Who is more important than your customer?

When selling, don’t forget the one person more important than your customer

As Ag sales professionals, we wake up every day, jump in the pick up and head out to the farm, ranch or Ag retail store to focus all our efforts on improving the lives of our customers. 

Here is the interesting part.  So does your customer. 

They wake up every day, jump in their pickup, and focus all of their efforts on their customer.  While you may take up a lot of their time as one of their vendors, they really don’t spend much thought on you.  Unless they are about to leave you or your company is causing them frustration, they will spend most of their thoughts on their customer.

If you sell through a reseller, such as a dealer or distributor, this concept is fairly easy to grasp.  On your sales calls to them, if you spend time trying to discuss your products, the conversation will quickly turn to who, how, and why their customer’s would buy your product.  They want to know how your products will help their customers. 

However, if you sell direct to a producer, the customer’s customer conversation isn’t as clear.  Producers don’t tend to speak in terms of their customers.  However, farmers and producers are very much a business.  And, every business stays in business by serving a paying customer. 

Who is a farmer’s customer?

Crop producers – their crops are their first customer.  Then the grain elevator, food processor, export terminals, etc. 

            Livestock producers – their livestock are their first customer.  Then the sale barn buyers, packing houses, specialty market buyers, etc.

Again, most producers won’t talk in terms of their customer.  However, someone is writing them a check for their products.  Whoever that is should be considered their customer. 

How to handle this when selling?

The first step for you is to remember that there are always two sales in every sale.  The first sale is to the producer who buys and pays you for your product or service.  The second is to the crop or livestock that consumes your product or benefits from your service.  The third sale is to whoever pays the producer for their finished product.  Depending on how narrow their farm product line is, you can keep going down the line until you get to the last person paying.  For today, we will focus on the first one or two levels of a customer’s customer.

When selling to your actual customer, you need to keep their customers in your focus.  This starts during the pre-call planning.  Think about who your customer sells to.  How does it benefit them?  Does this product give your dealer an advantage in their market, with their current customers?  Will it bring in a new set of customers?  If it’s a me-too product, then why would that dealer split their purchasing to you and assign valuable retail and warehouse space to it?

It’s better to develop these answers in your pre-call planning than to look unprepared when a dealer asks you on a sales call. 

Imagine you are calling on a prospective dealer and they said, “I currently have three different products just like yours, why would I carry another?  My counter staff and sales team are not going to spend their time switching our current customers to your products!”

How would you respond? 

After understanding and explaining your advantages to a prospective dealer and to their customer, there are still a few challenges.

The first challenge is to determine if your dealer’s customer cares.  In the case of a producer, does the crop or livestock care?  Obviously, we can’t ask them, but we can observe their reaction to our products.  For crops, they respond with growth and yield.  For livestock, the first sign that they care is that they eat it.  Producers want to see their livestock consume your products. Then they want them to respond with health, growth, and yield.  This becomes a challenge in certain livestock.  Dairy and poultry have quick responses in milk and egg production.  Beef cattle, horses, and hobby livestock are much slower in their response.  How will those producers determine the advantages of your products?  Will they base it strictly on the improved results they get from your product, or will they close the loop and look at the ROI (return on investment) versus their current product?  Is that ROI enough to get your dealer’s customer to switch to your products?

Note:  In your planning process, you should certainly understand your company’s view of the benefits of your products.  Your manager and marketing department would be the first place to start.  Correctly positioning your product in the market as your company wants you to is important.  However, dealers and their customers don’t always see it the same way as your internal team does.

So, it’s time to test out your sales discussion.  I suggest that you start with several of your best dealers who already do a lot of business with you.  Spend a few minutes to get their opinion on your features/benefits of your products on their customer base.  Do their customers buy your products because of the benefits you came up with in your pre-call planning?  Do your current dealers see the advantages of offering your products as you think they should? 

After testing your discussion with current dealers, you now have much more confidence to talk to prospective dealers on how you can help them and their customers!

Try it today on your next sales call. Focus your approach on your customer’s customer. See if you get a positive response from your customer when you do.