In the footcare business, a good rule to follow is always avoid being critical of others’ work, even when the trimming, shoeing or veterinary work did not help the horse. It’s risky and impolite to talk about another farrier’s work, business practices or other ideas that tend to be contrary to your beliefs. It can certainly backfire on you and your future hoof-care business, especially when looking for new clients. 

Dealing with a farrier’s negativity about other farriers reminded me of a time back in the 1980s when our family-run company published Rural Builder magazine. That publication was distributed to around 23,000 post-frame and metal-frame builders around the country.

Ignore the Competition

At that time, we worked closely with Bill Uphoff, who had previously been the sales manager at Morton Buildings in Morton, Ill. This is a firm with a staff of 1,700 that was doing around $750 million in annual sales a few years ago.

Bill demanded that the company’s sales force never mention a competitor with a prospective buyer. Over the years, Bill made it clear to the nationwide staff that doing so could mean parting ways with any salesmen who did this.

During one of the company’s annual sales meetings. Bill was true to his word. In front of the company’s nationwide sales staff, he asked three salesmen from different areas of the country to come up and join him on stage. When Bill asked whether they had made sales presentations mentioning competitors, all three sheepishly admitted to having done so.

Right in front of several hundred Morton folks in attendance, Bill fired all three salesmen.

Not the Best Way to Do Business

In a recent HubSpot blog, sales trainer Art Sobczak explained why he believes voluntarily discussing the competition is a very bad idea. While the following comments came from his sales blog, I’ve adopted them to fit the farrier and veterinary community.

Degrading a fellow farrier or veterinarian is out of bounds. It only serves to bring attention to them, adds credibility to their business and gets the horse owner or trainer thinking about them. By doing so, you may even reinforce the person’s reason for using their existing farrier. And insulting a horse owner’s farrier slaps the owner in the face as well.

Since here is even a possibility that such action can backfire, why mention the competition at all?

A good example that is relevant to most any adult these days deals with the current political scene. Attack ads, videos and unfortunate comments seem to run nonstop. However, they often don’t have the desired effect. Instead, the more you hear negative comments about someone, the more you become familiar with and curious about the other person.

Let’s look at the techniques found in some sales motivation books (perhaps written by people who haven’t sold much). When a horse owner tells you, “I’m already working with another farrier or equine veterinarian” these authors normally recommend that you should say, “Oh, what do you like best about them?”

Proponents of this technique claim that it helps you learn the horse owner or trainer’s selection criteria. Maybe you thought that at one time, too, until using it with a trainer you wanted to do business with. His reply was, “Well, let me tell you about my farrier Alex Hansen. He is great. He would run through a brick wall for me, and I’d do the same for him. Alex has been there when I needed him and has pulled me out of several jams. He makes me look good.”

When you heard the trainer’s answer, you might have seen a tear trickle from the farrier’s eye. Heck, you might have even wanted him to shoe your wife’s half dozen Quarter Horses after hearing that.

As a farrier, the worst part was you had prompted this response. Sure, the horse trainer already had those feelings. But he wasn’t thinking about any of them until I asked about his farrier. And by reliving those feelings, he was selling himself even further on staying with my competitor. 

Maybe you should have received a thank you note from the other farrier!

What to Do Instead

The most common situation where farriers get dragged into talking about the competition is when the owner or trainer is already working with someone else, and you’d like to grab some, if not all, of that business.

So, instead of prompting horse trainers or owners to voice compliments and further reinforce their positive feelings about their current farrier, get them talking about deficiencies such as:

1. What do you most want from a farrier?
2. What would you like that you’re not getting now?
3. What gaps are there in his or her footcare, timelines, communication and business practices?
4. Under what circumstances have you, or would you, use someone else for your footcare work?

Try Something Along These Lines

Here’s a new favorite that came up a couple of months ago when someone told me they were satisfied with their existing farrier:

“That’s great. Most people I speak with are. But what would it take to go from being just satisfied to being absolutely delighted?”

Notice that all of these questions are assumptive. They assume no one is perfect, including their existing farrier. That’s a pretty safe guess.

Another safe question to use when discussing the competition: “What criteria did you use when selecting your current farrier?”

Then you can follow up with variations of the others mentioned here. For example, “And when haven’t you received everything you expected from your farrier?”

Of course, it’s always good to let the horse owner or trainer express their dissatisfaction when they volunteer it. Here’s what I mean:

Horse Owner: “We just weren’t that satisfied with how he handled a recent lameness issue.”

Farrier: “Oh, why was that? Tell me more.”

The answers to this question would tell me what to say and what to avoid.

There are many examples of how mentioning the hoof-care competition can backfire. Don’t let it happen to you.