Ag Sales Professional's Podcast by Greg Martinelli

They want you to do a good job at selling to them Here’s a bold thought for today:  Your customer wants you to be a successful salesperson.  They want you to do a good job of selling to them.  They may not act like it, but they truly want you to do well when you call on them. As salespeople, we often get the feeling that customers are not on our side because we are trying to sell them something.  Even if we use a highly relationship style of selling, we still get that feeling.  It’s not that we feel like the enemy, but more like an adversary.  Listen in as we discuss how to change your view of your sales call audience!

How to overcome the fear of rejection and keep the sale alive Farmers (really, all customers) shop harder during tough times.  This week, I want to also remind salespeople that in tough times, producers will reduce all expenses with their vendors.  You are going to experience more “No” responses in your closing questions than you did previously. That fear of rejection (no) is still one of the strongest emotions that salespeople have.  So fearful, many salespeople will find any excuse not to cold call or prospect.  Just the act of turning the steering wheel and driving down the farmer’s driveway seems impossible.  7 of the most common No’s: No for now No to you No to your company No to that product or service No to changing No to the risk/reward No to the price Listen in as we uncover some ways to overcome these objections

The seven stations on every customer’s journey Are you helping, hurting, or ignoring them? Over the last ten years of weekly blog articles and podcast episodes, the focus has mostly been on improving your selling process.  I think it’s important to spend a few minutes discussing the buying process that your customers go through.  It’s appropriately called the “Customer’s Journey”.  It’s their journey to becoming your customer.  It’s also their journey when they decide to stop being your customer. This journey has seven stations or stops along the way.  The visual below helps to understand them. Listen in as we discuss how you can use a simple set of questions to understand your target market and sell more ideal customers.

How to be persistent to get the sale versus being pushy Every salesperson knows they have to be persistent to gain a customer, to get a prospect appointment, or to make a follow-up appointment again and again. However, not one single salesperson in the world wants to be known as pushy.  This is even more true in agribusiness.  Listen in to hear how you can go from pushy to persistent, and increase sales in the process!

Set the bar low to build daily selling skills that stick! We hear it every day, “Shoot for the stars…. Reach for the stars….Aim High…..Set your sights high…..Dream big.”  Even the famed Herb Tarlek told us to, “Think big to be big”, on the 1970s sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati.  While those sound great, most people fail to achieve those lofty goals because they don’t know what to do on day one of that journey.  They set New Year’s resolutions on Jan 1, but by Quitting Day (Jan 16 this year), they don’t know how to sustain their journey.  They set the bar so high and the daily journey effort so high that they crush under the weight.  Salespeople fall into this same trap! Listen in to learn the three steps to achieving great success in sales and life!

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

5 action items to consider when inheriting customers or a territory Most of us began our sales career by inheriting a set of customers in our sales territory.  You signed on and were most likely given a list of customers to call on in your designated territory.  In Ag, we are typically given a geographic territory.  The strange thing is that we often inherit these customers with little guidance on how to manage them: who to call on, who to ignore, or how to grow the business.  Part of the reason can be that our managers may not know a lot about them.  Maybe the previous salesperson was a long-term employee who retired and kept their customers closed off from the company.  Maybe these customers are part of an acquisition and they are brand new to your company and to you.  Whatever the reason, we are challenged to venture out into the country and make the best out of our territory.  With your time as your number one resource, it’s important to spend it wisely when given a large group of new customers.  Listen in as we cover 5 action items to consider when inheriting customers or a sales territory

Do what every customer wants their salesperson to do Every customer or prospect you meet feels the same way about you when you call on them.  “Hear me now.  Sell me later”.  As salespeople, we struggle with this concept.  We get pressured by our customers to speed up the sales call.  Customers might ask us to, “Let’s cut to the chase!  What are you selling today?”  This shortening of the sales call leaves out the most important part:  high-value questions in the discovery phase of the sale.  However, everyone in the world is seeking to be understood.  Listen in as we go over the easiest and fastest way to get customers to hear you. Listen first, then sell. A throwback to SNL’s Hanz and Franz from 1987!

