How to break through the 2017 seed industry winter? Eight secret weapons to help you grow against the trend

The confusion and potential crises everyone faces in the current seed market are:

1. Customer loss (the market has no peak)

2. Lower profits (marketing costs increase, meeting costs and agent commissions are high)

3. Lower grain prices (farmers' willingness to buy is not strong)

4. Severe homogenization (too many varieties, chaotic, mixed, new)

5. Difficult to innovate marketing methods (orders are hard, farmers consume rationally)

6. Facing many shocks (clone counterfeits, *genes, price wars)

7. Incremental growth hits a bottleneck (products and business operators increase, distinctive varieties are relatively few, it is hard to lower the cost of varieties with independent intellectual property, marketing costs rise and profits fall)

8. Finding solutions in the face of difficulties to break through the encirclement

1. Customer loss, why the market has no peak

This year, Jilin Province planted about 56 million mu of corn, Liaoning about 33 million mu, and Heilongjiang about 98.5 million mu. Nationwide, seed production area increased from 3.42 million mu to 3.57 million mu, with an expected yield increase of 4%, still a year of oversupply. At present, the possibility of yield reduction caused by natural factors in the northwest is relatively small.

1. "Grain-to-feed" conversion: the Northeast reduced corn planting area by more than 15 million.

2. As of now, the four provinces and regions of the Northeast have approved nearly 522 independent legal varieties in the past three years, and in the past three years more than 15 have been nationally approved in the East China-North China growing region, with nearly 540 varieties circulating on the market.

3. Every variety with independent intellectual property has an agent in each county. Taking Jilin Province as an example, more than 150 varieties approved in the past three years are basically marketed through a channel agency system. The vast majority are county-level, with townships as a supplement. Each county basically has about 150 dealers, and basically every one has agency for both large and small varieties, market share is gradually being eroded, showing a state of full-load operation. Market capacity is limited, oversupply is unlimited, and farmers buy limited seeds.

4. Farmers' income has declined in the past two years, especially this year when land-renting farmers may see negative growth, affecting planting enthusiasm.

5. Door-to-door service and door-to-door delivery plus latent customers seize market share. Encircling the cities from the countryside, guerrilla-style delivery blossoms everywhere.

6. When farmers say it is good, it is truly good, better than hype and blind speculation.

A. Variety stability is the absolute truth; only grain output shows true skill.

B. The importance of farmers seeing is believing; farmers believe a variety must be "seen."

C. If grain sells well this year, varieties that dry down quickly will certainly be welcomed by farmers.

2. Lower profits, the "strange circle" where agents earn more than bosses

1. Marketing costs increase: publicity, meetings, labor, commissions, etc.

2. Agent commissions keep increasing, and there is no talk of loyalty to dealers.

3. Confused and conflicted dealers find it hard to choose; with credit-sale customers, they are even more inseparable from agents, and must rely on agents to recover debts.

4. Reform methods, bind agents by interests, encourage pooled investment and shareholding, franchise chains, try crowdfunding systems, installment expenses and commissions, etc., to reduce operational risk.

5. For strong varieties, try as much as possible to eliminate and reduce credit sales.

3. Falling grain prices will inevitably affect farmers' desire to buy

1. Although there has been the special phenomenon of "Lion Rock blows smoke, early-maturing soybeans freeze half, reduced yield and income have already appeared, and this year's corn will certainly be cheap."

2. With no money, farmers' purchasing power for seeds before the New Year will inevitably decline.

3. This makes it even more necessary for us to "go out and invite them in" to stimulate farmers' purchases. Go out to deliver goods, invite them in for training, keep a firm hold on signed orders, and do not let competitors eat your orders.

4. Strong TV advertising support and promotional service support from manufacturers are needed.

5. Large performances and other activities at the start of business, plus lottery and other promotional activities, stimulate farmers to buy early. (Grab a lucky fish, lucky wheel, invitation gift cards, scratch-off prize tickets, etc.)

