Are you an established company located outside the United States seeing success with an agricultural crop input? Do you think your product could be a game changer and that everyone is ready to love and pay for that product? Marketing in the U.S. – the world’s biggest breadbasket – is an exciting prospect! You can reach a large number of stakeholders and have long-term stability by trading with the U.S. dollar. BUT…

Before you jump on a plane looking for a distributor, here are the top 5 things to be clear about.

1. Understand what you have. Is your product a fertilizer with minimal registration demands or a pesticide with more onerous time and dollar registration requirements? Or maybe it’s equipment used to more effectively treat seeds. Whatever it is,  you must have a clear description for not only your potential customers, but for the U.S. Government as well.
   
   
2. Know what your product does! You may be excited and feel that your product will ultimately increase yield or save growers input cost, but unless you know the very specific function of your product, you will have difficulty finding an engaging audience.
   
   For example, you may have a microbe that increases yield by stimulating root growth. Saying that it’s a microbe that is yield enhancing is not specific enough. Customers need to know specifics so that they ensure they are using products to address their specific needs.
   
   
3. Know how the crop input makes its way to the plant. There are many ways to impact the plant. Some of these are pre-planting, others are post-emergence. Is your product a seed treatment? Is in an application in furrow? Does the product require foliar spray? Maybe the input is a chemigation. Whatever the input method, you need to be very clear upfront about how it reaches the plant to impact yield.
   
   The best way to communicate the product’s application requirements is through concise documentation, including step-by-step instructions. These instructions should be presented in U.S. equivalents. Too often we see companies present data using liters per hectare and not fluid ounces per acre. Removing the extra step of conversion for a potential client will allow them to assess the product more easily and more quickly.
   
   
4. Know how it works. KNOW THAT IT WORKS. Results are the bottom line. Your potential customers want to know that your product works – and that it works consistently. It is imperative that you have data that backs up the success of your product. This means detailed – and time tested – data.
   
   Too often a company comes to market with only one year of test data, or worse, data for only one location on one crop. This is not a big enough sample size. Potential customers will see this as too dangerous to invest in. You will need multiple years, on multiple locations of the target crop, to prove that your crop input works. Without this data you risk being in a weak bargaining position. The more you know about how it works, down to even the cell level, the more you can help your distributor and sales/marketing team have the knowledge to market the product and work with regulators to meet requirements.
   
   
5. Registration requirements in the U.S. The United States likely has different requirements for product marketing than countries you’ve previously worked with. In many countries, products are regulated depending on mode of action. In the U.S., however, input products are regulated based on claims made.
   
   One example:
   You have a fertilizer that also acts as a bio fungicide. The claim can be made in other countries that it’s both. However, in the U.S., because it’s primarily fertilizer, it can only be sold and marketed as fertilizer. Yet, it can be priced as both. In the United States, if you make a fungicide claim you are subject to FIFRA (the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act), which equals more dollars and time for approval.
   
   Working with a distributor that is fully versed in federal, and state, agricultural laws is important so that you don’t spend unnecessary time and money getting your product correctly marketed.

While the United States market is big, it attracts a lot of competition. You must be willing to sacrifice significant margin to get your product into the supply/demand chain. You may have to incentivize distributors to buy and deliver your product. It is unwise to try and sell direct to customers because you don’t want to shut out an established distribution chain. You want as many people in the target market – from distributors to end users –  to be excited about the success of your product. But they won’t back an unknown sales product, so it is incumbent on you to provide the data they need and even a test sample of your product so that they can see real world results.

Stay tuned for more information on bringing your product to the United States. Upcoming topics include “Choosing the right distributor fit for you and your product” and “Getting ready for the first meeting with a distributor – what do you need to do?”