Farming is always challenging, but right now it’s tougher than usual, with profitability under serious pressure for farmers.

This means those selling to farmers are feeling the strain too.

Recently, I had the privilege of collaborating with Margy Eckelkamp from Farm Journal. Together, we outlined seven actionable steps that ag sales professionals can take to support their producers, offering real solutions rather than just commiserating about the tough times.

Margy did an excellent job capturing our conversation in a concise article, which I think you’ll appreciate.

You can read it here: 7 Ways to Be a Lifeline to Farmers

Or click below to listen to my audio version of the article.

And what is your role as their salesperson when they do?

Your farmer customers are struggling to stay afloat right now, more than probably ever in their farming history.  Unless they farmed through the 1980’s, right now is their most difficult time.

Your role as their salesperson or more importantly, their trusted advisor has never been more important. 

Here are 4 thoughts on a farmer’s decision-making that can help you to help them:

1. Avoiding bad decisions versus making good decisions:

Listen in as we cover the details of these four decision making concepts, so you can help your farmer customers make better decisions!

How many of them are you?

1. A salesperson they like: work on this first.  Before going after the sale.  Start by getting to know them as a person and then know them as a business.  Key = Be genuine

Good luck and let me know how it goes

Are you calling on the right prospects in the right places? Are your salespeople calling on the right prospects in the right places?

You might want to double check with them as I find far too many of us in agribusiness are “Fishing in Swimming Pools” Lots of activity but no results.

Ask anyone of your salespeople to describe the ideal prospect. How close do their answers match between salespeople or between what you have in the business plan? After eight years of asking thousands of Ag salespeople this question, I still find too many who can’t clearly identify the customer segment they serve best.

Click on the podcast below to listen in as we discuss the importance of customer segmentation

Dairy Boots and getting “Robbed”

Every customer has a customer! 

This is so important for salespeople to understand that I want to repeat it.  Every customer has a customer! 

If you sell to an agribusiness like a feed mill, grain elevator or Ag retailer, then that is obvious.  However, you might be thinking that since you sell direct to farmers, this doesn’t apply to you.  But think about a farm.  It’s a business.  Yes, they might be the end user of your fertilizer or tractor, but the consumer chain is just getting started.

Listen in as we discuss why it is so important to focus your sales efforts on your customer’s customer!

Do this fun and easy exercise to build one of your most important selling skills

A critical component to building connections with prospects and customers is the skill of empathy. 

You might be wondering why I called empathy a skill and not some built in talent or ability.  That’s because I think you can develop empathy by practicing it. 

Knowing how important this skill is in sales; I violated the rule of Strength Finders. I set out on a mission to fix my weakness. 

One exercise that I developed and practice frequently helped me in many ways. 

Listen in as we learn how to develop this critical selling skill!

How to outsell your competition without the lowest prices, the best technology, or biggest marketing budget

In the 1975, Van McCoy released a hit song and dance called “Do the Hustle”.  The lyrics are very simple and so is today’s message.  The lyrics were literally, “Do the hustle”.  The irony is that it’s also the secret to outselling your competition. 

Your competition might have better prices, technology, or marketing.  They may have more sales reps, stronger brand recognition, or more free giveaways. However, you have one thing you can always control….Your level of hustle.

Listen in as we go over the 5 ways to hustle harder for your customers and earn their business!

Channel the power of DISC styles

Bad news…down markets…increased costs…It’s all over the agribusiness headlines.  Every day, the outlook for farmer profitability is reported as dismal and getting worse.  When it comes to agribusiness company news, it doesn’t get any better.  Sales and profits are down, generating work force reductions, mergers or location closures.

This may sound strange, but this is great news for you as an Ag sales professional.  You now have a huge opportunity to grow your sales position as a resource to your customers and your company.

Listen in as we cover the four DISC styles and how they react to stress during tough times

How healthy is your prospect funnel?

Prospecting and cold calling are some of the more difficult selling skills for salespeople to master.  I am often asked to help salespeople improve them. 

My first question to them is always, “Tell me about your prospect funnel?”  And guess what?  Many do not have one. 

That becomes problem number one.  You need to create a funnel that you continuously develop. 

Listen in as I cover the 4 key components to maintaining a healthy prospect funnel!

How dysfunctional is your sales anatomy?

Last week, we covered the proper functional Anatomy of a Sale.  Podcast version. Go back and read or listen to it first to gain a better understanding for this article. 

Listen in as we discuss the 5 Systems that make up a healthy sales anatomy and the symptoms of dysfunction