The most common feedback from sales training and how it can help you

After more than 20 years of training and leading salespeople, I truly enjoy the one-on-one moments of feedback.  

It’s that moment when someone in a training workshop or coaching session opens up about their pivotal learning point from the session. 

These are great, and I love the professionalism this shows on their part.  Acknowledging their compliment, I like to ask one further question after shaking hands: “What do you think was the biggest help for you from the presentation?” 

Over the last nine years of running an Ag-focuses sales training service, I have heard several answers to my question.  I compiled the most common ones below.  I share them as they might help you to understand how your career should include continuous learning.  These discussions might be helpful or open up your perspective on your selling approach.

First and most common is:

“I need to start asking questions!”  or “more questions,” or “better questions.”

Listen in as I go over the top feedback comments to help you sell better!

Selling to the farmer AND the reseller

It can be the best of selling methods and the worst of selling methods.  This, of course, is the sales version of the opening line from the famous book, “A Tale of Two Cities.” 

A recent sales training workshop reminded me that knowing who to focus on isn’t always easy. Selling in agribusiness has its own two worlds or sales structures.  Too many agribusinesses that sell through a reseller channel struggle to balance between these two selling processes.

The first sale is to the end user or consumer of your product.  For most of us, this is the farmer or livestock producer. 

The second sale is to the reseller/dealer/distributor of your products.  They go by several names depending on the product line of farm products you sell.  For the rest of this article, I will refer to them as your dealer network. 

If you sell through a dealer network, then you will forever be deciding on which to focus your efforts and resources on.

Listen in as we discuss the benefits and methods of selling through a dealer network

How did your dad help you become a better salesperson?

As many countries across the world will celebrate Father’s Day this coming weekend, I felt it best to honor all fathers, father figures, and anyone who showed up in your life to somehow make you better at selling.

Many of you might be thinking, “My dad was not in sales and didn’t teach me anything about selling.”  Maybe he wasn’t even in a business role in his job.  Maybe he was a teacher, a police officer, or some other public service.  And you may think you didn’t learn anything about selling from him.  After all, “What could a stressed-out air traffic controller teach me about sales?”

Maybe a little more than you think.

Listen in as we discuss how your father or father figure helped shape you into the salesperson you are!

 How Steve Martin and a performance review can help you close more sales

“How can I close more sales?”

It’s the most common question I get in sales training—and not surprisingly, the most common weak spot when salespeople evaluate themselves.

A recent interview with comedian Steve Martin reminded me of an employee review I once gave, and oddly enough, both experiences highlight the same truth: closing better starts with knowing better.

Listen in as we cover the most requested skill in sales training!

When was the last time you audited your territory or sales team?

Honestly, when was the last time you took a good, hard look at your territory or your sales team?  I mean, looking at it like an audit would?

If you’re like most sales managers or business leaders, the answer is probably… never.

Listen in as we discuss the importance of using an audit-style process to review an individual salesperson and their territory.

How to stand out and stand tall

with the power of speaking….

Listen in as Sara Cross and I discuss the power of speaking at high-stakes moments.

Whether it’s one-on-one on a sales call, speaking to a board of directors, team selling a group of customers, or speaking in front of hundreds of people, the ability to speak with confidence is achievable by anyone.

Key Interview Times

Sara Cross contact info:

Email:  Sar[email protected]

Website:  www.StandTall-LLC.com

An interview with Chrissy Wozniak of North American Ag

I am joined by Chrissy Wozniak, who owns and runs North American Ag and is the marketing manager for Ecorobotix in the US.

We welcome her today in a discussion focused on Ag tech. In her travels, she attends all the major US farm shows as well as several in Europe and Canada. Ag tech can be a noisy industry with buzzwords and gray areas that are difficult to define. For example, regenerative, eco-friendly, carbon sequestration, etc.

world’sJoin us on the podcast as we discuss the big picture of these terms and then get into the weeds (pun intended) of growing the worlds food supply!

Key Interview Times

Chrissy Wozniak contact info:

Email:  [email protected]

Website:  https://www.northamericanag.com/

Ask a closing question!

Not a week goes by that I am not approached and asked one of the most common questions in sales training. Everybody wants to know, “How can I get better at closing?”

It’s the skill that everybody, every salesperson, and every sales manager wants to know.

To help, I have a really quick exercise for you….

Listen in as we discuss one quick test of your closing skills as step one to improve them

Developing your salespeople even when budgets are tight

Last week’s blog and podcast were focused on selling to farmers during a recession.  If you haven’t read or listened to it, please do so and then come back for this week’s discussion.  It will make more sense.  Selling to Farmers in a Recession

Today, we are shifting the focus from selling to the development of your salespeople and sales team during this recession.  Over the last month, I’ve had several companies tell me they are holding off on sales training and investments into their sales team’s development.  “We’re holding off on any discretionary spending at this point, until we see how the year turns out,” they say.

However, you still have the difficult challenge of selling to farmers during the most difficult time to sell. 

Listen in as we discuss a new training program designed for the Ag recession.

Ag Recession Sales Training Program

3 M’s on how to sell when it’s worse than just tough times!

Over the past decade, considerable attention has been devoted to the topic of selling during challenging economic times.  I’ve focused my topics and training on selling in Ag and to farmers during those tough times. 

However, today’s market is different than those times.  Today, we are faced with something unseen in our work history: a worldwide tariff war.  And during a time in history when the world trade has never been more intertwined. 

Our products are being manufactured, processed, mined, and resold back and forth across borders at the highest rate in history.

For every agribusiness, they should be looking at this as a recession or simply, more than just tough times.  In 1980, we learned from the Russian wheat embargo that trade wars can disrupt a market forever. 

What will happen to your business, your sales territory, or your customers after this war settles down?  What can you do as a sales organization or individual salesperson?

Three M’s of selling in Ag:  Move – Modify – Maneuver

1.  Move: “Get out of the headlights.”

2. Modify: “Get them a different product.”

3. Maneuver: “Outflank the market.”

Listen in as we cover the three M’s in more depth to help you sell more confidently in a recession!