In the process of forming high-performance teams, training plays a very important role and within the “basic” set that we could place for commercial teams in the agricultural sector, we find sales techniques, negotiation, handling of objections , value sale, among a few more.
However, there is another series of skills and abilities that need to be addressed preferably from the initial stages of academic training because they can silently become a competitive disadvantage, since we do not know that we should work on them until they probably constitute a barrier. of progress and if you don’t believe me, see these examples that can be found in AgroMarketing.
Audience adaptation: You may think that this training is the same as public speaking or making effective presentations, and that the skills of overcoming nerves, structuring messages and making sure emotions are delivered are well known. Let me just add a question: when was the last time you made the same presentation (same set of slides or images) and deliberately adapted it to a new audience?
Talking about a crop in front of farmers will require an intention, vocabulary, technicalities and even colloquial words different from the elements that will be included when talking with a university, with government entities or with genetic engineers from your own company and that is that the guiding message it will not undergo structural changes but the narrative form must definitely change.
Please challenge this argument because when you become a specialist and master what you are going to share, you run the risk of blinding yourself to the particular information needs of your interlocutor, so it is essential not to overlook the need to analyze how this presentation should conform. And believe me, sometimes we are so robotic that we can make mistakes.
Creativity: Good ideas must have the right environment to be generated, discussed and developed and are not exclusive to a single functional area. The way farmers solve problems of all sizes in agriculture makes me think of them as lyrical marketers, people who are familiar with spontaneity and quick response.
The innovation environment must be fostered from the leadership group but my request to you is that you find methodologies and invest in creativity training. I understand that motivational speakers typically give good results, but have a reserve of money for a creativity or innovation workshop and you won’t regret it.
Emotional Intelligence: Once in a feedback process to a supervisor that I had, I mentioned to her that it was the first time in my career that I had to know if it was good or bad before establishing contact with her in order to successfully adapt my message.
Like her, some of the farmers can impose a communication barrier through their non-verbal language or with their aggressive way of reacting to a legal restriction for the use of a product, to the change of commercial conditions or as when the performance of a purchase price of a harvest changes, as is usual in our market.
No one academically trains children to manage their emotions and this has an impact in the professional field, however, you can do a lot to work the muscle of active listening, resilience and maturity with your teams as business is carried out. reality by emotionally charged people that sooner or later will impact performance and final results. Don’t ignore those signs and take care of your people.
An additional challenge: Yesterday I was listening to a teacher who made an interesting analysis of the way of teaching in our country. When the educational system is configured with huge groups of students, there are multiple learning styles within them, but a single teaching model: that of the teacher in charge and regardless of how good or bad the teacher in question is, there is no way to personalize the experience and therefore, not everyone will fit into the same mold.
Although this is not a barrier exclusive to agriculture, it is undeniable that when working on marketing concepts with people who are experienced in technical field issues, there is a potential break in the way information is digested. I strongly suggest that when providing a course with heterogeneous groups, try to understand the circumstance of and common denominators in subgroups that allow you to facilitate the final deliverable.
Sowing Reflection
When you first enter the gym or just incorporate new exercises into your routine, you find that new workout is giving you sore muscles and joints that you swear you didn’t know about. That happened to me two years ago when I wrote my first column in Merca 2.0 and in this journey, several intellectual muscles have “hurt” as part of that growth.
This weekly exercise has given me a tremendous opportunity to connect with two exciting audiences, one in the field and one in marketing, which is why I welcome the opportunity to be in contact with each of you.
See you next week to start year three, in the meantime I look forward to receiving your feedback on @soyjuanbecerril.