SharkFarmerXM's podcast
Todd Roberts 8-28
- ♪ Unstoppable, unshakable ♪ ♪ But it rolls off the tongue, unbreakable ♪ ♪ It's unavoidable ♪ ♪ You're so relatable ♪ ♪ Rebetween the lines ♪ ♪ Start to loosen up your mind ♪ - And welcome again to "Shark Bummer Radio. Hey!" I'm your host, Rob Sharkey. Today, we are live just outside of Atlanta, Indiana. At technology days, it's, well, it was recorded live. We've got to be honest, don't we, Emily? - Yeah, yeah, we do. We are at Farm Progress Show this week. - Yeah, make sure you hunt us down if you're at Farm Progress Show. - That's right. - If you miss technology days, well, I guess that's on you. - You'll have to just listen, tune in to the XM Show here in the next couple of days and get the details. - You miss the free ice cream, you miss the popcorn, you miss the research. What else you miss? - You miss the roots. - The roots. - Right? - The roots. - The roots. - The roots. (laughs) - You also miss looking at all the cool stuff they have in their commitment program. So today, we're talking with Todd Roberts from Sheridan, Indiana. How you doing, Todd? - I'm doing great. - Your title is Beck's commitment program manager. - How's that? - Did you make that up? - No. - Okay. - It was there when I got it. (laughs) - I mean, did you morph into that role or is that what you were hired to do? - Well, it wasn't necessarily hired for that, but I think my background probably helps put me in that role. I came into Beck's and I was on the sales side. So I was an area team leader for the sales side and but I have an equipment background. So we buy just a little bit of equipment in this program and it's kind of helpful. - Just a tiny bit. What was your equipment background? - So I've worked both in the John Deere and Case I H dealerships. So yeah, yeah, no competition there. (laughs) - What'd you sell most of, cleaners? - Yeah, well, some fence and some small lawn mowers and no. - Yeah. - No, definitely job here. - You don't have a greener combine in the reward program, do you? - We don't have one, but if you want one, I can get you one. - No, I think I'm good. - Okay. (laughs) - So that the commitment program, it's something that Emily and I are still figuring out, learning how to do. It's tied in with if you buy a seed here. - Well, I tell you what, I guess it's your job. Would you explain it? What the commitment program is? - Yeah, so I mean, it's a program we've had here at BEX for about 15 years. It's kind of morphed over the time. It's been a program. And what it is today really is, when our customers commit to buy our seed, we consider our customers our shareholders. We're our family owned business. So we're different than the publicly traded companies. - I'm a shareholder. - You're a shareholder. - Sweet. - That's right, you're buying our seed. - Do I get like a sweet at a hotel or something? - Well, you can ask. (laughs) - That does make a difference though, right? You know, me publicly traded or privately owned, that does make a huge difference in what you can do. - Well, it does as a company and how you make decisions. And so we call you shareholders because we report to you as our customers. You know, we're listening to our customers. We want to make sure that they're successful in their operation. And so you hear a lot about all we are, one of our purpose and mission is helping farmers succeed. And that's just not a marketing tagline. That's like impenetrated into the DNA of every employee. We're here to help farmers succeed. And whatever it is, whether it's our products, it's our practical farm research or it's our commitment rewards program, it's here to do that, it's help farmers. - Your competition doesn't like you. - No. - As far as like you specifically-- - Well, yeah, I'm a hated man for your reward program. Basically, if you want to buy and ferry your seed, you get a fuel trailer. That's what they'll tell you. - Yeah, our seed doesn't work. Guess is what they say. And this program's kind of a gimmick. And I don't understand that, you know, and so much of our business comes through this program and the loyalty of 97% retention, that's probably why they don't like it. - 97, what's wrong with the 3%? - Well, some people do stop farming. - I'd say they probably, those are the ones that are no longer with us. - And that, yeah, I didn't want to say it that way, but yeah, those that are no longer with us and some that just decide to sell out. - Yeah, Bex, we'll see you until the Lord-- - Until we don't. - The Lord says hello. (laughing) Yeah, so most most guys, yeah, so I hate it because they just don't understand the program. So it's a program most of our competition has. So they're trying to sell against it because they don't have it and it's so powerful. - Okay, so I'm trying to put it in a nutshell and it's hard to do, right? So if you sell, if you buy a certain amount of seed, then the quates to points and the points go towards equipment. - So is