How to tell if you are an Ag Sales Professional

If You Ever…..

Many of you will remember Jeff Foxworthy and his classic comedy routine of “You might be a Redneck”. They were a series of things that you might have done in your life that indicated that you might be a redneck. Recently, I was in mixed company and was telling a story about selling feed. By mixed company, I mean some were in the Ag field and some were not. Anyway, I was telling them about an experience I had one Saturday several years earlier. I had to take a detour while in route to a Brewer’s game with my son in the car. A poultry customer of mine had sick birds and needed help to get a manure sample delivered to the lab. So, on a very warm July day, I collected the sample, headed to the game and delivered it to the lab when I got back home. I’m sure forever scaring my son away from the Ag world. As expected, the group I was telling this story to had mixed reactions. Those in the Ag field, were mildly amused but had similar experiences. Those not in the Ag field, were reassured that they would never want to be in the Ag field and didn’t understand why we were.

After telling this story, I thought to myself how many of these unique experiences happen to those of us that spend our lives in the Ag Profession. Hope you enjoy the following. Feel free to send me any of your own unique experiences that have happened to you.

You might be an Ag Sales Professional!

If you ever hired your kids to bag feed samples, you might be an Ag Sales Professional
If you ever got excited because you were upgraded from a manual hay probe to a cordless drill hay probe, you might be an Ag Sales Professional
If you ever scouted fields on the longest day of the year and still ran out of daylight before getting all your fields scouted, you might be an Ag Sales Professional
If you ever balanced rations at midnight, you might be an Ag Sales Professional
If a producer ever changed his soybean seed order on you 4 times between September & spring planting and then cancelled because he went corn on corn, you might be an Ag Sales Professional.
If you know what a manure screener is and brag about it at family holiday gatherings, you might be an Ag Sales Professional
If you were ever detained by TSA because you had a sample bag of mineral or forage in your suitcase, you might be an Ag Sales Professional
If a producer ever told you he was waiting for $4 corn, then when corn hit $4, he decided he really wants $4.25, you might be an Ag Sales Professional
If most of your car trunk or truck bed and half your garage is full of promo material, free hats to give away, brochure boxes and other display material, you might be an Ag Sales Professional.
If you ever violated a branding guideline, turned in a late expense report, lost an expense receipt or multi-tasked on a conference call, you might be an Ag Sales Professional.
If the local coffee shop is faster than social media at spreading information about you and your products, you might be an Ag Sales Professional
If you ever had to collect on a past due customer that had their back against the wall and you went to bat for them to get their account refinanced with a repayment program that kept them in business, then you might be an Ag Sales Professional.
If you ever had to explain for the hundredth time at a trade show booth that “No, we don’t put hormones in our feed”, you might be an Ag Sales Professional.
If you ever gave a PowerPoint presentation on the back of a pickup tail gate in the rain or snow, you might be an Ag Sales Professional
If you ever held the tail of a cow out of the way for your customer as he pulls a calf, you might be an Ag Sales Professional. And if you actually made the sale while doing this, there’s no “might” about it. You are definitely an Ag Sales Professional.

Selling in the Ag profession has some very rewarding and exciting experiences for those individuals that pick up a set of car keys and head out to make farm calls. I know some of these are humorous and may sound a slight bit less glamorous than other professions. However, if you do pursue a career in Ag Sales and it’s a fit, you will find it rewarding, full of ups, downs, travels and interesting people that you wouldn’t meet in any other profession.