Feedback on marketing high-tech agricultural product

[mikemike]

Hi guys,

Looking for feedback on the marketing of my product, and to get viewpoints/opinions on what we're doing and ways to improve it. We have an atypical business that is based on University technology.

I've been working on a microchip implant that accurately measures water status (thirst) in trees and grapevines for almost 10 years now (4 years full-time running my company, 6 years at Cornell U doing a PhD). Our product is very technology-heavy, having been funded by ~$1.2M in federal awards and multiple years in development, but we finally launched last year. I believe we have a breakthrough product that can make a big difference in orchard/vineyard yield, quality and water use efficiency; mainly because our product directly measures water status and will allow growers to fine-tune their irrigation dramatically (there are NO products in the market that measure water status accurately+automatically). We are talking about a 10-15% increase in yield and up to 50% savings in water.

In any case, agriculture is a unique market known for being risk-averse and sluggish to adopt new technologies. We've done a good number of initial sales to growers and scientists (USA, Chile, Canada, Europe, Australia); the feedback has been overall positive. Now - I'm looking to grow sales by improving our website (adding landing pages), recording better videos, google ads and speaking at scientific/grower conferences. Here's one of our landing pages. What do you guys think? Any ideas/feedback on how to improve our marketing and sell product? On how to reach more growers?

Thanks a bunch.
Mike

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

The landing page looks a bit underwhelming.

I think you should reverse the headline. Something like, "Can Floraplus Save You a Whopping $70,000 a Year?" as the primary.

That said, the product itself looks like it has some great value skew. With the proper marketing, it could be a big hit.

 

[Noo]

Agricultural business conferences?

Email all the associations that do the lobbying for small business owners.

 

[Walter Hay]

Great concept. The video did nothing for me, simply watching someone standing in front of a tree and talking. It could be more interesting if he demonstarted the simple installation process.

The list of benefits could be improved:

Make the most of your precious water with FloraPulse and enjoy less labor input​

Increase crop yields and revenue: make an extra $70,000 per 100 acres. ​

Improve crop quality​

Decrease the risk of crop loss by keeping trees unstressed
Improve tree health
Save 40% water


Walter

 

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[mikemike]

The landing page looks a bit underwhelming.

I think you should reverse the headline. Something like, "Can Floraplus Save You a Whopping $70,000 a Year?" as the primary.

That said, the product itself looks like it has some great value skew. With the proper marketing, it could be a big hit.

Good feedback. We've been very focused on the product/technology, time to change gears and work on the marketing.

I do worry about going too heavy with the promises, as our customers often mention how "there's so much BS in agriculture technology it's hard to know who to trust". Being too aggressive could hurt our brand/credibility (or maybe I'm just overthinking it).

 

[mikemike]

Great concept. The video did nothing for me, simply watching someone standing in front of a tree and talking. It could be more interesting if he demonstarted the simple installation process.

The list of benefits could be improved:

Make the most of your precious water with FloraPulse and enjoy less labor input​

Increase crop yields and revenue: make an extra $70,000 per 100 acres. ​

Improve crop quality​

Decrease the risk of crop loss by keeping trees unstressed
Improve tree health
Save 40% water


Walter

Thanks. You may be right. My thinking with the video was to focus on explaining what we are actually selling and its benefits. The installation procedure, though simple, still takes ~15minutes and would distract from our message.

I need to come up with a demo that involves more action...

 

[mikemike]

Email all the associations that do the lobbying for small business owners.

Could you elaborate? I don't understand how lobbying organizations can help us sell an Ag product.
Thanks.

 

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[Kid]

First thing, i'm rooting for this concept.
Now to less pleasant things

Copywise:
1.Headline should be better, MJ and Walter gave good examples.
Headline is 70% of your copy, people decide if they want to read more based on that one line.

2. Too much text.
Your site looks like a Word document posted on a web.
Split in separate pages, if they'll be interested they'll reach for more.
And getting them interested is goal of your landing page.

3. Social proof.
Where is:
"I saved 50% on water bill with FloraPulse -John Smith from Connecticut" ?
+his picture

4. Hit the road and ask your clients.
Go to grower with your laptop, ask him if he can look at this site
and what he thinks this website is about.
Look carefully how he scrolls it or where he is confused.

Business wise:
Hire sales man.
It might be easier than trying to push product via website.

