Ag Sales Professional's Podcast by Greg Martinelli: Recent Episodes
Greg Martinelli
For the Ag Sales Professionals
The following are ideas and concepts that come from all the years of selling, managing salespeople, leading sales teams, and running a sales training service. As one of the most reluctant salespeople to ever head out into a territory, I found it to be an unbelievably rewarding career.
After ten years of writing a weekly blog and podcast, I’ve assembled these 44 truths. I’m calling them truths because I believe them, or they wouldn’t be on the list. I have lived them, tested them, and can prove with my experience that they are true.
They are not absolute. I’m sure there are a few more truths that will pop into my mind someday. But I hope they help you as much as they have helped me to make your sales career as rewarding as possible.
If you would like to explore more information on how to use these concepts to develop you or your sales team, please reach out. They can be implemented in a variety of ways, customized to what works for you and your sales team.
As always, my focus is working with professional salespeople in agribusiness to develop their selling skills, improve their customer management, and eventually become a trusted advisor in their market.
Click below to listen to all 44!
A sales career is built on self-balancing your time
For an effective sales career, you need to be self-balancing. In every sales role, there is a constant pull of your time and energy between two opposites.
For example: “Do I…….
- Focus on my current customers or focus on prospecting. The hunter-farmer decision
- Focus on the strategic few customers or treat every customer equally.
- Make sales calls or have an office day.
- Focus on one market segment or cover all of them in my geographic territory.
- Become a specialist versus being a generalist.
- Focus on technical and data to sell versus more of a relationship selling style.
- Being all about your commission versus being all about the customer versus being all about the most technically correct solution.
Listen in as we discuss how balance can help and hinder your sales career!
What to do at those critical moments of doubt
Every salesperson at any moment can run into a wall of doubt on any sales call. Even the most experienced have moments of doubt. Don’t let bravado or stoic expressions fool you. We all have it.
Confidence does not necessarily eliminate doubt. Confidence can mean that you know your products. You know how to recommend them or sell them. You know your market and your customers. So, you may feel confident at any stage of your sales career. Yet, doubt is always just a moment or thought away. Why? More importantly, how do I reduce those moments of doubt when selling?
It’s like riding a bike. Most of us are fairly confident at riding a bike. I’m on my bike for four or more hours a week. Confidence in my ability to ride is very high. Yet, I take turns in the rain and remember all the times I fell in the rain on slick roads. I remember a deer jumping out of a tree line and just barely missing it at 20 mph. (FYI, that feels fast on a bike). I remember getting a flat on a particular road and hitting the ground. And too often, I remember cars that drive too close or fail to yield at an intersection – realizing that right or wrong, I lose every interaction with a car or train.
So, yes, you might have confidence in you, your products, and your ability to sell them, but here are a few moments of sales doubt:
Doubt on a sales call:
- Are they ready for me to ask a closing question?
- Did I get enough information to make a good product recommendation?
- Am I being too pushy? Nobody likes a pushy salesperson. If I do, they may never let me back on the farm again.
Click below to listen in as we help you embrace your moments of doubt!
Do the Sales Two-Step to get there
Anyone can build their sales territory into a great empire of profitability for themselves, their company, and their customers. In my early days of sales, I sometimes needed to repeat the mantra, “Build the empire one step at a time” or simply, Build it”.
Starting out in sales can seem an impossible journey. You see accomplished veteran salespeople in your company who seem to have it all: big sales numbers, customers who love them, and they look like they are not even working hard. You, on the other hand, have none of those……. yet. That “yet” is a very important qualifier.
Step one is to start. Get started today. Start with the smallest step possible. Make it as easy to get started as you can.
Click below to listen in and learn how to get started and stay on track to your ultimate sales objective.
How to go from Warm Selling to Cold Calling
For too many salespeople, there is a constant struggle that goes on in their mind. That struggle is between spending their time in the rewarding world of warm selling versus the unknown world of cold calling/prospecting.
Warm selling means meeting customers who are happy to see us and want our help.
Cold calling is rolling up on a farm and meeting someone who is busy and doesn’t want another salesperson calling on them.
Listen in as we go over five perspectives on prospecting to help you jump into the cold calling unknown
to help navigate your sales process
When calling on a prospect, most salespeople make one small error. They know exactly what they want to accomplish on that sales call. It usually includes introducing themselves to the prospect, telling them about their company, and the products they sell.
While there is nothing wrong with that sales call strategy, there is one missing piece of information. It’s like going on a road trip and setting your GPS for the destination
Your GPS needs to know where to start. It needs to know your location to give you an accurate and most efficient route to your destination.
A sales call on a prospect is no different. We want to take this prospect on a sales journey from the products they are currently buying to our products (sales destination). The mistake most salespeople make is not establishing where they are. I emphasize “they” because a sales call is the prospect’s journey, not ours. We’re just the tour guide.
Listen in as we cover the 5 GPS-style questions to uncover where your prospect is in their decision-making on your products!
How to deliver a believable and convincing presentation
Before you deliver any sales presentation, you need to own it first. And by own it, I mean make it yours. When we deliver a sales presentation to a customer, we want them to believe it and be convinced to take action after we are done. Usually, that action is to buy from us.
To believe, customers must see that you believe in both the presentation and the data. Otherwise, your customers(audience) will not trust your presentation. If they don’t trust your presentation, then they won’t believe it. This frequently happens when we present someone else’s presentation. Often, we receive a PowerPoint presentation from our marketing department or one of our vendors.
Click below to listen in as we cover a few ways for you to own every presentation you give!
How to navigate the risks and opportunities
when selling to farmers and Ag buyers
Volatility is great for Ag salespeople,
- If they recognize the opportunity.
- If they can sort through the noise.
Volatility is bad for Ag salespeople,
- If they fail to recognize the risk.
- If they ignore it and don’t get in front of it.
As salespeople, we love selling into a booming market. However, in 35 years in agribusiness, there may have been maybe six years of this type of booming Ag economy. The rest of those years, I would consider to be “volatile”. Odds are high that you will spend the majority of your agribusiness career selling to customers who are having difficult times.
That’s why you need to look at volatility through a different lens than your customers and, more importantly, differently than your competition.
Listen in as we discuss how you can learn to look at volatility differently and become more effective for your customers.
No salesperson or company is too good
to ignore competition
To sell into a crowded market, you must study your competition. All competition. Even those competitors who seem too distant to ever become a real threat.
In sales training sessions, I promote the idea that both a company and each individual salesperson must keep an eye on their competition. Most agree, but once in a while, this concept touches a nerve.
There is normally one or more people in the workshop who disagree. They claim that they just go out and do their best to serve customers and let the customer decide who to buy from. And maybe they are right. Maybe that’s good enough for their sales goals.
However, the problem with this thought process is that it’s thinking like a salesperson and not like their customer.
Listen in to gain insight into how and why each salesperson needs to study their competition!
Recently, in a sales training workshop, we were working on a cold call/prospecting role play. Walking around and listening to the salespeople’s intro/rapport-building discussions, I kept hearing a similar comment from them.
In almost every role-play group, the person in the farmer role would complain about the weather, Ag politics, or profitability. The salesperson would reply with, “I know what you mean” or something similar. It made me wonder. How do they “know what the producer means?” Do they really know, or is that just their quick way to connect with the farmer? Their response did not seem genuine or confident to me. In other words, they didn’t seem old enough or experienced enough to really know what the farmer was actually going through.
Listen in as we discuss how oversharing your farm experience may actually be a negative or neutral rapport-building discussion
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, […]
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 […]
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!
Which to measure and why
Lead indicators are great, but only effective if they lead to Lag indicators!
Lag indicators are the ultimate result of your selling efforts! But don’t always tell the full story.
So, which should a salesperson or sales manager measure or monitor? Which is more important? Which do you or your sales manager focus on?
