Farmers Make Good SalesPeople...Not necessarily the other way around

Two years ago I moved to a semi-rural area. It has a history of large, open tracts of land where corn, peas and alfalfa were and are still grown. The residents of the area are crusty, old and come to find out, WISE! I have seen some of the best sales-skills in action as I stand on the corner and take a tongue-lashing for killing off my corn by sprinkling instead of flooding. I have tried to put all their words of advice into practice over the past two years. We ended up with 1600 ears of corn on less than a 1/4 acre by doing so.

Let me relate the story... When I moved, I thought I could be a farmer. I watched my neighbors. Plowed when they plowed, watered when they watered, sprayed when they sprayed. When I decided to plant my 800 feet of row corn, little did I know what it would take to keep it alive as the temperature climbed.

I planted seeds and started watering via sprinklers. After about 3 weeks, it started to sprout. It grew to about 3 inches tall and then started to curl up and turn purple. The next Sunday, at church, one of my crusty neighbors walked up to me, looked at me and said, "Yer killin' it!" and shambled off. I stood there for a minute, shocked at his candor. I caught up to him after about 3 strides and asked him what he meant and what I should do. He proceeded to explain that I should be flooding my rows instead of sprinkling. He also said I might as well plow it under and start over. I had put too much effort into creating rows and planting to just give up!

I went home and converted my irrigation over to flood-method the next day. After two weeks of flooding it, I succeeded in resurrecting my corn. It began to grow again. The following week, the same crusty old farmer shambled back up to me and mumbled, "Glad to see yer stubborn enough not to give up." Then he meandered off again.

I learned some very important lessons that year that relate directly to sales.

1. Flood the Field, don't just sprinkle - you must create momentum in the first 90-120 days of selling a new product or entering a new market. Figure your win ratio, your goal and then make enough calls to exceed that number by 120%. Seed loss is a big issue with corn, I planted 2-3 seeds for every stalk that actually came up. Plan on it.

2. Listen to the old and crusty farmers around you. I have learned more from my recent manager who's been around the block than all my other managers combined. He is old-school, but I found more than one nugget of gold by going back and doing it the way the old-timers did it. I learned how to track and predict my business/harvest like never before.

3. Be Patient. Too many SOS expect their efforts to yield immediately. Some patches of ground may require fertilizer and bug killing. Expect 6-9 months for a patch to really start yielding fruit. Don't forget to Flood.

SOS are typically impatient and don't take the time to analyze their field or activities that are supposed to yield fruit. Just walking around the field will not make the corn grow. Timing is important. Steps to success are important and you can't shortcut them. Farmers know that and live by it. Learning from every source possible and imitating successful SOS will go a long way towards a harvest. Be wiling to alter your style of watering (selling) if necessary. Don't be the typical arrogant SOS who thinks their way is the only way.

Just like I had more corn that I could eat, I have had sale's harvests that filled my b ucket to overflowing and it was all I could do to bring it in fast enough or follow up with all the requests.