As an ag retailer, you have a few goals that never change, no matter the season, no matter the weather. Those goals are:

• Support the farming community by providing the inputs and resources they need.
• Be an ag retailer that takes care of ALL your stakeholders – not just your farmer customers, but also your employees and the surrounding community.
• Boost sales and make a profit for your stakeholders.

In this article, we’ll look at five simple ways you can boost your input sales.

1. OFFER LEARNING SESSIONS WITH DISCOUNTS AS REWARDS

Offering farmers the opportunity to learn about new products and the latest growing advancements benefits them in many ways. Sure, they learn something new, but they also have a chance to meet with each other and to build a relationship with your brand. In addition, if you offer sessions on a regular basis, they’ll come to your doors more frequently. This means they are more likely to make both planned and spontaneous purchases from you.

Consider adding a time-limited discount on any products related to that day’s discussions as a reward for participation. For example, did you spend a session discussing the newest fertilizer techniques? Offer them 10% off any fertilizers for one week only. This makes it more likely that they’ll make a purchase AND more likely that they’ll keep coming back for these opportunities not available to the general public.

2. START A CUSTOMER LOYALTY PROGRAM

Customer loyalty programs are everywhere. Because they work! Have your customers rack up points for every purchase that they make; spend one dollar, get one point. Save up to 1000 points to get a 10% discount on your next purchase.

Does this customer loyalty program sound just a little too boring? Offer a second level of elite customer loyalty benefits for those farmers that buy most of their farming inputs from you. For instance, for those farmers that spend $20,000 or more every year in your store, you have an evening party once a year. (The kind of party people don’t want to miss!) An open bar, delicious food, and music!

If having this kind of party isn’t your company’s style, come up with an unexpectedly wonderful perk that your customers will love.

3. MAKE A PARTY OUT OF IT

What can we say? We just love parties! Have a more inclusive community event once a year with a barbeque, bouncy castles, and a chance to get to know each other. Do it right before the planting season to ensure everyone keeps you in mind when making all their biggest purchases.

It’s all about becoming part of your farming community. Anything you can do to become part of the fabric of their lives, just a little bit more, can have a real impact on your input sales.

Hey, pay attention here! If you can’t implement any of the other ideas, the next two items are THE changes to make to boost your input sales.

4. OFFER WARRANTY-BACKED CROP PLANS

Growers Edge’s warranty-backed Crop Plan program is an innovative way to upsell customers to new products. It does this by providing customers confidence the product will perform as well (or better) as the product they were already using. Assurance is provided through a warranty – if the product doesn’t perform at least as well as the old solution – then some of the loss will be recouped with a per acre payment.

Growers Edge is proud to offer this innovative sales and risk management solution to ag retailers. This just costs you pennies on the dollar of the sales price – you don’t have to worry about digging into your balance sheet if the warranty is ever used. Instead, you can focus on making sales!

5. OFFER POINT-OF-SALE FINANCING

Well, it’s not all about open bars and bouncy castles. When it comes down to it, money is central to every buying decision. Financing opportunities are a key part of the farming business, without which most farmers wouldn’t make it through another harvest.

Working with Growers Edge’s Input Financing program means that your farmers will have access to financing when they need it the most – as soon as they are ready to make an in-person or online purchase. No manually filling out lengthy applications to wait for days or weeks for a financing decision. Just a couple clicks, and they are good to go!

Farmers are just like anyone else – they want to make a purchase when they want to – without having to line up financing far in advance. Offering them modern, streamlined financing will get them coming back through your doors again and again.

Plus, your company owns the financing program we put in place for you – meaning that you’ll get additional finance revenues like interest and fees. Believe it or not, you were giving that away to the banks before! So stop flushing those big bucks down the toilet.

The best part is that Growers Edge’s Input Financing or Warranty programs are white-labeled turnkey programs – meaning your customers will see YOUR company is offering them the innovative risk management solutions they need with little to no effort from your team!

Now go get those sales!

PS – Learn more about Growers Edge’s warranty-backed Crop Plan at our May Demo Day event. Join us May 24, 2023 from 10:30 – 11:00 am CST as VP of Sales Todd Robran and VP of Data Ahraz Husain discuss important new features for the 2024 growing season.

Register at: bit.ly/45dfNkH

Source: Growers Edge