Listen in as we discuss the importance of both lead and lag indicators to improve your sales results!
5 Motivations to keep going and when to quit
Successful salespeople are generally motivated people. They have a drive to succeed. As their managers, we try to motivate them in various ways: Sales meetings, financial incentives, pep talks, etc. Some work sometimes, but none of them work every time. The reason is based on the motivation theory that you can’t really motivate another person. Motivation comes from inside each person’s mind. What motivates me may not motivate my fellow salesperson.
So then, what to do and how to motivate our sales brain?
Listen in as we discuss five ways to generate internal motivations to succeed in building your sales territory!
5 Motivations to keep going and when to quit
Successful salespeople are generally motivated people. They have a drive to succeed. As their managers, we try to motivate them in various ways: Sales meetings, financial incentives, pep talks, etc. Some work sometimes, but none of them work every time. The reason is based on the motivation theory that you can’t really motivate another person. Motivation comes from inside each person’s mind. What motivates me may not motivate my fellow salesperson.
So then, what to do and how to motivate our sales brain?
When I say sales brain, I’m referring to the motivation to keep selling when everything indicates you should not. It’s different than non-sales employees. Salespeople will spend 80-100% of their time with prospects and customers. They will spend that time on tasks that may or may not produce an ounce of results. Yet they have to remain internally motivated to continue despite not knowing if their efforts will be rewarded.
So, again, how do we motivate our sales brain? Especially, when it’s difficult economic times on the farm like right now, when producers are unhappy, when cold calls seem like an intrusion, when prospecting seems unproductive, or when you just want to help but can’t.
Recently, while completing my ninth ironman triathlon, I realized 5 self-motivation techniques. These five have proven to get me through both physically difficult races as well as the long journey of growing a successful sales territory.
At some point in every ironman race, there is that moment. The moment when you are not sure your gonna make it. Your physical energy is depleted, and your body begins to shut down. Essential electrolytes are used up, blood glucose is burned up, and hydration is on empty. Your last hope in your desperation to finish what you started is your brain.
The last line of defense is your mind. More specifically, your motivations.
Selling is no different. You do everything right to sell great products that save your customers money and provide better results in their business. You try to do everything right by following a good sales process. Yet the sale can still be lost or delayed indefinitely. At times, you feel depleted and have nothing left to go on – except your sales brain.
Your sales brain knows that you have to persist somehow. If you quit, you lose that sale.
Motivating your Sales Brain:
Think about this – motivation is an emotion. And like any emotion, it’s all in your head. It’s interesting that one of the most powerful sales resources you have is inside your head in the form of an emotion. Few salespeople would want to admit it, but it’s true. Most salespeople think the biggest strength needed is technical knowledge or better pricing. While those are great, someone always comes along with a lower price and a more technical product advantage. We can always strive to have those advantages, but it’s your internal motivation to sell that keeps you going.
If you truly believe in your products, your company, and your ability to help customers, then you are motivated on every sales call. You will eventually succeed in sales. If you have ever tried selling when you don’t have that confidence, then you realize how hard it is.
One key thought: Motivation does not allow you to do everything. By that, I mean if I have trained my physical body for a 13-hour result in my race, no amount of motivation will get me to a 10-hour finish. Motivation can inspire me to train for a future race and maybe get to 10 hours, but not today.
It’s no different in sales. If you haven’t done the correct selling steps, competitively priced your products, and positioned them as solutions for your customer, then motivation by itself is not going to overcome those basic steps. Your motivation might keep you in a positive mood, but customers will soon tire of your poor selling skills.
Lastly, motivation is very individual and internal to you. It’s different for every single person. Don’t be discouraged if you are not motivated by those things that are supposed to motivate you. A great example of this is motivational speakers at sales meetings. By their very title, they are designed to motivate us to sell more. Some do, but many don’t. In racing, the cheering fans calling out your number and telling you, “Looking great, number 1029!” are supposed to motivate me to keep going. While I appreciate their comments, it does little for my mental strength to keep going. Yet, I am very motivated to know that family and fellow racers are somewhere on the course or in the audience waiting for me to complete the race. So, know your own motivation triggers and feed them into your head daily…hourly if needed.
Here are the 5 motivations that have helped me get to the end of an ironman as well as build a successful sales career.:
- Gaslight yourself: I gaslighted myself to continue running the last 13 miles of a marathon when I was completely depleted. Every mile I completed, I just kept promising myself that I would allow myself to walk after one more mile. You know certain activities that are critical to sales success: cold calling, networking meetings, following up, and asking for the sale. You know you need to increase the amount in your schedule. Yet, you find ways not to do them. To remedy this, simply tell yourself that you really like to do them. Say it out loud. Then promise yourself that you will make two cold calls today and then one easy customer call as a reward. That’s all. Two cold calls, then one easy call. However, right after completing those three calls, gaslight yourself to repeat that sequence one more time before going home for the day.
- Faith in the physical world: No amount of motivation will overcome the physical world. In a 13-hour race, if you don’t eat carbs, electrolytes, and enough fluids, your body will simply stop working. You have to consume them early and on the faith that your body will need them later on. This directly correlates to the sales activities mentioned before: prospecting, cold calling, and closing are essential tasks to maintain sales performance. No amount of positive motivation will overcome the lack of these critical skills. And they have to be implemented well before you recognize the need for them. By the time you realize that your customer base has dwindled due to attrition, you are already late at cold calling and prospecting.
Listen to the podcast version of this blog to hear more about the following elements of motivating yourself.
3. Visions (only ones that help):
4. Awareness of how your mind works:
5. Comparisons (only to those that help)
Final thought on motivation: Don’t use these techniques to “Never quit”. There are obvious times in a race that require us to quit – torn Achilles, complete dehydration, or your bike breaks on mile ten. However, that is not quitting the overall goal of racing. That is repairing or regrouping for a better recovery to get back in the next race.
Same thing in sales. I have worked with many salespeople who needed to simply quit on a customer or customer segment. Their inner drive to never quit was admirable, but it held them back in their ultimate goal of becoming a high-performing salesperson. Persistence is an absolute must for a successful sales career. However, knowing when to persist and when to quit is key. There is a fine line between being persistent, being a pest, and moving on to better opportunities.
Successful people in any endeavor have a strong ability to quit what is not good or not working and focus on what is working. Fight the instinct to never quit. Realize the key points of when it is better to quit and move on to better opportunities.
I wish you all the best in your ability to harness your motivations for selling success!
Using the golden rule of improv to help you sell
If you want to improve your selling skills, find your local improv group and participate in one of their workshops.
Performers have to be quick on their feet. They have to react quickly to changing topics and physical movement of the other performers. Sometimes props are brought into the performance, which adds new dimensions and directions. Audience involvement is often solicited to get them engaged in the performance. The randomness of it all can lead to slow moments from a comedy perspective, as well as hilarious moments.
Doesn’t that sound a lot like selling? The prospect knows why you are there – to sell them something. However, they don’t know where you are going with your sales call. You think you know where you are going with it, but you truly don’t know for sure. Will it get shut down in the first few seconds or will you be there for an hour, or more?
Listen in as we discuss how to use an improv session or role-play exercise to improve your selling skills.
And how to minimize or remove them
Every business has a bottleneck.
Your sales territory is a business, and it has bottlenecks. What about you and your territory? If you are selling $1 million in products, then ask yourself. “What is keeping me from growing that to 2, 4, or 6 million?”
In other words, “What’s the bottleneck?”
Most salespeople will answer that question with the one-word answer, “Time!” I completely get that. So, let’s break down how a salesperson spends their time.
Listen in as we discuss the four primary bottlenecks holding us back as Ag Sales Professionals and how we can minimize the impact to grow sales
Improving your sales results with just one measurement
Most of us have heard the old carpenter saying, “Measure Twice, Cut once”. It’s a reminder to double-check our measuring and marks when doing a home repair project. This is a great rule of thumb. I know it saved me numerous times over the last 40 years of DIY home repairs.
