Product Performance

5 Ways To Handle The Dreaded “Trouble Call” In The Seed Business

SeedSeller Training TV -

This is the seed business.  A business where your product is a living, breathing organism.

That means every year, in almost every sales territory there will be a product performance issue of some type.

So are you prepared?

Do you have a plan in place for when that dreaded phone call comes in?

In this webisode of Seed Seller TV you will learn 5 Ways to Handle the Dreaded Trouble Call.

After watching the video be sure to sign up to receive our brand new FREE e-Book 7 Steps to Getting a Customer Back When Product Lets You Down. 

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Here We Are Chasing Our Tails…Again!

If you’ve ever watched a puppy chase its tail you know that all you can do is laugh because they are never going to catch it.  Meanwhile they’re burning up a lot of energy while accomplishing nothing, ending up exactly where they started.

Believe it or not, this is the time year when many sales people are doing the same thing.

I actually couldn’t believe it.  Last week I drove across our state on my way to a gig and saw three different sales reps using a weigh wagon to harvest test plots and side by sides.   And as usual, it was quite a show with pickups, trucks, tractors, weigh wagons, combines and people all over the place.

So much commotion for what?

Nothing.

I had to ask myself why the heck so many so called 21st century professionals were spending their valuable time conducting 20th century strategies.   Why were they weighing varieties that are dissimilar genetically and react so differently to an environment that will never be repeated?  Have we learned nothing in the last 10 years, let alone this past growing season?

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You Will Never Really See Your Products In Action…

If You Don’t Ride Combines!

Virtually every seed seller who uses test plots or to gather performance information relies on them for one reason.  They want to know how their products performed.

Gee, if that’s what sellers want to know, why spend all of that time and money on test plots?  Instead, why not let farmers do all of the work for you and just ride their combines?

Riding harvesters allows you to see your products perform in conditions that are more real because they are exposed to performance factors more true to type.

Think about how many more replications and locations you get to see your products in when you ride a harvester.

Plus, riding 50 harvesters gives you information on your varieties planted in 50 different locations, managed by 50 different growers, exposed to 50 different environments across hundreds of different soil types affecting the attitudes of all 50 customers in 50 different ways.

On top of that you get to focus only on your products on a harvester ride and not spend time comparing yourself with competitors.  Plots not only confuse you, but they also confuse your customers.

Get your customers, territory and company out of the test plot business; get into the 21st century and free up your life by getting into harvesters/combines this fall.  You will know so much about your products after just one season of riding harvesters that you will be able to teach everyone else about your products, including the plant breeders who developed them!

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Who’s Responsible for the Performance of Your Varieties?

SeedSeller Training TV -

Harvest season is just wrapping up in some parts of the country and just getting started in others.   Harvest time means it is time for sellers to get their “report cards” from their growers.

These report cards will determine whether or not you continue selling to your customers and they will surely include the 1000 reasons and excuses for not re-ordering your products next season.

Unfortunately for you, none of these reasons will have anything to do with the real ability of your varieties to perform.

This year a farmer’s yields, standability, dry down and grain quality will all be distorted due to uncooperative weather and bad management decisions made by growers during these difficult times.

This year acres and acres of crop got off to a bad start.  Forced replanting created more bad starts in those same fields, which were often further damaged by hail, floods, droughts, wind-induced lodging, attacks by insects and diseases.  Couple that  with growers who worked to minimize crop input costs (some just simply gave up), and you have maximum variability in product performance.

There probably isn’t a single variety in the country that will perform to its full potential this year.

In the latest webisode of SeedSeller Training TV Rod talks about who ultimately bears responsibility for the performance of your varieties on your customer’s farm and how the “1000 variables” play a crucial role in that process.

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Top 5 Factors To Producing A Top Crop!

Top 5 Factors To Producing…


Regardless of when planting takes place in your territory, it remains the most important time of the year for all seed sellers and their customers.   After all, planting season is the time of the year when both you and your customer are determining your future success.  It is also the best chance for you, the seed seller, to put yourself in a true leadership position in the grower’s mind. This is the time of the year when you will get to help growers control the most important variables that affect their level of success when producing their crop.  I call it the Top 5 Factors To Producing A Top Crop.  This spring, make sure your customers are following these Top 5 Factors and they will in fact, produce a top crop!

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