Ag Sales Professional's Podcast by Greg Martinelli

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

Let’s study the healthy anatomy first

Listen in as we discuss the healthy anatomy of a sale.

We will cover the Purpose and Key components of the 5 Systems that make up a healthy sales anatomy:

1. The Preparation System

And the mental minefield you must navigate to use these truths

1. Your time management skills are far more important than your selling skills!

Sure, selling skills are great and necessary to succeed.  Asking good questions, how to present your products, closing, and dealing with objections.  However, I see more people who fail in their time management skills than in their selling skills. 

2. Confidence:  To convince customers to buy, you have to be convinced!

Listen in as we discuss all ten on today’s podcast

Have these discussions immediately, even if you think you know the answers

The answers to these seven questions are critical for your success as you join any organization.  Originally, I titled this “7 questions every new salesperson should ask their manager”.  But then I realized, the answers are critical to every new hire.  No matter which part of a company you work in, the answers to these questions will help you be a better employee.  You will have a much better picture of how your role fits into the bigger picture of serving the customer.

Another important point: These questions are more for your first day on the job; not during the interview.  Some could be asked in the interview process, but most involve confidential information and you might be overstepping confidentiality boundaries a bit. 

It’s also important to understand that your manager may not have great answers to all of these questions.  That’s perfectly ok.  If that happens and your manager is completely stumped by the question, turn the question into an open discussion.  They might prompt her to seek the answers from her manager and generate further discussion with you later on.

Listen in as we cover all 7 questions you need to ask. They are also 7 questions you should be able to answer if you are a manager!

How to capture 2/3rds more sales in the same amount of time and effort

The strategy to grow my territory was always an exciting concept to work on.  Over the years, I spent countless times trying to decide who, how, where, and when I would focus my most valuable resource: my time!

One of those concepts that amazed me is how often I passed up or missed 2 out of every 3 sales opportunities.

To explain, we need to agree on some common selling concepts.

Listen in as we discuss the concepts and the three sales you need to make with every customer you sell!

The 1 question you need to ask every farmer you sell to during an inflation

Remember that childhood challenge from the local bully?  The one that sounded something like,

“Yeah?  So, what are you going to do about it?”

Well, it might just be a great solution to the current environments you are running into when selling to farmers in today’s inflationary markets.

The bully asked this question because they felt you had no options.  Meaning, they were going to say or do whatever they wanted.  You were just going to have to deal with it.  In many of those cases, you agreed that you had no choice and just let it go.

The farmers you sell to today feel that very same way. 

Listen in as we discuss how to work with farmers and sell in agribusiness during an inflation!

3 areas to differentiate yourself as a salesperson

When your customers interact with you and your company, do they say, “Wo! Or WoW?”

Wo means, their experience is so bad, they exclaim, “Wo! That was bad.”

WoW means, their experience is so good, that they exclaim, “Wow, that was fast, easy, great!”

Listen in as we discuss how to set yourself apart from all the other salespeople in your market!

Use the Buddy Shirt Method to develop teamwork

Everyone knows or should know that we can all accomplish more through teamwork.  And most of us in business actually practice fairly good teamwork behavior. 

The Problem:

However, there is a group of employees in our business that historically struggles with teamwork.  This group can sometimes even feel like they are above the rest of us.  Feeling superior, they often practice poor teamwork skills and create resentment within the organization. By now, I’m sure you realize, I am referring to

Listen in as we discuss the teamwork issues you are experiencing and an effective method of improving the culture in your organization!