 

[Noo]

Could you elaborate? I don't understand how lobbying organizations can help us sell an Ag product.
Thanks.

They won't, but you just need them to resend the e-mail to the small owners they represent. I thought about them because they probably have a lot of contacts.

 

[mikemike]

Great comments! I'll make some changes and post back here in a few days.

 

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[Miketing]

So far you've asked for feedback on your landing page, and gotten some good ideas on the copy which I'm sure would help to improve your conversion rate. Is your conversion rate really the problem here though? Is that actually going to move the needle?

The Google Ads > Landing Page strategy is great for when your potential customers are actually searching for keywords related to the problem or solution.

How much traffic are you getting to that page though? What are your potential customers searching for? What kind of awareness level are they at right now?

Do these growers and scientists know a solution exists to their problem? Do they even know that they have a problem?

Since you have a new breakthrough product, you likely have a lot of educating to do. You said you're speaking at scientific/grower conferences, so that's a good start for building awareness.

You said that the market is risk-averse and sluggish to adopt new technologies though. Inbound marketing relies on them coming to you.

So would it not be worth adding in some more outbound-focused marketing/sales methods here? Or at least add in some more ways to build awareness?

 

[mikemike]

So far you've asked for feedback on your landing page, and gotten some good ideas on the copy which I'm sure would help to improve your conversion rate. Is your conversion rate really the problem here though? Is that actually going to move the needle?

The Google Ads > Landing Page strategy is great for when your potential customers are actually searching for keywords related to the problem or solution.

I think our current conversion rate is likely 10x lower than it could be eventually, due to overall market skepticism about new technologies. There's a bunch of literal BS being peddled to farmers, all the time.

The most honest feedback I've gotten from interested customers that eventually caved and bought a system is that they're worried about "the cost (it's >$1,000 per system) and does it actually work", but after they use it they're like "dang this is nice, I'm going to buy more next year" so I think if I can effectively tackle those 2 concerns our conversion rate could go up dramatically. At this stage most sales are usually $5k to $15k so even a few sales could move us from unprofitable to profitable.

How much traffic are you getting to that page though? What are your potential customers searching for? What kind of awareness level are they at right now?

Do these growers and scientists know a solution exists to their problem? Do they even know that they have a problem?

Since you have a new breakthrough product, you likely have a lot of educating to do. You said you're speaking at scientific/grower conferences, so that's a good start for building awareness.

You said that the market is risk-averse and sluggish to adopt new technologies though. Inbound marketing relies on them coming to you.

So would it not be worth adding in some more outbound-focused marketing/sales methods here? Or at least add in some more ways to build awareness?

Regarding the sales funnel:
I agree completely. We're getting *some* interest through Google ads and SEO (~30 uniques/day), so I figured it's worth at least improving the website, but the number is small. Every customer that's interested will end up at the website so it needs to be at least 'good enough'.

Customers generally look for 'irrigation sensors' or 'agriculture technology' - it's hard to say. I think most growers find us because they were reading/searching about agriculture technologies and we showed up. These days, given the drought, I should add 'water efficiency' as a keyword. Overall, they are aware that there's tons of different water-sensing technologies, but we don't stand out amongst such a crowded space (even though our results ARE substantially better - it's just word of mouth is slow because it takes months for a grower to test and become comfortable with the product). They know they have a problem and they are interested in solutions, but they're risk averse and often unwilling to pay >$1,000 for a new technology that 'may not work'.

Since you have a new breakthrough product, you likely have a lot of educating to do. You said you're speaking at scientific/grower conferences, so that's a good start for building awareness.

You said that the market is risk-averse and sluggish to adopt new technologies though. Inbound marketing relies on them coming to you.

So would it not be worth adding in some more outbound-focused marketing/sales methods here? Or at least add in some more ways to build awareness?

Yes - we need to drive more traffic to the website and build awareness. The question is how?

Here's a few ideas I'm working on to get leads:

• Record funny video that compares our technology with existing alternatives. I.e. alternative #1 shows a guy lugging a really heavy instrument, super sweaty and tired, it blows up on his face (in a funny way). vs FloraPulse - grower sitting at a beach drinking margaritas and checking on his crop with his phone. The idea is that a funny video would showcase the benefits clearly and memorably, but also encourage sharing (if we're funny enough).
• Speak at conferences. This is a great way to evangelize and meet customers, helps us look like authoritative figures. Looking for more conferences, in particular sustainability/water related.
• Tradeshows. The usual way to evangelize. Not sure how effective because we blend in with a bunch of other technologies. Plus they're expensive and time-intensive.
• Posting on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn. Easy to do, just need to keep it consistent.
• Monthly updates to our mailing list (~325 people). Try to convert people who've already expressed interest.

