What could put you ahead in today's volatile financial world may not be the size of your bank account. Instead, the value of you as a customer could be what makes you even more attractive to banks and lending organizations.
Roger Schlitter, of Roger's Farm Financial, a consulting firm based in Mason City, Iowa, spent 37 years at Farm Credit Services.
"I learned a lot from Farm Credit, but I learned even more from my customers,” he says. "I didn't try to measure someone's worth by how much they farmed.”
Schlitter provided the following advice during the Top Producer Seminar on how farmers could be better customers to banks and other financial institutions.
How to be the best customer:
Attitude: Both lenders and customers should have good attitudes.
Recognize the real reasons for your successes or failures: You need to be brutally honest with yourself.
Be well informed: Pick your information sources with care and don't only listen to the people who you like what they are saying.
Stay in a position to call your own shots: Your lenders should keep you in the position so you are bankable to the world.
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