When selling, I want you to consider a slight modification to that old saying, “Measure once, Sell twice as much.”
When working with sales teams, too often, I run across sales managers and salespeople who don’t really measure any vital information to help them sell. None! When I ask them what their measure of success is, most will tell me total sales dollars for the company or local business unit. While that’s certainly important for the overall business, it doesn’t tell me what each salesperson is doing. If they do measure something, they might measure the number of sales calls. Again, this tells us very little about what the salesperson is doing.
What this really means is that our salespeople are driving blindly into their territory. They jump in their truck, head out into their territory, sell hard all day long, and get the results they get!
Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. They truly don’t know why it worked or why it didn’t work.
When it works, we might take credit for the success. We must be good at sales! We might shine the credit spotlight on our teammates. We might even give credit to good luck.
When it doesn’t work, we may assume that we aren’t as good a salesperson as we thought we were. We might blame pricing, product performance, or the economy.
Either way, the results are difficult to repeat if you are not measuring actions. For example, if you made seven sales calls one day and only one the next, did you get better results on either day? It’s hard to tell and even harder to attribute. In general, I’d assume being in front of more customers is better. However, that’s not a great way to measure.
One of the main reasons a salesperson or their manager needs to measure is to remove the randomness from the salesperson’s results and hone in on repeatable actions that grow sales!
They are different for every company, territory, and salesperson. Why? Because every one of them have different territories, with different challenges, and a different set of selling strengths/weaknesses.
Here are my overall favorite data points and questions to set up measurements:
- Number of hot prospects: “hot” means they are interested, moving forward with the sales relationship. Basically, they haven’t stalled out. 25+ hot prospects is a good amount to have on this list.
- Number of top 10 prospects: These are hotter than hot prospects, and the salesperson thinks they will sell them in the next 30-60 days. Doesn’t have to be 10. I just want to know who the absolutely hottest prospects are. This helps the salesperson focus all prospecting priorities on them.
- How much time is allotted to prospecting versus calling on current accounts?
- Total number of customers they are currently providing “A” level sales service to?
- What are the sales results from that “A” level group versus the results from their “B and C” customers? Is it the typical 80:20 results situation?
- How many more “A” level customers do they think they can handle?
- How much time are they spending with “B or C” level customers?
- Do they think they are at capacity?
The answers to these questions help to establish key measurements to help you measure your sales performance. They also allow you to make small, daily adjustments to your actions. Those consistent, small, daily actions lead to long term sales results.
Improve your sales results with just one measurement
Most of us have heard the old carpenter saying, “Measure Twice, Cut once”. It’s a reminder to double-check our measuring and marks when doing a home repair project. This is a great rule of thumb. I know it saved me numerous times over the last 40 years of DIY home repairs.
When selling, I want you to consider a slight modification to that old saying, “Measure once, Sell twice as much.”
Listen in as I review those measurable areas to help you sell more!
Interview with Colson Steber from Ag Access on the importance of market data
I’m convinced that every salesperson out there can improve the management of their sales, their customers, and prospects with better data. Especially data from farmers.
Today, I’m joined by Colson Steber from Ag Access. Coslon is co-CEO and Co-owner of Ag Access. They have a database of over 100,000 farmers and agribusiness contacts, which they survey annually. They work with all the major Ag manufacturers, Tractor companies, and cooperatives.
They also work with most of the Ag research companies in a contract role to gather on-farm data. As Colson describes it, if you received data on farmer activities, then it’s highly likely that Ag Access was involved in gathering it.
Key Interview Times
- 04:17 – Big picture view of Ag data
- 07:10 – Data for naming, pricing, communicating, and building value with farmers and livestock producers. From needs assessments to Go-To-Market Strategy development.
- 11:00 – engaging over 100,000 farmers per year
- 13:37 – Even helping those sales teams that think they know their customers, especially when those salespeople are not using data.
- 17:30 – They don’t just collect data, but help interpret it for better decisions
- 19:15 – Every year, certain questions are surveyed. For example, “Will a rebate program be part of your decision on who to buy from?”
- 20:30 – Farmer data is elusive…how Ag Access gets it
- 24:44 – The latest trend is for agribusiness to have an internal team that manages the projects with Ag Access. This helps disseminate the data to the sales team.
- 27:10 – Biggest observation? “Ten years ago, it was all about will farmers adopt technology. The thought was that farmers wouldn’t embrace technology. However, Colson describes a technology shift. Producers are much more tech savvy.
- 30:01 – The emotions behind farmer purchasing habits
Ag Access info:
Website: https://ag-access.com/
Listen in as Colson Steber (Ag Access) and I discuss the world of Ag data collection and why it’s important to all levels in the company, especially the Ag Salesperson
Use them on your next sales call to expand your customer relationship
Ever get stuck in a rut with a customer? Maybe you have talked about everything you can talk about and sold them everything you think you can sell them.
What about prospects? Ever call on a prospect several times and feel like you are getting no further into the sales process with them?
If so, listen in as we discuss three questions to dig a bit deeper into their business to see if you can change your sales approach and add more value to their business.
Interview with Jim Miller
Jim Miller joins me today on the podcast and webcast to discuss the importance of prioritizing prospects to focus your limited time on the most important prospects who offer the greatest chance to sell.
Jim grew up on an Idaho farm and has spent his career in agribusiness to include many years in sales and sales leadership. Currently, teaching a course on Ag Sales at the University of Idaho, Jim brings his knowledge and experience of selling to farmers, producers, and Ag buyers to the next generation of agribusiness employees.
Jim stops by today to share an important tool he has used for many years to manage a prospect funnel. With large geographies and hundreds or thousands of prospects, an Ag Sales Professional must have some way to focus their limited time and reduce drive time to be more effective.
Jim shares the Prospect Priority Index Calculator and how it has helped him focus on the most important prospects.
Or listen as a podcast
Says every farmer in today’s economy
If you call on farmers or livestock producers, then you hear that quote far too many times on your sales calls. So often that you believe it’s true. So often that you hang your head and struggle to make sales calls on current customers, let alone cold call on prospects. You just know that you will get a shotgun blast if you cold call on a farmer and try to sell them a $600,000 piece of equipment, or building!
If this is you:
- Don’t lose hope.
- Don’t hang your head.
- Most importantly, don’t buy into the easy story line that, “I can’t afford it”.
Instead, Listen in to hear 4 thoughts for building your confidence in what you do as a salesperson
**Ever been asked to complete a SWOT Analysis?
Ever wonder why? Or what you should do with it?**
SWOT stands for:
- Strengths
- Weaknesses
- Opportunities
- Threats
To complete one, you first pick a subject. This could be a product, a competitor, or most often, yourself. Then, in a four-box diagram, you identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to your subject.
A SWOT is a great way to evaluate anything in your business.
Listen in as we discuss how to actually use the information you put into your SWOT Analysis
3 ways to help stubborn customers
Farming is tough business. And it just got a lot tougher in the last 12 months.
**This means selling to farmers is also tough!
Many times when selling to a farmer, we are asking them to change the way they farm. We are often introducing new products, services, or technology to them.
While we are convinced it is a great solution to their problems, our stubborn customers may not.
What to do when your stubborn customer says,**
“Well, Dad farmed here successfully for 40 years, and he never used your products…..or used that technology…..or farmed that way.”
Click on the audio player below to listen to the podcast to learn 3 ways you can help stubborn customers step out of Dad’s shadow.
Selling to farmers in tough times.
Farming is always challenging, but right now it’s tougher than usual, with profitability under serious pressure for farmers.
This means those selling to farmers are feeling the strain too.
Recently, I had the privilege of collaborating with Margy Eckelkamp from Farm Journal. Together, we outlined seven actionable steps that ag sales professionals can take to support their producers, offering real solutions rather than just commiserating about the tough times.
