The days of winging it are long gone. The game's changed.

What got you here won't get you there. You are either moving forwards or backwards. There is no other way.

In order to perform to your full potential in today's rural marketplace you need to plan, prepare and practice.

Discounting destroys value and has always been a clear signal you’ve run out of ideas. So you end up pulling the crude cord called discounting.

We talk about visibility, profile or awareness all the time but few of us actually walk our talk. We pay lip service to it, don't know how to do it or worse, fail to fire a shot at all.

With the Rugby World Cup round the corner, it seems the right time to reflect on things.

The RWC has such importance placed on it, including New Zealanders own sense of self-worth, it makes the same sense to apply this same focus to yourself. 

Most rural marketing is mediocre and misses the mark. Why? Because it doesn't connect with the conversation customers are having with themselves. Such a simple principle, yet so often over-looked.

Truth and proof are the currencies of trust and NZ Ag needs more trust than ever.

We are under huge pressure to prove to those outside our industry that we are the true stewards of the land we claim to be, that we treat our animals with care and compassion and that we are responsible and reliable employers. Succinctly summed up as our social licence to operate.

The problem with most rural marketing is it skims the surface. The posts, blogs and content I see and read talk in “we” language not “me” language. They serve their own needs rather than those of their customers. They stay superficial, shallow and self-serving rather than deep, specific and relevant. There's no compelling why.

It kills me when I meet rural companies that are visibly under-performing in sales yet still retain such an inwardly focussed vision. They focus on operations, they focus on finance, they focus on structures and org charts or value chains whilst failing to focus on the two things that are the lifeblood and priority of their rural business: sales and marketing.

When your rural marketing manager doesn’t know what he or she is doing it can get expensive. This problem is compounded by the fact that often management don’t know what they should be doing either. This is why they hired a rural marketing manager in the first place.

Telling the same story over and over again gets boring. It becomes tiresome for the listener and then they stop listening. That's the concern I have with all the talk I keep hearing about one NZ Ag Story when I attended this week's fantastic ASB AgriFood Week (run by the very competent CEDA team).

Don't beat yourself up 2019 people. I'm giving you permission to say it's ok to have enemies in business. Why? Because enemies energise you to become better so you can beat them. Not having enemies would make your life boring and meaningless. Who else will you compare your performance against if you didn't have enemies? Enemies fuel emotion, they muster motivation and they keep you on track so if you don't have one, got get one.

There’s a lot of crap content out there. My LinkedIn feed alone is full of self-promoting “look what we won” or “look what we did” humble brag types who should know better. Content like this clogs the channel and encourages your followers to unfollow you. 

Every business I meet is struggling with content yet sweating the technology channels it uses. It's frustrating to watch because they are focussing on the wrong thing but there is a simple solution:

Growth for growth’s sake is a dumb strategy. In fact, it isn't a strategy at all. It signals loudly to everyone else you don't have one. We all want more profit but if that growth comes at a cost that reduces your margins or puts a crisis on your cash flow it isn't intelligent growth. 

Do you want to be a more effective and valuable rural marketing manager who craves more reward and recognition for what you do? Do you want to secure that raise and promotion this year? Yes? Great, because I've written this blog just for you…

Business plans waste your time. Their only purpose is to appease the bank when you need a loan. After that, they gather dust never to see the light of day again. Stop wasting time writing business plans you’ll never use and start thinking about the business model you can employ. You only profit when you help your customers profit and a business model can help you do that in a way others can’t

Are you sick and tired of motivating your sales team? Frustrated why they’re not performing at a higher level despite your best efforts? Failing to get your message through? The reason is simple: you haven’t correctly identified what motivates your sales team as individuals and you’re using the wrong tools to motivate them.

Sales people can be very persuasive. It’s their job. This means you need to be especially on your game when interviewing sales positions. Doing your homework and preparing well, just like candidates, helps ensure an effective evaluation and selection process for both parties and can save you the very expensive mistake of making the wrong hire…

They call them vanity metrics. Likes and comments from loyal staff but no engagement from actual customers. The problem with vanity metrics is you're spending vast sums of time and money creating content that no one sees. It’s like you’re talking to yourself. Vanity metrics will never move the needle for your business. You need to change your social media strategy and content plans if you want to be noticed and get engagement. Here’s how…

Sales is getting harder for everyone. Only 29% of people want to talk to a salesperson to learn more about a product whilst 62% will consult a search engine. 57% of the purchase decision is complete before a customer even calls a supplier. Only 13% of customers believe a sales person can understand their needs. We need to get better and quicker at sales training.

We use supermarkets because they are convenient. It's easier to use a full service agency too but like relationships, opting for convenience can mean you're settling for second best. The problem with full service agencies is you pay a premium. You pay for all the bodies and lights in the building, not just the ones you use, through the overhead and profit multiples that agencies apply to their rates. Convenience becomes far less convenient when this happens.

Fonterra is too big and important as a $20 billion exporting company to fail for New Zealand and its farmer shareholder base. This isn't the time to look for blame. It's the time to look for solutions. However, the longer things stay the same, the longer nothing changes.

When we find truth we create trust so when it comes to branding you need to tell your truth and tell it well. That way people will know you're the real deal. Humans are hard wired to seek the truth. In court we vow to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help me God. The Hippocratic oath in essence means "do no harm". Marketers and their agencies could take that same oath...

Using the brand equity of someone else to prop up your own can signal a weak brand or a creative team out of ideas. It seems if you have little brand credibility, you can simply purchase it. Here are some examples on how you can build credibility in your own brand without relying on celebrity endorsement.

2018 marks the 50th anniversary of Fieldays at Mystery Creek and is the biggest show in town. Whilst it has many advocates, including its own passionate PR dept, equally there are as many who don’t like it, think it’s got too big and commit to regional field day events instead. The problem is unless you’re a big fish it is very hard to get cut through at National Fieldays…

We’re too small a country to be divided. Rather than look for differences and positions between rural and urban let’s look for a common ground and a shared vision: to be world-famous in food. When we get this right the world will love New Zealand even more.

Let’s talk towards this synthetic meat challenge and meet it head on, not shy away from thinking it might go away because it won’t. When it’s natural, real and as nature intended we have a real competitive advantage so long as we have our story straight.

Like our homes, lives, relationships and public infrastructure, brands need to be built on strong foundations and be kept well maintained. Short term cosmetics never pay off. If you build your brand right and maintain it regularly it will cost you a lot less and earn you much more in the long run.