Selling in the Paddock

What does it take to grow a third-generation family business from six dealerships and 100 employees to more than 20 locations and over 500 people, without losing the culture that made it successful in the first place?

And what can agricultural salespeople learn from a business built on relationships, integrity and doing what you say you're going to do?

In this week's episode of Selling in the Paddock, I'm joined by Arron Hutcheon from Hutcheon & Pearce, one of Australia's largest family-owned John Deere dealership groups.

I first met Arron at the TMA Conference in Sydney, where I heard him speaking on a dealership panel about the challenges facing the agricultural machinery industry.

Naturally, I introduced myself and handed him a copy of my book, Selling in the Paddock.

Now, he didn't rush home and read it straight away 😂, but when we eventually caught up, he'd read it in two days! He's even passed it on to his sales manager.

But enough about my book!

Arron's story is a fascinating one.

From growing up in Coolamon, NSW, where his grandfather George Hutcheon and Cec Pearce first established the business in 1953, to starting his career as a diesel mechanic before moving into sales, Arron has spent his life immersed in agricultural machinery.

In 2010, Arron and his wife purchased the family business. Since then, they've led significant growth through dealership acquisitions, investment in technology and a strong focus on bringing people together.

And as Arron explains, growing a business isn't just about acquiring more locations.

It's about bringing people, cultures and customers along for the journey.

In this episode, we explore:

• The history of Hutcheon & Pearce and Arron's journey into the family business

• Growing from six dealerships to more than 20 locations

• What Arron has learned about leadership, acquisitions and integrating different business cultures

• The five Hutchy's Rules that guide how the business operates

• Why honesty, integrity and genuine human connection matter in sales

• How to sell value rather than getting dragged into conversations about price

• The shift from selling machinery to selling complete solutions

• How technology is changing the agricultural machinery industry

• Why agricultural salespeople need to move from reactive order taking to proactive selling

• The importance of face-to-face conversations in an increasingly digital world

• What Arron would tell someone starting their agricultural sales career today

One of my favourite parts of our conversation was hearing about Hutchy's Rules:

1. People First

2. No Bullshit

3. Stand By Your Word

4. One Team

5. Raise the Bar

Five simple principles that help shape the culture of a business with more than 500 employees.

We also get into a topic I'm incredibly passionate about: selling value rather than price.

Arron shares why Hutcheon & Pearce focuses on the total cost of ownership, including reliability, technology, service, finance and resale value, rather than simply competing to offer the cheapest machine.

Because great selling isn't about shifting a piece of machinery.

It's about understanding the customer's business and helping them make a better commercial decision.

And when it comes to advice for younger salespeople, Arron keeps it simple.

Be genuine. Be upfront. Own your mistakes. And don't be afraid to say no.

This is a terrific conversation about building businesses, leading people, navigating change and being proud of the role sales plays in Australian agriculture.

🎧 Tune in to this week's episode of Selling in the Paddock with Arron Hutcheon.

Connect with Arron and Hutcheon & Pearce:

Hutcheon & Pearce – Australian family-owned John Deere dealership group.

Hutcheon & Pearce – Follow on Instagram.

From Farm Finance to World-Class Horses | Chris Bailey, Sprout Agribusiness & Bullio Razorback

What do agribusiness finance, elite endurance horses and building successful businesses have in common?

More than you might think!

In this episode of Selling in the Paddock, I'm joined by Chris Bailey, Regional Partner at Sprout Agribusiness and the man behind Bullio Razorback, an Australian endurance horse breeding and training business producing some of the world's leading endurance horses.

I first met Chris when I spoke at the Sprout Agribusiness Annual Conference in Bowral. We ended up sitting together at dinner, and let's just say we covered A LOT of ground. From banking and finance to horses, genetics, nutrition, supplements and everything in between. I'm not sure anyone else at the table got much of a word in! 😂

I knew straight away I wanted to get Chris on the podcast.

Chris grew up on a farming property near Cowra, NSW, before building a career in agricultural banking and eventually joining Sprout Agribusiness.

But alongside his finance career, Chris has built something quite extraordinary.

Together with his wife Kath, he operates Bullio Razorback, breeding and developing elite endurance horses for international markets, including the Middle East and Europe.

And we're not talking about your average weekend horse ride!

These horses compete over distances of 100–160 kilometres, with performance depending on an incredible combination of genetics, temperament, fitness, nutrition and recovery.