 

[ravinder09]

Hi guys,

Looking for feedback on the marketing of my product, and to get viewpoints/opinions on what we're doing and ways to improve it. We have an atypical business that is based on University technology.

I've been working on a microchip implant that accurately measures water status (thirst) in trees and grapevines for almost 10 years now (4 years full-time running my company, 6 years at Cornell U doing a PhD). Our product is very technology-heavy, having been funded by ~$1.2M in federal awards and multiple years in development, but we finally launched last year. I believe we have a breakthrough product that can make a big difference in orchard/vineyard yield, quality and water use efficiency; mainly because our product directly measures water status and will allow growers to fine-tune their irrigation dramatically (there are NO products in the market that measure water status accurately+automatically). We are talking about a 10-15% increase in yield and up to 50% savings in water.

In any case, agriculture is a unique market known for being risk-averse and sluggish to adopt new technologies. We've done a good number of initial sales to growers and scientists (USA, Chile, Canada, Europe, Australia); the feedback has been overall positive. Now - I'm looking to grow sales by improving our website (adding landing pages), recording better videos, google ads and speaking at scientific/grower conferences. Here's one of our landing pages. What do you guys think? Any ideas/feedback on how to improve our marketing and sell product? On how to reach more growers?

Thanks a bunch.
Mike

Is there a trial period customers can use without paying? Can you hire salespeople who can go to the farms and create relationships? Can you go to the farmer supply store and create an incentive for the store to sell for you? Lots of video testimonials of customers would be very helpful. I think it's great going to conferences and speaking and going to trade shows will help if you would like to sell distributors. As a scientist, you tend to think customers care a lot about technology, but they only care about results. Most of these farmers don't tend to hang out online a lot and I don't think they have time to go to conferences and trade shows. If you would like to sell to farmers directly, to their farms. Spend a bit of time with them. Create an incentive for them to introduce you to other farmers in the area. If you can afford it, give them a free trial. Like MJ said this could be a huge success. Many congratulations on your success so far.

 

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[Deleted85763]

I think our current conversion rate is likely 10x lower than it could be eventually, due to overall market skepticism about new technologies. There's a bunch of literal BS being peddled to farmers, all the time.

The most honest feedback I've gotten from interested customers that eventually caved and bought a system is that they're worried about "the cost (it's >$1,000 per system) and does it actually work", but after they use it they're like "dang this is nice, I'm going to buy more next year" so I think if I can effectively tackle those 2 concerns our conversion rate could go up dramatically. At this stage most sales are usually $5k to $15k so even a few sales could move us from unprofitable to profitable.


Regarding the sales funnel:
I agree completely. We're getting *some* interest through Google ads and SEO (~30 uniques/day), so I figured it's worth at least improving the website, but the number is small. Every customer that's interested will end up at the website so it needs to be at least 'good enough'.

Customers generally look for 'irrigation sensors' or 'agriculture technology' - it's hard to say. I think most growers find us because they were reading/searching about agriculture technologies and we showed up. These days, given the drought, I should add 'water efficiency' as a keyword. Overall, they are aware that there's tons of different water-sensing technologies, but we don't stand out amongst such a crowded space (even though our results ARE substantially better - it's just word of mouth is slow because it takes months for a grower to test and become comfortable with the product). They know they have a problem and they are interested in solutions, but they're risk averse and often unwilling to pay >$1,000 for a new technology that 'may not work'.


Yes - we need to drive more traffic to the website and build awareness. The question is how?

Here's a few ideas I'm working on to get leads:

• Record funny video that compares our technology with existing alternatives. I.e. alternative #1 shows a guy lugging a really heavy instrument, super sweaty and tired, it blows up on his face (in a funny way). vs FloraPulse - grower sitting at a beach drinking margaritas and checking on his crop with his phone. The idea is that a funny video would showcase the benefits clearly and memorably, but also encourage sharing (if we're funny enough).
• Speak at conferences. This is a great way to evangelize and meet customers, helps us look like authoritative figures. Looking for more conferences, in particular sustainability/water related.
• Tradeshows. The usual way to evangelize. Not sure how effective because we blend in with a bunch of other technologies. Plus they're expensive and time-intensive.
• Posting on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn. Easy to do, just need to keep it consistent.
• Monthly updates to our mailing list (~325 people). Try to convert people who've already expressed interest.

