May. 18, 2007 @ 9:03 AM _

By John P. Lenhardt

A farmer was going through hard times. Even though he owned a lot of land and equipment his sons were not interested in farming and good help is hard to find.

The farmer and his wife decide they needed to increase their cash flow and they both agreed the wife will take a job in town three miles away. Since the one truck they owned was needed for the farm the wife walked the three miles to and from her job in town.

There was also a traveling salesman in town that needed to increase his sales. He had often passed the farmer’s wife walking to work and finally had an idea. (strangely, he never thought to give her a ride…) Through a bit of research, the salesman learned that the farmer had two tractors and he immediately had an idea. He wrote up his proposal and requested to meet with the farmer.

The salesman was a skilled negotiator and was able to get the farmer to admit he sent his wife to work in town because the farm was failing. The salesman pointed out that the wife spent over two hours a day walking to and from town and that the time could be better spent applying the travel time on farm duties. “Work smarter” was his strong sales pitch.

The farmer did agree that the salesman was correct, but he could not afford to buy another car and started to bid the salesman good day.

“I am not here to sell you a new car,” explained the salesman. “I am here to help you apply what you already own to your problem.”

He salesman then went into a long pitch showing the farmer how he could modify the second tractor (for a “small” fee) so that the wife could use it to get to work. The pitch convinced the farmer and he signed the agreement with the salesman to modify his second tractor.

While it was true that the wife got to work faster and was able to help out on the farm duties a bit more, the farmer’s expectations for the agreement were not met. The tractor was only capable of 35 miles an hour and at that speed, was terrifying for the wife to drive. The salesman assured the farmer that with a bit more experience driving the tractor the wife’s fears would subside and offered to train the wife how to drive the tractor (for a “small” fee, of course)

In addition, the farmer realized that when he needed the second tractor for farm duties, it wasn’t available. Because the first tractor was used more without the second, supporting tractor, the maintenance bills grew and it wasn’t long before the farmer was in the same financial trouble as before.

The salesman was able to make his money and he never really did lie to the farmer. The farmer’s wife was more efficient and the increased maintenance and fuel bills were not part of his plan. He felt no guilt and actually started to put the same package together for other farmers in similar situations. Things were going well for the salesman.

One of the hired hands watched as his employer was slowly failing with his farm. He felt it was a shame because the farmer and his wife were good people and hard workers. The hired hand wondered why the farmer didn’t teach his wife how to handle the second tractor for what it was designed. If the farmer had expanded the land used for farming and trained his wife to assist in the expansion, he could have been much more successful with the farm and more likely to meet the farm’s financial goals.

Was the salesman’s plan a fraud? No, his plan did exactly what was promised. Unfortunately for the farmer, the salesman’s plan addressed a problem pointed out by the salesman. With a bit more creative approach that was available to the farmer if he asked for help from the local university, he could have solved his problems by using the tools in their most powerful usage, instead of their “good-enough” usage.