that like, goes towards buying power? - Yeah, so it's kind of thinking of this way. - When I said that, did I say it wrong? - No, you said it and that works, I can work with that. (laughing) Think of it this way, it's almost like an investment. You invest in your seed for your farm. That's an investment. You buy seed to plant and to grow and to make money, right? As a farmer, we're gonna give you a return on that seed investment upfront by leveraging our buying power and by giving you a percent back as a shareholder. And then in some cases, we even offer interest-free repayback on a loan that we give you. And so it's access to working capital that's outside of your operation. And you add that to those other components and it's a powerful financial tool. - So the buying power, 'cause you're about how much stuff are you buying every year? - Just a few million. - Like, do you have a dollar amount? - Well, it varies from year to year based on participation, but it's been, well, over $200 million in a given year in the past. - $200 million bucks. So when you buy, let's stick with the fuel cart, right? 'Cause that's kind of what you guys might be known for with a lot of people. So you're buying X amount of fuel carts. Thunder Creek says, all right, we're gonna take X amount off because you're buying so much. And then that goes back to me as a guy that bought seed. - Yeah, so it goes, you know, we're buying well over 200 fuel carts each year. And so as an individual farm, I mean, most farms don't need more than one or two fuel carts. And so when we're buying the volume that we buy, we're usually set up as either a national account or we're set up as a direct, almost like an equipment dealer. And so from that standpoint, we take that savings that we get and we just pass it on to our customers, 'cause we're not here to make money on the equipment we sell, we're just gonna take buying power and pass it along. - All right, we gotta run a break. Today, we're talking with Todd Roberts from Sheridan, Indiana. We'll be back, right after the break. ♪ A ground shaker, a rule breaker ♪ ♪ Hold tight and roll you through every acre ♪ - This segment is brought to you by Common Ground. Are you looking for an easy way to buy, sell, or lease your land? Well, check out Common Ground, where they connect landowners and farmers and hunters too, by the way. Go to commonground.io, that's commonground.io. (upbeat music) - And welcome back to the technology days just outside of Atlanta, Indiana. Emily and I have enjoyed a couple, last couple days here. Tonight though, we got shark farmer TVs, brand new. - Absolutely. - Brand new, old friends of the box. Also, we launched a podcast today. It's a pottinger, our old friends from Tennessee. - They are from Kentucky. Quintin Lea, pottinger, yeah. And they're telling about all kinds of amazing things they're doing on their farm. Of course, we met them years ago when they had siloed the movie taped on their farm, but yeah, they are like milling and cleaning their own wheat and working with different, making bourbon, basically. - Yeah, they don't, they don't grow back corn. - Yes. - And you need to introduce me. Give me some time. - No, I don't think you're gonna say, 'cause they're growing, was it red? It's whatever corn they're making specifically for bourbon. And I doubt Beck's is like focusing a whole lot of research in on that. - That might be a niche market. - That's amazing. - What do you think? - Very much so. Today, we're talking with Todd Roberts. Now, he's from Sheridan, Indiana, who's, is that close to Atlanta here? - Yeah, it's just about 10 miles straight west of here. - Okay, do you come and like to the office every day? - Most days, yes, when I'm not traveling throughout the marketing area. - Okay. - Yeah, man, they probably, they probably get sick of seeing you. - Well, that's why I travel a lot. They tell me to go work. - You are the commitment program manager here at Beck, so we've been talking about that. What, we brought up the fuel cart. - Yeah. - Like what is the most, well, it's not really purchased. What piece of equipment did most people get? - Yeah, so that's a tough question. So, probably our hottest items, pickup trucks are extremely popular. Every farm needs a pickup truck, and we're gonna go through over 500, three quarter ton pickup trucks, in an average year through the program. That's a few trucks. - So, is that 500 of all chevvies or-- - Cupboard and Chevy, GMC combined, total, roughly 500? - Okay. - That's probably just as an individual item, one of our largest volumes. - You probably can't do that though. Can't all like say, "Hey, we can get a better deal "if we all go chevvies," because man, the farmers are stubborn, and they're gonna, those Ford guys are not gonna have that. - They are very brand loyal, so we need to have the brand that they like. - Okay, so we got pickup trucks. - Pickup trucks, hopper bottoms are a staple, it seems like through our