I know a large agricultural products distributor. If your product actually saves growers money then it will sell like crazy. You must make that front and center - definite savings, no risk. They must be assured their investment will definitely pay off. Use actual case histories. Your website looks great, a real winner.

 

[rocking-m]

There are a lot of great comments in this thread!

I grew up on a farm and will give you my thoughts from that perspective.

1 - Online is not how most farmers are going to look for this type of technology. As one other poster said, they may not even know they have the problem you are trying to solve - this is from the lean startup, a great book you should read if you haven't.

2 - Farmers are natural loners and skeptics....you will need to talk directly to them and win their trust before they will trust your product.

3 - Farmers are small business owner operators, which means they are cheap! A low price test/pilot with a few key customers may help. If you can get in the door and get them hooked on the result, they will gladly keep your product in place for a reasonable value.

The good news for you is if you can get a few to use your product and get good results, the word will spread. Ag is a fairly tight industry so there are no secrets for very long.

Use some pilots as tests for the value your product will add (mainly on cost savings) and price accordingly. There has to be a significant ROI for the customer to use you.

hope that helps!

 

[mikemike]

I made bunch of changes to the landing page. Here's the link again if you guys got more feedback!

For Orchards | FloraPulse

Why FloraPulse water potential sensors are right for your orchard. Perfect your irrigation and get the best yields, quality and save water. Every year.

www.florapulse.com

 

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[mikemike]

Is there a trial period customers can use without paying? Can you hire salespeople who can go to the farms and create relationships? Can you go to the farmer supply store and create an incentive for the store to sell for you? Lots of video testimonials of customers would be very helpful. I think it's great going to conferences and speaking and going to trade shows will help if you would like to sell distributors. As a scientist, you tend to think customers care a lot about technology, but they only care about results. Most of these farmers don't tend to hang out online a lot and I don't think they have time to go to conferences and trade shows. If you would like to sell to farmers directly, to their farms. Spend a bit of time with them. Create an incentive for them to introduce you to other farmers in the area. If you can afford it, give them a free trial. Like MJ said this could be a huge success. Many congratulations on your success so far.

I'm thinking of ways to 'lower the barrier' to test our product:

• Free trial - I'll offer a few well-known growers a free system for 1 year to try it out. I can't do this too much as each trial costs me hundred of dollars. We are a small company (but maybe I'm being too cheap...).
• Money back guarantee - thinking about this, but worry that people may take advantage and demand a huge refund. I'm on the fence.
• Trial period - could be a good way to go, the problem is that our systems include a lot of one-time costs (preparing the package, shipping, sensors can only be used once), so a customer return is almost the same as the customer just keeping the system.

Supply stores are a reasonable option - maybe I can pay them to advertise there. I haven't moved this route because the last guy I talked with asked for 'around 50% discount' (we sell him our systems at 50% off and he resells them), which would cause issues with our current cost structure. I'd rather sell direct, make higher profit, and have more contact with the end customer (which allows up-selling, building a relationship and getting feedback)

We are also working with California farm advisors, who are trialing our product. The growers listen to and work with these guys so winning them over will help us in the long run.

A salesperson would be great, but I have 2 main concerns:

• Finding and verifying that the salesperson is actually good and can sell to growers
• Good salesmen are not cheap, so I'm guessing it'll take at least $60k/year (+commission). The salesperson would have to make a TON of sales to earn his keep, and it might take a couple of months for him/her to start seeing results. Meanwhile, we're burning cash. My plan is to keep things growing with the current team, and hire a salesperson once we're better off financially. Right now I am the salesperson.

It seems the consensus is that I need to go visit farmers in person. Let me figure out some ways: organize a 'meet the growers day' with an existing customer, offer to visit the growers that reach out, attend grower trainings/events.

On incentivizing growers to tell other growers: what can I offer them that would be of value?
I'm not sure a discount would help. Maybe I can get the grower 2 months free for each subscription purchased by their referral.