Margy did an excellent job capturing our conversation in a concise article, which I think you’ll appreciate.
You can read it here: 7 Ways to Be a Lifeline to Farmers
Or click below to listen to my audio version of the article.
And what is your role as their salesperson when they do?
Your farmer customers are struggling to stay afloat right now, more than probably ever in their farming history. Unless they farmed through the 1980’s, right now is their most difficult time.
Your role as their salesperson or more importantly, their trusted advisor has never been more important.
Here are 4 thoughts on a farmer’s decision-making that can help you to help them:
- Avoiding bad decisions versus making good decisions:
- Safe vs Speculative decisions: “Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM”
- Apply DISC to help your customers make better decisions
- Coaching your customer
Listen in as we cover the details of these four decision making concepts, so you can help your farmer customers make better decisions!
How many of them are you?
- A salesperson they like: work on this first. Before going after the sale. Start by getting to know them as a person and then know them as a business. Key = Be genuine
- A salesperson who also likes them: You certainly can sell to someone you don’t like and I’m sure you will over the span of your sales career. But life is much easier selling to someone you like. Key = Get to know them. The initial impression might just be a tough guy cover that your customer uses to block sales people. Be patient in getting past it and you might actually like them more than you think. There’s a popular adage that fits here: “Everyone is fighting an internal battle that we know nothing about”
- A salesperson that Listens & Pays Attention: Seek first to understand. Key = Ask open ended questions. Learn more than you are taught. Think “Why” but ask “How, What, Where, and When” questions. The word “Why” can make customers defensive. So use it sparingly.
- A salesperson who cares: You have to care about your customer. This one is normally not tough for a sales person to convey. However, it has to be perceived by the customer as real & authentic caring. Not just caring till you get the sale and then you’re out of there.
- A salesperson that keeps her word: “I’ll get that to you tomorrow” you tell a customer. Do it. Consider that comment a promise or an oath. If you can’t deliver on it, get back to the customer on why you can’t and when you can. This is critical as you expect and want them to do the same for you. When the farmer tells you “I need to talk it over with my son and I’ll let you know our decision to do business with you” – you fully expect and want them to actually get back to you. This is a two-way street and you need to live up to what you tell them.
- A salesperson who is an expert in his field: Great news if you are already an expert. If you aren’t, show your customer how you are working towards becoming the expert. In the early years, find those experts on your internal team and network them with your customers as much as you can. Find out who your customer thinks is the expert in your field and connect with them.
- A salesperson who is Honest, Ethical and Above Board: nothing to add here except that you just have to be all three of these. No matter how much your customer has these traits or not, you have to have them at all times. If one of your company’s past sales people was not the most honest and ethical person with customers, there are a couple steps to follow. First apologize for the customer’s bad experience with your company. Acknowledge that this person is no longer in the company (hopefully they aren’t). Show that you consistently possess the right qualities and over time the farmer will build trust in you.
- A salesperson who is “Real”: don’t try to be anything other than who you truly are. This doesn’t mean you don’t change or try new things. But your overall style needs to come from you. Try not to spew company policy, rules, or mandates all over your customers. Instead, explain it to them in real and easy terms. One helpful way to do this is explain why your company is implementing the policies.
- A salesperson who is humble: no matter how important you become internally in the company or how good you are doing with sales, be humble and treat them with respect
- A salesperson who is busy: not too busy to keep their word and follow up on their concerns, but farmers want to know that you have a viable and active business and other farmers are working with you.
- A salesperson who is helpful: this doesn’t mean you have to become their personal Wikipedia source of information or assistance, but a farmer will take flexible & accommodating over rigid & difficult any day. Warning: There’s a balance to the two concepts of “My way or the highway” versus “We’re everything to every customer”. Too much of the first way and you will chase customers off. Too much of the second way and you can fail miserably or go broke trying to serve everyone.
- You – If you work on the above 11 factors –
Good luck and let me know how it goes
Segmenting your way to Sales SuccessAre you calling on the right prospects in the right places? Are your salespeople calling on the right prospects in the right places?
You might want to double check with them as I find far too many of us in agribusiness are “Fishing in Swimming Pools” Lots of activity but no results.
Ask anyone of your salespeople to describe the ideal prospect. How close do their answers match between salespeople or between what you have in the business plan? After eight years of asking thousands of Ag salespeople this question, I still find too many who can’t clearly identify the customer segment they serve best.
Click on the podcast below to listen in as we discuss the importance of customer segmentation
Dairy Boots and getting “Robbed”
Every customer has a customer!
This is so important for salespeople to understand that I want to repeat it. Every customer has a customer!
If you sell to an agribusiness like a feed mill, grain elevator or Ag retailer, then that is obvious. However, you might be thinking that since you sell direct to farmers, this doesn’t apply to you. But think about a farm. It’s a business. Yes, they might be the end user of your fertilizer or tractor, but the consumer chain is just getting started.
Listen in as we discuss why it is so important to focus your sales efforts on your customer’s customer!
Do this fun and easy exercise to build one of your most important selling skills
A critical component to building connections with prospects and customers is the skill of empathy.
You might be wondering why I called empathy a skill and not some built in talent or ability. That’s because I think you can develop empathy by practicing it.
Knowing how important this skill is in sales; I violated the rule of Strength Finders. I set out on a mission to fix my weakness.
One exercise that I developed and practice frequently helped me in many ways.
Listen in as we learn how to develop this critical selling skill!
How to outsell your competition without the lowest prices, the best technology, or biggest marketing budget
In the 1975, Van McCoy released a hit song and dance called “Do the Hustle”. The lyrics are very simple and so is today’s message. The lyrics were literally, “Do the hustle”. The irony is that it’s also the secret to outselling your competition.
Your competition might have better prices, technology, or marketing. They may have more sales reps, stronger brand recognition, or more free giveaways. However, you have one thing you can always control….Your level of hustle.
Listen in as we go over the 5 ways to hustle harder for your customers and earn their business!
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:
- The Preparation System
- The Discovery System
- The Performance System
- The Closing System
- The Future System
And the mental minefield you must navigate to use these truths
- 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.
- 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!
Listen better, gain more understanding of what your customer needs, and sell better
Every customer or prospect you meet is seeking one common goal. Do you know what it is? Is it money, bigger yields, lower input costs, or increased ROI? Maybe. But the one thing every one of them wants from you as their salesperson is to – Be understood.
Listen in to learn how “Looping” can help you be a better listener and sell better!
People buy from people they Trust
There is a well-known phrase in selling, “People buy from people they know and trust”.
The struggle that most of us face in selling is, “How do I build trust?”. If you are a new salesperson and don’t have established relationships, this can be difficult.
Listen in as Greg discusses the actions and Words that build Trust with your prospects and customers!
You Selling You to You
Your first customer is you and the first product you sell is YOU! Might be a tongue twister, but it is true.
This is not your standard run of the mill, “Fake it till you make it” message. I want you to understand that in the beginning and maybe even later in your career, you are going to harbor a lot of self-doubt in sales. Some of the reasons I feel this happens is due to the nature of the job. We have to know a lot about our products, our company, our customer’s industry, our competition’s products, the current market forces, and our suppliers. Secondly, no matter how good we are at all of that, most of our customers can leave us for our competition at a moment’s notice.
Listen in as we cover some of the methods you can use to build your sales confidence.
How to develop your own “Pain Relief” as an Ag Sales Professional
Ever thought about your daily selling struggles as pain? When you decide to go see that difficult customer or collect from that past due account, do you think of it as pain? If so, then we can jump right into pain relief. If not, then I really want you to think about your perception of these difficult selling activities. This may sound negative or counterproductive to being happy as a salesperson
Think about going out to fix a customer complaint. Late delivery or no delivery, product quality issues for the 10th time this week…. invoicing errors…always with the invoicing errors. We have all been through these situations and they are best described as pain. And our natural human tendency on pain is to avoid it. We just naturally move away from pain. As salespeople, we have one of two special ways to avoid pain: blame or tough guy exterior.