6. Cash-purchase buy-and-give activities when buying seeds (for independent high-end varieties, one shang of land gets a manual seed punch, outdoor cotton clothing, etc., but the price must remain firm; for gifted seeds, it is recommended not to give the main selling seeds, otherwise it becomes a disguised price cut)

4. Severe variety homogenization (too many varieties, chaotic, mixed, new)

1. Some varieties are promoted for only one year, and once approved they are discontinued.

2. It is recommended to give priority to cooperating with large companies and seed enterprises with strong strength, high credibility, and integrated breeding, propagation, and promotion; second, choose to represent new varieties approved in the past two years. It is important to examine whether the enterprise's R&D capability and follow-up varieties are strong. Private companies have also reached the full bloom period of releasing varieties in the past two years.

3. Seed approval and legalization of independent intellectual property make selling reassuring, quality excellent, and farmers at ease.

4. Choose varieties with selling points to operate, with thin cobs and deep kernels, especially good for selling grain.

5. Be sure to pay attention to the safety of the variety; it must be legally approved and have independent intellectual property, otherwise troubles will come later.

5. Marketing methods are hard to innovate

1. Jilin Province leads in seed marketing; we have already moved beyond the "shopkeeper" mentality.

2. Learn from the advanced experience of fast-moving consumer goods, strengthen the ground promotion model, and use ubiquitous advertising, cartoon corn figures, banners, walls, WeChat communication, TV ads at all levels, color pages, and other communication methods.

3. Pay attention to making autumn observation meetings effective, focusing on actual results and follow-up orders.

A. Without orders there is no goal, and delivery has no starting point.

B. Three elements of orders: shill (agent-driven) + explanation (discount gifts) + payment collection

C. Orders are very difficult this year, but we must persist; after the meeting, do a good job of supplementary follow-up orders.

D. Signing orders without follow-up equals nothing.

E. Try holding direct grain harvest meetings and winter threshing meetings to sign sales.

F. Seize farmers' psychology of wanting "small favors" to carry out various promotional activities.

6. The shocks we face

1. Clone counterfeits and low-price shocks (supervision will be stricter next year, unsafe)

2. *genes (no national policy allows them)

3. Price wars (this year it is hardest to collect money from *contracting companies)

7. The biggest bottleneck we face in incremental growth and increasing profits

1. The market pie is only so big. If you want to increase product profit: first, raise prices, which is already unlikely; second, expand the agent team and develop downlines, and only by increasing sales can you earn more. What works now is building a team, increasing the number of selling agents and direct salespeople.

2. Do simple things repeatedly, return to the origin to do market work, and take every link and detail of sales to the extreme.

A. Relationship marketing - serve farmers until they feel embarrassed.

B. System marketing - the execution power of the management team must be continuously strengthened, and it must be constrained by systems.

C. Experiential marketing - let farmers see with their own eyes the excellent performance of the variety.

D. Positioning marketing - high end determines value, brainwashing changes willingness.

E. Precision marketing - formulate different tactics for different target consumer groups.

F. Consultative marketing - truly serve as a consultant and teacher for customers.

8. Finding solutions in the face of difficulties to break through the encirclement

1. Try holding a large agent meeting (more than 500 people, encourage everyone to pay and advance money. Discount measures must be in place)

2. Support and encourage secondary dealers to pay and sell goods.

3. Hold meetings early, open warehouses early, and enter households early to seize market share.

4. Give full play to the communication role of the WeChat platform; each store sets up 50 groups, each group with 100 people, to drive and influence the interaction and advertising effect of 5,000 farmer households.

5. Establish role models, let some people who can sell goods get rich first, and give play to the "pass on, help, and lead" role of advanced elements.

6. Strengthen team execution and improve employee quality through learning and training.

7. Develop agents through year-round service, with year-round follow-up visits, demonstrations, meetings, training, lotteries, etc. to promote sales.

8. Establish a target responsibility system; performance appraisal produces benefits.

9. Take the sales and service of one good variety to the extreme; hard work will surely produce real results, and never seek shortcuts.

10. Improve efficiency through management, improve efficiency through quality, and improve efficiency through cost savings. County-level brand stores may have lower profits than large township mom-and-pop stores in the past two years, but for long-term benefit, a small-family mentality cannot grow big in the short term.