The Best Swag To Give Farmers
Brigette Readel has closed one chapter of her career after 25 years in ag chemical sales, but now her next era focuses on teaching others sales skills they can use.
Readel and two additional co-founders have started Ag Mafia to bring training and coaching to ag retail sales professionals. Their slogan is to be “more than a price list and a pickup.”
From her experience in leading agronomic training and marketing events, she says the best giveaway was probably alcohol. And she additionally shared she’d put the top shelf varieties at the front of the room—and the more common brands toward the back.
She says, “Everybody jumps in and finds a seat and sits down. It worked out great.”
This classroom type hack probably has to do with her background in ag education.
“I always thought I was going to be a high school ag teacher. Instead I teach adults,” she says. “And I love the fact that sales is a lot like being a teacher. You create your lesson plan or your pre call plan if you will. You close the deal. Maybe sometimes you have to give homework assignments, because in order for it to work best for the retailer or the farmer, you're gonna need some follow up.”
She also uses an educational approach to her informational but fun teaching moments.
“I try to speak in very commonality way that we can all use terms that work across the board. So for instance, when I want to talk about weed size, I'm going to use things like a 12 ounce pop can because that's a five and a half inches tall. It shows you the four to six inch range on weeds or if you lay it on its side to show a 6” row set so that's something relative that people can relate to,” she says.
Readel has created multiple series of content on social media. She says it’s been valuable making connections on those platforms as well as meeting online connections in real life.
“The best compliment is when someone says you're the same in real life as you are online,” she says.
One such opportunity is the upcoming Agronomy On Ice event.
Readel talks more about the importance of mentoring and more in The Scoop podcast.
She also emphasizes how important it is find mentors and be a mentor to others.