Listen in as we discuss the Do’s and Don’ts of dealing with pain when selling
- Closing rate
- # of cold calls to make a sale
- # appointments
Useful or useless? Make your selling data work for you
Sitting in my first official sales training session, one of our company’s top salespeople was giving all of us new salespeople a short training presentation.
One of his opening comments struck me as odd. Meaning, I didn’t think it was right, but I was too new and inexperienced to say anything.
He opened with, “Selling is a numbers game! If you want to grow your sales, you have to call on more customers”. He went on to explain, “Let’s say you want to sign up 5 new customers. And it takes 4 appointments to sign up one new customer. And it takes 6 cold calls to get an appointment. Then, you need to make 120 cold calls (5X6X4).”
Have you ever had someone explain selling this way? If not, you might someday. My question to you is, does this seem accurate and helpful or inaccurate and a nonsense connection to data?
Listen in as we discuss the two ways to make your data work for you
A Salesperson’s guide to teamwork
in a dysfunctional culture
Salespeople need to build internal teamwork even when other departments don’t want to.
It’s March and most of the agribusiness trade shows are winding down. Now, it’s time to get out into the market and follow up. In other words, deliver on all those promises.
Before you do, I want you to accomplish one more networking event. I want you to do an authentic round of internal networking. Too many of us that sell in agribusiness feel like we are on an island.
We are remote and seldom see our support teams: accounting, customer service, delivery, or production teams. However, we need them in today’s market.
Most of us are all for teamwork. And it’s a great thing when everyone gets along.
However, many of our teammates act like kings and queens of their own little silos. They don’t play nice with others
Listen in as we combine some of the best business practices to generate teamwork, and communication and serve our customers
See if you or your sales team can answer them
When preparing to do a sales training program, I always interview several people on the team.
During each of those interviews, I have a short window of time to discover as much as I can about them, their specific strengths/weaknesses, their specific market, and what they want to gain from the training program I’m putting together.
In that limited amount of time to interview, I found three questions to be most helpful. They are indicators of whether or not the salesperson knows what they are doing.
Listen in to learn those three questions and what their answers tell you about yourself or your sales team
2 requirements to win sales and influence customers with an aggressive approach
The best salespeople I know are very aggressive. I didn’t say they were pushy, salesy, or annoying to their customers. Quite the opposite. Their customers love them for their aggressive style.
Often, when I am brought in to work with a sales team, the manager is looking for a way to inspire or motivate their sales team to get more aggressive when selling. They want their team to “get out of the office more”, “be confident and call on more prospects”, and “check in with customers less and sell more”.
Listen in as we discuss how to understand aggressive selling versus pushy
Quit talking and let them test drive your products
The picture enclosed is what I drew up as the order of learning.
As someone who runs training programs every week, I needed some way to explain to my audiences the importance of putting their customers in the driver’s seat of their products.
Your customers are called on by an army of salespeople. They need some way to remember you when they go to buy your products. By moving your selling process up the Ladder of Learning, you increase your chances of being selected.
Listen in to hear more about how you can do this when selling in Ag
How a proactive HR resource can shape your company for success
People Spark joins us today for insight on how to use your HR (human resources) department to build the culture you want, retain more of your employees, and be more profitable. As the title says, HR is more than just paperwork. In many companies that Erin and Kristen work with, there is no HR department. Or possibly one person has been designated as the HR person. In this video/podcast episode, we shed some light on how to make better use of the HR department.
Timeline and Topics
- 00:30 – One tip for HR departments to be more effective in their role
- 03:04 – Key areas you help with; companies without an HR department and Ag manager development
- 08:02 – HR’s role in company culture
- 17:10 – Difficult or toxic employee when shaping company culture
- 21:05 – Working in circles….who is reporting to who? And Who is selling who?
- 24:01 – Retention issues and the cost of turnover
- 32:45 – The dilemma “Anybody is better than nobody” the difficulty of finding employees
- 34:03 – How to be 30X40 times more effective in your use of timely and positive feedback
- 38:30 – Discussion on using 360 feedback with your team
- 45:20 – Why did you start People Spark?
–
To Learn More and Connect with Erin and Kristen from People Spark
Website: PeopleSparkConsulting.com
Email: Kristen Ireland – kristen@peoplesparkconsulting.com
Erin Mies – erin@peoplesparkconsulting.com
For a more in-depth understanding of today’s topics,
Go to: https://mailchi.mp/d357231d3429/the-podcast-for-the-ag-sales-professional
Listen to the interview
What would You tell Yourself,
If you could go back to the beginning of your sales career?
Toward the end of many interviews, the interviewer will ask, “If you could go back to the beginning of your career, what would you say to yourself?”
I find this to be a very interesting part of the interview. This is often when you find the most important lessons that this person took from their career.
#1 Network more: Above all else, this would have helped me more than anything else. Network early, often, and always. Today’s version of ABC = always be connecting.
Listen in to hear more about networking and the other 6 messages you will find helpful in your sales career.
And 3 ways to turn them around Every day in the agribusiness world, it happens. Somewhere out there, good, hard-working salespeople are hustling, having success, doing all the right steps to grow their territory, and then it happens. A “bad” thing happens to them. Sometimes it’s their fault. Sometimes, they happen with plenty of warning. […]
It’s a primary role for every Ag Sales Professional The problem: Working with Ag sales teams over the last 30 years, there is one common theme that runs through every one of those teams. Most salespeople prefer to call on current customers at the expense of prospecting. It doesn’t matter if they are selling agronomy, […]
And 7 years of running a sales training service I know I don’t look old enough to have been in sales for 58 years, but I am. Soon, I will turn 58. And I have been in sales my whole life. So have you. And so has everyone you meet. The reason for this topic […]
“Does your product solve a producer’s problem?” Customers purchase solutions to their problems! No problem…..No Purchase Listen in as we discuss the importance of understanding the problem that your product solves. A recent Ag Tech webinar prompted this topic. This lesson could be helpful for you as your company launches new products or services.
Unique thoughts that can help you when selling on-farm Sounds crazy, but to achieve success, you have to put up with spending 99% of your time on tedious, monotonous, and boring tasks just to have that 1% of successful moments. Listen in as I go through this topic and the other two thoughts to help […]
Lessons learned from a fan poster Last weekend, I had the great pleasure of competing in another Ironman race. As always, thousands of fans lined the streets and cheered us on as we swam 2.4 miles, biked 112 miles, and finally capped it all off with a 26.2-mile run. Fans and the posters they hold […]
Just like an annual physical, we need to stop at some point and take some tests, check the numbers, evaluate the business, review our results, and set goals for the new year. This is part preventative and part proactive. Listen in as we go over some of the tests and analysis you should look at […]
“I sure hope another salesperson stops by today!”
Listen in today to get help with one of your biggest dilemmas. One of the most common reasons for not prospecting or cold calling is that salespeople don’t want to be pushy, salesy. They don’t want to be a bother.
As salespeople, we want to be wanted. We want customers and prospects to be happy we stopped by. We want to help. But we can’t help unless we stop at their farm and start the process of developing a relationship to eventually work with them.
Listen in to discover 4 ways you can deal with this limiting belief
Interview with Pat Sullivan from AgVend
Listen in as we discuss Ag tech software and how it can make you more efficient so you can get on more farms and help more customers. Not to mention making sense of all the data you have so you can make better more informed decisions
Key Interview Times:
- 00:30 – “As an Ag salesperson or as an agribusiness, why should I care about Ag Tech software?”
- Data and better decision making
- Efficiency – “I’m so busy….I have no time…”
- The combination of data and head knowledge in your business
- 04:30 – What customer does AgVend serve and what do you do for them?
