The Blog for the Ag Sales Professional

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 […]

 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 […]

How to navigate the risks and opportunities when selling to farmers and Ag buyers Volatility is great for Ag salespeople, Volatility is bad for Ag salespeople, As salespeople, we love selling into a booming market.  By booming, I mean a steady and profitable customer base that sells an in-demand product well above break-even.  Those are […]

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 […]

Do you really understand how they feel? 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 these role plays, there are three people: the customer (farmer), the salesperson, and the observer. […]

How to answer important questions from your customer I spend a lot of time training salespeople on how to ask questions.  Good questions, great questions, high-value questions, open-ended questions, and so on. It is the top-selling skill needed to accomplish everything when selling, when cold calling, to determine a customer’s needs, to close a sale, […]

Part 3 How to build Emotion Value An old sales adage says, “Every purchase is an emotional decision justified with logic”.  It implies that humans are emotional and are driven to purchase based on their emotions.  They want to feel like they are making the most rational decision based on financial/business factors.  However, emotions are […]