Rabobank is a banking specialist in the food and agribusiness throughout the world.Within the New Zealand market Rabobank finance managers were reluctant to make cold calls to prospects. Furthermore, prospective dairy farmers were already happy with their existing banking arrangements and resisted other institutions approaching them about their financial issues.

Our target was to get 200 on-farm visits between October and December 2007

The pack had to have enough cut through and interest for the farmer to do the following:Reassess their financial position.Call the Rabobank finance manager out to the farm for a face to face discussion.Give the finance managers a way of starting a conversation with the dairy farmer.The “rubber glove” pack demonstrates Rabobank’s superior service and agribusiness knowledge in both a relevant and humorous way. The shoulder-length, puncture resistant rubber, bovine vaginal examination glove is a common dairy farming item that illustrated Rabobank’s comprehension of their specific business. The humour of the message (Rabobank go to extra lengths to get to know your business) made the finance managers seem more approachable.

Cold prospect relationships were established and on-farm visits exceeded the target of 200. To date, deals worth over $4 million were achieved delivering over 100% ROI in year 1 alone.Additional leads to the value of $6 million are also in the pipeline awaiting finalisation.