A new agricultural machine, a market that had never seen it, and a short window. The useful lesson was not about effort.
The situation: an agricultural robotics manufacturer was introducing a new machine to Canadian growers. It had already placed equipment worth $200,000 to $300,000 on demonstration farms for about $15,000 a year. None of those growers bought.
No installed base, no local references, and a product category most buyers had never seen working in a field. The client is not named here. Figures are approximate.
Over roughly three months, one senior seller personally contacted more than a hundred prospects: growers, dealers, researchers and industry groups. That outreach produced around 120 buyer interactions.
Most of them did not come one meeting at a time. They came in groups:
A lunch and learn brought about 30 people into one room.
An on farm demonstration brought about 40 more, who saw the machine working in conditions they recognised.
A university research partner opened conversations with growers and specialists who trusted the institution before they knew the product.
Two trips to Montreal produced 4 meetings the first time and 10 the second, because the first visit created introductions for the next.
A dealer brought in his own customers, which is the model the launch was designed around.
Call volume mattered. Without a hundred prospects contacted, none of the rooms would have filled. But the number of conversations grew much faster than the number of calls, and the difference came from borrowed trust: a dealer, a university and a group setting each let one introduction reach many people.
This is consistent with Finding 003, Trust Is Borrowed Before It Is Earned. Buyers who had never heard of the manufacturer were willing to give it an hour because someone they already trusted had.
One launch is not a pattern. The product was visual and easy to demonstrate, which made group events unusually effective. Interactions are not purchases. The trial produced one system sale, the only one in that period and the largest single order in the company's history. The forecast of around twenty systems next year depends on demo farm results due in September 2027. A product that cannot be shown working in front of a room may not see the same multiplier.
The buyers in those rooms told us how they wanted to buy: through dealers they knew, after seeing results on a farm like theirs. That feedback became the new go to market plan, built around a demo farm that will show measured results next season.
If you are launching something new, plan the first months around who can introduce you to a room, not only how many people you can call. Calls fill the first room. Trusted partners fill the next ones.
We can run the outreach, find the partners who fill rooms, and tell you honestly what the market says.