The Life & Times of an Ag Sales Professional – Senior Year

Senior Year

There’s a life cycle in every career and being an Ag Sales Professional is no different. In most cases, we start out young, with little experience. If we stick with it, we move into our experienced years, where we climb to success and then move into the waning years of our career.

This is the fourth installment in the series. The first dealt with Freshman Year as a brand-new sales person. It dealt with some easy to learn aspects of “Things I did Right” and “Things I did wrong”. The second part dealt with Sophomore Year. This is where you begin to have some success, but haven’t figured out how or maybe why you’re having success. Last week, we went over Junior year – the most productive years of your career. This is where you’ve figured it out and you stepped on the gas to climb to the top. You developed into your own brand but had to fight off arrogance so you didn’t become your own worst enemy.

Today, we deal with the next stage in your career as an Ag Sales Professional – Senior Year. I say the next stage and not the last because as we all found out many years ago, there’s life after high school. And there is life after your senior year as a sales person. There are those select few individuals who are able to stay on top of their game and remain a viable and effective sales person late into their career. They stay current & relevant and they continue to grow & prosper on territory. However, for many of us, it can be marked with burn out, becoming out dated on the technology side of our profession or at the very least becoming complacent with our current customer base. You might even call it Senioritis.

Techy versus Relationship sales skills

I have seen many sales people in their later years, slowly lose touch with the tech skills side of the business and rely on relationship. Staying current on the technology part of your industry takes time and effort. My guess is that this lack or loss in tech knowledge started out innocently. After having success, you realize that it’s a people business. People buy from people, you agree. So, maybe it’s not so important that I know every amino acid profile needed to raise a chicken or I don’t need to understand the mode of action on how Dicamba works. After all, it’s networking and referrals that get business. True to a point. And that point is when you are no longer techy enough to help your customer – from the customer’s view. That point where you aren’t relevant any longer. The customer needs a knowledgeable sales person to solve their problems.

Recharge Your Batteries

Even chickens have to go through a molt routinely so they can boost egg production and dairy cows have to either calve or get a shot of Posilac to reverse the downward production trend post peak. We’re no different. We grow, we accelerate, we hit the peak and can only stay there so long before we start to decline. Make a conscious decision to either recharge your batteries or reinvent your career. By recharging, I mean you stay within your career path or current role and you decide to make a conscious effort to get back in tech shape. You go back to school and sharpen your technical knowledge. Not real school. This time, school can be peers, your research department and obviously on line information. You network with the tech leaders in your industry. You get a little humble and stop acting like you have it all figured out. You get curious and start asking questions. Maybe- just maybe, you hire a coach. If you decide on that route, call me. I can recommend one for you.

Re-Invent Yourself

History is littered with people that made late in life career changes before they became a huge success. One of the most famous was Colonel Sanders of KFC fame. He didn’t open his first franchise until the age of 62. While many of us at 62 are counting off days till retirement, Harlan Sanders was just getting started after a career that included steam engine stoker, insurance salesman and filling station operator. Proving that it’s never too late. I’ve seen many dairy sales people who got out of touch with the tech side of the business reinvent themselves in the retail feed business. I’ve seen general managers who didn’t make the cut to keep moving up the corporate ladder go to a role as a sales manager and make a whole new legacy of success for themselves. Or instead of staying in management, they opted out of the supervision role and went back on territory. Realizing why they got into the business in the first place. So, if you’re feeling like the success train has passed you by and you need to make a change, look around your industry and see what’s on the edge of breaking through. Determine what you really enjoy doing. Then figure out a way to make that a career for yourself.

Pitfalls:

– Your old, but not that old: See the story of Colonel Sanders above. There’s nothing in us that switches off and doesn’t allow us to learn, grow, develop, etc. It’s our own decision or our own complacency/laziness that allows us to become outdated or not as relevant as we used to be.

– I don’t need to go to training: I hear this a lot. “I’ve been doing this for 20, 30…years. So, I got it down pretty good.” Maybe so, but everyone needs a coach, mentor, advisor. If Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan and Aaron Rodgers all needed a coach when they were at their peak performance, then I’m guessing you and I could benefit from a little coaching/training. We may not learn anything new, but need to be reminded of things we knew but forgot or let slip. One of the main goals of training I work on with more advanced sales people is bridging the Knowing-Doing Gap. Most know what to do. The concepts and the knowledge are all there within the person I’m coaching. It’s just a matter of bringing out the “doing” part.

– Arrogance: I had this in last week’s blog and will keep it here again. This can creep into the Senior year as well. The old adage that Success Breeds Failure says –

Success breeds Confidence

Confidence Breeds Arrogance

Arrogance breeds Complacency

Complacency Breeds Failure

Senior year of your career can get a little scary. You’re realizing that this might be it for you. You may feel replaceable or realize your work-life mortality so to speak. Take a minute to reflect on your career, figure out what you really enjoy doing and find a way to specialize in that area.

Keep reminding yourself that