Ag Sales Professional's Podcast by Greg Martinelli

Set the bar low to build daily selling skills

that stick!

We hear it every day, “Shoot for the stars…. Reach for the stars….Aim High…..Set your sights high…..Dream big.”  Even the famed Herb Tarlek told us to, “Think big to be big”, on the 1970s sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati. 

While those sound great, most people fail to achieve those lofty goals because they don’t know what to do on day one of that journey.  They set New Year’s resolutions on Jan 1, but by Quitting Day (Jan 16 this year), they don’t know how to sustain their journey.  They set the bar so high and the daily journey effort so high that they crush under the weight. 

Salespeople fall into this same trap!

Listen in to learn the three steps to achieving great success in sales and life!

An easy way to better understand your customer

Listen in as we discuss some of the easiest and most productive sales questions to ask. Great for prospects and current customers. Even those long-term customers, you think you have a great relationship.

5 action items to consider when inheriting customers or a territory

Most of us began our sales career by inheriting a set of customers in our sales territory.  You signed on and were most likely given a list of customers to call on in your designated territory.  In Ag, we are typically given a geographic territory. 

The strange thing is that we often inherit these customers with little guidance on how to manage them: who to call on, who to ignore, or how to grow the business.  Part of the reason can be that our managers may not know a lot about them.  Maybe the previous salesperson was a long-term employee who retired and kept their customers closed off from the company.  Maybe these customers are part of an acquisition and they are brand new to your company and to you. 

Whatever the reason, we are challenged to venture out into the country and make the best out of our territory.  With your time as your number one resource, it’s important to spend it wisely when given a large group of new customers. 

Listen in as we cover 5 action items to consider when inheriting customers or a sales territory

Do what every customer wants their salesperson to do

Every customer or prospect you meet feels the same way about you when you call on them.  “Hear me now.  Sell me later”.  As salespeople, we struggle with this concept.  We get pressured by our customers to speed up the sales call.  Customers might ask us to, “Let’s cut to the chase!  What are you selling today?”  This shortening of the sales call leaves out the most important part:  high-value questions in the discovery phase of the sale. 

However, everyone in the world is seeking to be understood. 

Listen in as we go over the easiest and fastest way to get customers to hear you. Listen first, then sell. A throwback to SNL’s Hanz and Franz from 1987!

7 Ways you can make this the

“The most wonderful time of the year”

It’s the week before the Christmas Holidays and I have several questions for you:

If you are older than 12, then the answer to all three questions is “No”. 

Let’s just summarize this entire situation as a stressful tradition.  We are glad to have but happy when it’s over and we can get back to “normal”.

Holiday stress is where the salesperson and sales manager can make a huge difference in the lives of their fellow employees as well as their customers.  A little effort by the sales team goes a long way.  Why? Because making any effort to reduce this stress when you don’t have to will show up all year long. 

Listen in as we discuss the 7 Ways you can make the holidays, “The most wonderful time of the year”

Do your customers understand the downside of not buying your products from you?

Do you know how to build the case for buying your product line?  And buying it from you? 

With narrow profit margins, every decision your customer makes is critical to this year’s financial results.  That means fear plays a big part in their decisions.  As their salesperson and trusted advisor, it is your role to uncover their fears and help them make better buying decisions.

To do that, you need to know how to build the case for buying your product line.  Then, build the case for buying that product line from you. 

Listen in as we dig deeper into how you can help your customers during fearful farming times!

Interview with Kevin Hubschmann

on how to improve your selling skills through improv and open mic nights

Even if you don’t want to become a comedian or an improv actor, if you are in sales, you can learn valuable skills by studying and practicing their methods.

If you have followed my weekly articles and podcasts, you know that I have focused on this topic at times over the last ten years. The main reason is that selling is not a scripted activity. Sure, you have PowerPoint presentations with a script. You have brochures and other collateral that have scripts. Yet, we get in front of our customers and we are off script 90% of the time (maybe more). Many salespeople, especially in agribusiness selling, will sell in environments that don’t allow for PowerPoint or formal sales presentations.

The skills needed to:

All of these skills line up with comedy skills

Listen to the podcast as Kevin Hubschman from Laugh@events joins me to discuss how you and your sales team can develop these selling skills.

Recharge your prospect funnel by going from ABC to ABP

In the classic sales movie, Glengarry Glen Ross, we are told to: “ABC – Always be Closing”. 

Some salespeople and sales managers like this advice because it sounds hard-nosed, as if you are really driving toward sales goals.  True, but not a practical approach in Ag sales, as we work in long-term selling relationships that require a consultative approach.  ABC will work for some, but mostly, it will get you kicked off the farm or out of the buyer’s office.

In training, I recommend two alternatives to ABC.  My first is, “ABTC – Always be trial closing”.  This approach allows you to continue digging for information to ensure you are a good fit before actually closing.  My second alternative to ABC is: “ABP – Always be Prospecting”

Listen in as we discuss how to fix your funnel in the next 90 days!

The three question formats for sales questions and the order you should ask them

The number one trait that every Ag sales professional tells me they do not want to be is “Salesy”.

Yet most salespeople approach their sales calls in a very salesy manner – they begin their sales call by presenting their products or highlighting their sale of the month.  A big part of the reason is that producers are good at getting us to spill our sales guts.  “I’m busy, what do you got for me today?”  or “What’s your price on potash?”  Then we jump right into our sales pitch.

Or, we go too far the other way and attempt not to use a selling approach at all – “I just go out there and get to know them.”  While we do want to get to know our customers, this method can lead to a long discussion that goes nowhere.

A skilled sales approach is designed to use discovery questions before presenting any solution to a customer. 

Good discovery questions allow you to uncover needs or desired changes that a producer might be looking for.

However, we may not feel comfortable asking some of these deep diving questions as they can appear pushy or intrusive.  That’s why the format of the questions and the sequence are so important.

Selling success requires all three…..How to attend your next sales meeting

Ever listen to a motivational speaker at the annual sales meeting and get all inspired by the message?  Maybe you even bought their book right after they spoke.  However, by the time you drove home from the meeting, you lost that enthusiasm.

Ever learn some great selling skills but never put them into use on your sales calls?

If you have been in sales for a while, you answered with a resounding “Yes” to both of those questions.

Why is that?

Listen in as we discuss your role as a salesperson or sales manager at your next meeting!