- 07:50 – Getting salespeople and other users to use the program
- They have to believe in the data
- Now they need to see how it makes them faster and better
- 12:40 – “Could you tell us about a customer example that you helped?”
- Recovered 70% of lost customers
- Less customer turnover
- Saved time – got on more sales calls
- 17:00 – Customer Adoption rate: “How do you help the agribusiness get their customers to use your program?”
- 21:01 – Future Plans
For more information on AgVend, go to:
AgVend.com
https://www.agvend.com/
How to navigate the deep waters of selling in agribusiness
Today, as you jump into your pickup and venture out into your sales territory, remember that there can be some treacherous waters out there. These waters are filled with dangerous reefs, strong currents, and menacing creatures. But they are also filled with opportunities, new worlds, and a lifetime of great experiences.
Hold on to the ship’s wheel as we take a few minutes to navigate through the 7 seas of selling in agribusiness
1. A Sea of Objections
2. A Sea of Sameness
3. A Sea of Mediocrity
4. A Sea of Information
5. A Sea of Opportunity
6. A Sea of Change
7. A Sea of Uncertainty
Listen in as we learn a few navigation tips to help you on your voyage!
How to differentiate from competitors and increase your selling success
One of my favorite training points with any audience is on the subject of differentiation.
It should be the first step in your sales career because it completes the most important phrase in your vocabulary:
“Customers hire me to _________ when they want (because) ___________.”
Listen in as I go over how to fill in the answers to this statement and why it’s so important to your selling skills
3 sales math equations to make you more successful when selling in agribusiness
Several years ago, I wrote the blog, “Sales Math”. The reason I wrote it was the lack of understanding that I saw in new and experienced salespeople alike. When coaching or training a salesperson, I explore their understanding of these basic equations.
As an addition to that original article, I thought we needed to explore a few more math equations to ramp up our skills as dedicated Ag Sales Professionals.
Listen in as we cover three additional math equations that help you run your territory as a small business!
3 Frequently Asked Questions I get as a sales trainer and coach
- “How do I close more sales?”
- “I am not good at Cold Calling. How can I get better at it?”
- “I know how to sell, but I just need more hours in the day.”
Listen in as we cover some highlights and tips
to help You with these common questions!
7 Benefits of going from a salesperson
to The Trusted Advisor in your market
- Salesperson: Anyone given the job or hired as a salesperson.
- A Professional Salesperson: This is a salesperson who knows how to sell and has a certain level of technical knowledge about their products and how they serve the customer.
- A Trusted Advisor: This person has entrenched themselves into their industry and developed their own personal brand.
Listen in as we discuss the 7 Benefits and the 7 Essential Selling Skills to becoming a Trusted Advisor in your market
*“Pain Relief” for the Ag Sales Professional*
As humans, we spend a lifetime avoiding pain as much as possible. Our two biggest motivators are seeking pleasure and avoiding pain.
In sales, when you pick up the keys to the company pickup truck and agree to go forth and sell, you are now going to experience some “Sales Pain”.
Sales pain includes fear, rejection, distrust, anger, humility, appearing incompetent or foolish, making a mistake, and Losing control.
Listen in as we cover three coping mechanisms you can use to apply your own “Pain Relief”
The most important topic to discuss when time is limited
Ever get on a farm call and get rushed into giving your sales “pitch” and then rushed off the farm? If you’ve been selling for a week, I’m sure that has already happened. One of the struggles most salespeople run into is over-presenting on their products. It’s their comfort zone. When they get rushed, the first thing they want to do is tell the prospective customer all about the good things about their products.
Listen in as we go over two methods of solving this common sales problem
The process of going through a short-term coaching program to propel you forward
Nancy Vander Byl from Core Cool Systems joins me in this week’s episode.
You may recognize her journey as she struggles to launch a new product line in a large geographic territory – North America!
Most dairy cattle buildings are cooled by standard fans, which are fairly inexpensive but only provide a limited amount of cooling. Her company has created an inclusive cooling system that involves moisture, humidity, and variable-speed fans.
When we met in late 2022, her challenges were:
- Launching a new product
- A new technology that is priced much higher than the traditional competition
- Reaching an entire continent as a solo salesperson
- Inventory challenges as most of us have dealt with during the last 3 years
- Brand recognition
Join me as we discuss her coaching journey we went on. Topics we worked through in her 3 months of coaching include:
- Go-to-Market Strategy
- Geographic focus – time efficiency with the highest ROI
- Brand recognition and marketing focus
- Features versus benefits and digging deeper to uncover the total cost of the traditional cooling system
For more information on Core Cool Systems or to contact Nancy:
For www.CoreCoolSystems.com or Nancy@CoreCoolSystems.com
Or Listen to the PODCAST:
The most important selling skill for the Ag Sales Professional
“How are you evaluated?” Those four simple words turned out to be the most important learning moment with our largest customer. It changed the way we presented products and how we thought about the products & services we offered.
Selfishly, I love this part of sales training. First, it’s the biggest transformation in a salesperson’s selling skills. Previously, they viewed the part of asking their customers questions as a nuisance to get through so they could present all the great things about their products.
After this part of the training workshop, they now view the discovery part of selling as the most important.
Listen in as we cover the Entry Level, the Next Level, and the High-Value level of sales questions
9 Positive affirmations to build your confidence
Confidence is one of those intangible emotions in selling. When you have it, you know it. Your customer knows it.
Likewise, when you are not confident, you create a sense of uncertainty. Your customer also senses it. That moment of doubt causes customers to second guess the choice to buy from you. But how do we develop confidence and why is it so important?
Listen in as I cover 9 positive affirmations designed for the Ag Sales Professional
- I am a large part of the overall value my company offers
- …..
.
The importance of putting your customer on your company org chart
Do you have a company org chart for your company? If so, does it look like this?
Listen in as we discuss how the Ag Sales Professional can create a new and improved Org chart to increase sales and ultimately become a Trusted Advisor!
Pre-Sell the Sale
Got a tough sale coming up? Maybe a price increase? Maybe your company is dropping one of your favored product lines and you are faced with switching your customers to a different product. Maybe your marketing department just sent you the new promotional plan for the quarter?
These are all real-life scenarios that we face as salespeople.
Listen in as we discuss one technique for handling these situations
And why it’s so important you ask it on every sales call
“What’s Next?”
There it is. I gave it to you right up front. Ever see those clickbait web posts that make you weed through mountains of ads to get to the point? Not this article.
It’s so easy to ask and such a powerful question. In sales training workshops, we spend extensive time training and practicing how to ask good sales questions. It’s one of the most important skills for a salesperson. Often, attendees are hesitant to ask some of the tougher questions, ones that feel like they might be prying too deep into the producer’s business.
So, we design some easy questions for them to keep communication flowing.
“What’s next?” is one of those questions.
Part 2: Digging into two over-used sales phrases you should stop believing now!
Please read through this entire article before reacting to the title. While it may sound contrary to everything sales experts have told you, I want to caution you that… it kind of is. The purpose of this article is to help salespeople make sense of an old sales adage.
Last time, we covered the old sales adage, “We don’t take No for an answer”. Podcast version
Today, I’m taking aim at another common adage that is very difficult for salespeople to understand, “It’s never about price”. If you have been selling for a day and a half, someone or some social media post has told you that customers don’t buy on price. They buy on value. The message is that if your price is higher than the competition, then you should sell them on value. You should tell them how great your product is and then they will pay more for it. Above all, quit selling on price!
Sales experts, gurus, and social media sensations espouse these concepts so often that we begin to believe them. I’m sure that some of these experts actually sold by these words of wisdom. However, most are just reposting or repeating it in order to sound wise or get likes, and shares. Well, more power to them if that’s working for them. I really don’t blame them. They have heard this adage so often that they may blindly believe it as well. My problem is that it’s unoriginal and it’s the easy way out of actually creating content. More importantly, it’s often wrong-ish.