program, and we have four different options there. Outside of that, you know, we're a pretty good-sized gun dealer as well. So, we have some pretty cool guns that we move through this program by pure volume. We arm America pretty well. - How is Illinois doing in that market? - Well, that can be some challenges. - It is, we're the only state that has the foid card. - Yeah, man. - The fire is so dumb. Don't even get me started on this. - We still sell some guns to Illinois, so. - Okay. - So you're working with farmers every day, did you grow up on a farm? - I did. - Do you have an ag background? - I grew up on a farm, a couple hours north of here. Corn, soybeans, livestock. Typical kid, 4-H, FFA. - Where'd you meet your wife? - I met my wife at Purdue University. - Oh, gosh. - Yeah, here we go. - She hit on me. It was one of those, you know, TGs between the sorority and fraternity, and yeah, so she introduced herself to me. - There's no way. - Yeah, I got, people can fact check that. Yeah, fact check it, yeah. Call her up. - Y'all from Purdue, you're proud of that school, aren't you? - Absolutely. Boilermaker, boiler up. - Right? - Come on. - That's a dumbest mascot. - No, it's just a boiler maker. - Hey, you're offending a lot of people here. I mean-- - It's not the first time, man. (laughing) - What did you study at Purdue? - I was in the Egg Econ department and focused on agro sales and marketing. - Okay, so I asked you that earlier, what was your education? And because so many people work, you know, whatever they got their degree in, they've done other things. But you followed right along. You worked in the furniture business, you worked in media, you worked in sales. - I've tried a few dentistry, so I started in agriculture when I came out of school with Monsanto, a pretty good-sized company, and then decided I wanted to go down a different path and got in the furniture industry for about eight years and did that and then went into media. - What did you do there? - Well, I worked for a company out of Michigan called Howard Miller. They're a nice case goods manufacturer, and so I was an independent sales rep. 100% commission out there selling furniture stores. - Okay, like two of the stores that were selling furniture. - Yeah, yeah. - So I represented the manufacturer. So I did that for about six years, and then I guess I did an okay job. They promoted me to be a divisional sales manager then. - Let me ask you what's the difference between selling farm equipment and selling furniture? - It's all about a relationship. It's all about having the right product and taking care of people the right way. It's the same. - Is it, so when you're selling furniture, is it harder than dealing with farmers? - Well, I would think so. - Consumers are a little more difficult than farmers. Farmers, we got a good root. We got a common bond. - There can be some difficult farm customers as well. - Really? - Occasionally. Am I working with one, talking to one? - No, not at all. - He's never grumpy. - Well, going back to that commitments program, is there an item that people want that you guys have not been able to quite nail down? - We've had in the past some of true grain bins. Right now, we don't have a grain bin in the program, and so that's something we're working on to get a true grain bin system. And then farm buildings are another item that we're working on to try. We do farm buildings. We can do them outside the program. We don't have a specific building package in the program because it's difficult when you're working with both of those come types of products. You need companies that set those things up that build those things more local. And so given our 18 states that we're covering, it's hard to have that relationship with so many different installation companies. And so working with the manufacturer through their installation dealers, that can be a challenge. So that's something we're working on hard to figure out a solution for. - Well, both of those are so specific, right? Because yeah, you got your standard 60 by 120 building. Somebody's gonna want a 60 by 130 and probably gonna mess everything up. - Yeah, with 17 foot sidewalls versus 18, and then they want this overhang and they have this load requirements in Minnesota versus Missouri. And you get some challenges. - It's like you're selling furniture again. - Well, a little bit, yeah. Selling different colors and styles of furniture. I mean, I'm looking at out here in the crowd, a very large furniture owner in the crowd that's a friend of Sunny Bex. - Does it make you feel good to walk through the display room out there and look at all you have accomplished? - Well, it's not what I've accomplished. It's what the team's accomplished. And what Bex has allowed us to do. I mean, it's fun to see what we're allowed to do here at this company, how they allow managers and departments to make decisions and they empower you to do what's right for farmers and right