In this episode, we explore:

• Chris's journey from growing up on a farm to agricultural banking and Sprout Agribusiness

• How he sold his first endurance horse overseas while still at school

• Building international relationships with clients in the Middle East

• Why honesty, trust and genuinely understanding your customer are fundamental to successful selling

• The importance of having the confidence to recommend what your customer needs, not simply what they think they want

• How Bullio Razorback has developed world-class endurance horses

• The fascinating similarities between human endurance athletes and elite equine performance

• Genetics, nutrition, recovery and the science behind breeding champions

• Why surrounding yourself with great people matters in business

• The value of taking a long-term approach to relationships and commercial success

One of my favourite takeaways from Chris was his approach to building relationships.

He's never really considered himself a salesperson.

Instead, he focuses on understanding people's problems, being genuinely interested in their businesses and finding ways to help.

And sometimes that means being honest about what you don't know or what you can't deliver.

We also explore something I found particularly powerful: the confidence to back your own expertise, even when a customer is asking for something different.

Whether you're selling financial services to a farming family or breeding an endurance horse for an international client, understanding the real problem you're solving is where the value lies.

This episode takes us from Australian farming families to the stables of Dubai, with a few fascinating detours into IRONMAN triathlons, horse genetics and even broccoli sprout supplements!

It's a brilliant conversation about agriculture, business, relationships and following your passions.

🎧 Tune in to this week's episode of Selling in the Paddock.

Connect with Chris and learn more:

Sprout Agribusiness – Chris Bailey

Bullio Razorback – Follow their endurance horse breeding and training journey on Instagram.

Is Cold Calling Dead? Or Have We Just Stopped Doing It?

Have we become a generation of order takers in agriculture?

It's a question I've been thinking about a lot lately.

After a recent discovery call with a branch manager, one thing stood out. His sales reps were busy. They were servicing customers, responding to enquiries, processing orders and sending quotes.

But when he looked at their sales pipeline, there was a problem.

There were very few new opportunities coming in.

And it's something I've been noticing across agricultural businesses for quite some time.

Since COVID, the way we sell has changed. Face-to-face visits became less frequent, remote communication became the norm, and biosecurity requirements have made turning up unannounced at a farm driveway less appropriate in some parts of agriculture.

But have we adapted the way we prospect? Or have we simply stopped doing it?

In this solo episode of Selling in the Paddock, I'm challenging the way we think about cold calling, prospecting and the difference between being busy and actually growing a business.

I share my own experiences selling vegetable seed, driving up farm driveways, building relationships with growers, and how prospecting looks very different today in my coaching business.

Because these days, my cold calls often look like a LinkedIn message, a handshake at a conference or an introduction through an existing relationship.

The approach has changed. The responsibility to create new opportunities hasn't.

In this episode, we unpack:

• Have agricultural sales teams become too comfortable taking orders?

• The difference between servicing existing customers and creating new business

• How COVID may have accelerated the shift towards reactive selling

• Why biosecurity considerations are changing the traditional farm visit

• Whether we've lost the skill of prospecting or simply the confidence to do it

• How cold calling has evolved through LinkedIn, referrals, conferences and planned farm visits

• Why a full diary doesn't necessarily mean a healthy sales pipeline

• The questions sales managers should be asking in their weekly sales meetings

• Three practical challenges to help you start creating new opportunities

And here's the question I want you to think about:

If no new opportunities entered your pipeline this month, where would your sales come from in three or six months?

Because if we're only talking to customers who already buy from us, we're not necessarily building tomorrow's business.

We're servicing today's.

And there's a big difference.

Selling is a privilege, team. But we have to be prepared to start the conversation.

🎧 Tune in to this week's episode of Selling in the Paddock.

To learn more and find a copy of my book selling in the paddock.

Your customer doesn’t care about your product.

Well… not in the same way you do.

You know the formulation, the genetics, the horsepower, the trial data, the specifications and exactly why your product is better than the competitor’s.

But your customer? They care about what it changes for them.

They care about getting the crop off. Margin. Reliability. Labour. Risk. Profitability. And whether spending another $20K, $50K or $200K is actually going to make a meaningful difference to their business.

In this solo episode of Selling in the Paddock™, I unpack one of the traps I see technically brilliant agricultural salespeople fall into all the time: using product knowledge as a safety blanket.

Because talking about what we know feels safe.

Asking better questions requires curiosity — and sometimes a little courage.

I explore the difference between a feature, benefit and impact, and why you can't truly know the impact of your product until you understand the individual customer sitting in front of you.

We also talk about:

• Why technical expertise is incredibly important — but isn't enough on its own

• How product knowledge can become a place to hide in a sales conversation

• The difference between demonstrating expertise and dumping everything you know

• Why knowing where your product doesn't fit can actually build credibility

• How to respond to questions about price, trials and competitors while staying curious

• Why “our people are different” and “our service is second to none” aren't automatically compelling value propositions

• What commercially confident selling looks like when your product genuinely isn't the right fit

And I leave you with one simple shift to make before your next customer meeting.

