Randy Ellis is a Senior Business Consultant with Firebird Consulting Ltd. partnering with CEO’s, business managers, and entrepreneurs to grow their personal and professional business. Randy comes to Firebird with special focus on sales and marketing strategies, new product market analysis, and product distribution agreements. Randy offers over 25 years of experience working in sales and marketing for Ag companies both domestically and international. He has experience in business development, team building, strategic planning, company collaboration, management consulting and professional growth. He’s here to help you build your team, create market awareness, conduct analysis and create demand. Our goal is to help you connect best with your customers. We put your company first and make your company our priority.
Sales & Marketing
Randy has brought new products to market, brought existing products to new market areas both in Canada and the US. When you execute this type of strategy, it is important to know the costs, the risks, the benefits and the timeframe for the strategy to role out. It is best to measure important performance factors against time-posts. Communication, keeping on top of the opportunity and re-assessing contribute to the strategy’s success. Randy has found that it is important to keep the team focused, communicating and over-coming obstacles that come their way. You really need to understand the customer and how they will benefit from using your product. Randy has many years of experience of creating and executing marketing plans and looks forward to helping the clients at Firebird through this process.
Randy has developed and implemented Sales programs on many different types of agriculture equipment on both sides of the border. Many factors come into play when you are developing a Sales program. One of the companies I worked for previously stated that “time is of the essence in everything we do”. Same thing applies to a Sales program to be successful. You need to create awareness, ensure Sales people understand the value proposition and most importantly, the deadline for a decision to be made. Deadlines, either time or a limited quantity available helps push the decision. Randy has found that pairing your marketing activities with your Sales programs is a key driver for success. They complement one another and build off of each other. Randy has found that you need to understand the customers buying behavior, understand what your competitors are doing, how your offer is different and that one that customer’s value. Sales strategy effects all aspects of your organization.
New Product Market Analysis & Distribution Agreements
Randy believes that here are new product opportunities all around us. Some of the best new ideas may come from discussions you have with customers that use your product or service or from brainstorming sessions with your staff. You may discover a need that needs to be filled and a new product could potentially be borne. In order to bring an idea forward, you need to do your homework. Randy has experience conducting New Product Market analysis on helping bring new products to life. Randy’s experience has provided valuable lessons learned. One such lesson is that no matter how great you think your product is internally, there will be segments of the market that will have a different opinion. It’s important to test market the products before release and before you have went down the path to far, past the point of no turning back. Sales will be wanting the new product as soon as possible, the Executive will be wanting a Return on their investment, there are lots of pressures during this process but its best to execute your Market Analysis first.
Distribution Agreements have a lasting effect on your business. Some are very easy to get into but are very difficult or take a long time to get out of. Randy is experienced in creating distribution agreements from setting them up with large equipment dealerships in western Canada to small agreements with Manufacturing Reps in the US. The most successful ones that he set up were one’s where the cultures of the business’s aligned and we shared the same common goals.
Past professional sales and marketing experience in equipment manufacturing, seed genetics, agricultural technology and primary agriculture with special interest in value added agriculture - nutraceuticals and the innovative prairie Farm to Fork movement.
Randy holds an MBA in Agribusiness from the University of Guelph and Bachelor of Science in Agriculture (Extensions and Crop Science) from the University of Saskatchewan. He is a current member of the Saskatchewan Institute of Professional Agrologists.
If you want to go fast go alone. If you want to go far, go together.
~ African proverb
