Author: Staff

A Real, Genuine Relationship

While many of our “Know Your Customer” articles focus on gathering data or technology that effectively helps you stay in front of your audience, we never want to undermine the value of a genuine customer relationship. Our animal nutrition industry tends to be more relationship driven as many of the people who own, manage or support businesses, like your dealership, are also in the business. This results in easy conversation, a real understanding of customer needs and a true comfort level between the business and customer. While we may be preaching to the choir on this one, we want to offer a few techniques to ensure your customer relationship is genuine and true.

Be patient in building new relationships.
Relationships take time. Resist indulging in disingenuous schmoozing, as it can be a severe put-off. Instead, take the time to get to know your customer, and share a little bit of yourself. Most importantly, remember that the product and service you provide is paramount in building a relationship. At the end of the day, no amount of personal connection can substitute for great product and service.

Understand the business.
We have a vast amount of segments within animal nutrition. While you may be an expert in the cattle business, equine or rabbits may not be your forte. You don’t have to be a professional, but learn to speak the same language as your customer, understand what keeps them up at night, and cater your interaction and products accordingly.

Go the extra mile.
As you grow your business and your customer relationships, there will be times that you’ll have to make a decision on when to adjust or expand your products and services to cater to the needs of a customer. The benefits of offering customized solutions are two-fold: 1) customers remember the times you came through for them and 2) it may open up additional revenue streams and new product offerings you had not previously considered.

Treat every client as your most important one.
Simply put, happy customers are more likely to make referrals. Provide all customers with your best service, regardless of whether they are a large ranch that run thousands of head or a family just getting started showing. You never know whom your customers may know or to whom they will refer you.

Respond promptly.
When a customer calls, emails or messages you on a social channel, acknowledge the receipt of the communication as quickly as possible, even if you do not have the answer they are looking for. You will give them comfort by simply acknowledging the receipt of their request and by communicating that you’re on it. This may seem like a no-brainer, but we often see dealers worry about having the right answer, and as a result, they forget to acknowledge they are looking for a solution.

Be more than a contact.
Despite the importance of collecting an email address, cell phone number for text messaging services, a social handle etc., these types of communication can often be misconstrued, especially during stressful situations. Consider a phone call or an in-person meeting to put a face (or voice) to a name. Often the phone gets a bad reputation when using it to ‘get on the same page’, but if used for good news, a phone call is a great way to build a better relationship with your customer.

Show up.
Every customer segment in your business has events they attend. Your show audience gather at the county fair or local 4-H or FFA events, your equine customers at rodeos and your cattlemen at field days. Seeing your face and knowing you care enough to attend these events to show your support or learn more about their involvement will not go unnoticed. Consider participating in those events, offering your time or sponsorship. With every new technological advance in communication, there is nothing more important or powerful than face-to-face interaction.

Achieving Aggressive Appetites

A good appetite is a sign of a healthy animal, but can sometimes be hard to maintain, especially in the summer months. Here are six quick tips for promoting a steady appetite in your livestock.

1. Clean Water:

Water is one of the most important nutrients for your livestock and often one of the most overlooked. Your livestock need access to clean drinking water in order to maintain optimum health. Monitoring your animal’s water quality is an inexpensive and effective way to promote healthy livestock.

2. Fresh Feed:

Whether you get your feed fresh from the mill or use a pre-mixed ration from your local feed store, your animals become accustomed to certain textures and smells. Stay consistent in where you purchase feed as well as the length of time you store feed. Also, if you need to transition to a new formula, mix the new feed in gradually so your animal adapts easily and stays on feed.

3. Temperature Regulation:

Loss of appetite is one of the first signs of heat stress. Keeping your animals cool by providing shade, proper ventilation and air circulation will help keep them on feed. Check out recent articles on proper circulation, ventilation and tips for managing heat stress in cattle at www.surechamp.com/blog.

4. Clean Bedding:

It is important that your animal’s bedding is cleaned on a regular basis. Clean, dry bedding helps prevent the spread of disease and bacteria and promotes overall health in your barn. Healthy, comfortable animals naturally have more appetite.

5. Routine Wellness Monitoring:

A sudden drop in appetite might be an indication of parasites. Performing routine deworming and wellness monitoring of your animals will help prevent problems from occurring.

6. Give them a Boost:

Top-dressing feed with Sure Champ® and/or Sure Champ Spark will help ensure appetite and intake stays more consistent. However, sometimes a poor appetite can be due to other unforeseen circumstances or stressors. If your animal’s loss of appetite is due to stressors such as sickness, hauling or heat, administering Vita Charge® is a great next step. Vita Charge provides a powerful dose of vitamins, B vitamins and the Amaferm® advantage for those stressful times when livestock need protection or assistance in recovery. It can be easily administered as a gel, stress tub or even through your animal’s water.

Product Focus: Sure Champ® and New Sure Champ® Spark

IF THEIR NOT EATING, YOU’RE NOT WINNING

With the summer show season heating up, now is the time to make sure your customers are using Sure Champ. Sure Champ is a natural line of supplements for show livestock with the Amaferm® advantage, which acts as a prebiotic improving gut health, stress recovery, appetite and overall performance. Sure Champ enhances skin, hair quality and bloom for that show-ready look.

Sure Champ®

Key Selling Points

Each Sure Champ formula is species specific and due to the vitamin and mineral composition should only be fed to the species for which the product is labeled.

Sure Champ is a complete vitamin and mineral supplement, and therefore alleviates the need to feed any additional mineral sources.