Instead of asking:

“What do I need to tell them?”

Ask:

“What do I need to understand?”

Because your customer cares about their farm, their business, their people, their risk, their profitability and their problems.

Understand those first, and you'll know which parts of your product actually matter.

Better thinking creates better conversations. And better conversations create better commercial outcomes.

Want to go deeper?

Grab a copy of my book, Selling in the Paddock™, where I unpack the skills, mindset and conversations behind selling well in agriculture.

And if you're looking to build greater commercial confidence across your sales team, head to Selling in the Paddock™ online to explore my sales training, workshops and programs for agricultural businesses.

sellinginthepaddock.com.au

Selling new technology into agriculture isn’t just about proving that the product works.

You’re often asking someone to change a process, rethink the way they’ve always done something, invest real money and trust that the change will make their business better.

In this episode of Selling in the Paddock, I’m joined by Michael Whittaker from Tabula, an agricultural technology business celebrating 20 years of selling technology into agriculture.

Michael shares a brilliant perspective on the tension between the speed of technology and the seasonality of agriculture — and why successful adoption often comes from small, incremental changes rather than trying to change everything at once.

We talk about why you need to get your “muddy boots” on if you want to sell into agriculture, and why understanding the practical realities of your customer’s business matters just as much as understanding your own product.

We also unpack ROI — because value isn’t always measured in dollars. Sometimes the biggest return for a customer is time, efficiency, simplicity or removing another job from an already overloaded day.

Michael and I discuss:

• Why selling technology is often really about selling change
• The importance of incremental wins when introducing something new
• Why understanding the realities of farming matters in agricultural sales
• How to communicate value rather than getting stuck talking about features
• Why ROI can mean time and efficiency, not just dollars
• The power of customer advocates and social proof
• Why overselling and overpromising can destroy trust
• How seasonality creates a unique sales cycle in agriculture
• Why salespeople need to know the limitations of what they sell
• Why the human side of selling may become even more important as AI, automation and technology advance

One of my favourite ideas from this conversation is simple:

AI doesn’t do business with AI. Humans do business with humans.

Technology will continue to change agriculture. But the ability to listen, understand, build trust and have great commercial conversations isn’t becoming less important.

It may be becoming more important than ever.

To view Tabula's website here

Connect with Michael Whittaker on LinkedIn

🎧 Listen now to Selling in the Paddock.

Have you had a chance to look at the quote?

Three days later…

Just checking in.

What would happen if I removed “just checking in” from your sales vocabulary tomorrow?

In this solo episode of Selling in the Paddock™, we’re talking about follow-up — why it matters, why so many of us avoid it, and how to follow up with confidence without sounding desperate, pushy or annoying.

Because silence doesn’t always mean rejection.

Harvest happens. Weather happens. Budgets get delayed. Priorities change. Someone else needs to approve the spend.

But sometimes silence does mean there wasn’t enough value or urgency to progress the opportunity.

And your job in the follow-up isn’t to endlessly chase a yes.

A good follow-up should do one of two things: move the opportunity forward or give you enough information to qualify it out.

In this episode, I unpack:

• Why “just checking in” gives your customer very little reason to respond

• The psychology behind why salespeople avoid following up

• Why fear of rejection leaves opportunities sitting in pipelines for months

• How a follow-up problem can actually be a discovery problem

• Why a clean no can be incredibly commercially useful

• How to bring something valuable into the conversation instead of simply asking about your quote

• Why clarity with the customer matters more than trying to maintain “power” over them

• How communication preferences are changing across generations

• Why you shouldn't follow up with a generation — you should follow up with a person

• The simple question you can ask customers to understand how they actually want you to communicate with them

And perhaps the biggest lesson:

The best follow-up strategy starts before you ever need to follow up.

Great salespeople design the next conversation before the current conversation ends.

Instead of finishing a discovery meeting with:

“I’ll send something through.”

Try:

“I’ll have the proposal to you Thursday. Why don’t we book 20 minutes on Monday afternoon to talk it through?”

Now you're not chasing. You both know what happens next.

So here's the challenge from this episode:

Go into your CRM and find three opportunities you've been “just checking in” on.

Ask yourself:

What conversation actually needs to happen here?

Maybe you need to add value.

Maybe you need to ask a better question.

Maybe you need to pick up the phone.

And maybe you need to give someone permission to say no.

Because sometimes the follow-up isn't the problem at all.

