Selling Services
March 22, 2010 Grower application was one topic that CropLife Media Group editors brought up at a recent informal meeting of leading retailers to discuss industry trends. A conclusion: Farmers are being encouraged to do more application work themselves because retailers haven’t accurately justified the costs to growers.
Participants are concerned that they’ve given too much away to growers over the years in the form of services — and that the whole structure of product movement to the grower will have to change from the current system. Their feeling is retailers have to decide what value they want to bring to big customers who will be around for the next 10 years. If smaller customers don’t want to pay for services, a dealer won’t be able to provide them service.
Brent Sutton, president and general manager of Growers Fertilizer Inc., Lake Alfred, FL, would stand by the complimentary services his company offers. “Salesmen are out in the field constantly bug checking and making recommendations for sprays,” he explains. His staff usually finds a problem before a grower is even aware of it. Soil sampling with fertilizer recommendations is also a free service.
And while precision agriculture services have been growing, CropLife 100 retailers say some growers will always hit a wall with the technology. “A vast majority of people out there are not really into precision,” says Roger Oliver, president of Van Horn Inc., Cerro Gordo, IL. “Our customers aren’t really willing to pay for it.”
Tim McArdle, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Brandt Consolidated, Springfield, IL, agrees: “About 35% to 40% of our customers are doing some sort of precision agriculture. For others the learning curve is steeper, but we feel the investment is justified and profitable.”
Risk management tools will be a big opportunity to get in solid with the more professional grower, believes Dave Coppess, vice president of sales and marketing at Heartland Coop, West Des Moines, IA. “Our sales team is focused on their technical ability to help the grower choose the right seed, the right crop nutrients, crop protection products, but I am not sure the farmer, and in particular the commercial grower, finds as much value in that as they used to,” he says.
“I feel we have to shift as ag retailers to understand what the growers are going to value. The growers have told us that grain marketing skills are what they do value, so I think that, over the longer term, we have to shift the focus of our sales team to become more farm manager-type people,” Coppess says.
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