Sales tips to help your staff succeed

From distributor reps to plant brokers and landscape estimators, top salespeople can tell you there’s an art—and a heart—to sales success. AmericanHort’s December 2023 State of the Industry (SOI) White Paper underscores the importance of getting your sales approach right for the coming year. Consumer discretionary spending is expected to tighten and trickle down to impact demand for horticulture products everywhere. These sales tips can help you and your team be prepared:

Know and understand your customer. The horticulture industry is changing rapidly. Wholesale growers are becoming retailers, retailers are selling wholesale, and e-commerce is evening the score across the board. Think you already know your customer? Don’t leave it to chance. There’s never been a more crucial time to reassess their challenges, opportunities, sweet spots, and pain points—but it’s up to you to ask. Be the one who sees things others miss. Be the one who asks. Understand where your customer is at and what you can do to help.

Become an expert on products your customers use. If those products are the same ones you’re selling, you’re ahead of the game. If not, it’s even more important that you know exactly how their chosen products compare. And whether it’s someone’s livelihood or their landscape, there’s no room for “fake it ‘til you make it,” regardless of what you’re selling. Make it your goal to be the person or the team that your customers turn to with all their challenges, whether they involve your products or not. Be the expert they need. Help them optimize all their resources—including you. Those efforts will pay off.

Have a plan and follow through. Whether you’re calling on customers around the country or greeting them as they walk through the door, have a plan and a purpose in mind for that encounter. As our Mid-South Territory Manager Tim Brubaker once said, “Don’t just be the guy that shows up with donuts.” Maybe your goal is to follow up on your last conversation, set up a trial with your latest product, or just find a new way you can help. Whatever your agenda, know what is. Then follow it through to the end.

Put customer success before the sale. Commercial horticulture gets more competitive every season, and margins get tighter as years progress. Growers are looking for ways to grow more effectively, efficiently and sustainably. As AmHort’s SOI noted, there’s a shift underway from a focus on growth to a focus on profit. Growing more efficiently and profitably may mean improving water management and media quality with wetting agents or using less fertilizer instead of more. When you put your customers’ success ahead of your sales quota, they won’t forget who to call.

Never stop selling your ability to help. Every time you reach out to your customer, it’s an opportunity to reinforce your place in their circle of trusted advisors. Stay visible in the market year-round. That can mean social media, webinars, training calls—in person or virtual. Be proactive in asking what they need, then sell your ability to help. Don’t wait for your marketing department to make a suggestion. Reach out and touch that customer with a handwritten note, email, text, or call.

Whatever your role in the ornamental industry, your customers should know you and your team are there for them year-round. Here at ICL Growing Solutions, Americas, we hope you understand that we’re always ready and available to help. Whether it’s expert fertilizer advice, product training or someone you can trust to give it to you straight, we’re here for you. So give us a call anytime, but don’t be surprised if we beat you to it.