Over the years, I have often been amazed at the rumors that go around the dairy industry. Sometimes these are just a result of a bad game of “gossip” where one person passes a story on to another and each time parts are added or changed. Other times there seems to be actual intent to spread fraudulent rumors for financial gain. Recently some of these have come to my attention and provided a few chuckles over the holiday season. For example did you hear this juicy tidbit “The Bullvine is secretly funded by Select Sires”?
The part that made me take notice, as I traced back to the source, was that these particular rumors are coming from semen salesmen! Of course, they vow that they are just repeating what they have been told by people higher up in their company. Is this how they are trying to contradict what they perceive as bad publicity that is out there? These somewhat unsuspecting sales representatives have passed on what they are told, trying to get breeders to believe that what they are saying is based on fact.
Well the fact is, as we have stated many times, the Bullvine is currently funded 100% from our own pocket books. We have not accepted any payments from any A.I. or other companies, in either advertisement or any other form. The comments we make and subjects that we write about are inspired by actual conversations we have had with dairy breeders or subjects that have caught our interest. NOTHING ELSE.
While this rumor about the Bullvine gives me a good chuckle, it does not really catch me by surprise. For years the grapevine has been a marketing tool that many companies have used. They pass information, often incorrect or not 100% accurate, to their frontline staff in order to sway public perception (Read more – Fight the Power). The problem is in the 21st Century, these are old school public relation tactics that, instead of demonstrating how progressive a company is, highlight the fact that they are still stuck in the past and not ready or willing to connect to today’s breeders.
Instead of using these out of date tactics, these companies should be engaging breeders in the public forum that is social media (Read more – How Social Media Is Changing the Holstein World). I found it very funny that while these companies think they are taking a beating on social media platforms like Facebook, they choose to say nothing there. Instead they try to use their out of date methods to combat the publicity. Maybe they are afraid of what they cannot control? (Read more – Got the Horns to Mess with the Bullvine?)
They have even gone as far as calling us here at the Bullvine and asking for “private” conversations, where we can clear things up. The one thing we have said since we started is that we believe what the industry needs is transparency and accountability. That is why we have been 100% transparent in our actions, and why we will NOT have “private” back room conversations brokering deals or whatever with ANYONE. We believe in our values and will hold true to them.
The Bullvine Bottom Line
We all know many salesmen whom we like and respect from many different companies. Obviously one important part of their job is that of Public Relations. For many companies these are the only frontline staff that will interact on-farm with breeders. How they represent their organization can have a huge impact on the success of that organization within that breeder’s herd. While I have written articles in the past about the need for semen salesman (Read more – Are There Too Many Semen Salesmen Coming in The Lane?), I sincerely believe that they provide a great service to the breeders they work with. The ones that are most respected build trust, offer unbiased advice, and leave the job of disseminating false rumors to those of lesser credibility. So, the next time you hear a rumor that seems to be too much PR bull and not enough fact, think twice and ask your source, “Where is this coming from?”
Clarity point Inbound Sales Network (a company owned by myself) has done work a A.I. company, dairybullsonline.com to develop a series of ads for Golden-PP. As I have expressed before, when I find an interesting projected (regardless of industry) we do take them on from time to time. When the team at dairybullsonline.com came to use for the Bond theme and asked if we could help, I directed them to the Inbound Sales team to help them.
I was quite excited to read this article and hear your stories of different lies that salesman have told you over the years. However, I was disappointed that in reality it was a rant about how some people believe you favour (and are funded by) Select Sires. Slightly misleading title. For the record, I don’t believe you are funded by Select Sires, you just have a huge man-crush on them, which is fine, I was the same 3 years ago, just don’t get your hopes up too much when they start calving out. (I realize you likely won’t post this but someone had to tell you to title your articles better)
Actually Mike Van Den Bossche ,
I will leave this up. As you did leave you correct name. I understand your comments and can respect them. But I guess it depends on what you where hoping for. As we deal in facts with all our articles, we had to express the facts as we see them. Hence the title. Sorry will take this into consideration for future titles.
Andrew
just wondering, what did semex do to you to receive all this negative publicity? were you overlooked at some point when they were hiring? did some body in the hire ups insult you in some way ? just wondering since I do not know you or your history.
oh the main diference between semex and select is one is American other is Canadian . you left that part out
enjoy the web site look forward to it every sat.
Wayne,
I think I only ever interviewed with them for a job once in my career. At the time the job was advertised as a Sales Manager, in the end they didn’t hire anyone, but offered a bunch of people a sales person job and told them that they could earn the sales manager role. Given that I was already in a much higher paying role, I did not let me name stand for this lesser position.
As far as my sentiment for Semex v.s. Select, it might be as much that I am Canadian and extremely familiar with Semex and grew up knowing them as representing all of Canada. Having been very fortunate to see grow with the opportunity to see how the inside of Semex worked and how they where helping build the world market place for Canadian cattle, is party why I now find it alarming that they are forgetting the Canadian kind and going straight for their own perceived bottom line. I guess the question is are they to represent Canada or make the most revenue possible for its members? Both are fine as long as they are transparent as to which one of the two they are trying to achieve. Since they are Canadian co-operative I do believe it should be at least equal parts of each. But then again that is just my perception.
Andrew