The conversation you had three weeks ago was.

Better thinking. Better conversations. Better commercial outcomes.

📘 Read the book: Selling in the Paddock: A Proven, People-First Framework for Selling with Confidence in Agriculture — available on Amazon Australia.

🌱 Sales training, workshops and more: Visit Selling in the Paddock™ to learn more about working with me and building greater commercial confidence across your agricultural sales team.

Keep learning with Selling in the Paddock™

Agriculture is full of incredibly capable people.

People who know how to work hard, push through and get the job done.

But what happens when “pushing through” becomes the default? When being busy starts to feel like proof that we’re valuable? Or when someone who is technically brilliant gets promoted into leadership without ever being taught how to lead people?

In this episode of Selling in the Paddock, I’m joined by Kacee Bohle, agricultural mindset and leadership coach, speaker, podcast host and founder of AgriMinds in the United States.

Kacee grew up on a fourth-generation corn and soybean farm in Indiana, believing she would one day take over the family operation. When life didn’t follow that plan, she built a career in corporate agriculture, including roles with John Deere and Bayer, while navigating motherhood, identity, burnout and eventually the move into her own coaching business.

And there was SO much crossover in this conversation.

We talk about the mentality agriculture has inherited from generations before us — work hard, keep going, don’t complain and push through — and why some of those beliefs have served us incredibly well… while others might be worth questioning.

We also dig into:

• Why activity doesn’t necessarily equal productivity

• The difference between being good at something and actually getting energy from it

• Why technically brilliant people don’t automatically make brilliant people leaders

• The danger of promoting someone simply because leadership is the “next step”

• Building work around the way you actually perform at your best

• Why weaknesses don’t always deserve more of our attention

• Kacee’s experience using Patrick Lencioni’s Working Genius framework

• Why quieter periods in business can make high performers uncomfortable

• The mindset shift that changed the way Kacee approached sales

• Why rejection in sales isn’t actually about you

One of my favourite parts of this conversation comes towards the end when Kacee talks about getting out of her own way in sales.

Instead of seeing herself as a burden or worrying that someone might not want what she was selling, she started looking at it differently:

If you genuinely have a solution to someone’s problem, withholding that solution because you’re scared to sell it doesn’t help them.

YES.

That is exactly why I believe selling is a privilege.

The right customer has a problem you can help solve. Your job isn’t to convince everyone. It’s to understand people, ask the right questions, offer genuine value and be willing to walk away when the fit isn’t there.

This is a cracking conversation about mindset, leadership, strengths, burnout, business and selling — with plenty of laughs and a few rabbit holes along the way.

🎧 Listen now to Selling in the Paddock with Kacee Bohle from AgriMinds.

Get in touch with Kacee on Linkedin or her website

AgriMinds

What happens to the way you sell when the pipeline goes quiet?

Because it happens to all of us.

The calendar opens up. A few big opportunities are sitting in proposal stage. You’ve followed up. You’ve done what you can. And now… you’re waiting.

That’s when scarcity can start creeping into the sales conversation.

In this solo episode of Selling in the Paddock, I’m sharing something I’m experiencing in my own business right now — and what I’ve noticed about the way a quieter pipeline can subtly change how we sell.

Talking too much on discovery calls. Explaining instead of listening. Following up because we need reassurance rather than because there’s a useful next step. Discounting too quickly. Trying to turn every enquiry into a customer. Or simply filling the day with activity because being busy feels better than waiting.

The problem?

Busy and commercially productive are not the same thing.

In this episode, we unpack:

• Why a quiet calendar doesn’t necessarily mean you have an empty pipeline
• How scarcity changes your behaviour in a sales conversation
• The difference between convincing someone and genuinely understanding whether there’s a fit
• Why knowing your pipeline numbers matters
• How to stop confusing activity with progress
• What commercially useful action actually looks like during quieter periods
• Why “yes is usually best, but no is second best”
• How your energy enters the sales conversation before your words do
• The difference between selling from curiosity and confidence versus needing to be chosen
• Why sometimes the best thing you can do for your business is allow some space

I’ll also leave you with three questions:

What does my pipeline actually say — not what does it feel like?

What’s one action I could take today that would genuinely move something forward?

Am I selling from curiosity and confidence, or am I selling from needing to be chosen?

You don’t need every customer.

You don’t need every opportunity.

You just need enough of the right ones.

Keep the pipeline moving. Keep having conversations. Stay curious. And don’t let a quiet week convince you to start selling like someone you’re not.

Selling is a privilege.

