Ag Sales Professional's Podcast by Greg Martinelli

Who Ya Gonna Call???

Your customer should answer…. “You”

In the 1980’s famous song by Ray Parker Jr, he shouts out, “Who ya gonna call”.  Of course, everyone knows the next line to be “Ghost Busters”, a classic comedy.  The lyrics to this song point to a very important concept in selling in agribusiness.  They refer to all of these scary situations: ghosts in your house, creepy occurrences, something going wrong, etc.  The question posed throughout the song is; When this happens, who are you going to call?  That’s when, we all yell the answer, “Ghost Busters!”

As an Ag sales professional, what are those very scary things that happen to your customers?  What are those moments of truth that your customers have?  When they don’t know what to do.  When it really matters and all is on the line.  When they really just need to call someone.  What name would they yell out?  Would it be your name?

Some examples:

When your animals are sick and dying, who ya gonna call?

When interest rates go up and you want more land, who ya gonna call?

When your milk production slips for no reason, who ya gonna call?

When your combine is down at harvest, who ya gonna call?

When your seed selection didn’t yield enough, who ya gonna call?

Instead of “Who ya gonna call”, the real question is, “Who do you trust to help you with this situation?”  Although that doesn’t make for very catchy song lyrics.

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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

“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!

Alone in a Sea of Customers 

Isolated among customers, kids and COVID

It’s Thanksgiving week.  You haven’t physically been in front of a customer in weeks or months.  Covid is hitting closer to home than the first six months of the pandemic.  Your rural community has a spike in cases.  Your customers have family members coming down with it.  At your companies’ local facility, several have come down with it and your office is closed.  Your own family may have a case or two.

All of this is causing isolation at one of the busiest times for agribusiness sales.  Post-harvest is when producers know their yields.  They meet with their accountant to decide where to spend or not to spend.  January ushers in the show season.   However, these are all virtual for January through March.

 

      Listen in as we learn how to help customers through isolation!

 

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 Math 

The 4 most important equations you need to know

Sales math is a really fun version of mathematics.  It’s easy, it’s rough estimating at times and it gives you that big picture view needed to make major business decisions in your selling efforts.

No accounting degree needed.  No debits and offsetting credits to confuse you.  Just basic math equations: plus, minus, multiply, divide and once in a while a percentage thrown in there.

The 4 Sales Math Equations:

0 X 100 = 0:  In sales, there is a constant tug of war over margin versus sales.  If you are in charge of pricing, you may be very proud of big margins.  Yet, big margins X zero sales still equals zero.  If you are in sales and you are pushing hard to drop prices to sell more units, then the reverse of this equation is also true.  Zero margin X 100 units = zero margin.  If you want to be trusted with setting margins and growing the ...

 

      Listen in as we learn how to calculate these simple but helpful equations

 

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!

The 7 People you meet when setting sales goals

Learn how each of them can help you on your journey

Last time, we discussed how you can view goal setting in regards to growing your sales.  Here’s the link to the article “Goal Setting in Sales” and the Podcast.  This article will help you understand the seven individuals we talk about today.

Listen in as we discuss the Crab Pot Theory, the Aim bigger coach, the enabler, and all those internet memes you see flying through your LinkedIn or Facebook feeds

 

      Listen in as we learn more about how to get more from your training and how to make it Stick!

 

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 use Goal Setting in Sales

The Ladder Method versus the Mountain

Any great achievement in our sales career most likely started off as a goal.  Maybe you went to the annual sales meeting and saw people on stage getting awards for their selling success.  You decided right then to make that your goal.  Maybe you decided you wanted to be a manager, VP or CEO of the company after a successful sales role.

These are all great reasons to set goals.  However, if you don’t know how your mind works, those lofty dreams can crush your desire to even try.

Before we dig into that last sentence, let’s review a few goal-setting quotes and thoughts.

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step”

“Aim for the stars”

“Set your sights high, higher.  No, higher”

“Quit sandbagging”

“Success is built on a series of failures”

 

      Listen in as we learn more about how to get more from your training and how to make it Stick!

 

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!

Go from Vendor to Member

Change your mindset on who you are in your industry

The shift from being a vendor in your industry to being part of your industry is a subtle, mental shift in your thinking.  However, it has a huge impact on your confidence and what you bring to your customers.

Often, we consider ourselves spectators in the industry we sell into.  Since we are not grain or livestock producers, we feel almost like an outsider when it comes to our industry.  For some reason, the fact that we sell and ask for money, makes us feel as if we are not truly in the trenches of the business.  We can feel almost marginalized.  This feeling can be so strong, people don’t want to be described as salespeople.  When I begin working with sales teams, there are those on some teams who will tell me very loudly and emphatically, “I’m not in sales!  I don’t do the sales thing”. 

 

      Listen in as we learn more about how to get more from your training and how to make it Stick!

 

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!

“Do what others won’t!”

Two of the greatest quotes from one of the greatest leaders

Last time, we went over one of the great quotes that stuck with me and can help you as you develop your selling career.  If you missed it, here’s the link “When in doubt, prospect”  also as a Podcast.

The second key learning that I received from this leader was based on a discussion about success.  He had successfully managed and lead several big turn arounds in the company as well as several very difficult projects.  We discussed why he took on such challenges where so many had failed.  He gave us this career advice.  “Do what others are not willing to do”.  It was almost a throw away type comment.  He didn’t focus on it in our discussion, but it stuck with me.  Later on, I had more discussions with him on this concept.

 

      Listen in as we learn more about how to get more from your training and how to make it Stick!

 

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 in Doubt, Prospect!”

Two of the greatest quotes from one of the greatest leaders

When you think of great quotes from great leaders, you might think of FDR, JFK, MLK, or maybe Gandhi and Churchill.  I’m sure they said some good things.  But what do they know about selling to farmers, livestock producers and agribusinesses?  Exactly; not much.  That’s why I like to reflect back on some of the great leaders and salespeople I had the privilege to be around. This particular quote resonated, stuck with me and has served me for over 20 years.  It shows the power of what you might say as a leader and what ...

      Listen in as we learn more about how to get more from your training and how to make it Stick!

 

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 Ways to increase sales through your Coachability Skills

Just how coachable are you?

As a sales trainer and a sales coach, I find Coachability to be one of the most important characteristics for long term success in sales.  Good and bad times will come and go.  Customers and prospects will come and go.  Entire segments of your industry will come and go.  However, the ability to engage the four behaviors listed below will enable you to remain effective at selling.

          This message is a fit for all salespeople, but mostly written for the mid-career to the more experienced sales people on the team.  The new salespeople are typically open to coaching as they begin their career.  They are well aware that they don’t know everything.  However, it’s in that mid-career (8-10 years) when we begin to think we have it all figured out.  How could ...

      Listen in as we learn more about how to get more from your training and how to make it Stick!

 

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 Ways to get more from sales training

And 3 methods to improve long-term learning

     

Want to get more out the next training program you attend?  Even if you think you know everything the instructor is going to talk about, you can still get more out of the program.  In many cases, you can be the one that helps guide the training session to make it a better event.  As an attendee, here are three ways you can get more from your next training session.

Attend and sit in the front row: University studies done on what it takes to get better grades found there were two critical steps for getting better grades in college...........

      Listen in as we learn more about how to get more from your training and how to make it Stick!

 

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!