illinois

Kassidy Kimpling grew up on a grain farm just outside of Streator, IL.  She is a proud graduate of the University of Illinois. While there, she studied Agricultural Leadership Education with a focus on sales. In her free time, Kassidy can often be found cheering on Illini athletics.

Even though she remains early in her career, Kassidy has a fairly long history in sales. Her sales career began in high school when she owned and operated a fall decoration business selling mums, planters, pumpkins, gourds, stalks, and variations of those products.  During college, she spent one summer as the marketing intern with the Livingston County Farm Bureau, and prior to graduation, she spent some time in Central Michigan being a part of the Monsanto (Bayer) internship program.  While working for Monsanto she created a sales training course for educating Channel and Dekalb/Asgrow representatives on selling “value” to their customers.  In addition, she also served as the team “technology guru” for applications such as Climate FieldView.

Upon graduation from college, Kassidy started her “full time” career with a move to Iowa to join the Corteva Crop Protection team as an associate territory manager.  She spent the majority of her time forging relationships with retail outlets, giving chemical product updates, and creating programs to better serve the growers.

Kassidy’s role as a Sales Representative with Integrated Seed Solutions has allowed Kassidy to make the move back to Illinois and do what she truly loves….. work directly with growers. As a member of the Integrated Seed Solutions team, her role includes many behind the scenes duties.  Day to day, you will find her out and about smiling with farmers and dealers.  When not with customers, she is building relationships with strategic partners (including suppliers and potential business contacts), creating marketing materials such as handouts, social media, and websites, and assisting in the warehouse.  Kassidy brings creative thinking, organization, and an outgoing attitude to the team.

More than anything, Kassidy is excited about truly bringing First Class Value and Customer Service to the growers she works with!!! She believes that in sales, as long as all products and services are truly focused on creating new value for the customers, the “sales” actually make themselves.

illinois

Brad was raised just outside Varna, Illinois. Brad graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Agricultural Business from Illinois State University in Normal, Illinois and has had a tremendous career in seed sales ever since. He is the definition of a “people person” and can constantly be found “where the action is.” Whether it is at a local demolition derby or a nearby cattle show, Brad seems to be everywhere and know everyone. Many of Brad’s contacts go all the way back to his time in the Alpha Gamma Rho Fraternity at ISU.

Brad started his sales career with Pfister Hybrids in 1991 as a District Sales Manager. Brad successfully built the largest sales territory in the entire brand by putting in the time necessary to build relationships with many, many growers. Brad’s name became synonymous with the brand in several Central Illinois counties. Brad did not build the territory by simply maintaining relationships, but by also bringing a superior level of product expertise and always a fair price and a great sense of humor to his customers.

After approximately 16 years with Pfister Hybrids, Brad had the opportunity to further his career as a District Sales Manager with Kruger Seed Company. This gave Brad the chance to bring elite germ plasm and trait packages to his customers while also offering a premium soybean option (which he had never had before). Being part of Kruger also meant being part of a corporate culture as Kruger was a subsidiary of the Monsanto Company. After several years with Kruger, the decision was made that there would be a geographic realignment, which meant Brad would be selling Stone Seed, because Stone was the Illinois brand. Brad and his customers have enjoyed a positive relationship with the Stone Seed brand ever since.

As the role of District Sales Manager evolved over the years, Brad sensed that it was becoming more of an account manager role than the farm-gate, relationship-focused role that he so successfully managed earlier in his career. The opportunity to join Integrated Seed Solutions as Sales Manager meant Brad could continue to bring his customers the elite products they were accustomed to while maintaining the relationships in the manner that has always made Brad successful. He would also have the ability to truly mentor the rest of the sales team in regards to the hard work necessary to truly build a sales territory in a sustainable, customer-centric manner.

When it comes to doing what is best for the customer, Brad doesn’t just talk the talk, he walks the walk. In many cases, Brad has been doing business with multiple generations of a farm operation for over 30 years. Brad is a truly elite seed sales professional with a passion for doing what is right for his customers, his dealers, and his friends.

wisconsin

Chris brings over a decade of professional experience in the ag industry, holding roles in procurement, sales, and sales management. Throughout his career, Chris has focused on being efficient, discovering synergies that equate to wins for all parties involved, and above all else, providing paramount customer service.

Chris started his professional career with Monsanto after graduating from Western Michigan University’s Integrated Supply Chain Management program in 2009. While starting in Global Procurement as a Buyer then Category Manager, he had a passion for agriculture and sought opportunities to get closer to the customer. In 2012, Chris became a District Sales Manager for Stone Seed in Southern IL. For 4 years Chris cultivated a sales territory that focused on strong relationships and superior product performance. Success with Stone was rewarded with an opportunity to develop in another area that would become a strong passion, team and people development. In 2016 Chris accepted a role leading the DEKALB Asgrow Team in Wisconsin. For 6 years Chris managed a highly talented sales team and worked closely with many different distributors across the state to deliver industry leading seed, traits, crop protection and digital solutions to farmer customers.

