Stop over-sharing your farming experience

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.

As I walked around, I noticed the salespeople would open their sales calls with some small talk, mostly about weather, Ag politics, or farming profitability (cost of inputs and grain markets).

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. In many cases, the salesperson was fairly young. 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.

I imagined being that farmer and being told by a salesperson that they know what I mean. At best, I might be understanding and ignore their comment. However, I might take exception to them assuming they understand me.

The salespeople in this role-play exercise were all good people. They made their comments with the greatest intentions of sympathizing with the farmer. They just didn’t realize how it sounded when they made that comment.

In some role-play groups, the salesperson started to share their farming stories as they had grown up on a farm. Again, they were trying to connect. However, growing up on a farm may not mean you understand the financial burden that producers are under right now. And they definitely don’t understand this particular farmer’s challenges.

So, what do you do when a farmer begins to share their struggles of farming in today’s marketplace?

Stop and listen. They might just need to vent. Hold back from saying anything or sharing how you understand. And definitely don’t share a more negative thought than the farmer just shared. I’ve seen salespeople try to one-up the farmer with even more negative comments.

2. Ask a question: Open-ended questions are the best at this point to get them thinking and talking. The goal is to understand if their comments were serious versus venting.

Here are a few questions to get their thoughts on their situation:

Have you ever seen a market like this before?
With all that said, what kind of changes are you thinking of making?
How does this play out here on your operation?
What do you think Ag companies like ours should be doing for farmers?
What are other producers in this area doing to get out from under this market?

If they just needed to vent, those questions will tend to quiet the negative talk. At that point, you can continue your sales call with them. They weren’t looking for you to solve any of those problems.

However, if they give you serious answers to those questions, then you know they truly are thinking about solutions. At that point, you can move into a more consultative type of sales approach.

Final thought: If you were a farmer or currently farm, I still think you need to be careful when sharing your farming story. You may know exactly how they feel. Remember, the goal of the sales call is to uncover your prospect’s views. A little sharing can establish your credibility. However, keep it to a minimum and steer the conversation back to this farmer’s situation.