Then, our well-meaning sales sages will tell you about a research study that found 86% of the time, customers don’t buy on price. While I’m sure the research is sound, there is no way it covers all types of sales in all types of product lines. Let me just throw a few pairs of products in agribusiness at you: Fertilizer and tractors, diesel and crop insurance, seed and ag lending, barn builder and agronomist.
Think about these different purchases by farmers. Are they all based on the highest value, the top of the line, premium product? Or, are some of them based on price? The variation in these purchases is as wide as the different companies that sell them. The struggle I have with the phrase, “It’s not about price” is that in general, it is mostly correct. However, in the nitty-gritty details of a customer’s purchase, it is absolutely wrong.
Before going further, let’s review some points:
- Price or money is a value factor. The three components of value are money, time, and emotion. So, price is part of what you offer. The product you sell and the price you charge are a big part of their ROI (Return on Investment). Your price is the “I”. That’s half the equation, which means price is important. If not, we’d all be living in $4 million homes, driving Lamborghinis, and flying in private jets to our vacations. Ridiculous? Can’t afford those things? The cost or debt wouldn’t return the satisfaction of owning those things? For most of us, of course not. So, then stop telling the world it’s not about price.
- An apples to apples comparison is important…but it’s almost never apples to apples. I train on this very subject when dealing with price objections. Customers often don’t do an apples to apples comparison. They leave off freight, discounts, extra charges, other products that need to be bought, and actual feature differences. As hard-working salespeople, we have to reinforce this continuously with customers. The struggle is that our products might be the exact same products as our competitors, but other factors prevent it from being an exact comparison. Aspects like: your location to the customer, speed of supply/resupply, consulting service provided with our products, financing programs, and maintenance service on your products. Or maybe time and emotional values are not comparable: your experience versus your competitor, trustworthiness of you, your location and your parent company versus your competition, loyalty based on previous support.
What to do if you are in sales or leading salespeople?
- Realize that both statements are true if you add the qualifier “to a point”
- “It’s not about price, to a point”
- “It’s always about the price, to a point”
As professional salespeople, it’s our job to find that point. That’s the job! Is that feature on your tractor that you love to talk about worth $10,000 on a $250,000 purchase price? Is your expertise as a nutritionist or agronomist worth $10/ton of feed or fertilizer? The answer to that question changes with every farm, farmer, and salesperson.
Our job is to understand those answers through good discovery questions.
- How does this customer value our benefits versus our competition? We deliver faster, but our drivers don’t know each farm like our competition’s drivers. Their drivers know where the products go, unload without the farmer being there, and will actually notify the farmer if they see something wrong. How much is that worth to customers A, B, or C?
- How big of a problem are you solving with your solutions? By how big, I mean what is the impact on this customer in dollars, time, or emotion? Are you solving a $10 problem with your $100 solution or vice versa? As salespeople, we need to look at selling as solving customer problems. We go around to customers and help them reduce pain or increase results. So, customers definitely want us to be successful at this endeavor as long as the solution costs less than the problem.
-
If you are a salesperson and feel the need to complain to your manager about prices, please do your homework first. Dig into your competitor’s pricing like you are doing an IRS tax audit. Turn over every stone and do the best comparison you can possibly and legally do. Then do good discovery with your customers as mentioned. Most importantly, do all of this before you call your sales manager to ask for a discounted selling price.
-
If you are a sales manager or marketing manager, please understand that the features and benefits of your company and products aren’t always valued by customers as much as you think they should be. If you feel the need to throw a blanket statement like, “It’s never about price.” Or “You need to sell the value” don’t. If you haven’t ground-proofed your pricing with your targeted customers, then please don’t make these bold statements. They sound good at the 10,000-foot level but prove difficult to convey when face-to-face with a customer.
-
One last consideration. If your customer does not value those features and benefits you offer, should you be offering them? If your answer to a customer’s price objection is:
-
I walk all of your fields once a month in the growing season
- I provide complete agronomy advice on every acre
- I walk your cows once a month and adjust their diet accordingly
- We have a 24-hour service line and can get a technician on-site for same-day repairs
Great replies. However, if your customer does not value these things, can you not offer them and reduce your price? Or, can you continue to offer them, reduce your price, and be satisfied with the reduced profitability that would cause?
This is a great topic and one that will most likely never go away. We could certainly get deeper and deeper into the discussion of value. As long as there is competition, we will continuously be in a cat-and-mouse game of price discovery. I love to discuss it, train on it, help salespeople manage their territories through it, and help sales leaders manage their salespeople through it. Reach out to me if this is something you would like help with.
Good luck in your ongoing battle to establish as much value in what you offer to your customers!
Part 2: Digging into two over-used sales phrases you should stop believing now!
Please listen through the entire article before reacting to the title. While it may sound contrary to everything sales experts have told you, I want to caution you that… it kind of is. The purpose of this podcast is to help salespeople make sense of an old sales adage.
Last time, we covered the old sales adage, “We don’t take No for an answer”. Podcast version Today, I’m taking aim at another common adage that is very difficult for salespeople to understand, “It’s never about price”.
Listen in as we discuss how to use this concept and understand it from a salesperson’s perspective
Digging into two overused sales phrases you should stop believing now!
Recently, I have seen repetitive social media posts regarding two sales phrases that everyone just keeps posting, reposting, and must believe. The purpose of this article is to shed some real light on the damage those sayings do to a salesperson’s motivation.
The first is, “We don’t take No for an answer”. The idea is that we don’t end our sales call just because the customer tells us they don’t want to buy from us. We are supposed to persist through the “No” until we mentally wrestle the customer into submission and they say “Yes”.
Listen in as I examine how this over-used phrase is really hurting your motivation or your sales team’s motivation and more importantly, how to use these old sales adages in real-life selling!
When over-serving customers becomes a nightmare,
it’s everyone’s problem
You might find it hard to believe a salesperson has anything bad to say about customer service that goes above and beyond the call of duty. But I am. And here’s why.
We’ve all heard the stories of a restaurant waiter that had a customer order a Coke but they only sold Pepsi products. So, he runs down the street and buys one at a nearby store to provide ultimate customer service. Or we hear about the cab driver who turns off his meter and drives an elderly passenger all over town including grocery shopping, picking up the tab, and even carrying her groceries into her home.
You’re probably asking, “What’s the problem, Greg? These are true workplace heroes.”
Not so fast.
Listen in as we talk about a very big customer service problem…Same-Day orders. As salespeople and sales managers, we have to lead the charge at solving this problem.
The 2 data points you must have to plan your schedule
The wild, wild west vs. assigned territory strategy
Too many times in the last 7 years of training sales teams, I have run into the same sales productivity problems. Thought the discussion might help you on your sales productivity journey. As I call it, the “never-ending journey” because no one can tell you exactly how to do it. You have to take the concepts and apply them to your local situation. I hope these tips help.
Listen in as we cover the Sales Productivity exercises you need to do with your sales team or your sales manager.
Tis the season for following up
As I write this, it’s four days before Christmas. You might think I’m going to recommend that you relax, or maybe even rejoice. Not today!
Right now, I want you to Follow up.
*Listen in as we cover the Key Concepts and the 3 Levels of follow-up intensity…….*
*and Listen all the way to the end for an additional or 4th level of follow-up.*
Selling ~~Myself~~ Yourself
Remember when we had a dozen or more candidates per open territory? Today, it’s more likely that you have a dozen openings per candidate. It’s too expensive, time-consuming, and frustrating for your customers to turn over your sales team. Here’s a very important component to solving that problem in your business.
This podcast is for those of you that are looking to develop your sales team or develop your own selling skills. Especially if you are trying to solve these problems with you or your team:
Problems I enjoy solving through training and coaching:
- Cold Calling Reluctance/Prospecting Skills
- Closing Skills
- Objection Handling (most often from pricing)
- DISC assessments and how to use them to sell.
