3 Keys to Increasing Sales While Behind a Windshield

Windshield Time -

When I began my seed selling career, I was put in charge of three states.  It was just me, our dealers and customers.

The problem was, I didn’t have any dealers or customers.

I was the first employee of a brand new seed company so I was starting from zero in all three states.  That obviously meant that I didn’t have any sales either.

As a result, I had to spend a lot of time on the road, behind the windshield of my pickup searching for buyers and sellers for our seed.   After all, my job description only had one line in it, sell seed.                          . 

So I spent a lot of time driving.  I considered a sale of any size, anywhere in the three state areas to be an opportunity and a step forward, regardless of how inefficient the pursuit may have been.

I logged thousands and thousands of miles.  In fact, the more miles I drove, the greater feeling of satisfaction I had that I had been working really hard.

But if I have any right at all to a disclaimer on this point it is that we had no cell phones, e-mail or even fax machines.  The highest level of communication that was available to a road warrior was the telephone booth and some small towns didn’t even have one of those.

I didn’t even have a tape player in my pickup to listen to self-improvement tapes, at least until a few years later.

But it took me only one selling season to realize that my system of logging miles was getting me nowhere fast.

Even though my year ended with a very nice first year sales increase, I was worn out and so was my pickup.    Click to continue…

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Categories: Time Management | Tags: ,

The Most Important Customer Contact of the Year!

Planting Customers -

The planting season is the official start of the new selling season and the official end of the old one.

With that being known what is your strategy to start the brand new selling season off on the right foot?  What is your plan to strengthen the relationships you have with each one of your growers? How can you put yourself on the path to reach your dream sales goals?

The answer is “Planting Customers” and it is the Most Important Customer Contact of the Year!

Watch this webisode from Seed Seller Training TV and see why.

 

Click here to learn how you can get a copy of your very own “Planting Customers” Audio Training Program!

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Top 10 Lies Farmers Told Seed Sellers This Year!

Seed Seller Training Radio -

How Can You Increase Sales When You’re Being Lied To?

In our most recent podcast from Seed Seller Training Radio we tackle this issue head on.  Lying has been rampant among growers this selling season.  But can you blame farmers for that?

Too many seed sellers force farmers into lying because they waste so much of their time.

In this podcast

  • Top 10 Lies Farmers Told This Year
  • Why farmers lie to seed sellers
  • What seed sellers can do to promote truth and honesty in their sales territory

Click the audio player above and listen to see if any of these top ten lies were told to you this year.

If you don’t have a strategy for your customers this planting season you need one!  Click here for your game plan!

 

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5 Answers You Get From Your Sales Report!

A Sales Report Tell Us:

As a former full-time field seller, I received comprehensive sales reports every two weeks and mini reports every week.

These, “tell it like it really is” statements told me and the rest of the company how I was doing in every single category compared to a year ago, a month ago and a week ago.

I could not wait to get this information because I knew it was going to tell me “what do do next.”  The sales reports I recieved offered a wealth of information that would help me design a “road map” to success.

Here are just a few of the things that sales reports tell us about our past, our present and our future.

1. How big our sales force is at any given time.

We all know that the greater the number of people out selling our products, the more we sell.  Customers who have ordered, according to the sales report, should become official active members of our sales force and should be working hard in some way to sell for us

No, they don’t have to write orders, but they can talk about us, give testimonials, offer referrals and countless other things to help increase sales of the company they are buying from.

Unfortunately, few if any of them are “selling” because they are not asked to sell.

When a field seller sees a customer’s name on the sales report as having placed an order, that should set into action a series of events that gets the customer into the “selling mode.”  This indicator will tell us what our chances of reaching our sales goals are, any time during the sales season.

If few people have orders in, then we have very few people selling for us.  That means that our chances of making sales goals are pretty slim.

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5 Steps To Opening A Brand New Seed Sales Territory

Q&A

The following is a great question I received over Twitter.

Question:

 

 

 

@RodOsthus Rod, Recently became a seller in a new territory. Any suggestions other than driving around aimlessly for making contacts?

 

Answer:

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Categories: Most Popular, Sales Story | Tags:
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