And how to minimize or remove them

Every business has a bottleneck. 

Your sales territory is a business, and it has bottlenecks. What about you and your territory?  If you are selling $1 million in products, then ask yourself.  “What is keeping me from growing that to 2, 4, or 6 million?” 

In other words, “What’s the bottleneck?” 

Most salespeople will answer that question with the one-word answer, “Time!” I completely get that.  So, let’s break down how a salesperson spends their time. 

Listen in as we discuss the four primary bottlenecks holding us back as Ag Sales Professionals and how we can minimize the impact to grow sales

Improving your sales results with just one measurement

Most of us have heard the old carpenter saying, “Measure Twice, Cut once”.  It’s a reminder to double-check our measuring and marks when doing a home repair project.  This is a great rule of thumb.  I know it saved me numerous times over the last 40 years of DIY home repairs.

When selling, I want you to consider a slight modification to that old saying, “Measure once, Sell twice as much.”

When working with sales teams, too often, I run across sales managers and salespeople who don’t really measure any vital information to help them sell.  None!  When I ask them what their measure of success is, most will tell me total sales dollars for the company or local business unit.  While that’s certainly important for the overall business, it doesn’t tell me what each salesperson is doing.  If they do measure something, they might measure the number of sales calls.  Again, this tells us very little about what the salesperson is doing. 

What this really means is that our salespeople are driving blindly into their territory.  They jump in their truck, head out into their territory, sell hard all day long, and get the results they get!

Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t.  They truly don’t know why it worked or why it didn’t work. 

When it works, we might take credit for the success.  We must be good at sales!  We might shine the credit spotlight on our teammates.  We might even give credit to good luck. 

When it doesn’t work, we may assume that we aren’t as good a salesperson as we thought we were.  We might blame pricing, product performance, or the economy. 

Either way, the results are difficult to repeat if you are not measuring actions.  For example, if you made seven sales calls one day and only one the next, did you get better results on either day?  It’s hard to tell and even harder to attribute.  In general, I’d assume being in front of more customers is better.  However, that’s not a great way to measure. 

One of the main reasons a salesperson or their manager needs to measure is to remove the randomness from the salesperson’s results and hone in on repeatable actions that grow sales!

They are different for every company, territory, and salesperson.  Why? Because every one of them have different territories, with different challenges, and a different set of selling strengths/weaknesses.

Here are my overall favorite data points and questions to set up measurements:

The answers to these questions help to establish key measurements to help you measure your sales performance.  They also allow you to make small, daily adjustments to your actions.  Those consistent, small, daily actions lead to long term sales results.

Improve your sales results with just one measurement

Most of us have heard the old carpenter saying, “Measure Twice, Cut once”.  It’s a reminder to double-check our measuring and marks when doing a home repair project.  This is a great rule of thumb.  I know it saved me numerous times over the last 40 years of DIY home repairs.

When selling, I want you to consider a slight modification to that old saying, “Measure once, Sell twice as much.”

Listen in as I review those measurable areas to help you sell more!

Interview with Colson Steber from Ag Access on the importance of market data

I’m convinced that every salesperson out there can improve the management of their sales, their customers, and prospects with better data. Especially data from farmers.

Today, I’m joined by Colson Steber from Ag Access. Coslon is co-CEO and Co-owner of Ag Access. They have a database of over 100,000 farmers and agribusiness contacts, which they survey annually. They work with all the major Ag manufacturers, Tractor companies, and cooperatives.

They also work with most of the Ag research companies in a contract role to gather on-farm data. As Colson describes it, if you received data on farmer activities, then it’s highly likely that Ag Access was involved in gathering it.

Key Interview Times

Ag Access info:

Website:  https://ag-access.com/

Listen in as Colson Steber (Ag Access) and I discuss the world of Ag data collection and why it’s important to all levels in the company, especially the Ag Salesperson

Use them on your next sales call to expand your customer relationship

Ever get stuck in a rut with a customer?  Maybe you have talked about everything you can talk about and sold them everything you think you can sell them.

What about prospects?  Ever call on a prospect several times and feel like you are getting no further into the sales process with them?

If so, listen in as we discuss three questions to dig a bit deeper into their business to see if you can change your sales approach and add more value to their business.

Interview with Jim Miller

Jim Miller joins me today on the podcast and webcast to discuss the importance of prioritizing prospects to focus your limited time on the most important prospects who offer the greatest chance to sell.

Jim grew up on an Idaho farm and has spent his career in agribusiness to include many years in sales and sales leadership. Currently, teaching a course on Ag Sales at the University of Idaho, Jim brings his knowledge and experience of selling to farmers, producers, and Ag buyers to the next generation of agribusiness employees.

Jim stops by today to share an important tool he has used for many years to manage a prospect funnel. With large geographies and hundreds or thousands of prospects, an Ag Sales Professional must have some way to focus their limited time and reduce drive time to be more effective.

Jim shares the Prospect Priority Index Calculator and how it has helped him focus on the most important prospects.

Or listen as a podcast

A new perspective on your role in sales

I would like to present a unique perspective on what you do as a salesperson in your designated territory with your book of business. 

I’m sharing this view as many salespeople struggle to put all the pieces of their role into one flowing set of efforts. 

To help salespeople understand their role, I like to compare their territory to a river.  “You manage a river of customers running through your territory for your company.” 

Listen in as we discuss how to view your role in sales….Directing the flow of customers into your river!

Does not mean your customer is “bottom line driven”

Within the first 24 hours of anyone’s sales career, they run into the oldest and most common objection: Price.  It happens right away and it continues through your entire sales career. 

Every salesperson can improve how they act, react, and think about price objections. 

Listen in for steps 2 and 3 of managing yourself and your customers through price objections.

Arm your salespeople with one of the most important tools

With thousands of self-assessments on the market, DISC is one of the most important for salespeople.

Typically, after taking the assessment, your company hosts a training session to help you better understand your results.

That’s all great, but that training stops just short of the most important element of DISC in sales.  Understanding yourself is step one.  An important step for sure, but in my opinion, not the most important step in how to use DISC in a selling situation

Listen in as we discuss the most important way to use the power of DISC!

How to use story format to connect with your customers

Every salesperson can help their customers by using a powerful story.    The secret to a successful story in sales follows a format.  These are not just fun or amusing stories that go on and on randomly.  No!  Your selling stories need to have a clear structure and purpose for telling them.

Recently, I came across another story format.  It’s a little more involved than Similar Situation Storytelling, but worth the effort.  This format will set you apart from your competition as it focuses on becoming more than just a product provider.  It sets you up to be a trusted advisor to your customers. 

Sales Story Format: Step 1: …………….

Listen in and see if you can tell your sales story or learn how to build it from the ground up