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 76FEBRUARY 2017 SEEDWORLD.COM / 43 MOST COMPANY LEADERS measure success by whether or not they achieve their sales and profit goals. But in today’s volatile ag marketplace, smart leaders have learned that sales and profit are no longer the most relevant indicators of long-term success. Instead, it’s their customer reten- tion rate. The seed industry has one of the worst records for retaining customers. The aver- age customer retention rate among ag companies ranges from 60-70 percent. It’s impossible to achieve your goals, let alone stay in business, when there’s that big a leak in the customer retention boat. The following are reasons for these hor- rendous customer retention rates: 1. Companies don’t implement a mini- mum order size policy. Sales reps often take even the smallest sale, just to advance toward their sales goals. A minimum order size strategy results in a larger order from first-time buyers, increasing the chances of creating a longer-term customer. 2. Salespeople haven’t been taught that customers only include those who buy at least 51 percent of their needs from them. Until a farmer is buying more than half of his needs from the rep, he is the rep’s competitor. The farmer is more loyal to the competition than he is to the rep. Non-customers leave most often. 3. Companies reward first-time buyers, while ignoring current loyal buyers. Want to drive off your current customers? Give new buyers rewards for buying the first time and ignore your current customers. 4. Companies base internal reward programs on achieving sales and profit goals, instead of customer retention rewards. Field sellers should be rewarded for retaining customers. SALES COACHING How Are You Quantifying Success? ROD OSTHUS PRESIDENT, R.C. THOMAS COMPANY @RodOsthus • rod@rcthomas.com • rcthomas.com 5. Company salesforces are too small. Customers (those buying 51 percent or more of their needs from you) are your salesforce. Field sellers need to focus on taking more buyers to the customer level. That is not only the fastest way to increase sales, but also dramatically increases cus- tomer retention rates. The number of farmers continues to decline. Few sales reps or managers spend enough time thinking about the effects of that decline and how it compounds the impact on their business from losing even a single customer. Customer retention rates need to be as close to 100 percent as possible. Not one farmer should leave you unless he dies, quits farming, or doesn’t pay his bill. It does no good to bring new buyers onboard if you continue to lose the current ones. GRAVITY TABLE SEPARATORS are a must for most seed businesses. It’s a hugely common piece of equipment, but as a result, they can often be taken for granted — to the extent that people don’t think about maintaining or upgrading them. Any neglected piece of equipment can lead to downtime, and this crucial machine is no exception. No one likes downtime. Any downtime in production is money lost. In any seed business, you want to aim for 100% up-time. Obviously, sometimes machines have to be shut down for maintenance. Unforeseen problems happen. The key is to aim for as much up-time as possible with your grav- ity separator. You will never hit 100% in the real world, but you should try. Here’s how to get there: Make sure the machine is in top working condition. Whether it’s screens or another piece of the equipment, you want to ensure it is operating to the best of its ability. Gravity separators that were purchased some time ago need regu- lar inspection. People will often upgrade everything around the gravity table, except the table itself. Parts that at one time took a few years to wear out are now wearing out in a season, because there’s a couple million bushels being put across them. When you triple your capacity like a lot of facilities are able to do these days, things need atten- tion more often. Make sure the operators understand what the machine is designed to do — not what they would like it to do. Quite often, someone looks at the visual quality of the product coming off the table and SEED CONDITIONING 100% Up-Time: The Importance of Gravity Separator Maintenance TROY JACKSON SERVICE MANAGER, OLIVER MANUFACTURING troy.jackson@olivermanufacturing.com • olivermanufacturing.com 90 percent of the time no one is measur- ing bulk density, which is what they should be doing. They see foreign material and adjust the table to try and get out what they see, rather than using an optical sorter to accomplish this. They think the gravity table isn’t doing its job, when it really is. When it comes to figuring out a main- tenance schedule, consult with your machine’s manufacturer or someone knowledgeable about gravity tables. It’s best to have the manufacturer or an expe- rienced service provider do regular main- tenance on it. There’s huge value in catching potential problems now, before they translate into downtime.