What The Demise of Australian Rugby Can Teach You About Rural Sales Effectiveness

Flying back from a recent sales training trip in Australia I found a great documentary on the plane called Gold Digger by first time journalist and passionate code head Matt Durant.

The proven correlation around player cohesion was insightful and intelligent.

Like Matt, I am passionate about rural sales and helping people because I don’t want them to struggle when they don’t need to.

Like him, I had my own set of questions which got me thinking about my world and rural sales:

– why do rural sales team struggle?
– what ingredients make them better?
– what are the mistake they make?
– why can’t they perform at a higher level?
– what can they do to be more consistent?
– how can we set them up for success?

As I flew across the Tasman I learn lots.

The big take-out was the Australian team won more when players had played for longer periods together.

Think about the player combinations of Stephen Larkham and George Gregan. They even have a Gregan/Larkham East grandstand named after them at the Canberra stadium.

Ben Darwin (former Wallabies prop) runs a rugby analysis data firm and clearly showed the ebbs and flows when the Wallabies where good and not so good.

When players had played together longer they won more games.

When they played less, they won less.

Same for Coach K and his star-studded NBA team who got beaten in the lead up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics by Greece at the World Champs.

Coach Mike Krzyzewski knew he had to get his NBA together for 3 years before the 2008 Olympics if he knew they had a chance to win.

All the other nations played regularly together on the world circuit. His didn’t because they played for separate NBA teams.

No doubt it will be the same for Andy Farrell  – or any Lions coach – when the British and Irish Lions when they tour Australia in 2025.

Player cohesion is the breakthrough for high performance sports teams so it makes sense it would be the same for high performing rural sales teams.

Sales team turnover is costly. We all know this.

Not just the interruption for management to re-hire and re-train or the loss of institutional knowledge but the seed of doubt that lack of consistency puts in their farming clients minds.

Fertiliser and rural retailers are known (not in a good way) for their staff turnover and it doesn’t help their businesses – or their farmer shareholders.

Humans crave consistency. We like certainty because we like predictability. We are control freaks as it ensures our survival.

When things change we don’t like that change as we like to predict things. We don’t want to have to start all over again, especially once we’ve just got used to someone who we began to trust.

So have a think about how you and your Australian or New Zealand rural sales team can multiply the time they spend together. Training events, social events, away days, meetings, 1:1s, lunch n’ learn sessions, WhatsApp Groups, workshops or webinars.

And I get it. I am not naive. I know you can’t spend all your time together. You need to be out selling.

But you could create some buddy ups or mentoring or coaching to build those bonds.

The more time they spend together or the more time you spend with them as a manager they better they will get.

The data proves it.

So make sure you reduce your team turnover.

Build those bonds.

Make and take time to be there for your team.

Your sales – and farming clients – will love you for it.

PS. Link to “Gold Digger” documentary here on Apple TV