FEBRUARY 2018 SEEDWORLD.COM / 41 WHEN I TELL salespeople to stop listen- ing to their customers, they stop listening to me. They think I’m nuts. It’s because they’ve been taught the No. 1 thing to do if they want to get sales is to be good listeners when talking with prospects and customers. That attitude has gotten a lot of field sellers and their companies in trouble. Salespeople should never listen to two big things customers say. The first one is that your products are too high-priced. How would a customer know that? They have no idea what your costs are. If your costs aren’t the same as your competitor’s, so how could you pos- sibly offer the same price? Grasping that concept makes any conversation about price during a seed sales conversation entirely irrelevant. How does a customer know if the price you are charging for your products is out of line? The answer—when you deliver zero value to the customer. In that case, the only real value a farmer actually does get is solely from the products you sell. And since farmers can basically get the same product you sell from your competition, it makes the only real differentiator the salesperson. How much are you worth to your customers? Everything—you are the ONLY value a buyer buys. The second thing salespeople should never listen to is which varieties custom- ers want to buy next year. Customers use only one criteria to make that all-impor- tant decision and it’s the previous year’s results. What do last year’s results have to do with what customers need to plant next year? Nothing. The previous year’s environment will Stop Listening to Your Customers! ROD OSTHUS R.C. THOMAS COMPANY PRESIDENT @RodOsthus • rod@rcthomas.com • rcthomas.com never be repeated the following year and, therefore, neither will the exact performance of the varieties be the same. Yet, eager sales reps grateful for the order, give customers what they want and not what they really need—a portfolio of varieties based on what your company has to sell. Inventory accumu- lates and becomes unbalanced and the warehouse is soon filled with cash in the form of unsold seed. That’s what hap- pens when you let customers tell you what they want, instead of you telling them what they need. Stop listening to your customers on the two most important factors deter- mining the success of your company— what they want to buy, and what they want to pay. After all, they don’t know the answer to either one. IT SEEMS CUSTOMER service models can be as complicated or as simple as you want them. As a field service techni- cian, my philosophy is quite simple: pro- vide the same service that I would have wanted as a plant manager. This means providing training and education on the equipment, being upfront and honest, and showing up with a smile. As a plant manager, I wanted to work with equipment manufacturers who were willing to come and talk to me and who shared what they were doing and why. Providing training on equipment goes a long way in helping customers feel good about their purchase, giving them confi- dence in its operation and longevity. For example, I’ll explain what happens when a bearing goes out. I’m able to vali- date the importance of routine mainte- nance. I can tell them that this particular part has a three-year lifespan, because it’s a part that wears. If the customer stays on top of that, the machine will stay up to par and running good. I’m able to validate the importance of routine maintenance in helping the machine run for as long as possible — sometimes 20 to 30-plus years. And that builds a sense of trust, which goes a long way in the industry we are in today. I want customers to have the best possible experience with our equipment and every time they interact with the company. I believe we have to sell our experience as much as we sell our prod- uct, because we have experience. As an example, I did a training ses- sion for a grass seed company on how to optimize the machine and how to perform maintenance for minimal down- time. In the six months that followed, the Customer Service is Core to Business DAVE MEANS SERVICE MANAGER, OLIVER MANUFACTURING Dave.Means@olivermanufacturing.com • olivermanufacturing.com plant increased production by more than 300,000 pounds of grass seed. Now I’m going to a few other of their plants to conduct the same training with other managers and operators. Regardless of whether I’m on site to fix a problem, host a training session or just checking in, I’m always asking “How can I make things better for you?” We’ll walk through your needs and how I might be able to help. Customer service is essential for Oliver. Without excellent customer service, we wouldn’t be in business. In fact, I believe you can have the best product in the world, but if you have poor customer ser- vice, people won’t buy it. On the flip side, you can have an average product and excellent customer service, and people will stand by you. A product and cus- tomer service are really complementary.