Amherst WI | hawkeye13 - 3/22/2024 08:28
Yes...and no. Disclaimer: I farm a little and also manage a retail location. I see both sides of the coin, both good and bad.
There are 3 driving factors to high turnover IMO: Lack of training, lack of leadership, & lack of customer loyalty. I hate to sound like the old dog, but a lot of the fresh out of college kids want $100k, new pickup and a credit card. OT? Weekends? No thanks, they say. My area has a mix of independents, large chains, Coop's, etc. All face the EXACT same recruitment/retainment challenges, but the ones that are growing have one thing in common: they spend time in the country building & maintaining relationships.
I hound my guys to not just show up with a cheap price sheet, my 9 year old can do that. Bring them value, scout their farms without being told to, answer your phone evenings/weekends if your customer is in a pinch. If a customer wants a Kia, we have cheap/no service options. If they want a Ferrari, we can sell/service that as well. But if you aren't asking the right questions and spending time in the country, you'll never grow professionally or financially. Retail of any kind isn't for softies, especially ag.
My 2 cents...flame away...
I agree with much of what you said. Often the lack of customer loyalty comes as a result of the high turnover and when they do have someone in place that are rarely seen other than to email/text out a price sheet.
There are good young people out there, they will work hard but they want to be recognized for it. It's very common for the person who was hired to sell to end up in a sprayer, spreader or truck which to some degree is expected, but if that's what they are doing the majority of the time they are at work everyone is losing and pretty soon that person is going to be gone.
I was dealing with a retailer this last summer. The sales agronomist was doing weekly tissue sampling on 6 fields, she took the results and summarized them on an excel sheet, so it was easier to track the trends over the course of the season. She even dropped pin on a map where the tire came off the rim of the pivot. If the fields needed anything she automatically had the sale since she was working hard to prove I needed it. In the infinite corporate wisdom of her employer due to companywide cutbacks she was cut last fall since she was the last one hired. More people than me were upset since she was the definition of what the sale manual was telling people to do. Like I said in the original post, it's incredibly frustrating to deal with this on a constant basis. |
Can an app replace a retail salesperson?
