In the early days of UNIFORM-Agri, Harm-Jan van der Beek learned the ropes by joining dealers and milking equipment sales representatives on farm visits. The commercial side of the business proved to be just as important as the software itself.

One of the key mentors in those early years was Mr Muis, a sales rep for SAC. “He wasn’t really into computers himself, but farmers trusted him,” Harm-Jan says. “I went out on farm visits with him every couple of weeks, and he taught me everything about how to close a deal.”

Mr Muis (from SAC) held more than 50% of the market in parts of Twente, and Harm-Jan quickly learned the sales tactics that often made all the difference. “If a farmer said, ‘I’d like to think it over,’ I would say, ‘That’s fine, I’ll already put the computer in the car.’”

And the sales approach went even further than that. Harm-Jan quickly learned that farmers in different regions often had different expectations and ways of doing business. “You really had to adapt your approach,” he says with a smile. “What worked in the north wasn’t always what worked in the south.”

In the late 1990s, the government launched the PC projects, a programme that allowed farmers to buy a computer with government support. Harm-Jan and his team immediately saw it as a great opportunity to make the software more accessible.

“At the time, the software cost around 10,000 guilders, and a computer was another 5,000,” Harm-Jan recalls. “Together, that was a significant investment for many farmers. The PC projects helped make computerisation much more accessible, and suddenly many more farmers were able to get started with both a computer and management software.”

The PC projects turned out to be a great success and helped accelerate the adoption of digital tools on dairy farms. “Farmers could immediately see the benefits in their daily work,” Harm-Jan says. “Once they started using the software, they quickly realised how much value it added to their business.”

Harm-Jan and his team did not always have their own stand at trade shows. More often, they joined the stands of dealers such as SAC, BouMatic and Fullwood. There, they collected leads, wrote up orders and shared everything properly with the suppliers. But the connection with the farmers was something they built themselves.

“We knew the software inside out, while many dealer reps found it difficult to explain what the software could actually do for a farmer on the farm. We gathered the leads and sold the software together.”

The lessons Harm-Jan learned from Mr Muis and other sales reps played a big role in the growth of UNIFORM-Agri. Building trust, understanding farmers and knowing how to approach people helped the company grow into the stable and reliable partner it is today.

From the very first demos in Twente to the success of the PC projects, one thing always stayed the same: farmers had to benefit from it in their daily work. UNIFORM-Agri believed they were offering something that truly helped farmers move forward, and that belief is still at the heart of the company today.