I am quite sure at this stage, this coronavirus impacted everyone`s daily life and in more drastic circumstances caused some people to lose loved ones. I visited one of my customers last week (Wesley Semple) and he was devastated after losing his uncle to COVID-19 a few days earlier.
In many ways, for me, it was close enough to business as usual as anyone involved in agriculture. We were categorized as essential workers and even during lockdowns we had the freedom to do farm visits albeit limited.
Some farmers were open for us to call and see them. In one particular case when doing a farm call with Paul Geaney in Fullwood Irl., the farmer, who hadn’t seen anyone for such a long time, shook hands with the both of us!
At the end of 2019, Fullwood appointed Pat O`Connor as the new Country Manager Fullwood Packo Ireland. Pat, a qualified electrician, refrigeration engineer, robotic engineer who ran his own GEA dealership with his brother for many years until they parted their ways with GEA. For me it was very positive to have someone of this caliber, who knew the dairy industry very well and who would have been at the coalface himself in both sales and technical support, to lead FW in Ireland.
The next challenge for me was, could we work together?
In order for Afimilk to be successful here in Ireland it was imperative that a relationship had to be built with Pat. Pat gave me assurances that I could have access to his sales staff, do joint sales calls with them, and ensure they all attended the online training that was provided by us. Both Yoni Pinsky and I agreed on biweekly meetings with Pat and his boss, Steven Gunst via Microsoft teams.
From the joint sales calls the FW sales guys gained more and more confidence in speaking to farmers about Afimilk equipment. Now, we have reached a situation whereby Crystal is never mentioned anymore only Afi.
One very important thing I learned many years ago was, always ensure that the sales guys “can” ask for help. This is really important for many reasons. If they ask for help, it provides you with an opportunity to speak with them, to meet with them, to go on farm with them, to meet the customer with them and it builds that relationship to the point where you become friends with them. The fact that it’s them asking rather than you trying to force them, makes it that much easier to build relationships.
As an added incentive we agreed to an extra discount every time the FW sales guys bring me on farm. This puts us in front of the customer, and I can spend more time with the salespeople.
I always build a quote for each job and for each of the FW sales guys. Again, by doing so encourages them to always offer Afi to the customer and encourages them to bring you on farm then they start to understand how to build that quote also. This also reassures the sales guys that they correctly priced the project and now I noticed that FW orders almost everything from the quote, therefore more revenue for us!
I would like to acknowledge my colleagues here, as I’m not alone when doing joint sales calls, the quote building, beneficial, etc. The security for them in knowing that Jason is available and willing to help the technical guys in FW. There is also peace of mind knowing that Yoni Levine is also available and willing to help FW and the farmer.
This level of support from Afimilk has instilled confidence in Pat and the sales guys to push ahead with Afimilk equipment. This helped us to build a very good relationship to grow and develop the business further.
I would like to thank everyone at Afimilk that crossed my path this year and helped me be more successful in Ireland, I really appreciate it! I’ll take this opportunity to wish you all a merry Christmas and a prosperous new year in 2021.
