2000 North American Farmers

1
2000North American FarmersDirect Marketing
AssociationCONFERENCE

• Importance of Employee Training
• in Increasing Sales

Jim Chatfield Joe Boggs Ohio State University
Extension
2
The Importance of Employee Training in Increasing
Sales

• What Does Employee Training Do For Your Business?
• Keeps Good Employees
• Expands Your Offerings Business
• Provides Better
• Customer Service
• Makes you MONEY!!

3
The Importance of Employee Training in Increasing
Sales

• Keeps Good Employees
• No training program says to your employees
• youre not worth it
• you cant be trained
• Training programs say
• We value you enough to put some time (money!)
  into making you better!
• We value your thinking

Employees dont quit companies, They quit
bosses!
4
The Importance of Employee Training in Increasing
Sales
Were in this thing together
5
The Importance of Employee Training in Increasing
Sales

• Expands your offerings - your business
• training thinking
• training exposes employees to
• how we do it in-house training
• how others do it outside training
• Well trained, thinking employees can provide a
  fresh outlook
• new business opportunities
• better ways of doing things

6
The Importance of Employee Training in Increasing
Sales

• Customer Service Is it Selling or Marketing??
• Selling providing a product
• to customers for money
• Marketing convincing customers
• they need the product

7
The Importance of Employee Training in Increasing
Sales

• Better Customer Service
• Direct Customer interaction changes as a business
  grows
• With a small business, the chance of interacting
  may be 100

owner
8
The Importance of Employee Training in Increasing
Sales

• As a business grows, the chance of interacting is

9
The Importance of Employee Training in Increasing
Sales

• What are your employees saying to the customers?

10
The Importance of Employee Training in Increasing
Sales

• Good Employees
• Expanded Business
• Better Customer Service
• Makes you MONEY!!

11
The Importance of Employee Training in Increasing
Sales
Who wants to be a millionaire?
12
The Importance of Employee Training in Increasing
Sales
The best time to make an insecticide application
to control Japanese beetle grubs is

• B. in the fall (October - Nov.)
• D. in late summer (mid-to-late Aug.)

• A. in the spring (April - May)
• C. in winter
• (Dec. - Jan.)

13
The Importance of Employee Training in Increasing
Sales
Do you want to use a Life Line?
- Phone a friend?
- Ask the audience?
- Take 50 / 50 ?
14
The Importance of Employee Training in Increasing
Sales
Ask the audience
A B C D
15
The Importance of Employee Training in Increasing
Sales
The best time to make an insecticide application
to control Japanese beetle grubs is
A. in the spring (April - May)
D. in late summer (mid-to-late Aug.)
16
The Importance of Employee Training in Increasing
Sales
The most effective way to control moles is to

• B. spread pieces of juicy-fruit gum on the lawn
• D. control grubs

• A. apply a castor oil solution to the lawn
• C. trap them

17
The Importance of Employee Training in Increasing
Sales
Do you want to use a Life Line?
Take 50 / 50 ?
18
The Importance of Employee Training in Increasing
Sales
Your final answer?
19
The Importance of Employee Training in Increasing
Sales
The most effective way to control moles is to

• D. control grubs

• C. trap them

20
The Importance of Employee Training in Increasing
Sales
The most effective way to control moles is to

• C. trap them

21
Turning Questions into Profit Better Marketing
Through Training

• My soil test recommends using a 10-5-5
  fertilizer. Do you carry this kind of
  fertilizer?
• Do it by the numbers
• 10-5-5 N-P-K percent by weight
• 10-5-5 is the same as 20-10-10 (but, they would
  use half as much)
• Can I interest you in a spreader?

22
Turning Questions into Profit Better Marketing
Through Training

• I want to make my lawn better, what kind of weed
  killer do you have?
• Time of year?
• Kind of weeds?
• How thick is the lawn (grass seed?)
• What kind of fertilizer program?

23
Turning Questions into Profit Better Marketing
Through Training

• Tree roots keep getting in the way of mowing my
  lawn. What can I use to kill them?
• What are the roots doing there?
• Think about
• Grass vs Trees
• Mulch
• Understory plants

24
Turning Questions into Profit Better Marketing
Through Training

• I have a lot of fine spider webs on my house
  plants, and the leaves are turning yellow. What
  can I do?
• What is it?
• What would you recommend?
• Malathion?
• Insecticidal soap?
• Water?
• Replace the plant?

25
Turning Questions into Profit Better Marketing
Through Training

• My tomato plants keep getting a disease that the
  Extension people called Verticillium wilt. What
  can I do?
• Answer 1 Rotate planting sites. But what
  vegetables can be planted where the tomato plants
  grew?
• Eggplant
• Potato
• Peppers
• Beans

26
Turning Questions into Profit Better Marketing
Through Training

• Answer 2 Follow the letter of the lawthe
  resistance law.
• Big Beef VFFNA
• Celebrity VFFNTA
• Beefmaster VFN
• What do the letter mean?

27
Turning Questions into Profit Better Marketing
Through Training

• Tomato resistance
• V Verticillium wilt
• F Fusarium wilt
• N Nematodes
• T Tobacco mosaic virus
• A Alternaria stem canker
• S Stemphylium (gray leaf spot)

28
Training Resources the Web
http//www.ag.ohio-state.edu/ohioline/
29
Training Resources the Web
http//www.hcs.ohio-state.edu/hcs/hcs.html
http//www.hcs.ohio-state.edu/bygl.html
30
Training Resources the Web
http//www.hcs.ohio-state.edu/webgarden.html
31
Training Resources Educational Programs

• Statewide conventions
• Extension programs
• Others