You’re at the holiday party and the house is filled
with faces you don’t recognize.
As you mingle and meet the other guests the
conversation quickly leads to the inevitable
question, “ So what do you do?”
You may answer, “I’m in the horse business.
People pay me money to board horses, give riding
lessons and train horses.” As an answer for a
non-horseman, your reply is adequate. It’s direct and
understandable by anyone.
And, as you search for common ground for
discussion, you return the volley by asking the other
person, “And what do you do?” There isn’t enough
time at a busy party to explain in detail what your
day is like and most likely you wouldn’t want to hear
about someone else’s daily routine either. Good
parties need good people, circulation and lots of
laughs and light conversation.
But, if you’re like me, the next day you may think
about everything that happened at the party the
night before. Thoughts about what people said and
did, the jokes you laughed at and the occupations of
others attending may replay like a movie in
your mind
as you cool horses out, fill water buckets and buckle
blankets.
As you rewind the movie, you think about
everything you sell in your position as a key
salesperson in your business, you discover you may
sell more than boarding, lessons and training
to your clients. You sell and deliver escape, self
worth and an exclusive place to fit in with others.
You enable your clients to view their
relationship with horses and
horsemen as an escape from everything else they do
in their lives when not at the farm. They use
their “barn time” as a mini vacation from spouses,
children, bosses or their own businesses. It’s a
temporary safe haven where they can relax and have
fun.
You provide your clients opportunities to
become:
better
horsemen, skilled as riders and more
confident in their abilities to grow mentally and
athletically as equestrians.
You create a farm atmosphere that allows: a
chance
to talk horses incessantly without fear of boring the
listener, an opportunity to develop a circle of friends
who share in a love of horses and a place to create
memories for children, adults and their families.
When you think deeply about it, you have a pretty
cool business. You work and play with horses and
people to deliver an experience that they remember
for all of their lives.
Now, the next time you get stepped on, unload all of
the feed by yourself or tend to a colicky horse at
2:00 A.M., remember that tolerating a few bumps in
the road is a small chore compared to the enormous
amount of good you do each day for your clients and
their horses.
It’s easy to measure your
success in
the horse business; look at the accomplishments of
your clients.
