Market Closeout

In search of better.

We are always in search of the perfect cow that will earn us the most profit. The problem is not everyone agrees on what is better.

Seedstock producers are always willing to sell us a better bull. The real question is: Is he better for you?

Commercial cattlemen are striving to produce a better calf. The dilemma is we tend to look at “better” from our perspective, but better is ultimately defined by the buyer.

Admittedly, even though we work from our own perspective, we don’t always know what we want. I’m sure we have all had the experience of wanting something a lot, then discovering we didn’t want it as much when we finally got it.

That is one of the fundamental failures of marketing. We often try to convince others they should want what we made. The most effective marketing is geared toward explaining why your product is the one the buyer wants to buy.

What does your customer want?
All of this is, of course, simplistic, but the main point is one we tend to forget. Marketing is about providing objective information that helps the buyer know the product will do what they want it to do. This can only be accomplished by having an in-depth knowledge of your target customer’s business and an understanding of what they value.

Cattle feeders are in the business to make money, but the business models they employ are many. They may want to reduce risk, decrease health costs, improve market access, increase market flexibility, beat performance expectations, maximize grid performance, find cattle to hit specific markets or time frames, etc. The list is almost endless. They may have the same ultimate goal, but they get there in different ways.

Build relationships for the long term
Your basic marketing must be designed to address as many of these factors as possible. However, ultimately, great marketing is built on relationships. Those relationships truly enable you to understand what is important to your customer. It allows you to empathize with them. It is the relationship that allows you to move beyond a transactional mentality to a more long-term perspective, where everyone benefits by moving toward their goals in a collaborative way.

That is perhaps the biggest change we have seen in our industry. In the past, a major obstacle to the exchange of information between segments was the fear that one side would use the information as a weapon. It was thought that keeping information could provide a competitive advantage.

Now we realize that information is only valuable if aggregated and shared to make better decisions. Increased profitability is not created through adversarial transactions, but through cooperation between two partners with similar goals.

The AngusLink^SM program focuses on providing customers with the objective measures to make better selection decisions and providing verifications to capture more value for their cattle. In the long run, its greatest benefit is helping build relationships between buyers and sellers. It helps create an exchange of information where buyers and sellers can improve the buying and selling outcomes.

Editor’s note: Troy Marshall is the director of commercial industry relations for the American Angus Association.