David Law

It takes a brave person to leave a 35-year dairy farming career to start a completely new venture.

It takes an even braver person to continue to stand up for what they believe in while dodging criticism from the mainstream - but that’s exactly what David Law has done since starting Forward Farming Biological Consultancy five years ago. 

David’s aim when starting out was to help other farmers do what he did – build a successful, sustainable farming business without the use of environmentally damaging fertilisers and chemicals. 

But with views that challenged mainstream thinking, David’s biggest task was to become recognised as an authority in his field. 

“The biggest challenge was to become outstanding in my field and become a well-known company, so that people rung me rather than the other way around,” David says.

To raise his profile he started down a traditional route, advertising in an industry magazine. However, he found that although he was trying to educate his target market, readers were automatically suspicious of advertising content. 

“Readers think you are ripping them off, so they are resistant to new ideas,” he says.

David then started writing a newspaper column, which was distributed to eight publications over a period of three years; however, the time commitment became too much and he had to prioritise other work.

But his prospects missed him. In December 2017 he employed me to write a monthly story, based on his work and research, and distribute it throughout the industry.

Among the educational articles lay a series of his customers’ experiences, building a layer of social proof that demonstrated that the farmers working with him were experiencing some very positive results indeed.

Consequently, his reputation as an authority in his industry has grown rapidly. 

David has been interviewed on television and invited to present research findings at Parliament, and after his story is published each month a flurry of new customers call him, eager to see the same results on their farm.

“I find that now in my business, this customer-based approach is increasing my integrity, and when any new contacts call me they ask for help and they don’t question my advice,” David says.

“The higher the profile of the farmer we mention, the more calls I get. The more successful the people you can get to talk, the better. People relate to what they read.”

David says learning to accept that he and his team are not good at everything has been key to helping the business grow.

“There are things that other people are better at doing than us,” he says.

“Anne has a unique skill of turning a 10-minute conversation into a written story.

“I’m essentially buying time; if Anne didn’t do this for me, it wouldn’t get done, and it’s important to keep my profile front and centre to my target market. People miss you when you’re not making any noise.”

It was during a coffee break at a James Kemp workshop that I was first approached by Jeremy Caird.

A company director, Jeremy oozed confidence and capability, speaking thoughtfully and listening intently. This was a man who knew his stuff, I thought.

But part of what made Jeremy so successful was his understanding that even the most capable, driven individuals encountered challenges in their marketing strategies.

As the director of Savewatt, New Zealand’s foremost electricity broker, Jeremy had plenty of happy customers. 

He and his team had, in many cases, saved tens of thousands of dollars for their clients by securing them the best electricity contracts available.

Jeremy knew his customers would happily provide a testimonial, but he had run into a few roadblocks when attempting to capture and implement the social proof he had in spades.

“We always knew the value of customer testimonials, however, approaching our clients and asking them to provide a reference was something we could never find time to do,” Jeremy says.

“When Anne offered to manage the process on our behalf we jumped at the opportunity.”

Once Jeremy had provided a list of customers to contact, he comfortably stepped away from the process entirely until the social proof was delivered to him, with full approval from his happy customers.

“Anne was professional, easy to deal with, and our customers were comfortable talking to her,” Jeremy says.

“But best of all, she delivered results. I can attribute over $10,000 of new business directly to the work completed by Anne.

“I certainly recommend using Anne to engage with your customers and create outstanding testimonials.”

I highly recommend Anne! Anne asked me a series of questions and put together everything I had floating around in my brain in one beautiful paragraph. I’m so grateful for her words and talent, thanks to you I have a lovely professional-sounding website capturing everything I intended to relay. 

Thank you, Anne.