How Strong Are You? [Academy]

How Strong Are You?

In her excellent book, “Forever Strong”, Dr. Gabrielle Lyon says, “When you go to the doctor for almost any reason, one question the doctor should always ask is, How Strong Are You?”

I’ve never had any doctor ask me that question or heard of anyone else being asked that question either.

But Dr. Lyon says, the thing that matters most when it comes to our overall heath is how much muscle we have, and most people don’t have the amount of muscle they need to live a long, healthy life.

She says most people don’t have a weight problem; they have a “muscle” problem.

One of the first things the nurse does when I go to a doctor’s appointment, before I ever see the doctor is check my height and weight. With all of the latest technologies available today it would be easy to see how strong I am in different parts of my body to see how much muscle I’m gaining or losing. Most patients wouldn’t realize the strength of their brain is being tested at the same time their muscle strength is being tested. The muscle strength readings would tell the patient how much he or she understood and believed in what they needed to be doing with their body to be their healthiest best. She says the brain is the strongest muscle in the body and needs to be worked just like any other muscle and the more the brain focuses on building muscle, the healthier the person.

The same goes for anyone who sells seed. Not only does your body need to be strong, but your seed seller brain needs to be strong too so you can face the challenging marketplace like the one we’re in this year? Do you strengthen your brain before the start of each seed selling season so it’s strong enough to face farmers who have bad attitudes due to low market prices and uncertainty on how they’re going to be able to make a profit? 

This year’s seed selling marketplace will be more challenging that ever.

With the combination of those low market prices and poor farmer attitudes every seed seller’s brain needs to be strong. Sellers need to be prepared to handle farmers’ brains that need help figuring out how they’re going to raise yields and make a profit this year. After all, increased production is the only way out of situations like this. 

I think every farmer’s brain is weak right now and not capable of deciding how to make a profit without outside help from a strong seed seller brain. There’s a lot of pressure on farmers and they need someone like a strong-minded seed sales rep to lead them down the right path so they CAN MAKE A PROFIT this coming year.

How will you strengthen your brain so you can lead farmers where they need to go? How will you know what to say, when to say it and how to say it when farmers take you Inside the Circle and talk about why you’re so high priced and reasons why they can’t make a profit? There have been podcasts with groups of farmers who say they’re just going to tell their seed guy what they will pay for seed this year and no more. That kind of attitude exists but can only be overcome with a seed seller who has an even stronger brain. You need to be able to take farmers where they don’t know they need to go so you can take them where YOU KNOW they need to go. That will require plenty of brain muscle.

Make sure you’re prepared to handle all of the farmers who believe they’re stronger than you are. Farmers ARE stronger than 90% of your competitors who are just weaklings willing to sell their seed at any price. But when farmers are confronted by you, someone who has actual solutions to their problems of how to make a profit, price will no longer be an issue. They won’t realize until it’s all over that they met their match.

Happy Selling,

Rod Osthus