📕 Get the book — Selling in the Paddock:

🌾 Selling in the Paddock website:

💬 Connect with Georgia on LinkedIn:

What happens when a farmer tells you to stop mucking around and build something that will actually help him?

For Gavin Leersen, that conversation eventually became BaleTime.

Gavin is a shearer, electronics tinkerer and the founder of BaleTime — an Australian agtech product designed to help hay producers monitor conditions in the windrow and know when it’s time to bale.

In this episode of Selling in the Paddock, Georgia sits down with Gavin to unpack the wonderfully unconventional story behind BaleTime — from building his first unit for a farmer he was shearing for, to discovering that word of mouth had been doing much of his selling for him.

They explore what happens when you have a genuinely useful product but suddenly realise building it and selling it are two very different skill sets.

Gavin shares what he’s learnt from field days, talking directly with farmers, digital marketing and simply listening to the problems customers are trying to solve. They also discuss why you can’t convince every farmer they have a problem, the importance of understanding what an individual customer actually values, and why sometimes the best sales conversation isn’t really a sales conversation at all.

There’s also a great conversation about perfectionism, innovation and knowing when something is good enough to get into the paddock. As Gavin puts it, if he’d waited until BaleTime was perfect, some of his customers would have missed out on a decade of better sleep.

Plus, Gavin shares where the technology could go next, including flood irrigation monitoring and potential applications well beyond hay.

It’s a very Selling in the Paddock conversation about curiosity, solving real problems, learning from your customers and figuring out how to sell something you genuinely believe can make their lives better.

• How Gavin went from shearing sheep to developing agtech
• The farmer conversation that sparked BaleTime
• Why Gavin's first customers became his unofficial sales team
• Learning to sell when you don't naturally see yourself as a salesperson
• Why field days are about much more than making sales
• Selling innovation to sceptical agricultural customers
• Why the problem you see isn't necessarily a problem your customer values
• Price objections versus the cost of getting hay wrong
• Using customer feedback to improve a product
• Perfectionism, AI and knowing when to ship
• The future of BaleTime and Gavin's other agricultural technology ideas
• Why Gavin is starting to think “farmers first” rather than “Australia first” as he looks towards international markets

BaleTime website:

Gavin Leersen on LinkedIn:

BaleTime on Facebook:

Selling in the Paddock website:

Georgia Stormont on LinkedIn:
[ADD LINK]

Selling in the Paddock book:
Selling in the Paddock Instagram:

I reckon “if I’d waited until it was perfect, they would have missed out on 10 years of it making their life better” is also the clip I'd be hunting for from this episode. That's a cracking little founder/innovation moment, especially paired with his story about the farmer's wife thanking him because her husband was finally getting better sleep.

In this episode:Connect with Gavin & BaleTimeConnect with Selling in the Paddock

My Sales Numbers Don’t Lie: What My Pipeline Is Teaching Me

We’re nine months into 2026, so I thought it was time to take you behind the scenes of Selling in the Paddock.

In this solo episode, I’m looking back at what has already been a massive year — the agricultural businesses I’ve worked with, the travel, workshops, conferences, keynotes, launching the Selling in the Paddock book and continuing to grow the business.

But more importantly, I’m opening up my own sales pipeline.

Because I’m not standing on the sidelines teaching sales. I’m in it.

I’m prospecting. I’m following up. I’m writing proposals. I’m getting ghosted. I’m hearing no. I’m winning work. And sometimes, I’m losing it.

Recently, I sat down and properly interrogated my Pipedrive CRM and my sales numbers. I had a gut feeling about where I was strong — particularly once an opportunity reached proposal stage — but I wanted to know whether the data actually backed me up.

It did.

And it also showed me where the bigger opportunities are in my own sales process.

In this episode, I unpack:

• What 2026 has looked like behind the scenes at Selling in the Paddock
• Why I use Pipedrive to manage my sales pipeline
• What I actually track in my CRM — and what I don’t
• Why every genuine opportunity needs a next action
• Why I don’t assign a dollar value to every lead immediately
• The difference between a genuine pipeline and a list of people you hope might buy
• Why marking an opportunity as lost can actually help you sell better
• What my own conversion numbers revealed about my strengths
• Why closing isn’t currently the biggest opportunity in my sales process
• How knowing where you’re strong helps you decide where to put your time, energy and resources

One of my biggest takeaways?

A pipeline isn’t a list of people you’d like to buy from you. It’s a list of genuine commercial opportunities at different stages.

And when you understand those stages — and your own strengths within them — you can become much more deliberate about where you put your energy.

If this episode gets you thinking about your own sales pipeline, send me a DM. I’d love to know: where are you strongest in your sales process, and where are your opportunities getting stuck?