for our customers. - How big of a team you got? - I have a 12 person team. - Yeah? - Yeah, do you like all of them? - Most of the time. - There's somebody. - There's always one, there's always one that kind of gets the load up. - What's her name? - Well, I'm not gonna say that publicly. It could hurt me. HR would probably frown upon that. - Fine, all right, we gotta go to break. (laughing) Today we're talking with Todd Roberts from Sheridan, Indiana. He is the commitment program manager here at our friends at Bex Highbridge. We'll be back! All right, after the break. ♪ You sure lay the glory between the lines ♪ ♪ Start to loosen up your mind ♪ - This segment is brought to you by Common Ground. Are you looking for an easy way to buy, sell, or lease your land? Well, check out Common Ground where they connect landowners and farmers and hunters too, by the way. Go to commonground.io, that's commonground.io. (upbeat music) - And welcome back to Shark Farmer Radio. We are here at Technology Days just outside of Atlanta, Indiana. Actually Emily and I are at Farm Progress today, but we pre-recorded, it's all fun. Today we're talking with Todd Roberts and he's from Sheridan, Indiana. He's a Bex commitment manager, Bex commitment program manager. And now Todd, you've been with Bex for how long? - Five years as an employee. - Okay. - I've known the family a little bit longer than that though. - Did you? - Yeah. - Just from what? - Well, my dad and his money back were college roommates together. - Oh, really? - Yes. - I bet they have some stories. - Well, I have some stories on them and pictures. - Oh, really? - Oh, that's good. - So did you come to the technology days back in the day? - Yeah, you could say some people call me a Bex baby. I grew up coming to Bex and coming down here to field shows back in the 70s and when there was just a few people here and it might have been a little bit smaller than you see today. - Did you come in one of those station wagons? - Well, so back, my dad had one of these van conversions back in the day and so I think we'd treat my brothers and I and my mom and dad, my grandpa and grandmom. We'd all pile in the same vehicle and come down. - That was before many vans. - They didn't have many vans. That's one of those big old box conversions. - Like the 18 van. - Yeah, something like that. - What about you? Do you have what they have back then? Like mutton chops or what? Bell bottoms, I don't know. - I don't know. - What did you have for like hair back then? You know, the-- - Oh, yeah, when I was younger, I did have a perm. I had some curly hair going on. - That's so funny. Guys used to get perms, that was a thing. - Absolutely. - I just submitted to that, didn't I? - If only we would check pictures. - You had a perm. - I had a permanent. - This is where I really regret it's radio. - Right, we need pictures. - Because if you would see Todd, you would go, there's a man that's never had a perm in his life. - Yeah. You know when you're younger, you do funny things. - Yes, we all do. - Do you have pictures of it? - I do. - With you? - No, thankfully. - I'm sure if he had them, he wouldn't share them with you. - All right, going back to the 1970s. Like, how old were you when you were coming to the show then? - That, eight to 10 years old? - Okay. - You were in the van? - Yep. - How'd that go? - Well, the thing that sticks out the most is when my dad got a speeding ticket coming down in US 31. So as a kid, you know, you're always told what not to do. And dad was one of those, "Hey, don't do this, don't speed." And what'd he do? He got pulled over by police. - Yeah, but I don't know. Is your dad is probably not the time to make fun of him though? - Well, he's... - Was he upset? - A little bit. - Yeah. - I would be. - But I remembered it, because later on in life, I got pulled over with him in the vehicle. I didn't get a ticket though, I only got a warning. And so, yeah. - Do you talk your way out of it with your perm? - Yeah, yeah. My Goldilocks helped. (laughing) - So this was a different deal back in the '70s, just technology days. - It was. It'd be the, obviously, the company is much smaller and much fewer employees. And they were still at that early growth stage. - Well, you said earlier, 18 states, right? - Yes. - Bex is growing. One of the, is it the fastest growing seed company right now? - It is the fastest growing seed company. It's the largest family owned seed company in the industry. And yeah, the trajectories, a lot of momentum going on with this company, with this family. - And with you being in charge of this, the commitment program. I keep on to see rewards. Was that taken out? - It originally didn't start with commitment rewards. It was kind of originally started as a four wheel deal, 'cause we gave away gators and blares, rangers the first couple of years. And then it transitioned to be called trucks and tractors, 'cause we brought trucks and tractors in. Wow, that was a