Check your prospect’s RAP sheet

 

Take a historical tour of your prospect’s prior actions

 

         In training workshops, I always recommend that you take a tour of your prospect’s farm or agribusiness whenever possible.  It gives you a chance to see firsthand what is going on in their operation and opens up a lot of opportunities to ask questions.  In addition, it gets the prospect talking about their favorite subject: themselves.  Today, I want to talk about taking a historical tour with your prospect.

   Listen in to learn how past history helps you sell  

Use this approach to differentiate yourself in the market!

 

If this podcast helped you on your journey to being more effective in your selling, I ask you to share it with those who might also benefit from it.

Sign up for my weekly blog and podcast using the links on this page

As a final request, take a look at the newest book on the market written specifically for you!

   A Season for Sales:  Your Guide to Ag Sales Success 

The only book written specifically for the Ag Sales Professional, by an Ag Sales Professional!

Sales Topics from 40 years in Agribusiness

Join me today as I interview Dave Lewis

Dave spent the last 40 years in agribusiness in the Midwest....in the same company.  As one of the longest running general managers in the cooperative system, Dave sat down with me to discuss some key points in developing a salesperson and sales team over those years.  And he's not done yet.  While he's enjoying retirement, he is open to some consulting type work.  Watch or Listen all the way through or use the highlight markers below to find key points in our interview.

Highlights:

02:55 - Starting in sales on total commission..."This sales thing might not work"

4:30 - 40 years in one company.  One of the longest standing general managers in the coop system

6:50 - After 5 years, your board and your sales team is yours.  You built it

7:20 - The 2 most important aspects of working with a sales team

9:50 - The challenge of teamwork

11:30 - How do you get your team going in the ultra competitive seed selling market

12:50 - The high Cost-to-Serve requires a higher margin structure

18:40 - The 2 most important factors for hiring sales people

23:10 - How do you determine when to hire more salespeople?

28:30 - Viewing your territory as a small bususiness...you own it

31:05 - We are a local business...High value...High Service...has to be worth something!

34:45 - The future Sales Professional...technology...data...

40:10 - The future Agribusiness Sales Team

To Contact Dave, reach him by email at:  

 

 

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Watch this new video on 

Customized Sales Training for the Ag Sales Team

Customized for Your Team

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Register in advance for this webinar:

                                    

Go from being a Good Salesperson to a Trusted Advisor

This virtual training course takes you through the process of becoming that trusted advisor to your customers.

Establishing yourself as the Go-To Salesperson to buy from.  Learn how to build your brand in the market to reduce objections.

“I bring everything I have to this course to show you a clear path on how to overcome the most common problems salespeople have in agribusiness. Along with my 30 years of selling and leading sales people, I pull from thousands who have gone through my training programs in the last five years.”

Click on the links above to watch the free webinar and enroll in the course to go from a good salesperson to a trusted advisor

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If this podcast helped you on your journey to being more effective in your selling, I ask you to share it with those who might also benefit from it.

Sign up for my weekly blog and podcast using the links on this page

As a final request, take a look at the newest book on the market written specifically for you!

   A Season for Sales:  Your Guide to Ag Sales Success 

The only book written specifically for the Ag Sales Professional, by an Ag Sales Professional!

“I’m not in Sales”

Everyone is in sales

     “I’m not sure why I’m in this training.  I’m not in sales.” Says the plant manager, truck fleet dispatcher, customer service rep, service department manager, IT employee, tech-research person. 

   Listen in to learn how everyone on the team is in sales. 

Use this approach to differentiate yourself in the market!

 

If this podcast helped you on your journey to being more effective in your selling, I ask you to share it with those who might also benefit from it.

Sign up for my weekly blog and podcast using the links on this page

As a final request, take a look at the newest book on the market written specifically for you!

   A Season for Sales:  Your Guide to Ag Sales Success 

The only book written specifically for the Ag Sales Professional, by an Ag Sales Professional!

Diagnostic Tools for Prospecting in Sales

Create your own diagnostic tool for prospects to provide evidence of your value

Every salesperson can use some form of a diagnostic tool to help determine the value you bring to a prospect.

   Listen in to learn a how 

 

If this podcast helped you on your journey to being more effective in your selling, I ask you to share it with those who might also benefit from it.

Sign up for my weekly blog and podcast using the links on this page

As a final request, take a look at the newest book on the market written specifically for you!

   A Season for Sales:  Your Guide to Ag Sales Success 

The only book written specifically for the Ag Sales Professional, by an Ag Sales Professional!

When should I give up on a prospect?

How to be persistent and not pushy when prospecting

The really short answer:  Never!

The question of when to give up on a prospect comes up in almost every sales training workshop I put on.  Normally, it’s during the prospecting portion of the training.

I like to get right to the point with this answer......

   Listen in to learn a new perspective on Prospecting

 

If this podcast helped you on your journey to being more effective in your selling, I ask you to share it with those who might also benefit from it.

Sign up for my weekly blog and podcast using the links on this page

As a final request, take a look at the newest book on the market written specifically for you!

   A Season for Sales:  Your Guide to Ag Sales Success 

The only book written specifically for the Ag Sales Professional, by an Ag Sales Professional!

4 Lessons to Stand Up and Sell More

 Learn how performing at an open mic night can help your selling skills

Good news:  You don’t have to participate in an open mic night at a comedy club to learn these lessons.  Bad news:  I did! 

