The Dumbest Farmer Grows The Biggest Potatoes
By Ken DiPrima
Years ago, a young man was hired by a Wall Street brokerage house to become a stock broker. The process required a six month training period, followed by the successful passing of a difficult New York Stock Exchange examination. One day, early on in this training period, the young man was busy at his desk studying the rules and regulations of the industry, when a well established broker within the firm walked by.
This very successful broker was a legend among the many brokerage houses clustered on LaSalle Street in Chicago, because he wasn’t a classically trained and educated financial expert, yet, he maintained one of the most profitable books of business in the firm. He was, in fact, a German immigrant who took the job as a milk delivery man when milk was still delivered very early in the morning.
He happened to finish his route just before the stock markets opened. Each morning, it was his habit to stop at the one brokerage house with the largest electronic ticker tape display and a gallery for clients to sit and watch it. He had a very specific talent. He could accurately spot trends in specific stocks, market movements, and assess values just by observing the tape activity (this was back when the number of shares traded on the NYSE was only between six and ten million shares a day—today’s volume, with sophisticated electronic trading systems, totals in the billions of shares, daily).
His success in picking winning trades was noticed by fellow gallery members and they followed his lead. Most of them, however, had their personal accounts at other brokerage houses, which didn’t have as comfortable a gallery. Whenever our milkman placed an order, the others would run out to their own brokers and place their own orders. This went on for some time, until the manager of the firm, out of frustration of losing these potential sales and having the interlopers use his gallery, took action. He offered this milk man a job as broker, provided that he brought along his fellow gallery members as clients. He did and a result, a long and successful career was launched.
This former milk man stopped and politely asked the trainee what he was doing. When the trainee told the broker that he was trying to learn everything he could about the NYSE, the broker smiled, stoked his chin and in heavily accented English, said, “Remember, …the dumbest farmer grows the biggest potatoes.” Then, he walked away.
What did he mean? How does that make any sense? What was this eccentric old man trying to tell this young, eager trainee? Was it gibberish or words of wisdom honed from his years of experience?
Being a stockbroker is, in actuality, about being a salesman. True, rules, regulations, practices, and the customs of the industry, still had to be learned and mastered. Becoming a success, however, had little to do with these guidelines. They just represent the absolute boundaries of the playing field. It’s how you play the game on that field, which determines whether you win, or not.
Our successful broker wasn’t telling the firm’s trainee not to learn the rules. He was giving invaluable advice to make certain that the selling aspect would be performed in the most efficient, concise, and articulate manner, possible. In other word, don’t complicate the sales process with extraneous, unnecessary details or hyperbole. Find the most salient features of your product, as it pertains to the specific client, and focus on conveying only that information.
In terms of farming, by thinking and doing less, you let the rain and the sun do its work and you reap the bountiful harvest. Think and do too much and you could potentially damage your crop (the modern equivalent to the successful broker’s quote is ‘Keep It Simple, Stupid’ or the KISS principle).
All of the skills, tools, and experience that you acquire should be at your disposal at all times, but rarely do they need to be utilized, all at the same time. Sales are not made by overwhelming a customer with a hoard of facts or by offering overly complicating solutions. A client can only process and react to one or two selling points, at a time. All that he/she cares about are two very specific questions, “Is your product going to help me?” and “Do I want it?” If you’re making a simple offer within the boundaries of the playing field, you will grow the largest potatoes!
