It’s The Little Things That Count

Something stuck with me while I attended the Monsanto employee orientation on the evening of August 31. Mieka Rustand, field sales training lead, said that you only have about 3 seconds to engage a customer. And you never know, engaging that one customer could make a difference.

I set out today with those thoughts in mind.

The weather was perfect once again so I spent a portion of the day in Monsanto’s “Yields of Tomorrow” plot to talk to farmers about Omega 3 soybeans and their future contribution to a heart healthy lifestyle.

Two things became abundantly obvious to me by the end of my time in the plot…a lot of the people taking the plot tour are not farmers, and everyone smiles back at you when you smile at them. They're contagious.

Unfortunately my quest to gain the information I needed became a daunting one. So I decided to change my strategy.

Much as I had done the day before, I put on my volunteer hat. I stood at the door before plot-goers entered the plot and handed out ice-cold bottled water. I was now the guy that just made things a little easier on them. I’m the the guy that just made their plot tour a little more pleasant.

Certainly they would have to remember me now when I approached them.

After several times doing this, I had almost given up hope. And then it happened…

His name was C. Ray Prussner, a farmer from Kankakee, IL. And during the portion of the tour where Omega 3 soybeans are discussed, the tour guide asked if anyone took Omega 3 fish oil for heart health. C. Ray raised his hand.

I politely approached him following the tour gave him a smile, and asked him if he had a few minutes to talk about Omega 3s-why he took them, and what a consumer product would mean to his diet.

I came to find out that C. Ray suffered from diabetes, and he had to take Omega 3 fish oil pills due to complications caused by his diabetes. His favorite foods are any type of beef and pork. Then he mentioned that he would love to be able to eat french-fries to get his Omega 3s as opposed to taking those awful pills. I agreed.

C. Ray then went on to tell me a bit about his personal life. He and his wife love to travel. They spend a week each year in Chile to go on agricultural tours because they like to see different agricultural practices. And when they get the chance the hop into their camper and visit their children down in Texas.

By the end of our conversation, it felt like there were only two things I didn’t find out about C. Ray…what his wife’s name was, and what the “C” stood for. But I made that connection, and who knows, maybe I made a difference.