7 Ways you can make this the “The most wonderful time of the year” It’s the week before the Christmas Holidays and I have several questions for you: Is it really the most wonderful time of the year?  Does it really only come around once a year?  Is Santa really on his way to spread cheer throughout the farmland? If you are older than 12, then the answer to all three questions is “No”.  Let’s just summarize this entire situation as a stressful tradition.  We are glad to have but happy when it’s over and we can get back to “normal”. Holiday stress is where the salesperson and sales manager can make a huge difference in the lives of their fellow employees as well as their customers.  A little effort by the sales team goes a long way.  Why? Because making any effort to reduce this stress when you don’t have to will show up all year long.  Listen in as we discuss the 7 Ways you can make the holidays, “The most wonderful time of the year”

Do your customers understand the downside of not buying your products from you? Do you know how to build the case for buying your product line?  And buying it from you?  With narrow profit margins, every decision your customer makes is critical to this year’s financial results.  That means fear plays a big part in their decisions.  As their salesperson and trusted advisor, it is your role to uncover their fears and help them make better buying decisions. To do that, you need to know how to build the case for buying your product line.  Then, build the case for buying that product line from you.  Listen in as we dig deeper into how you can help your customers during fearful farming times!

Interview with Kevin Hubschmannon how to improve your selling skills through improv and open mic nights Even if you don’t want to become a comedian or an improv actor, if you are in sales, you can learn valuable skills by studying and practicing their methods. If you have followed my weekly articles and podcasts, you know that I have focused on this topic at times over the last ten years. The main reason is that selling is not a scripted activity. Sure, you have PowerPoint presentations with a script. You have brochures and other collateral that have scripts. Yet, we get in front of our customers and we are off script 90% of the time (maybe more). Many salespeople, especially in agribusiness selling, will sell in environments that don’t allow for PowerPoint or formal sales presentations. The skills needed to: Think on your feet Listen intently to your customer Use positive replies to build the discussion to a sale – “Yes, and” Summarize and bring the discussion to a close to get the next appointment All of these skills line up with comedy skills Listen to the podcast as Kevin Hubschman from Laugh@events joins me to discuss how you and your sales team can develop these selling skills.

Recharge your prospect funnel by going from ABC to ABP In the classic sales movie, Glengarry Glen Ross, we are told to: “ABC – Always be Closing”.  Some salespeople and sales managers like this advice because it sounds hard-nosed, as if you are really driving toward sales goals.  True, but not a practical approach in Ag sales, as we work in long-term selling relationships that require a consultative approach.  ABC will work for some, but mostly, it will get you kicked off the farm or out of the buyer’s office. In training, I recommend two alternatives to ABC.  My first is, “ABTC – Always be trial closing”.  This approach allows you to continue digging for information to ensure you are a good fit before actually closing.  My second alternative to ABC is: “ABP – Always be Prospecting” Listen in as we discuss how to fix your funnel in the next 90 days!

The three question formats for sales questions and the order you should ask them The number one trait that every Ag sales professional tells me they do not want to be is “Salesy”. Yet most salespeople approach their sales calls in a very salesy manner – they begin their sales call by presenting their products or highlighting their sale of the month.  A big part of the reason is that producers are good at getting us to spill our sales guts.  “I’m busy, what do you got for me today?”  or “What’s your price on potash?”  Then we jump right into our sales pitch. Or, we go too far the other way and attempt not to use a selling approach at all – “I just go out there and get to know them.”  While we do want to get to know our customers, this method can lead to a long discussion that goes nowhere. A skilled sales approach is designed to use discovery questions before presenting any solution to a customer.  Good discovery questions allow you to uncover needs or desired changes that a producer might be looking for. However, we may not feel comfortable asking some of these deep diving questions as they can appear pushy or intrusive.  That’s why the format of the questions and the sequence are so important.

Selling success requires all three…..How to attend your next sales meeting Ever listen to a motivational speaker at the annual sales meeting and get all inspired by the message?  Maybe you even bought their book right after they spoke.  However, by the time you drove home from the meeting, you lost that enthusiasm. Ever learn some great selling skills but never put them into use on your sales calls? If you have been in sales for a while, you answered with a resounding “Yes” to both of those questions. Why is that? Listen in as we discuss your role as a salesperson or sales manager at your next meeting!

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!

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 […]

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. […]