Step in their shoes. Whether you have two landlords – or twenty – it’s helpful to start by thinking about exactly who your landlords are. Make sure to consider each landlord individually – because different things are important to them, depending on factors like who they are, whether they live geographically close to the land or far away, their age and their level of familiarity – or lack thereof – with today’s agricultural world and practices. Think about each of these factors for each landlord. If you have a lot of landlords, you might create small groupings of landlords who are similar to each other in multiple factors.

What they want. Once you’ve thought about who your landlords are, and their similarities and differences, you can start to consider what they want from you as a tenant. You might consider doing a survey – whether formal or informal – of your current landlords. That way, you can find out what’s most important to them. For example, you could ask them to rate the importance of factors like how you maintain their land, how you keep them updated about your crop year, and whether they like to physically (or digitally) visit the farm and ride along with you and others.

Create your re-election plan. Based on what you find out from your landlords and what you already know about them, you can create and schedule a strategic plan for re-election. You can consider scheduling things like calls, visits and maybe sending out a newsletter with updates about your operation. Figure out how you’ll reach out in a meaningful way to them periodically – not just right before lease renewal time.