Here’s a recent Q&A with Steven Valencsin who founded Growers in 2012 as a boutique consulting company, which has evolved to introduce Growers Rally, a sales enablement platform for ag retail. He says ag retail can use technology to demonstrate value.
What makes Growers Rally unique software?
The people in agriculture have minds like steel traps—they have created a business built on spreadsheets, notebooks and their memory. That works, but it presents tons of operational risks. Agriculture has zero interest, time or motivation to use a robust CRM tool to keep track of the business. So we created software that can do the 10 to 15 things really needed by ag retail and do them very well. The result is Growers Rally, which minimizes data entry; is streamlined on desktop, tablet and phone; and creates a professional next-level experience.
What’s been the feedback from users?
Ag retail is a relationship-driven business, but this tool brings sophistication and creates a mutual win-win. Salespeople like that Growers Rally makes them look very professional and responsive. And for management, it solves for organizational and sales problems in keeping accurate inventories, etc.
Who are your customers today?
Our target customer is the mid- to small-scale ag retailer. They have to compete differently than their larger scale competitors, and they are receptive to learning a way to gain a competitive advantage in changing the way they sell. It changes the dialogue from being about price to being about service and value—that’s where they want to be.
What’s your strategy in the future?
Resilience is in our DNA. It uniquely aligns us with our customers. The reason why technology in general rarely lands well in agriculture is it’s very nuanced. No two businesses are the same. No one sells the same. If technology is looking to do the same thing the same way every time, it doesn’t work. So our onboarding process is consultive to understand how a customer’s business flows.
What does digitizing the ag retail business mean?
It means they have a single view of customers. It’s a single source of truth for product and price list. And it requires engagement from the frontline sellers and commitment from executives. It’s not a complicated equation, but it doesn’t happen accidentally.
