You can have the best product but still miss out on how to create leads and sales as a farmer. You have to constantly look forward to connecting new people, creating new networks and finding spaces to grow your brand awareness and engagements that will ultimately lead to lead generation and sales.
Farming experts and consultants, Rodgers Kirwa and Caleb Karuga share their journeys and how a farmer can achieve more leads and sales from their interaction both offline and now the mostly used digital spaces. They both shared their insights during our first chat, #Agri4Value on our Twitter platform.
Becoming an Influential Farmer?
“After losing 800 chicken in a span of two weeks, I decided to share my experience. This encouraged others not to give up. I’ve continued to share opportunities available in the agriculture value chain, with focus on the Business of Agriculture,” Caleb said.
Some farmers choose setbacks to propel them to become better at it. This is a huge lesson to learn from Caleb. Don’t try once, fail and stop trying.
Rodgers believes practicing farming to be famous should not be the case. “ Get into agribusiness to change the perception young people have on the noble profession.”
What it Takes to be a Successful Farmer
Success is measured differently from farmer to farmer. At the end of the day, it is the fulfillment of whatever you want to achieve as a farmer. As per Caleb and Rodgers, they believe these tips can help you to become a successful farmer.
- Understand your product, client and market needs
- Have market intelligence/ forecast. How does oversupply of a product affect you?
- Be part of a farming community
- Don’t be afraid to make mistakes
- Have a mentor/coach. Learning never stops
- Resilience and Consistency
“It takes many things to be a successful farmer, I can just sum it up to GRIT. The hard work, perseverance and passion to achieve long term goals.
Farming is not just about sowing the seed and waiting to go to the market,” said Rodgers.
Building Leads Using Your Network
Before you start generating leads, look forward to creating a healthy relationship with the people in your community. This relationship in return grows into referrals and lead generation.
As Rodgers says, “I ensure that l avail the best product and service to my clients all the time. This helps me create new and long-term clients. Sometimes, they end up being my product and service promoters.”
Caleb believes that these tips should be top of your mind:
- Be part of an online community
- Become an expert or authority in your field, share knowledge with others
- Create landing pages and dedicated websites for your market.
- Build relationships with everyone in the Agri-value chain
- Incentive. You can host a contest or giveaway
Additionally, play the long game. Take it as a brand building journey. Take time to grow the network through your daily engagements as you nurture them to see your value so that they can invest in it.
Making Sales Using Social Media
There are so many ways to achieve this but it always starts with creating a relationship with your community. Caleb shared these tips:
- People buy people, not necessarily the product. Work on becoming a bankable brand.
- Sell your Value Proposition – What’s the promise of value to be delivered, communicated & acknowledged by your client?
- Post good quality photos with catchy captions about your produce.
- Leverage on customers’ experiences and testimonials to get more sales on new customers.
- Seek for feedback
Remember, if you engage your community more, they will do the same. You have to constantly find new ways to reach them. Hence, keep your marketing and sales’ strategies flexible.
Advice to New Farmers in the Market
Farming can be done by everyone but what efforts are you bringing in so that you can make it a business and get some profits? It requires adequate research and development, plan and goals both short and long term.
“Work with an agronomist and be vigilant on your project and always ask for advice from experts they know better,” Takaza Calvin. You can reach out to us for agronomy assistance.
As Caleb crowns it:
- Don’t be afraid to make mistakes, it’s part of the learning curve.
- Have a big vision, but start small and grow organically
- Seek knowledge online & offline.
- Joint ventures/ partnerships where possible, are safer than going it alone.
In Conclusion
As a founder or CEO, you represent what you are building as a farmer. Live it, talk about it and build it. Inspire other farmers and customers by sharing your journey and experiences. In that manner, you will grow more leads and sales as time goes by. Keep in mind that your conversations offline and online content generates the leads. If these tips on how create leads and sales as a farmer helped you, share the article.
