As ag suppliers and ag retailers have instituted policies restricting travel and on-farm visits, salespeople are being tasked to get a lot more comfortable in their home office chairs rather than the driver’s seat of the pickup.
As you reach out to farmers who are making final 2020 crop decisions, here are some tips to maximize sales while practicing social distancing:
1. Recognize the hurdles.
There are cons to not being able to sell face-to-face or meet at the bar for lunch. Harvard Business Review published an article citing that face-to-face meetings were 34x more successful than an email.
2. Respect and deepen your relationships.
This is a time to fully embrace the role as a trusted adviser. Reassure customers what hasn’t changed. Make any emails personal. Here’s a great article about business-to-business distribution and the interruptions due to COVID-19.
3. Know your customer history.
Sales trainer Dave Warawa suggests to analyze your existing buyers’ purchase history from now until the end of June. Be aware of which clients made large purchases and get creative on securing that business before your buyer gets a second thought to delay a renewal.
4. Make the value of your time together abundantly clear.
Because it’s spring, many farmers are already feeling rushed to get product and machinery staged for planting. And while you should always make this true for any prospective customer meeting, it can be particularly important in that phone calls or video conferences are easier to blow off for farmers than on-farm visits, says Matt Heinz, who writes more about that here.
5. Set up an invitation, and title it specifically.
If you send a calendar invite or dial-in confirmation for a virtual meeting, be sure to take it as an opportunity to reinforce the value of the meeting. Title it specifically with the benefit or value stated, rather than for example, “Demo for ABC Company.” Read more about that here, from Jill Rowley.
6. Use video conferences, if possible.
These meetings allow you to pick up on nuances and to what degree the customer is paying attention, and if they are nodding or looking confused. According to Mario Martinez Jr., “video is authentic, engaging, and improves the way you communicate with your buyers.” Just like you might wash your white pickup before heading to a farm, apply professionalism to your appearance on video conferencing. Make sure you:
- Have good lighting
- There’s quality sound for your voice and no background noises
- Reduce any clutter in the background of your video
You can read more about video conferencing tips from technology company Zoom here.
Another resource of how-tos for video conferencing is available here.
7. Act natural.
Remote sales requires you to pay even more attention to your speaking patterns and the responses of your customer, because you don’t have the physical cues of a face-to-face interaction. Practice not interrupting them, which is also challenging as internet connections may be spotty and add lag time. Matt Heinz says to practice taking a breath and waiting 1 to 2 seconds after someone finishes talking before you respond. Read more tips here.
Be patient with the technology and yourself. Investments made in how you adopt to the new ways of selling will pay off.