While starting his career in Corporate America was a great opportunity, the desire to be a part of something cutting edge with an entrepreneurial component was strong. By joining the Integrated Seed Solutions team, Chris gets to realize and far exceed his career aspirations.

illinois

Allen is a self proclaimed “farm-kid” who was born and raised in Flanagan, Illinois. He is a 2006 graduate of Illinois State University. Allen’s entire career has been devoted to agriculture. Starting at a very young age, he has always been fascinated by “all things farming.”

Allen spent nearly eleven years working as a District Sales Manager for the Moews Seed Company. During this time, he developed relationships with farmers and dealers throughout the state of Illinois. Allen always looked for opportunities to do what was right for the customer with a focus on the long-term relationship rather than a short-term sales opportunity. He developed many very strong relationships over that period.

As time went on, Allen was needing to spend more and more time running the day to day operations of a growing farm business, so he exited his role with Moews. While his duties managing the farm operation became his primary focus, he wanted to maintain the relationships he had built over the previous eleven years. This led him to take on a dealership with Stone Seed. His customers were very happy to experience the product line that Allen was able to bring them with his new dealership, while still providing them with the customer service that they had come to expect.

Along with his brother, Allen saw the opportunity to create a first-class experience for his customer base by starting Integrated Seed Solutions. Allen serves as the Chief Financial Officer of Integrated Seed Solutions, but also retains an active sales role. Allen continues to service many of his original customers today with corn, soybean, and Amplify products. He is a big believer in always doing what is best for the customer and letting everything else fall into place.

Because Allen’s first love in agriculture remains on the farming side of the business, he is always sure to focus on the customer experience. Within Integrated Seed Solutions, Allen keeps a clear focus on how every decision ultimately impacts the grower. Whether it is pricing, timing, or ease of doing business, Allen is constantly focusing on ensuring that our customers are getting a tremendous experience at a very fair price.

illinois

John is a 2001 graduate of Illinois State University. He has spent a majority of his career in the field of agriculture. He also has extensive experience in real estate management, procurement, and development. Additionally, he has spent time as a County Board Member and nearly 20 years as a Township Trustee. John has a very entrepreneurial mindset, which has frequently led to “wearing more than one hat at a time.”

Upon graduation, John quickly got familiar with small business as the Operations Manager for a Soil Sampling and Crop Scouting business. This role also exposed John to the seed sales world, with the Pioneer Seed Brand. Intrigued by the Seeds and Traits business, John took a role in seed sales for Monsanto as a District Sales Manager. After a decorated sales career, he was ultimately promoted to Area Business Manager. In that role, he had responsibility for managing the sales team of the Stone Seed brand in Northern Illinois. As the Area Business Manager, he sat on the Regional Leadership Team, which gave him great insight to the inner workings of corporate America. John was responsible for managing all sales activities, budgeting, marketing, and forecasting for the Stone Seed Brand. This brand was part of a multi-brand strategy implemented by corporate Monsanto. John had a front row seat to watch the merger activities when Bayer Corporation completed a buy-out of Monsanto in 2018. Ultimately, John realized that there wasn’t a lot of further opportunity in the corporate world if he wasn’t willing to move his family and focus solely on that part of his career. After 14 years, knowing that much had already been learned from the corporate experience, John, along with his brother Allen, decided to start Integrated Seed Solutions and focus on finding ways to deliver world class products to farmers in a very customer-centric manner.

In addition to Integrated Seed Solutions, John and his brother also have built and run a successful row-crop farming operation. This experience has allowed John to look at the world not only from the perspective of a sales person but also from the viewpoint of the grower.

In simplest terms, John feels strongly that the products developed by the world class R+D pipelines housed in large corporations are great for farmers and their families (and ultimately farm-gate profitability), however, the corporate way of marketing, selling, and delivering those products to farm gate is incredibly flawed and inefficient. John’s vision for Integrated Seed Solutions has focused heavily on creating a best-in-class sales team and pairing that team with the world-class products developed by our large corporate partners. Ultimately, John’s vision is to deliver these products to our customers in a very simple and straightforward way that utilizes a common sense approach to pricing and experience.

John is a huge believer in always looking for synergies that can benefit everyone in a given situation. He calls it the 1 + 1 = 3 method. With Integrated Seed Solutions, John believes strongly that there is a perfect opportunity to create a business model that is beneficial first and foremost to our customers and dealers, while at the same time creating benefit for our business and, also, our corporate partners.