When You Have a Sales Goal, Facts Don't Count [Academy]

Facts Don’t Count!

This is the time of year when many sales reps are asking themselves what happened to what they originally hoped would be a great sales year.

A lot of sales goals that were set a year ago aren’t materializing into actual sales as harvest season fast approaches. Low commodity prices, rising costs and adverse weather conditions in many areas postponed planting or even prevented it entirely. Many growers have delayed making decisions which has caused reps to give up trying to get early orders.

Those are some of the facts about this year’s selling environment.

Here are a few more.

1. Virtually every person in the world has an opinion on seed because it affects what they eat, the fuel they put in their car and the clothes they wear. So they feel they have a say in how it’s raised, which, believe it or not, impacts farmers’ attitudes.
2. Both companies and farmers continue to consolidate giving us fewer potential buyers while increasing competition.
3. The average age of farmers is getting younger. They’re more technical, more price driven and are always looking for something other than what their fathers did.
4. Many banks now have a CRO (Chief Risk Officer) who determines much of a farm’s borrowing and buying power forcing limits on what some farmers can spend on inputs.

Those are some of the facts and you can’t change them, they’re facts. But when you let facts control you, you can’t achieve your goals. Everyone faces the same facts, the only difference between success and failure is how sellers deal with those facts. The key to success is to ignore the facts, because when you have a dream goal, facts cannot count.

When you ignore the facts, you put yourself in total control of your destiny, not the facts and let your inner-self control you.  You don’t base your strategies on the outside world.   

In 1977 I became the first employee of a newly formed seed company started by 6 owners. They didn’t have enough money to start this new company, that was a fact. They only had $72,000 between the 6 of them but needed more than a million. They convinced an experienced seedsman to produce the seed on a handshake and a promise to pay when we got paid for the sale of that seed. We didn’t have any unique products, offering only varieties that were available on the open market, the same pedigrees everyone else was selling, that was a fact. We had no customers or dealers who had ever planted a bag of our seed.

That was a fact. But none of those facts held us back. In a few short years our new company became one of the most dominant regional seed companies in our market area. The facts said we didn’t have what was needed to start and grow a seed company but we ignored the facts and did it anyway. We succeeded.

Top seed sellers know there’s only one solution to the challenges they face in today’s marketplace and that is to ignore the facts. They know that regardless of the so-called facts of the marketplace, those facts can’t hold them back from getting their share of the business if they simply ignore them and do the things they need to do to achieve their goals. They know that most of their competitors will be controlled by the facts, which leaves the marketplace wide open for them. Top sellers know the antidote for facts is innovative thinking.

When markets are down they show prospects and customers how to make up for it by focusing on increasing yields by following the Top 5 Factors. When input costs are up they focus on demonstrating the extra value they get from planning earlier and taking advantage of early discounts. To avoid inclement weather being a challenge they teach growers how to protect themselves from the 1000 variables.

Every selling season will have it’s “facts” that will serve as sales blockers for those who aren’t innovative thinkers. Just remember, that old saying, “When you have a dream, facts don’t count.”  Decide how committed you are to achieving your goals and ignore “facts” that will keep everyone else from being successful except you.

Every day, “facts” keep salespeople from achieving their goals, don’t let it happen to you.   

Happy Selling,

Rod Osthus