 

[Deleted85763]

I made bunch of changes to the landing page. Here's the link again if you guys got more feedback!

For Orchards | FloraPulse

Why FloraPulse water potential sensors are right for your orchard. Perfect your irrigation and get the best yields, quality and save water. Every year.

www.florapulse.com

The website is looks great. Like I said earlier. I know an agricultural products distributor and I know from experience that they buy products that are proven to save (or make) their customers money. One idea, you could give the product away for free and you could contract to received 50% of the annual savings. This way there is no upfront expense for the grower and all upside for you, minus your costs.

 

[mikemike]

I know a large agricultural products distributor. If your product actually saves growers money then it will sell like crazy. You must make that front and center - definite savings, no risk. They must be assured their investment will definitely pay off. Use actual case histories. Your website looks great, a real winner.

Our product will help growers increase yields and crop quality (water savings are nice, but don't move the needle when you get almost free water). The issue is that the grower must follow the recommended irrigation schedule - so I can't guarantee anything unless they do their part...

 

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[Deleted85763]

The website is looks great. Like I said earlier. I know an agricultural products distributor and I know from experience that they buy products that are proven to save (or make) their customers money. One idea, you could give the product away for free and you could contract to received 50% of the annual savings. This way there is no upfront expense for the grower and all upside for you, minus your costs.

Sorry. I see that it is increased yields and crop quality, not water savings. Well, that's just the same as savings as far as getting people to buy. You may want to contact people who have practical expertise in sales of agricultural products. Those that have many years experience. Their customers are your customers but they have the contacts, the trust, the knowledge, etc.. You can search them online and email them and at least get feedback. Everything that I see about you and your product is a winner.

 

[mikemike]

There are a lot of great comments in this thread!

I grew up on a farm and will give you my thoughts from that perspective.

1 - Online is not how most farmers are going to look for this type of technology. As one other poster said, they may not even know they have the problem you are trying to solve - this is from the lean startup, a great book you should read if you haven't.

2 - Farmers are natural loners and skeptics....you will need to talk directly to them and win their trust before they will trust your product.

3 - Farmers are small business owner operators, which means they are cheap! A low price test/pilot with a few key customers may help. If you can get in the door and get them hooked on the result, they will gladly keep your product in place for a reasonable value.

The good news for you is if you can get a few to use your product and get good results, the word will spread. Ag is a fairly tight industry so there are no secrets for very long.

Use some pilots as tests for the value your product will add (mainly on cost savings) and price accordingly. There has to be a significant ROI for the customer to use you.

hope that helps!

I agree that most farmers aren't online, but in-person sales are expensive and not-scalable. I'm game to do some in-person sales in the beginning, but I'm trying to build a business that can be done purely online (+mailing packages). I think that, by going online-only, I can drive huge savings in our sales/maintenance costs and thus end up with a much cheaper product we can sell worldwide. We'll build brand awareness and trust through a great product and customer service, plus customer referrals.

We already have a few growers using our product, mainly because we gave it to them free the first year, and they renewed/purchased more this year.

We can offer discounts, but I worry about seeming 'cheap' - our product is high end and giving discounts may harm our image (imagine Tesla cars giving discounts and sales). I'll play around with this idea since we have a bit of excess inventory at the moment and wouldn't mind just getting it out there at a discount.

 

[Miketing]

The most honest feedback I've gotten from interested customers that eventually caved and bought a system is that they're worried about "the cost (it's >$1,000 per system) and does it actually work", but after they use it they're like "dang this is nice, I'm going to buy more next year" so I think if I can effectively tackle those 2 concerns our conversion rate could go up dramatically.

So to justify the cost, you need to show the returns, so give some kind of calculation to show how you got to that $70k figure.

And to show it actually works, the testimonials and case study will help. Good how you've moved those nearer to the top. Maybe highlight the case study a little better though, at the moment it's only really visible after clicking the link.

To remove/lower the risk for them, I see you've come up with some good ideas for a trial or money back guarantee already. Maybe you could even think about a rental or credit-based pricing to reduce the upfront cost for them. Not quite sure how your current pricing works - you mentioned subscription?

Yes - we need to drive more traffic to the website and build awareness. The question is how?