- Differentiating themselves in the market so they can confidently sell themselves and get paid what they are worth.
- Not digging deep enough in the Discovery phase, which doesn’t allow them to close or overcome objections.
- Lack of follow-up skills…they give out the price quote and then think it’s over.
- Overall disorganization leading to dropping the ball, lack of follow-up, and no structure in their approach to the market.
If any of these sound familiar, then listen in as I work through the components of working through a customized sales training and development program for you or your sales team.
As mentioned, I would like to have a conversation with you about your selling skills development or your sales team’s development. Here are the ways to reach me:
Schedule a zoom call: https://calendly.com/gregmartinelli/30min?month=2022-12
Ph: (608) 751-6971
Email greg@gregmartinelli.net
Web: www.gregmartinelli.net
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The 10 people at your funeral …. The Arsonist in your life…and The importance of Sales Gratitude
The missing ingredient in your selling process Critical Selling Skill topic in the last 60 days Join me as I walk through one of the most important steps in the selling process. For such a small step, it has such a huge impact (pun intended) on your results.
Selling through FEAR
And how to manage fear when it shows up
Consider this a sort of think tank discussion on fear management ideas. We will discuss four articles written in the last several years on managing and conquering your fears when selling.
Join me via podcast or video as Carey Portell joins the discussion today:
Carey is a Farmer, Speaker, Author and has a great message on Farming with Disabilities. Listen in as Carey describes her tragedy that has taken so much, yet gave her even more in life.
- Today we discuss:
- Farming with Disabilities and regaining your purpose in life
- Her new book, “Facing Life Head On”
- Safety-Farm Safety
- Missouri AgrAbility
- AgriSafe
- Carey’s Primary Speaking Focus:
- To Farmers: You can continue to farm even with your disabilities. There are resources and people willing to help. You don’t need to quit farming nor go it alone.
- To Agribusiness Professionals: Bring this message to your customers and help those that might need assistance in getting back to farming.
You can reach Carey at https://careyportell.com/
Also recorded as a PODCAST:
How do I get better at Closing?
How do I get better at Closing?
Get better at Opening
Listen in as we discuss the primary focus area for getting better at closing sales…a stronger open…..and the 4 methods of getting better at opening.
Listen in as we discuss the balance needed between your Copy versus Content when selling!
Your customers desperately want this from you, but never tell you
We started this year off with a very specific focus. I went back over my 30 years of working in and around salespeople to come up with the absolute top focus areas that work. Not just once in a while, but work all the time, every time. They may seem like the basics, and they are. However, your competition is not doing them and your customers are desperately wanting you to implement them. The problem is that customers will never tell you that’s what they want.
Listen in to hear how you can take the first step on the three most important focus areas of your sales approach!
Customized and Combined Development
Grow your super strengths of Team Selling and
Customer Focused Skills to become a Trusted Advisor
Today, we cover part three in our three-part series. Ten, twenty or thirty years ago, our job as a salesperson was to go to the farm and inform customers about our products. We were the primary source of information. Not so much in today’s agribusiness environment.
Listen in as we learn Why, How and What Customized and Combined Development is. Including the 5 Components and 4 Benefits!
Go from price, product and feature dumping in the friend zone to Building your personal brand as THE Trusted Advisor in your market
Today, we cover part two in our three-part series.
Listen in to learn:
7 Components of becoming a Trusted Advisor
and
7 Benefits from using the Trusted Advisor selling approach to your career
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.
2022 Focus Area #1
Bring All your resources to the sale As the Sales Professional, You are the Quarterback of your company’s resources
Think about your own buying experiences. Who would you rather do business with? One single salesperson who only gives you their knowledge and skills? Or, a salesperson who brings a team of experts with her to the sale? For me and every customer I have worked with, we prefer to work with a team of experts. We prefer to work with a supplier who can bring us more products, more services, and more connections in the industry.
The lone ranger approach to selling is a tough way to go in today’s market.
Listen in to learn the 4 steps and 5 benefits of …Bringing all your resources to the sale!
7 Benefits of training all your teams in one workshop Agronomy – Feed – Energy – Grain
Sales – Marketing – Customer Service
Equipment – Parts – Service – Precision Ag
Dairy – Beef – Swine – Retail
- Does your agronomy team connect with your feed team?
- Does your energy team know who the feed salespeople are?
- In the last 30 days, has any one of your salespeople reached out to another department and referred a sales lead?
If you answered “No” to any or all of those questions, trust me, you are not alone. This scenario is too frequent in almost every company. A combined sales training workshop is a great way to tear down some departmental silos and establish a culture of collaboration.
Listen in to learn the benefits of building a Culture of Collaboration!
8 ways to get more from trade shows
4 Ways to get more from attending AND 4 Ways to get more from working a booth Originally published in Wisconsin Agribusiness Quarterly Magazine
Listen in to learn 8 ways to make the most of your next trade show!
Build a Scalable Territory 4 ways to drive less miles, call on more customers and be a more effective salesperson It sounds too good to be true, but every salesperson can drive less miles, call on more customers, AND be a more effective salesperson by building a scalable territory.
Listen in to learn 4 requirements to building a Scalable Territory!
Sales Confidence 3 Ways to Develop the Courage to Sell
When meeting with a sales manager, they often tell me they want their salespeople to be more Confident. They know that if their team is more confident, they will sell more and run into less resistance when calling on customers. I couldn’t agree more.
However, the struggle is that confidence it is an outcome. It’s an emotion. You can’t tell someone to be confident and have it stick.
In highly competitive markets like agribusiness, salespeople are hit with a lot of resistance (mostly price resistance). They need a deep self-driven confidence that they help their customers. This comes from the knowledge that they bring great solutions to their customer’s problems.
Great! So how do we gain that confidence?
Listen in to learn 3 ways to develop the Courage to Sell!
The Complacent Prospect “Thanks, but I’m happy with my current supplier” During most training workshops, we eventually get onto the subject of prospecting and cold calling. Besides the fear of cold calling, one of the most common struggles I hear from salespeople is all about the “Complacent Prospect”. By complacent, I mean they are happy with their current supplier and don’t want to make any changes.
It might sound like: “I’m happy where I’m at. I don’t think I’m going to make any changes.”
These comments from a prospect used to strike fear in my heart. It always felt like a dead end.
Listen in to learn a great way to react to the Complacent Prospect ! 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!
Speak to Sell Watch or Listen as I interview Fred Miller
Fred has been in the public speaking and coaching speakers for over a decade. I fact, he wrote the book for most of us when it comes to public speaking, “No Sweat Public Speaking“
Don’t pass up this podcast or webcast because you don’t think you need to speak, or you don’t want to speak or you can’t speak. In today’s highly competitve market, we need every advantage to differentiate ourselves and build trust with our customers faster.
Learn how it grants you expert status in your field, which builds trust with customers, which grows sales. Fred’s mantra, “Speaking opportunities are business, career and leadership building opportunities”
PODCAST Highlights: * + - * 6:01 – How do you not sweat? Controlling the fear through rehearsing and speaking * 7:20 – The secret tactic for all great speakers – rehearsing and how to do it for best results * 12:11 – Why would I ever want to become a public speaker * 14:07 – The importance of writing your own intro: it’s not a resume, but it answers 3 questions… * 20:42 – Speaking as an opportunity * 23:07 – Key points when hiring a marketer for your company * 22:15 – Another secret of great speakers: A well crafted story
To Contact Fred, Email: fred@nosweatpublicspeaking.com Website: https://nosweatpublicspeaking.com/ _______________________________________________________________________________________
Watch this new video on Customized Sales Training for the Ag Sales Team Customized for Your Team
_______________________________________________________________________________________
Register in advance for this webinar:
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 objections.
“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
_______________________________________________________________________________________
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!