In sales training workshops, some of the most important emotional topics we deal with are fear, confidence, and conviction.  To deal with these emotions, I often revert to the old Nike slogan:  Just do it!  “Face your fear and just turn down that prospect’s driveway.  Call on that large account, even if you think they don’t want to see another salesperson.  Reframe your fears to get past them.”  Words that I lived by many times in my selling career.

This week, it was once again, time for me to practice what I preach.  For many years, it was on my bucket list to perform at a comedy club open mic night.  This is where literally anyone is given 4 minutes to go up on stage and try their hand at being a stand up.

Listen in to learn the 4 Lessons I learned in Stand Up to help you sell more!

 

 

If this podcast helped you on your journey to being more effective in your selling, I ask you to share it with those who might also benefit from it.

Sign up for my weekly blog and podcast using the links on this page

As a final request, take a look at the newest book on the market written specifically for you!

   A Season for Sales:  Your Guide to Ag Sales Success 

The only book written specifically for the Ag Sales Professional, by an Ag Sales Professional!

2 Quotes for Salespeople to live by

From one salesperson to another,

these quotes will help you in your journey in becoming a professional salesperson

   Over the years in sales, you drive a lot of miles.  Driving those miles, gives you a lot of time to just think.  A lot of that thinking revolves around what it takes to be successful in sales.  You reflect back on your successes and failures to try and figure out a pattern.  You try to piece together what you did in the process to acquire the sale.  And what you did that caused a lost sale.  We are looking for that elusive set of steps that if we do them, they work - every time. 

          This was definitely my experience as I picked up a set of car keys and started on my sales journey.  Prior to going into sales, I really had no clue as to how salespeople did what they do.  After 30 years, these two quotes keep proving true for me.  They help me make sense of what we do as a sales professional.  I hope they help you and your team.  Please share them with someone that might be searching for the answers they provide!

#1 “Sales is Work”

Greg Martinelli 1995

Listen in to learn how these two quotes can help you in your sales efforts!

If this podcast helped you on your journey to being more effective in your selling, I ask you to share it with those who might also benefit from it.

Sign up for my weekly blog and podcast using the links on this page

As a final request, take a look at the newest book on the market written specifically for you!

   A Season for Sales:  Your Guide to Ag Sales Success 

The only book written specifically for the Ag Sales Professional, by an Ag Sales Professional!

3 Important Questions for Salespeople

Do you have good answers to these three questions?

 

          The favorite part of any sales training workshop is the “Understand” phase.  This is the part of the day where we learn how to get better at asking questions.  As good as we think we are, we can always get better at the discovery phase of the selling process.  I call it “Understanding” as I think that describes exactly what we are trying to do: Understand how our targeted customer makes decisions.  The reference to “Targeted Customer” means your ideal or average customer.  For example, in the Midwest, it’s common for the targeted customer to be a 1200-acre corn, beans, some wheat/pasture with maybe some beef. 

          To kick off this session, I like to ask the group these three questions.  How they answer them, tells me a lot about how well they know their customers, their products, and even their industry.

Question #1:  How does your targeted customer make decisions to buy your products?

Listen in to learn how to answer all 3 to improve your selling process!

If this podcast helped you on your journey to being more effective in your selling, I ask you to share it with those who might also benefit from it.

Sign up for my weekly blog and podcast using the links on this page

As a final request, take a look at the newest book on the market written specifically for you!

   A Season for Sales:  Your Guide to Ag Sales Success 

The only book written specifically for the Ag Sales Professional, by an Ag Sales Professional!

How to Drive Less and Sell More

Help your customers!

Especially when your product list looks like the menu at Cheesecake Factory

 

Most of us don't spend enough time with our current customers on buying more of our products and services.  Read the blog article and listen in as we discuss a very simple tool to help you solve this problem.  The best outcome is you will drive less miles and sell more...In Less Time!

The best outcome is you will drive less miles and sell more...In Less Time!

If this podcast helped you on your journey to being more effective in your selling, I ask you to share it with those who might also benefit from it.

Sign up for my weekly blog and podcast using the links on this page

As a final request, take a look at the newest book on the market written specifically for you!

   A Season for Sales:  Your Guide to Ag Sales Success 

The only book written specifically for the Ag Sales Professional, by an Ag Sales Professional!

Sales Complacency

Good enough is never good enough in sales

 

Every year, you will lose 5, 10, 15, 20% of your customers!    You put in the correct number for your company or territory.  Either way, suffice it to say you will lose customers every year.  They retire, pass away, switch to a competitor, or stop raising the crop/livestock your product is for.  Pick your reason, but customers leave us. 

That’s why complacency will eventually bring down your territory.  Said another way, there is no tenure in sales.  Tenure normally refers to when a professor is granted a job for life because they have been there for ten years.  In sales, we never get that with our customers.  We are only granted a sale because we add value to our customer.  The minute our customer doesn’t see that value, the selling relationship is over.  Maybe not that day, but soon our customer will stop spending money with us if they don’t perceive a value.

Signs of complacency

Overcoming Complacency

  Listen in as we discover the classic signs of complacency you might have and how to overcome them!

If this podcast helped you on your journey to being more effective in your selling, I ask you to share it with those who might also benefit from it.

Sign up for my weekly blog and podcast using the links on this page

As a final request, take a look at the newest book on the market written specifically for you!

   A Season for Sales:  Your Guide to Ag Sales Success 

The only book written specifically for the Ag Sales Professional, by an Ag Sales Professional!