Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 62 Page 63 Page 64 Page 65 Page 66 Page 67 Page 68 Page 69 Page 70 Page 71 Page 72 Page 73 Page 74 Page 75 Page 76 Page 77 Page 78 Page 79 Page 80 Page 81 Page 82 Page 83 Page 84 Page 85 Page 86 Page 87 Page 88 Page 89 Page 90 Page 91 Page 92 Page 93 Page 94 Page 95 Page 96 Page 97 Page 98 Page 99 Page 100 Page 101 Page 102 Page 103 Page 104 Page 105 Page 106 Page 107 Page 108 Page 109 Page 110 Page 111 Page 112 Page 113 Page 114 Page 115 Page 116 Page 117 Page 118 Page 119 Page 120 Page 121 Page 122 Page 123 Page 124 Page 125 Page 126 Page 127 Page 128 Page 129 Page 130 Page 131 Page 132 Page 133 Page 134 Page 135 Page 136 Page 137 Page 138 Page 139 Page 140 Page 141 Page 142 Page 143 Page 144 Page 145 Page 146 Page 147 Page 148DECEMBER 2016 SEEDWORLD.COM / 75 NINETY PERCENT OF all agriculture salespeople aren’t succeeding in today’s marketplace. I guess that’s no secret. This is my 44th year in the business and I’ve watched it all happen. Any company man- agers who have seen their customer bases shrink, sales territories stagnate, and prof- its decline, know what I’m talking about. What most of them don’t realize, how- ever, is those downward trends aren’t caused by the changing marketplace but, instead, by their own sales reps who don’t have the skills necessary to sell to today’s farmers. Field sellers have not stayed ahead of all the changes taking place in this marketplace — they’ve fallen behind. How many sellers in your company get sales increases every year, regardless of the economy, market prices, competitor programs or product performance? Less than 1 percent, I’ll bet. The bright side is that any field seller can “kill it” in this mar- ketplace if they have the specialized skills needed to lead 21st century farmers. The old techniques no longer work. Ag sellers must learn how to take back control and lead farmers where they don’t know they need to go. That is the secret to success. Everyone keeps talking about the great opportunities in this marketplace. But for many companies this is not a time of opportunity — it’s a time of trouble. The way things are going right now, your customers are working to put you out of business and don’t even realize they’re doing it. That’s why company managers need to wake up and fix their selling force. When they stop fooling themselves into thinking that some- how out-of-date, untrained distribution SALES COACHING It’s Not the Marketplace — It’s Your Own Salespeople ROD OSTHUS PRESIDENT, R.C. THOMAS COMPANY @RodOsthus • rod@rcthomas.com • rcthomas.com systems are going to heal themselves and become effective selling machines, real progress will begin to take place. At that point, leaders will stop spending so much time creating marketing strategies and sales programs for sales forces that aren’t capable of using them and, instead, get their sellers into specialized training on how to sell to farmers. If a rep doesn’t know what to say when a farmer brings up price, markets, competitors or wants to put off ordering, the sale is either lost or the cus- tomer gets his way. They need social skills training and lots of it. How much longer will you stand by and watch one, two, or three years of lost mar- gins turn into a long-term trend? That’s the fastest way I know to predict your future and, unless you fix your sales force, it’s not a bright one. A GOOD DRYER is important for any seed business. Seed treatment and pellet- izing are becoming profit centers for seed companies, and dryers are an integral piece of the system. Without a proper dryer, it is not easy to maintain treatment quality, consistency and production throughput.   Most significantly, there has been advancement in automation and process control. The machines are becoming much more sophisticated, allowing the operator to step away from making subjective adjust- ments to process parameters.  For heated dryer applications, there has been noteworthy development in opti- mizing the temperature distribution of the machine, ensuring that the maximum allow- able temperature for a kernel or treatment is not exceeded.                 I’m often asked why it’s so important to have a good dryer. It’s all about getting the treatment onto the seed. By integrat- ing a proper dryer into the treatment pro- cess, the tack-phase of the treatment can be extended without running the risk of clumping and treatment buildup on equip- ment. Furthermore, a fluidized bed dryer has the added benefit of providing a superb, “polished” aesthetic to the seed.   Aside from the basics of a high-quality and well-engineered dryer, scrutiny should be given to the dryer’s compatibility with your process. At this point, there is no standard one-size-fits-all dryer, so having an equipment solutions partner that listens to your needs and advises accordingly is crucial. A common question I get is, “Can you engineer and build a dryer that does XX SEED CONDITIONING Push the Limits, Find the Edge OKAN SARIBAL OLIVER MANUFACTURING TECHNICAL DIRECTOR Okan.Saribal@olivermanufacturing.com • olivermanufacturing.com for me?” Many times, it seems the common questions come down to the ability to pro- vide tailored solutions for a specific client. In the near-term, the most exciting strides will continue to be related to process automation. Many machines have “com- puter controls”, but they’re often serving as glorified on/off switches. By pairing/developing the appropriate sensing technologies with sophisticated controls algorithms, the next-generation machines will be able to process treatment very precisely, regardless of the variables at play. It’s also crucial to plan for the future with some surplus drying capacity. Treatment rates are on the rise, and are not expected to plateau any time soon. The dryer market is still in its infancy, and many folks are pushing the limits to figure out where the edges are.