cute name. - Yeah. - Called it the TNT program. And then eventually they said, well, we've got named this thing something. And so they thought, well, commitment rewards. And so they just stuck with that name over the last, I think about 10 years, it's been called the commitment reward program. - What would you want somebody that's never bought a bag of Beck's corn, never been associated with a commitment rewards? What's, if you could sit there, you'd do the old elevator speech. I mean, you could tell them like one thing. What would it be? - Elevator speech. You'd give elevator speeches when you would have to-- - Absolutely. - Do an interview here. - I'm gonna nail this one. Remember, rewards is a financial tool that gives our customers an advantage over customers that don't participate. - Almost like you had that one prepared. - Doing this to me. - I didn't, I had some sales background. - I did that. - You gotta have elevator pitch. I got that. I've been teaching this to our sales team and our dealers the last three years. - I thought I'd stump you a little bit on that one. - Nope. - Okay. - Got it. Did I nail it? Okay? - B minus what, I mean-- - Well, I mean-- - I mean, elevator-- - If you're gonna grade like your-- - It's just a little short. I mean, you're only just, if you're going up one floor, you nail it. You only-- - Well, and you went to Purdue, so you're used to inflated grades. (laughing) - Hey, now. - We're salukis. We can't even make fun of that. - Well, hey, well, our coaching from your university. Southern Illinois Tech, Matt Painter was a head coach at Southern Illinois. - Okay. It's like, it's not a real school. - Yeah. - Well, okay. - If you take our diploma and you flip it over, it's a restaurant menu. - Okay. - Yeah. - It still counts the same, doesn't it? - No, no it doesn't. What do you hope in the future with the commitment rewards? - What's that? - What do you hope in the future, what are you striving for? - Yeah, we're striving to continue to bring as much value as we can through our customers through the buying power that we offer, continuing to help farmers succeed, working with our practical farm research teams. There's a lot of items that they do and practices that they employ, that we try to make sure, okay, can we then bring that to this program so that it can help customers afford to maybe change their planner and put on those new closing wheels to improve their productivity. So that's the goal is always helping farmers succeed, continuing to bring that buying power. - Or be probably going into a downturn in agriculture, is that hurt or help your commitment program. - Well, I feel like it's only gonna strengthen the interest in the program 'cause through the program, we offer working capital for farmers and working capital is gonna be tighter in the industry as income drops and the fact that we offer that working capital access that's over and above their normal lending ability plus then we're gonna give them that capital at zero percent interest. - Well, you know, we've been through downturns before and I stopped buying like everybody else and then you've got that lag in your equipment 'cause you gotta keep up with the equipment or else it's gonna just break apart on you. So it is nice in that way that it almost kind of helps you at least get something newer on your farm. - Farm still needs equipment and you still need to upgrade and so that's where this can be a supplement to where maybe you can't afford it. You don't have the cash flow for a payment for something else. You can still use points and get that upgraded equipment or fill that need that you might have in your farm through just leveraging your seed purchase. - Mm-hmm, Todd, why don't you tell people where they can find you on TikTok? - I am not on TikTok. - Well, how else are you gonna do the dancing trends if you're not on TikTok? - I let them do all that fun stuff for me. - Okay. - If people do have questions on the commitment program, where would they go? - Yeah, I mean, from the BEX website, from our commitment awards program, I mean, we have any of our dealers, any of our seed advisors or the commitment rewards team can, all of us can answer questions if a customer has interest in the program and in BEX in general. - Okay, and it's not that confusing. - No, it really isn't. Most people, it's only confusing. You're really been told it is confusing? - Yeah. - But it's not. - That's your competition, again. - That's them trying to-- - You're really bothering them. - I hope so. (laughing) - Todd Roberts, the BEX commitment program manager from Sheridan, Indiana. Todd, thank you very much. Sorry about making fun of Purdue. - That's okay, I'm used to it. - Yeah. Don't go anywhere though. Sean Haney's coming up next. He's a Purdue graduate. - Fantastic. Well, thanks for the time. - Yeah, he's not. - Okay. - Well, we'll catch you right away next time. (upbeat music) ♪ You can get rid of open hair, shake 'em ♪