A few ideas:

• SEO - create more content targeted directly to the keywords that people are searching for to get them to your site
• Ads - depends where your customers are going to be. Think about online facebook or display ads, or sponsoring the groups/events where your market is to get your ads in front of them there.
• Partnerships - affiliates, distributors, referrals. Sounds like you're on the right train of thought with incentivizing growers. Either a % of sales, fixed amount per sale, something product-related, or give them access to your audience.
• PR - similar to the above. Get your name out there.

Good salesmen are not cheap, so I'm guessing it'll take at least $60k/year (+commission).

You don't need to jump straight into hiring a full-time salesperson to go and visit the farmers in person and handle the entire sales cycle for you.

You could start with just hiring someone part-time, freelance, or commission-only, to reach out via email and/or cold calls, and then just book the actual sales appointments for you to close yourself. This part you could perhaps do in person, once someone has already identified warm and qualified leads for you.

 

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[deliux]

Wow great idea! I wish you all the best with it. It is perfect timing for something like this. Point is pandemic situation showed that countries can not rely only on import of agricultural products. So most of them started havily invest in new technologies and agricultural development.
I suggest you think about markets where water is expensive comodity. Middle East heavily investing in inovative local agricultural sector and water ther is valued way more than in developed countries.

 

[FastNAwesome]

Hi @mikemike,

Some comments on the website:

- Maybe benefits overview could be further up the page? As a way to get prospects interested in reading more.

- Buttons could be more prominent and more button looking. The blue "Join Mailing List" at the very bottom of the page is an example of a better looking button (which could be made even better looking though).

- When I click a button for contact/requesting the quote, I'd expect to see a contact form, but instead, there's some text and it's not obvious that you should scroll down to see the form. Basically, if prospect clicked a button for requesting a quote, they expressed a level of interest, and in a specific thing too - the quote.

So at that point, anything else is a distraction. And may be frustrating too, as button said one thing, and then they see something else.

They want a quote. You want to give them a quote. So just give them the form

- How many mobile visitors you get? You want to make sure their user experience is smooth as well, that relevant content is further up the page, and that buttons you want clicked are prominent and easy to find (may be even sticky?)

- Maybe FAQs and Demo page links could be in main menu?

 

[Tiago]

Yeah, I second what some people have said here. Maybe online isn't the avenue to go.

You mentioned that you'd need to pay a salesperson 60K+commission. Why not hire on full commission?

If you make it very attractive to him, that could work.

Your goal right now might not be to have a big profit, but to create social proof. Get lots and lots of customers, pay your salespeople well, create a nice referral program, and a risk reversal offer.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_S9qKzNMlcI

 

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[mikemike]

To remove/lower the risk for them, I see you've come up with some good ideas for a trial or money back guarantee already. Maybe you could even think about a rental or credit-based pricing to reduce the upfront cost for them. Not quite sure how your current pricing works - you mentioned subscription?

A few ideas:

• SEO - create more content targeted directly to the keywords that people are searching for to get them to your site
• Ads - depends where your customers are going to be. Think about online facebook or display ads, or sponsoring the groups/events where your market is to get your ads in front of them there.
• Partnerships - affiliates, distributors, referrals. Sounds like you're on the right train of thought with incentivizing growers. Either a % of sales, fixed amount per sale, something product-related, or give them access to your audience.
• PR - similar to the above. Get your name out there.

You don't need to jump straight into hiring a full-time salesperson to go and visit the farmers in person and handle the entire sales cycle for you.

You could start with just hiring someone part-time, freelance, or commission-only, to reach out via email and/or cold calls, and then just book the actual sales appointments for you to close yourself. This part you could perhaps do in person, once someone has already identified warm and qualified leads for you.

Yes - we do subscription pricing, where we charge somewhere around $1500/year for the data (we take care of the hardware and warranty). It's paid on a lump-sum every year. I'm starting to offer a 60 day money back guarantee so we'll see how that does. Customers are clearly worried about being duped, so hopefully that'll make a difference. My company has big upfront costs with setting up the system (hardware, shipping, communication with the customer), but low ongoing costs, so I'm also considering having a higher upfront fee and a lower yearly fee.

SEO - we'll keep adding to the blog.
Ads - we have Google ads, which has been lackluster. I'll look into Facebook ads.
Partnerships - we have distributors interested and will be trying them out. The economics are a little tough because they take 20 - 30% cut, but it's worth a shot. Economies of scale will drive our costs down dramatically.
PR - we're contacting news reporters to write about us with (some) success.

