2022 New Product Of The Year Runner-Up: A Digital Springboard
Growers Rally is a sales enhancement platform designed specifically to help ag retailers stand out in today’s competitive environment. The Scoop’s audience voted this product as the runner-up in the new product of the year contest for 2022.
“We are proud of this announcement. It seems timely with all of the headwinds and tailwinds in ag retail,” says Growers CEO Steven Valencsin. “Alternatives are being sought out to give more value to farmers. It’s how ag retail is differentiating its business and reducing the cost in how they serve farmers.”
Via Rally, frontline sellers get information such as universal pricing and product lists, a view of historical sales and the ability to quickly and easily send product and price quotes directly to customers via text message or email. Management benefits from knowing every seller is using current, accurate pricing and can effectively forecast product needs.
Valencsin says since the official rollout in 2022, users of Rally have realized benefits including better planning, better forecasting and better reporting.
“Today, there’s no margin for errors in ag retail,” he says. “The consequences are bigger than four years ago.”
Success stories include narrowing the amount in inventory write-offs. One Rally user had one year’s write-offs total $500,000, but since implementation, write-offs have been significantly reduced.
“We’ve seen a lot of success on the bottom line level. When orders are digital, they aren’t lost, and things go out on time,” he says. “We’re also hearing of salespeople earning more deals because they can be more prompt and more responsive to customers. It’s shrinking the transaction time.”
Valencsin says his team at Growers is solely focused on product development of Rally and applying an “easy-to-use” lens in every way.
“Technology is plagued with long onboarding, tons of training and implementation rollouts that span years. That’s a nonstarter for a lot of organizations that want a tool they can implement immediately and use in a simple, easy way,” he says.
With a focus to digitize the relationship with the farmer, Growers Rally was developed to be aligned with the ag retailer and provide turnkey technology.
“A lot of people are trying to boil the ocean,” he says. “We are trying to be focused at solving one problem at a time.”
After its first year of commercial availability, Rally is now expanding with an app for farmer-facing product searches.
“We know the way farmers are doing business is changing,” Valencsin says. “We’re here to provide the backend to make that possible for ag retail to be aligned with the changing farmer.”
