Bob and I had the delight a few weeks ago of sharing our day at our farmers’ market with a young man who is preparing to go into grassfed farming. He worked closely with my mom and dad to understand the production end of the farm, then chose to spend a day with Bob and me to learn more about how our small family farm markets our products. From what I could tell, our farm wasn’t the first one he’d visited, and he’d spent a lot of time studying marketing.
As we set up for the day, we chatted about how Bob and I arrange our display, our techniques for keeping our products cold, the ways we felt our meats looked best. I showed him where to pile the ground beef so that customers could find it easily.
“Oh! Yes!” he said with sudden enthusiasm. “That’s for the upsell!”
I stared at him blankly. “The what?”
“The upsell!” He bubbled. Observing I was unfamiliar with the term, he added, “Your technique for getting the customer to buy more than they planned. Maybe they come to buy some lamb, but then you also get them to buy some ground beef.”
“But-” I stammered. “I-I wouldn’t do that.”
“But that’s the way you sell more meat.”
“But that’s not my job.” He stared at me, confusion in his expression. I did my best to explain. “My job isn’t to sell more meat. My job is to take care of the customers and make sure they get what they need.” I paused for a second, then added, “they trust me. That’s why they come back.”
He suddenly nodded his head in understanding. “I see,” he said, “this simply isn’t a very upscale market.” Satisfied with his conclusions, he terminated the dialogue.
He had it all wrong, but I didn’t know where to begin in my explanation. I’m a capitalist who is anti-consumerism. I like being an independent business person. I love exploring new entrepreneurial ventures. I get a real charge out of crunching numbers. And yes. I like to make money, and I have no interest in being poor. At the same time, I abhor the attributes of our consumer culture, where success and happiness are assumed to be directly tied to a person’s ability to waste resources.
Thus, my family lives an interesting conundrum: We produce things to sell. But we want to play a part in unraveling our consumer culture. We haven’t got the conflict perfectly worked out by any means. But here are some of the ways we’ve learned to negotiate the tension in our family business:
The remainder of this essay has been removed for editing and inclusion in Shannon’s forthcoming book, From Here.
Comments
June 27, 2012 7:42 AM EDT
I appreciate your take on the upsell. I think providing what a customer needs is the ethical path to
follow. Thanks.
– Vickie Nichols
June 27, 2012 8:26 AM EDT
New fan of your blog, old lady beginning to re-explore these ideas. Thank you.
– Jacqueline Welles
June 27, 2012 8:35 AM EDT
Thanks for the reminder. Being in business is as much about meeting someone elses need as it is meeting your own.
– April S.
June 27, 2012 8:41 AM EDT
Brava! Thoughtfully and well-said!
– Damon Lee Fowler
June 27, 2012 8:59 AM EDT
I think your attitude is wonderful. You don’t need to up sell. That is great. So it isn’t just the sales that are important, but knowing your customers personally, knowing their needs and not caring to make a bigger buck. The personalization is more important and makes what you do make “enough”. I hope he understands that now. I hope he reads this. The personal touches what I love about our local farm stands. They know what I am there for – local eggs, local veg and fruit, and conversation about what is going on locally, visiting with the local animals (they have an 800 lb pig and some very loud goats.) I just love it, so much better than going to the supermarket where there is little personalization. Thanks for a wonderful blog. I will come back and visit.
– RisaG
June 27, 2012 9:20 AM EDT
What a thoroughly refreshing story. Having worked in the coporate world for over 30 years, I have continually been amazed at the ever spiraling salaries of the CEO’s, and wondered when do they think they make/have enough? It all has a domino effect on the whole business and culture. I am bookmarking your page.
– Pam Gurule
June 27, 2012 9:31 AM EDT
We have a small, honor system farm stand and over the past 5 years have tweeked things to have the things our customers value. We started this as a retirement project, it is a modest but deeply satifying venture. You have articulated some of the unspoken values we share. Now our son and family who have built on our land, are adding in duck and chicken eggs and perhaps alpaca yarn in the future. Its an uncharted path that we walk together. Thanks for the insights.
– Judy Murphy
June 27, 2012 9:43 AM EDT
Rock On, Shannon!
– Roseanna DeMaria
June 27, 2012 9:46 AM EDT
Shannon, Thank you for being there, embodying principles that make the world a better place for all of us. It isn’t easy, I’m sure. Your post doesn’t do justice to the work and dedication I know you must invest. I commend you and your family at Sap Bush Hollow Farm for the example you set. My warmest wishes for bountiful harvest.
– Kevin Klein
September 5, 2012 9:57 PM EDT
I’m impressed with your values. They are certainly different from what I would expect from those in business especially the last philosophy.
– annie
Post a comment
“Thus, my family lives an interesting conundrum: We produce things to sell. But we want to play a part in unraveling our consumer culture. ”
I feel that this is not quite right to say about what you do, nor that upselling means that you are doing something illegitimate, per se. It all depends on the intention you bring to the market place. A market is a place of exchange. If you bring things of value- in your case several lines of products that sustain, offer health, warmth and well-being – then you have the right to ask for value in exchange. At your farmers market, the exchange for your labors to grow, harvest, butcher, and create happens to be money, but it need not be. It could be have been a crop swap,barter, other kinds of value-for-value exchange. It is not for profit per se, but a fair and dual transaction as a way of sustaining both.
You come to the market with an intention to serve and do well by both yourself and others. It is good received for goods given. I think it accurate that products of this nature are called “goods.”
The upselling point is more nuanced here I think as well since the choice of verb becomes more telling of one’s intent and purpose: If you display your merchandise in a way that invites your customers to experience a wider range of the goods you offer…to broaden their range of choices, experiences and options, you are upselling, but you are not creating a false desire nor spin that creates false need.
Years ago I published an auction newsletter for the Pacific Northwest. I knew just abut every auctioneer in a three-state region. There was a very gifted auctioneer who changed his name to Satori. (I used to know his real name, but I’ve since forgotten it.) Satori sold fine furniture, nice quality collectibles, and occasional high-end art pieces. He was warm and quirky, wore artsy long shirts, let his hair grow long. No auctioneer’s cowboy hat to be seen. And his following loved him. He hand wrote an invitation to each patron, personally inviting them because he thought they might now appreciate this or that piece specifically. He kept track of what they’d bought, and what they liked and came to see.
Was he marketing? Of course he was, but honestly. He used his artsy outfit to differentiate himself, stand out. He also happened to be a painter, so he was making a choice to wear his “artistic nature” and his eye on his sleeve, if you will, during his monthly auction nights.
But the reason I speak about him at all is his half-time shows during each auction – chamber music, a quartet, a short art lectures, a dance – something his crowd came to really appreciate, even if it wasn’t the evening’s focus. He wasn’t “warming up the crowd” to sell more. He used to tell my husband and I, “These people love art and fine things. I want to widen their vision. Expose them to more. I have good taste, they trust me. I enjoy opening up the world a bit more for them.”
His marketing was caring for them. Part of his value exchange was cross-selling other fine things- culture. Would it make them warmer and make them more likely to buy from him? or buy more from him? Yes, they trusted him. It could’ve been just an upselling technique. But it came with heart and honesty. The way the exchange in the marketplace is supposed to work….