The Do's and Don'ts of Customer Clinics

Feb 08, 2024

I had the chance to be a fly on the wall, and listen in to a roundtable discussion at the 2024 Precision Farming Dealer Summit in Indianapolis, as dealers discussed some of their best practices and biggest challenges when it comes to hosting customer clinics. Here are some interesting nuggets I jotted down in my notes app.

The question of charging for clinics came up, to which one precision specialist responded, "When we do free events, if they're not paying anything, then they don't have skin in the game, and they don't participate as much in the clinic. That's one benefit of a perceived cost. They might walk away with a higher appreciation of the clinic." Another dealer said they don't charge for clinics because their customers have already made a big investment by being there.

How big should clinics be? There were differing opinions on that question.

Click here to see more...

Video: Is China Buying US Soybeans + USDA Nov 14th Crop Report could be “Game Changing”

After a week of a U.S./China trade truce, markets/trade is skeptical that we have not seen a signed agreement nor heard much from China or seen any details. There are rumors that China is buying soybean futures & not the physical. Trust in Trump?
12 MMT of U.S. soybean purchases by China by year-end is better than 0 but we all need to give it more time and give it a chance to unfold. China did lower the tariffs on Ag and is buying U.S. wheat and sorghum.
U.S. supreme court could rule against Trumps tariffs, but the Trump administration does have a plan B.
U.S. government shutdown is now the longest in history at 38 days.
But despite a U.S. government shutdown we will be getting a USDA November crop report next Friday and it could be “game changing.” If the USDA provides a bullish surprise with lower U.S. corn and soybean yields and ending stocks that are lower than expected both corn and soybean futures will break out above their ceilings at $4.35/bu and $11.35/bu respectively.
The funds continued their selling in live and feeder cattle futures on continued fears that the Trump administration want to lower U.S. beef prices. The fundamentals have not changed, only market psychology has.
Stocks markets continue to worry about a weak U.S. job market, but you can blame ChatGPT for that. In the future, we will have a more efficient, productive and growing economy with a higher unemployment rate until we have more skilled AI workers.
After 34 new record highs in the S & P 500 and 124 new records in the NASDAQ in 2025 we are back to a correction and investor profit taking as AI valuations may have gotten too stretched near-term ahead of NVDA’s 3rd quarter earnings announcement on Nov. 19th. But this is not an AI bubble.
75% of Tesla shareholders approved a $1 trillion pay package for Elon Musk!
It has rained in South America in the last 7 days, but both the American and European models agree that Central Brazil remains dry in the next 14-days!

This cool tool provides lots of light in an emergency

Chinese New Year: The year of the dragon