The myAgro program in Senegal just launched its new vendor and vendor assistant models! These are new sales models that are being introduced to respond to challenges particular to some of our most inaccessible villages. For such villages, the distance and poor roads between the village and the myAgro store make it hard for the farmers to get to the store on Saturdays to buy cards. Instead, the vendor and vendor assistant models let myAgro come to them!
The vendor model allows myAgro to work with a local vendor partner who can enroll members, sell cards, and send SMS messages from the “boutique” he owns in his village (a common small corner store in Senegal kind of like a convenience store). The vendor is able to sell cards to members in his village and those in nearby villages who often come by for the local market or other business. The vendor assistant model is similar, but works in villages where there are no boutiques so the vendor assistant is mobile. Like the vendor, he can still enroll members, sell cards, and send SMSs directly in his village on an individual level.
To prepare for our launch, one of our field agents led a training (pictured above) at the myAgro store for seven enthusiastic members from different villages. Six of those trained will be taking on the vendor assistant role and one member will serve as a local vendor at his boutique. All seven did an awesome job at the training and have now been introduced into their villages. We are already seeing the effect they are having on enrollment and sales. In the first village we introduced the vendor assistant model, the first day we sold cards to 10 members – that equals about a third of our sales from all villages during the entire previous week. We are confident that this new model will allow us to increase our impact in the Senegal program and we are excited to continue seeing the results!