Hiring a part-time salesperson - I'll wait on that for now. I want to try my hand at sales first, develop a process, then get someone to help out. I need to get a 'feel' for how difficult it is to sell directly so I can effectively evaluate the performance of a salesperson.

 

[mikemike]

Wow great idea! I wish you all the best with it. It is perfect timing for something like this. Point is pandemic situation showed that countries can not rely only on import of agricultural products. So most of them started havily invest in new technologies and agricultural development.
I suggest you think about markets where water is expensive comodity. Middle East heavily investing in inovative local agricultural sector and water ther is valued way more than in developed countries.

Thanks! Looking at places where water is expensive sounds like a good idea, but isn't great in practice. The problem is that those countries would do best to invest any agricultural money into the basics (drip irrigation, cheap soil sensors, etc.) before going with advanced technology (my product). Tried and true technologies have a bigger bang for the buck. Right now we're selling the Porsche of water management, those guys likely need a Toyota first.

 

[mikemike]

Hi @mikemike,

Some comments on the website:

- Maybe benefits overview could be further up the page? As a way to get prospects interested in reading more.

- Buttons could be more prominent and more button looking. The blue "Join Mailing List" at the very bottom of the page is an example of a better looking button (which could be made even better looking though).

- When I click a button for contact/requesting the quote, I'd expect to see a contact form, but instead, there's some text and it's not obvious that you should scroll down to see the form. Basically, if prospect clicked a button for requesting a quote, they expressed a level of interest, and in a specific thing too - the quote.

So at that point, anything else is a distraction. And may be frustrating too, as button said one thing, and then they see something else.

They want a quote. You want to give them a quote. So just give them the form

- How many mobile visitors you get? You want to make sure their user experience is smooth as well, that relevant content is further up the page, and that buttons you want clicked are prominent and easy to find (may be even sticky?)

- Maybe FAQs and Demo page links could be in main menu?

Good feedback. I changed the buttons and cleared up the quote page. I'll keep working on simplifying things.
The main menu is getting a little crowded so I'm keeping those pages off. My idea is to provide many links at the bottom of this landing page so that customers can spend as much time as they want reading through our materials and convincing themselves (but maybe there's a better way...).

 

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[mikemike]

Yeah, I second what some people have said here. Maybe online isn't the avenue to go.

You mentioned that you'd need to pay a salesperson 60K+commission. Why not hire on full commission?

If you make it very attractive to him, that could work.

Your goal right now might not be to have a big profit, but to create social proof. Get lots and lots of customers, pay your salespeople well, create a nice referral program, and a risk reversal offer.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_S9qKzNMlcI

Hiring on full-commission seems risky for the salesperson since our product is so new. And the person would need to live of off their savings while developing the sales pipeline. But it's worth a shot at least putting a job posting out to see who replies. I'll give it a shot. Maybe we'll find someone who already sells a different product and could sell FloraPulse on the side.

I like the risk-reversal offer - great way to think about getting customers. We're selling good stuff so I have no problem taking on all the risk.

 

[Tiago]

This might be a longshot, but I figure it might be helpful to you.

If your product is good, and you're willing to take on all the risk, is there perhaps a change of business model that could potentially be more viable for your customers?

There is a beautiful article and podcast by Peter Diamandis where he goes deeper into how not only innovation in products and services, but in business models, can have the greatest impact in your own company. Here is the article and podcast.

As an example, one company that I've been studying is Enexor. They have created a system which can organic or plastic waste into renewable energy, and feed it to a microgrid.

But since this is new technology, and there are costs involved in installing a system, they have created an "Energy-as-a-Service" model.

Here is an excerpt from their website: "Enexor partners with you to reduce your energy and waste disposal costs with minimal capital outlay. Unlike the majority of other variable energy solutions such as solar and wind, we will install our systems at your facility, using our Energy-as-a-Service ("EaaS") partnership contract structure. Without the need for large capital expenditures, you only pay for the power and thermal energy generated."

How could this be appliable to you? Is there a way that you can reliably eat up the risk (without putting yourself in danger), where it would make it a no-brainer for your clients and you could perhaps make even more money in the longterm? Can the output of your product be quantifiable?

Maybe it can't, not every business model works for every product, but then again - maybe it can.