I was recently talking to someone who buys 90% of the grain that crosses the scales; some spot and some forward contracted. The approach is nothing fancy - just good service and a consistent message aimed at helping growers turn grain into money.
That same person was recently in a group where the general feeling was that with prices well off the highs it will be nearly impossible to buy anything.
His response? "If you think you won't buy anything, you're right."
If attitude and expectations aren't everything in grain buying, they are a huge percentage of it.
- Your business needs to own bushels
- Growers need to sell bushels
- You can't really help them by just agreeing with how they feel. They already have that perspective. Outside, unattached, and different perspective is valuable.
- Deciding that you will buy bushels and starting every conversation from there is most of the work - the rest is just hammering out the details of your message
- People want to make good decisions and they want someone to give them a nudge
