55 Years And Counting From The Tractor Seat

By bill whitman 

Open any publication we receive as farmers and ranchers, and each is full of advertisements of the next best “mousetrap.” You know what I mean, whether it’s a vaccine for livestock, equipment for the farm, seed, herbicide, and insecticide, all come with the promise of amazing results.

I was recently talking with a man I’ve known about for many years and have talked with a few times over the past three-four years, John Thacker. John, of the small town of Freedom, Ind., has been involved with marketing fertilizer, seed and herbicide/insecticide for around 40 years. Whether working for a local cooperative or in later years for himself, he has been involved in agriculture one way or another throughout.

Recently, when I called to talk to John about what’s happening in the world of agriculture, and how we plan to produce the best corn, beans, and wheat possible in the future. John and I have known a lot of the same people, so our talk involved people that worked in the area and were successful and well liked. Each of these people had a common denominator, they recommended what was best for the customer. Regardless of what companies they were representing, they chose to serve the customer first. When I talked to John about how he approaches sales, his reply said it all, one field at a time, one farm at a time. When I asked if he could use more business, he said no, to give the service he wants to provide, he has no more time during planting season.

If you do business the right way, the way John Thacker does, the way Dean Ford does, and Dayne Jessup, people want to do business with you. We need suppliers that treat each customer with respect and individual attention with the focus on what’s best for our situation. In the days when people looked at their job with pride and professionalism you could tell quickly whether you could believe what the salesman was showing you because they had a passion for their product. Unfortunately, that is a rare commodity these days when it’s often likely that we know more about their product than they do.

When we look at a planter, we’re looking at it based on the thousands of acres we have planted. Our young, inexperienced salesperson has the benefit of a two-week-long (if that) manufacturer-provided class. If the salesperson stays with the company, they might have the benefit of two or more years of new improvements to the same machine. The point is, a good salesperson connects with the customer and learns; he/she learns from the customers’ experience as they communicate, he/she learns from the experience itself and begins to treat each customer as an individual. If they last, they learn what the manufacturers have forgotten: to succeed, they need the customers’ confidence.

What I’m proposing here is that until the manufacturers do a reset and recognize that no matter what their stockholders want, the companies need to focus all their attention on the customer, we must utilize Ronald Reagan’s famous adage, “trust but verify.” If you don’t have a John, Dean or Dayne, you need to educate yourself to your individual farm and its unique needs. At the same time, we need to put pressure on the manufacturers to do the reset that secures our futures, and theirs as well.

IndianaAg@bluemarble.net