Selling Value to farmers in today’s Ag economy – part 1

The three components of value in every sale:

Dollars-Time-Emotion

Have you ever had someone tell you to: “Quit selling on price and sell the value of our products!”

As salespeople, we’ve all heard this advice from sales managers, sales trainers, product managers, or social media sales gurus. It’s so easy to flip that comment out there, but much more challenging to get into the details with a salesperson on how to actually do that.

But what does that actually mean to “Go sell the value of our products?”

The first time I heard it was very early in my sales career. About the first week. I was running into price resistance on almost every farm or dealership, trying to sell my $10 product in a $5 market. The advice I got from my sales and product manager was to go sell value. The problem with that advice is that I responded like almost every new salesperson. I went out and sold the value of the product. However, the problem wasn’t the value of the product. It was certainly worth every bit of $10. The problem was with the value my prospective customers saw in it or the value they wanted/needed.

Again, most salespeople miss the mark, including me in my early years in sales.

I call it the third most common selling mistake: “Selling the wrong value to the wrong customer at the wrong time”.

You know that features and benefits cost money to add to your products. That value is undeniable. Our role as salespeople is to match that value with customers who see it and are willing to pay for it. That’s the real challenge of selling value.

In sales training, we teach that there are three forms of value in any sale: money, time, and emotional value.

When selling, you either:

Save/make them money.
Save them time (make them more efficient). Or, you
Improve a positive emotion – reduce a negative emotion

Most salespeople focus on the financial because it’s usually the easiest to measure and it’s the first one a producer will tell you about.

“What’s your price on potash?” is a frequent way for a farmer to get a new salesperson back on their heels on a sales call. Substitute potash for whatever product your customers treat as a commodity. This makes our Ag salesperson think this producer may be a price buyer. Defeated by their competitor’s cheaper potash price, our Ag salesperson will call into their manager to let them know they are getting beaten in the country on pricing.

Financial value focus

The financial value of your product never involves the value of the product. It only involves your customer’s view of that value. That may sound harsh, but no producer cares what you say the value is, nor what the current market value is for that value. The financial value measurement is 100% in the mind of your customer.

My advice if you are getting beaten on price, is to start and stay inside the mind of your customer.

How? Discover these four areas first with your customer:

Their current purchasing habits

This is the absolute first step in understanding your potential customer. People are creatures of habit unless they are in a lot of pain and want help. So, if buying a $5 product, they are more likely to stay in that range. Every farmer you call on is currently solving their problems by buying a product from the best supplier in their opinion. Our first job as a salesperson is to understand their purchase before ever recommending or quoting a price. They are currently making the best economic purchase in their mind.

2. Their money story

This concept is too often overlooked. We need to uncover – what is this producer’s opinion of money and spending? Each person grows up and develops their own money story. It’s shaped by their upbringing, their culture, and their beliefs. Are they a saver? An investor? Or spender? What are their emotions around money and wealth? Is it evil or the root of all evil? Or is it the almighty dollar? How far out do they plan financial expenses?

All of these factors will weigh in on how they decide on your products. If you see an inconsistency in their beliefs and your product’s value, then dig in with more questions around what caused their beliefs. For example, if they don’t believe in feeding a higher quality and higher priced nutrition to their hogs or corn crop, then you are going to struggle to explain how your higher per ton product yields more gain-yield. Start with their opinion of a higher yield from higher nutrient levels.

3. Their DISC profile

If not familiar, you should be. It’s key to understanding how to sell and communicate more effectively with anyone. Go to my website, blog, or podcast pages and search for DISC. Each person is in their own version of the four quadrants. During stress, like right now in the Ag economy, producers will go to their dominant DISC profile. So, D’s will seek customized control. I’s will seek influence and impact. S’s will seek everyone’s input to make decisions and avoid conflict. C’s will spend even more time analyzing details and financial info to make the best decision.

4. Their purpose for their financial gains

One of the last components is the producer’s purpose for their financial journey. This is unique to each farm and to each buyer on the farm. Goals might be:

To retire and hand off a successful farm
Reputation with the family and neighbors as being a successful producer
Stay one step ahead of their debt
Grow acres, livestock production facilities, or expand into other product lines. Maybe a specialty program to diversify a little.
Maybe it’s so tight, they just want to have some nutrition for the crops or livestock, even if it’s not ideal.

As you can see, the multiple factors in the four areas above can create some unique challenges for an Ag sales professional. It’s more than just explaining your ROI to your customer when they challenge you on price. Your product clearly has an ROI (return on investment). However, as salespeople and more importantly, as trusted advisors to our customers, we must continuously discover the information mentioned above. The more you are able to obtain it prior to explaining your ROI, the more success you will have.

As mentioned, this is part one of a three-part series. Understanding their financial value factors is only one third of their values.

We still have Time and Emotional values to uncover.

Join me right here next week when we continue with how to sell on the Time value of your products.