Service with a Smile, and More - What should you really expect from your milk replacer rep?
There are many different companies that come with many different standards and levels of service, but one thing is for sure, there are some things that you should always expect from the reps that come to your farm to help you with your calves.
Do they have a reasonably deep understanding of calves and calf raising? Now, we don’t expect that everyone that comes to our farm to sell us something has been raising calves for 35 years like we have, but we do expect that they have at least had some hands-on experience with calves in the past. To us, it’s comforting knowing that they have seen and dealt with some of the same struggles that we have. Someone that has raised calves before isn’t going to be trying to sell you anything with soy in it unless it’s starter grain (not with the technology available today).
Do they have a reasonably deep understanding of what they are offering to you? Do they know what’s in the milk replacer beyond what you can read on the tag? What do they know about different fats, proteins, and additives, and how they all contribute to the digestibility, gain, and their benefits? Do they know how much ash is in their milk replacer? Do they know the approximate osmolality of the milk replacer mixed at the tag recommended amount?
Can you trust them? Have they come to you with helpful and constructive feedback in the past? Have you tried their ideas and have they worked out well for you? Have they brought you success stories from others that they have helped? This is by no means an exhaustive list of things needed to trust your rep, but you should be able to reasonably trust that, one they have YOUR back, and two they have the CALVES backs too, not just their commission check on their mind.
Do they do a good job following up with you? If they say they are going to get you further information about something do they send it after your visit? If they promise you a report of what they saw and what you talked about, do they get it to you?
When things go WRONG are they there to support you, troubleshoot, and bring constructive criticism? Do they know where you fall short with your calves and encourage you, but at the same time, they don’t harp on the things they know you can’t change and are working hard to improve.
Do they respect your difference of opinions? Sometimes you are going to feel strongly about something and so are they, but you can always agree to disagree.
Do they value the same things you do? If you value money and they value growth, you aren’t going to get along very well. If you value calf health and comfort and all they see is dollars and cents, you guys aren’t going to see the same thing and the same problems.
A perfect example:
We had a sales rep that kept saying the feed was a good value, over and over again, great value, awesome value. For a while we bought in, we thought we were getting a great value. Unfortunately for us, we didn’t have the same values. To them, a great value was a low price, that was it. To us, great value was a great product for an affordable price. Those two things are very far from each other. At one point they argued that if we tried to keep increasing our gain we were going to have to worry about pounds of animal per pen and there wouldn’t be room for them, what a problem to have! Once we found out we had such vastly different values, we decided to part ways. We couldn’t be on the same team when we were rooting for different winners.
There are a ton of questions in this article, more questions than answers unfortunately, but at a minimum, we hope it gives you a basis to think about what you are getting from your reps and what you should be thinking about when you are deciding if they are a good fit for you and your calves. Reps are a huge part of the team, and you need to make sure you are keeping the best of the best on your team.
We want to be on your team! Check out our line of products and services to see if we are a good fit for you.
