Strong Roots Before Takeoff

Have you ever seen a tractor slip because the soil wasn’t firm? That’s exactly what happens when a company tries to launch a product without aligning R&D, marketing, and sales around a single narrative supported by evidence.

A common mistake is chasing the “innovation of the moment” before organizing the foundation. R&D talks about technical attributes, marketing focuses on generic differentiators, and sales leans on price and discounts. The result? Each department tells a different story — and the grower doesn’t believe any of them. To reach sales takeoff — that moment when sales truly accelerate — the narrative must be clear, consistent, and backed by field data.

In agriculture, farmers don’t buy promises; they buy proof. If field trials show yield gains in soybeans across different regions, that data needs to appear in the R&D explanation, in the marketing materials, and in the sales pitch. Without these solid roots, a product may spark curiosity, but it will never scale.

The path isn’t simple and requires discipline: align the teams from the start of development. Field trials must become clear messages. Those messages must be translated into practical value. And the sales team must tell the same story in every visit.

Immediate Action:

Review your company’s pipeline. Identify which products have fragmented narratives and create a single evidence-based storytelling manual. This is the firm root system that supports accelerated growth.