Like every ag retailer, you want customers to spend more at your company than at competitors. But that requires an enormous amount of trust in the products you sell. If a farmer buys a fertilizer that falls short of its promise to increase yields, they won’t just be disappointed – they’ll likely turn to another retailer.
One effective way to earn that trust: lower the risk of buying your products. Our Crop Plan Warranty can help. By offering warranty-backed crop inputs, you can drive more sales and foster long-term loyalty. Here, we’ll take a closer look at how a Crop Plan Warranty works and how it can help you expand your wallet share.
What is Crop Plan Warranty?
Think of a Crop Plan Warranty as a safety net for farmers. It’s designed to protect them from financial risk if specific products or practices don’t deliver the promised results. This means farmers can try out everything from seeds to soil amendments with far more confidence. If the crop fails to meet pre-established benchmarks, they can cash in on the warranty to mitigate losses.
How does this benefit you? In short, it makes it easier to earn more of your customers’ business. We’ll explain more in the next section.
The Three-Part Benefit for Retailers: Lower-Risk Products, Easier Bundling, and a Customer Loyalty Boost
You know you sell great products, but that’s not enough. The challenge is getting farmers to buy those products from you, not your competitors.
A Crop Plan Warranty gets you closer to that goal by…
- Lowering farmers’ risk when they try new products.
- Creating more attractive bundle opportunities.
- Boosting customer loyalty.
Let’s dive into the specifics.
Benefit 1: Offer Lower-Risk Products
Loss aversion is a powerful force. In many cases, it’s even more powerful than enticing incentives. That’s especially true for farmers: no matter how attractive a product, lower-than-expected yields can put their livelihood at risk.
By offering warranty-backed products that pay out for underperformance, you can easily mitigate that risk. And with one less barrier to adoption, farmers will be more likely to embrace new products on your shelves – boosting your sales in the process.
Benefit 2: Sell More Product Bundles
There’s a good chance you’re used to bundling popular products with ones that aren’t selling as well. But bundled or not, farmers’ risk tolerance for new products is the same: they may not be worth trying if they fall short of their promise.
One way to shift this perspective: offer warranties on bundled products. This approach can reduce the perceived risk for farmers, helping you sell inputs that might otherwise be overlooked.
Benefit 3: Boost Customer Loyalty
One of the biggest advantages of a warranty boils down to what you stand for. It says you’re confident in the products you sell and are committed to your customers’ success.
That messaging can go a long way toward building trust in your business. A farmer may not need to cash in on a warranty – but they’ll respect you for offering one all the same. And of course, the farmers that do cash in will value your investment in their financial health.
Over time, warranty-backed products may encourage more farmers to become repeat customers. And the more they see positive results, the more of their business they’ll shift to you. What’s more, they’ll likely recommend you to other farmers.
The long-term result: more wallet share and more revenue.
How One Ag Retailer Uses Crop Plan Warranty to Gain Millions in Revenue
We’ve walked you through a few major benefits of warranty-backed products. But a real-world retailer’s experience might help concretize the impact.
In 2021, one retailer partnered with Growers Edge to develop a warranty-backed program for various seeds, fungicides, technologies, and fertilizers. The goal: sell bundled products that enhanced farmers’ yields without triggering actual warranty claims.
Since the start of this program, the retailer has doubled its warranty-enrolled acres year over year (see Figure 1). Today, it projects 400,000 enrolled acres by the end of 2024 – and expects 78 percent to reenroll.
Figure 1: One ag retailer doubled its warranty-enrolled acres year over year
But the real story lies in the retailer’s revenue growth. In 2023 alone, the additional warranty-enrolled acreage brought in…
- $2.85 million from fertilizers, insecticides, and fungicides.
- $1.9 million from additional seed sales.
- $1.2 million from farm technologies (many of which were four-year commitments).
The bottom line? With warranty-backed products, this retailer has been able to earn farmers’ trust and drive consistent warranty enrollment – expanding its wallet share in the process.
Don’t Just Sell to Growers – Be Their Partner
Todays’ ag retailers can’t simply stock shelves with great products. They have to cultivate farmers’ trust – and position themselves as valuable partners that want to help each customer succeed.
By mitigating the risk associated with new products, you can do just that. Over time, you’ll show farmers that you have their best interests at heart and stand out more from competitors. The result: stronger customer relationships and a bump to your bottom line.
Want reliable support along the way? Let’s talk about how Crop Plan Warranty can fit into your retail strategy. Our digital platform makes it easy to enroll farmers and manage warranties. And we handle payouts hassle-free so you can invest more time in relationship building. If you want to learn more, don’t hesitate to reach out.