Be Sure to Cannibalize Yourself [Academy]

Steve Jobs said, “If we don’t cannibalize ourselves, someone else will.”         

At what point are you comfortable with what’s working for you when selling seed?  At what point do you become so comfortable with your talents, level of knowledge, your selling style, and your ability to attract customers that you feel you don’t need to change anything?  According to Steve Jobs, the answer is never.  In fact, he was well known for cannibalizing his own products before competitors had the opportunity to do it.  A great example was the iPod.  The iPod became a huge success but when it did, Steve Jobs spent no time feeling the glory.  He immediately started thinking about how other companies may be bringing music to their handsets and went about creating the iPhone.  He made sure that he never gave competitors the chance to cannibalize his products by doing it himself first.  

What’s working for you right now, that could be cannibalized by a competitor? What kinds of things are working for you right now that you should be destroying before a competitor has the opportunity to do it?  What kinds of things should you be cannibalizing for the sake of staying ahead of everyone else?

The seed industry has always been one that, unless a new product comes to market is slow to change.  It’s had a difficult time changing how it’s sold seed over the past decades.  Companies still rely on programs rather than the talents of the sales rep.  They’re still caught in price wars with customers because they haven’t cannibalized their values and upgraded them beyond everyone else’s.  But in my opinion, the number one thing every company needs to begin cannibalizing is their own sales force.  Mediocrity reigns among field sellers because they have not cannibalized them and made improvements to stay ahead of customers. 

The first thing every sales reps needs to do is cannibalize himself.  Destroy the old you and re-create the new you at the end of each selling season. Change the way you take care of your vehicle. Change your appearance. Build a new storybook and practice that new story.  Learn how to do a better job of staying outside the circle and in control.  Attend at least four days of seed sales training a year to keep up to date on how to sell in the 21^st century.  Remember, it takes special training to learn how to sell a living organism like seed, where you can’t control its performance.  It also requires companies and their sales reps to re-invent themselves every year to give prospects and customers a fresh, new, exciting experience. 

Make some real changes this year.  Start with yourself. Once you do that, you will be different from every competitor and customers will notice by wanting to do business with you. The best part of all, you will be the most successful cannibal in the tribe.  Happy Selling, I’m Rod Osthus