Checklist :how to find a buyer for your farm
Finding a successor for a farm requires a search approach, or rather active outreach. Just like looking for a new job, one might tend to think it should come naturally, but in reality viable candidates are few and it is important to make yourself known and to make the farm appealing so that the takeover goes as smoothly as possible…!
Start by making your farm sellable
As with anything, taking over a farm must be appealing, economically and psychologically. It is good to start by implementing everything possible to improve the perception of an outside visitor to the farm…!
Build a network
In the vast majority of cases, the successor will be part of the community one or two degrees away from the farm. That is to say, the successor will either know the current farmer directly or they will have a mutual acquaintance. The question is to make these potential people aware that the farm is up for takeover and that it is a great project.
The first step is to build a network, or rather identify the means to contact this network, and then know what to say and how.
Maintain the list of people
Start by making a list of people who are part of this network. They may be :
- Indirect family (nephews, in-laws…)
- Farm customers (if you do direct sales or short supply chain)
- Visitors (tourism, educational visits, etc…)
- Professional contacts (including suppliers, bank advisors, chamber, etc…)
- Employees, former interns
The larger the circle, the greater the chance of finding someone who can take over the farm and wants to do so.
You can expand the circle with specific operations :
Increase the number of people visiting the farm
There are many ways and activities to implement to encourage people to visit the farm. Some depend on the farm’s production or location of course, but it is always possible to open it up - even if only to host interns or wwoofers. Farm tourism can also be a good option, as well as seminars, etc.
The important thing is to note each visitor’s contact and add it to your list!
Crowdfunding
A financing participatory (crowdfunding) campaign helps finance an element of the farm. The reality of crowdfunding is that it contributes little financially, but a lot on the project spotlight aspect. If the project is inspiring, it can reach very diverse people who will put in 10 or 50€, but from whom you will recover email addresses to contact later. You will create an “emotional” relationship with this group, and maybe one of them will know the potential successor of the farm.
The 3 main crowdfunding platforms in the agricultural field are Miimosa, Bluebees and KissKissBankBank
Be active on social networks
Being present on Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube or Twitter can be a way to reach your potential successor. However, you need a specific strategy to only talk about agricultural topics related to your farm. You need to interest the community that will gather around you with topics about the farm’s activity and not other topics you might be involved in (sports, news, etc…). In practice, this requires a lot of work to “stand out” and it is not as effective as a personal relationship with visitors.
If you use social networks for pleasure, it can be a good idea to use them as leverage to create this community, so that when the time comes, it will be possible to communicate about the transfer project.
Contact your community
Tools to contact many people
There are several ways to contact your community, but the simplest remains email. Tools like Brevo (formerly SendInBlue), MailChimp and others allow you to easily send messages to lists of thousands of people for free.
Get help from a close person if necessary, but don’t hesitate to use these tools which remain quite accessible. They have the benefit of automatically managing unsubscribes, so those who do not wish to receive your emails can do so easily. You will also get information on who opened or clicked on which email, to understand who in your community reacts the most.
The important thing to understand is that when you want to send these emails, it will be too late to build the recipient list - this list must be started as early as possible and completed over time for each person who interacts with you and the farm.
Other techniques include using WhatsApp (it is possible to configure chat groups so that replies are not allowed to avoid being overwhelmed with messages, thus this setting only allows pushing information to your community), or social networks in general. It is always possible to combine several formats, but be careful not to flood people!
What messages
Since the recipients of your messages will potentially not have heard from you for several years, will be part of very diverse circles, and will very probably not be interested in your farm, it is important to start each email with a very clear paragraph explaining who you are, reminding the farm’s name, with a small photo. This paragraph’s role is to quickly give the reader a choice : if interested, they continue, otherwise they can discard the email.
Throughout the email, explain your approach, and make sure each paragraph allows excluding more people if they are not your target. For example, write a paragraph clearly stating that you are looking for a farmer and not an investor, etc… Your goal is to keep only those who will really be interested. Always end your email with a proposal for discussion!
It is not necessary to send 50 emails per month, the important thing is to reach the right person at the right time. However, a little repetition does no harm, so you can send several emails one or two months apart, to explain certain aspects of the sale, of the farm, etc.. You can for example describe the different workshops, the different activities depending on the seasons, present the employees, etc… The goal is to open a window onto the farm and make the potential successor want to take an interest (or forward the email to an interested friend!)
A good idea is to subscribe to newsletters from other farms to see how they do it!
Create a website for the farm
Consider creating a website for the farm - don’t hesitate to invest a few thousand euros because the site must be beautiful and attractive. You can repeat on the site what you send in your emails. Don’t hesitate to put beautiful photos, from morning dew to a startled woodpecker, share the beauty of your farm. This site will mainly aim to specify the details of what is being transferred (area, productions, etc…), and allow people to sign up for your newsletter!
You can share the link to this site in all your communications, announcements in the RDI, etc…
Directories and other matchmaking sites
Finally, don’t forget of course to make your project known in all the structures whose role is to help you find a successor : SAFER, RDI, Chambers, ADEAR, etc… Again, there is more to gain by maximizing the number of potentially interested people than the opposite.
