On The Scoop Podcast, Keith Byerly, commercial sustainability lead for Mosaic, says retailers need to celebrate their wins and take more credit for the recommendations they’ve made that have resulted in higher yields and profitability for their grower-customers. As farmers are harvesting their fields and thinking about their results, it is a great time for retailers to build their equity with their customers and humbly remind growers of how their recommendations helped grow a successful crop.
Here are seven ways to do just that:
1. Take the time to take a deep breath
“It’s this weird time where you’re trying to celebrate one production cycle coming to an end, and the good yields that are there or the okay yields that are out there, and it’s everything that we got from all the decisions that we made,” Byerly says. “At the same point in time, there’s not even a moment to catch our breath.”
He advises to make the space in your conversations with farmers to talk about the past year. Before jumping both feet into the year ahead.
2. Review the report card
Byerly recommends separating the production (the bushels) from the process (the decisions) that all culminated at the end of the season.
“Right after harvest, we jump into the decision-making process for the next cropping cycle,” Byerly says. “All of these decisions have started all over again, even though we don’t even get our report card back on the classes we just took. And it seems a little bit overwhelming, because it is.”
Byerly says a lookback at the season opens the conversation to build trust, improve on any oversights, and set a firm foundation for next year.
3. Maybe it’s more important now than ever
Byerly acknowledges the economic challenges in row crop agriculture, highlighting how a retailer’s job is beyond just agronomic products and services.
“It’s really important that the ag retailer is helping the grower celebrate, and being a little bit of that morale coach right now, helping find the good in everything that’s going on,” he says.
4. Problem-solve as a team
Things go wrong. Mistakes happen. Byerly offers how to keep any setbacks in perspective.
“It’s about getting the lows lifted up off the floor and helping keep those highs up there for our farmers right now,” he says. “But it’s also about building out that value right now, because we know that growers are faced with a lot of challenges as they look at this next production system. And the reality of it is most growers are probably going to have to find some places to reduce their expenses going into the next cropping system.”
5. Demonstrate value
Byerly spent 19 years in ag retailer, and he says a canon he returned to was providing value to the customer to the point where it was obvious how he differentiated his products and services to them.
6. Point out what went right
For Byerly’s geography in the western corn belt, he says there were more of a handful of things that went well for farmers this season.
“We have a lot of irrigation, but a lot of growers did not have to make those irrigation expenses at the same level that they’ve had to do in years past. The rainfall has been great. So, they’ve gotten some relief in that manner,” he says.
He also points to strong soybean yields, weed management, nutrient management and more.
7. Acknowledge you wear a lot of hats
“If we don’t step back from that retail side and take credit for the wins that we helped that farmer create, we really risk being compartmentalized as just, I guess, another salesperson that comes to the farm,” Byerly says.
On the list include: agronomist, data analyst, logistics coordinator, technology translator, financial strategist, and more.
“And at the same time, they’re the coach that’s keeping the team focused, that team of farmers that they’re working with, focused on what’s coming next, and that versatility that the ag retailer does on behalf of their growers is really what makes them indispensable,” he says. “But it’s also what makes it really easy to overlook when we do all of that work: the blocking, the tackling, the trench-level decisions, they just get lost in the shuffle,” he says.
