Farmers say they’re hesitant to have sales reps visit during pandemic: survey

Nearly half of the farmers in a recent survey said they’re hesitant to allow sales reps onto their farms during the pandemic.

Farm Journal collected responses from 640 farmers, 45% of whom said they have reservations about having sales reps visit their facilities.

“It does surprise me, because I would say that this area wouldn’t have that sentiment,” Dick Wittman, a family business consultant and farmer in rural Idaho, told Ag Web. “I mean, there’s always some of that sentiment, but I think the attitude in farming is that we’re already socially distanced, and the normal suppliers that supply us don’t interact with anybody else. I think that’s a little bit of a fallacy.”

Fifty percent of the survey respondents said social distancing would be required for sales reps to visit, and 18% said they want outside vendors to wear personal protective equipment. At the same time, 36% said they weren’t concerned about having sales reps visit.

“I think it’s going to change your business models,” Wittman said. “It’s making people rethink how we can do business in the future. We don’t need to have everybody interacting every day in an office.”