Notes for owners · Sales management
Running field demonstrations that lead to orders, not just crowds
A run sheet for an agricultural equipment field demonstration: plan the follow-up before the crowd arrives, record names, villages and the machine each farmer liked, and fix a call date.
The GullySales team · Updated 17 Oct 2026 · 5 min read
On this page
- What are you trying to get out of the day?
- Before the day: choose the place and the people
- The run sheet
- What goes on the sign-up sheet?
- For example: an inter-row weeder near Davangere
- What if something goes wrong on the day?
- What does the call after the demonstration say?
- When is a demonstration the wrong spend?
- Where demonstrations sit in your plan
- Print the sign-up sheet today
A demonstration works when the follow-up is planned before the crowd arrives. That means a sign-up sheet that records each farmer's name, village, phone, the machine liked and a date to call, and a dealer who owns each name. Without that, you spend a day and a vehicle on a gathering and have nothing to show for it on Monday. This post is the run sheet.
What are you trying to get out of the day?
Pick a measure before you pick a place. For a machine that sells through dealers, a good outcome is a list. Each farmer on it has a dealer assigned and a call date, and a few say they will buy this season. The number who came is not the measure.
Decide also what you are not trying to do. A demonstration is poor at teaching a long list of features. It is good at showing the machine doing one job in soil like the farmer's own.
Before the day: choose the place and the people
Run it where the crop and soil are like those of the farmers you want. Choose a plot on a respected farmer's land, because the neighbours will come to see the field and the reaction. Agree with the farmer how the machine will be used, and that you will repair any damage.
Invite through dealers and recent buyers, not by a banner alone. Ask each dealer for a list of ten to fifteen farmers they know personally.
The run sheet
| When | What happens | Who |
|---|---|---|
| Two days before | Check the machine, fuel, spares; walk the plot; confirm the list | Service engineer, dealer |
| Arrival | Sign-up sheet at the gate; one line per farmer | A person at a table |
| First half hour | Operator runs the machine on the farmer's own rows | Operator |
| Next stretch | Farmers try it; ask questions; dealer speaks one to one | Dealer, engineer |
| Close | Collect the sheet; give the take-away page; say who will call | Dealer, sales lead |
| Same evening | Photograph the sheet; send names to each dealer | Sales lead |
What goes on the sign-up sheet?
One line per farmer, filled in by a person at the table rather than by the farmer, because not everyone is comfortable writing. Columns: name, village, phone, land size and crop, which machine was looked at, which dealer invited them, and a call date the farmer agrees to. Add a tick for "wants a trial on own field".
Do not ask for more. A long form at the gate makes people leave. A sheet that takes under a minute per farmer gives you a usable list at the end.
For example: an inter-row weeder near Davangere
Imagine, as an invented case, a maker of tractor-drawn inter-row weeders running a demonstration in a maize plot near Davangere. About ninety farmers came. The maker's team enjoyed the turnout and went home with a photograph and a few phone numbers on a notebook page.
The cost showed three weeks later. Nobody knew which dealer should call which farmer, and the maize sowing had passed. The maker's next demonstration used the run sheet above. Each dealer had an invited list, the sheet showed the dealer's name against each farmer, and the sales lead sent each dealer the names that evening. Fewer people came to the second event, about forty, and it cost less than the first: no banner, no lunch for the crowd, a smaller vehicle. Two dealers still did not ring their farmers before the sowing window closed, so the sales lead checked the sheet against the call dates and asked why. One had lost the list. The rest called, and the dealers walked away with names they could work.
What if something goes wrong on the day?
Plan for trouble in the same sheet.
| What happens | What you do |
|---|---|
| Machine fails to start | Service engineer fixes it in view; say what the fault was. Farmers respect a straight answer more than a hurried one |
| Rain or wet soil | Move the demonstration to the dealer's yard and show the machine standing; fix a second date on the spot |
| A farmer criticises it loudly | Let the operator run it on that farmer's rows; do not argue in front of the others |
| Too few turn up | Run it anyway for those who came and take their names; a small crowd with a list beats a big one without |
| Farmers arrive who no dealer invited | Write them down with the nearest dealer's name beside them |
What does the call after the demonstration say?
Short and specific. "You saw the weeder at the plot near the temple. You liked how it cleared between the rows. Would you like us to bring it to your field?" Then offer a trial on the farmer's land, price and credit through the dealer, and a date.
If the farmer says they will think, ask what they want to compare. If they will wait for next season, note it and put the date to call before the next sowing. Our post on following up after a trade show has a call sequence that adapts well to a field day.
When is a demonstration the wrong spend?
When the machine is cheap and the dealer can sell it on a word. When you have no dealer in the district to take the follow-up, because the names will go cold. When the machine is not ready. A model with a fault that shows up in the field does more harm in front of fifty farmers than in a trial with two.
If you cannot afford a field day, put the demo machine in a dealer's yard and run a smaller, repeated session for the farmers who walk in.
Where demonstrations sit in your plan
Print the sign-up sheet today
Before you fix the date of the next demonstration, draw the sign-up sheet, list the dealers who will bring farmers and decide who calls whom. With those three ready, you can count what the day produced. A demonstration is the proof step in a farmer's path to buying; the rest of that path is on our agricultural equipment sales and marketing page, with sampling and product demonstration as the related service. If you want help planning one, tell us what you need.
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