Ep 80 - From Shearing Sheep to Selling AgTech: Gavin Leersen’s BaleTime Story

<p>What happens when a farmer tells you to stop mucking around and build something that will actually help him?</p><p>For Gavin Leersen, that conversation eventually became <strong>BaleTime</strong>.</p><p>Gavin is a shearer, electronics tinkerer and the founder of BaleTime — an Australian agtech product designed to help hay producers monitor conditions in the windrow and know when it’s time to bale.</p><p>In this episode of <em>Selling in the Paddock</em>, Georgia sits down with Gavin to unpack the wonderfully unconventional story behind BaleTime — from building his first unit for a farmer he was shearing for, to discovering that word of mouth had been doing much of his selling for him. </p><p>They explore what happens when you have a genuinely useful product but suddenly realise <strong>building it and selling it are two very different skill sets</strong>.</p><p>Gavin shares what he’s learnt from field days, talking directly with farmers, digital marketing and simply listening to the problems customers are trying to solve. They also discuss why you can’t convince every farmer they have a problem, the importance of understanding what an individual customer actually values, and why sometimes the best sales conversation isn’t really a sales conversation at all. </p><p>There’s also a great conversation about perfectionism, innovation and knowing when something is <strong>good enough to get into the paddock</strong>. As Gavin puts it, if he’d waited until BaleTime was perfect, some of his customers would have missed out on a decade of better sleep. </p><p>Plus, Gavin shares where the technology could go next, including flood irrigation monitoring and potential applications well beyond hay.</p><p>It’s a very <em>Selling in the Paddock</em> conversation about curiosity, solving real problems, learning from your customers and figuring out how to sell something you genuinely believe can make their lives better.</p><ul><li>How Gavin went from shearing sheep to developing agtech</li><li>The farmer conversation that sparked BaleTime</li><li>Why Gavin&#39;s first customers became his unofficial sales team</li><li>Learning to sell when you don&#39;t naturally see yourself as a salesperson</li><li>Why field days are about much more than making sales</li><li>Selling innovation to sceptical agricultural customers</li><li>Why the problem <strong>you</strong> see isn&#39;t necessarily a problem your customer values</li><li>Price objections versus the cost of getting hay wr