Feed daily to improve digestibility, stimulate appetite and optimize health.

Sure Champ contains Amaferm, research-proven to increase water and feed intake. In addition, research shows that Amaferm decreases body temperature in heat-stressed animals.

New!! Sure Champ® Spark
Available in June 2016

Key Selling Points

A multi-species product that can be fed to all livestock.
Can be used as a top-dress or mixed into the ration.

An easy way for show livestock to receive more of the Amaferm advantage when an aggressive appetite is needed. Feed in addition to Sure Champ for optimal results.

Includes MOS to trap bad bacteria, limiting their ability to do harm to digestive health and intake.

Formula contains no vitamin or mineral supplementation for increased flexibility in a wide range of feeding programs.

Sure Champ® + Vita Charge®

Because show animals are under constant stress due to trying to get the most out of nutritional programs, hauling and fitting, changes in environment, etc., it is almost certain their digestive system will be compromised or they will go off feed at some point in their lives. Being armed and ready with Vita Charge is an excellent way to combat those stressful times and ensure your livestock are back on feed fast. As a dealer, selling Sure Champ and Vita Charge together as complementary products is ensuring the utmost preparation and care for your customers and their animals.

May 2016 – Letters From Lisa

Sure Champ® has experienced significant growth during the past six years. What has driven this success? Supporting young people involved with livestock. I know you are wriggling your nose right now, and thinking this lady is nuts. While whether I am nuts or not is debatable, my response is not. We may believe helping young people doesn’t grow sales or pay bills. However, an investment in youth is an investment in our future. And, making an investment in the future doesn’t always pay off right before your eyes or even in your lifetime. The pay off may be after you are long gone.

BioZyme®, under the leadership of Bob Norton, started supporting youth involved with livestock in 2007 when it became the title sponsor of both the Junior National Hereford Expo and the National Junior Angus Show. Why? Bob believes helping youth matters.

As I was working on this letter, Bob asked what I was doing and when
I told him my topic, he said, “It’s pretty simple to answer that. Livestock families are unique and special and extremely important to the welfare of our community, the state and the country.”

Young people involved in livestock learn from the show ring and the pasture:

How to respect others.
How to receive criticism and how to ask the right questions to improve.
How to work hard and push just a little bit longer.
How to evaluate livestock and to defend themselves verbally in front of a judge.
How one small tweak can be the difference between a win or a loss.

That sounds like the perfect applicant for every position we have at BioZyme. On a broader scale, without this type of a workforce in our future, our country will never reach its full potential.
If you are still asking why we do this, let me reiterate that these young people are our future. More importantly, they are agriculture’s future. For them, the livestock experience matters. And making kids feel like they matter, well… that matters to us.

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Pricing 101: your pricing strategy

Pricing is the most important aspect of your business. No other factor has a higher impact on improving profits. A 1 percent improvement in price optimization results in an average boost of 11.1 percent in profits. That’s no small change.

The following are methods commonly used when determining how to price inventory. Read through these pricing options and compare them to how you currently price items in your dealership. Keep in mind the services your dealership provides when trying to match the best method for you moving forward.

Value based pricing: It’s all about the customer

To consumers, price is a number of how much they value what you are selling. For example, if I needed a new winter hat, I could get one from the local Goodwill store for a dollar, or I could go to Macy’s and buy one for $25. If I only cared about covering my head, Goodwill would win, but since I care about my fashion sense, Macy’s wins. A customer’s willingness to pay is contingent upon the value he or she places on the product desired. Essentially, value based pricing cuts through the red tape of this scenario to determine the true willingness of a customer to pay for a particular product.

Unfortunately, the most common pricing strategies and methodologies forget about the customer. Instead, people in charge of pricing justify price points based on internal reasons or simply adopting existing market prices. Newsflash: customers don’t care how much something costs you or your competitors to make. Customers want to know how much value they are receiving at a particular price.

Value based pricing requires a lot of research. But it allows more interaction between you and your customer. Plus, unlike pricing done by market norms, this method focuses on isolating qualities that distinguish your product from a dozen similar products on the market.

Value based pricing models utilizes customer data, as well as breakdowns of the relative value of different features within your offering. You’ll also need to conduct an analysis of competing goods, because once you have the data, you’ll want to know the other options consumers have open to them. In the end though, you have the greatest amount of data to make an informed decision about your profit maximizing price.

Pros of value based pricing

1. It helps you develop higher quality products.

Value based pricing not only determines a more accurate price for the end product, but the process will also benefit your business. Taking on a consumer perspective will also help you discover what customers are really looking for. Products and features will be driven by consumer demand, which raises perceived value, thereby resulting in a higher price.

2. It allows you to provide phenomenal customer service.

Much of the customer data in value based pricing is collected through customer surveys or interviews. In past newsletters, we have stressed the importance of building relationships with customers and providing them quality customer service. Your customers will perceive that you are providing the best service available and building repeat business instead of a one-time customer. The customer will trust that you are providing the most bang for his or her buck.

Cons of value based pricing

1. It takes time and resources.

The method takes time; both while building relationships with customers and researching competitors’ prices and services.

2. It’s a science, just not an exact science.

Value based pricing is more of a process that requires consistent dedication, not just a “set it and forget it” mentality. Think about it, willingness to pay differs between different customers, regions and even offers. A 100 percent accurate prediction is impossible, but we can get pretty darn close.

Summary: Value based pricing should be a part of almost everyone’s pricing strategy. When done right, value based pricing provides increased opportunities to provide customer service and motivates you to provide a higher quality product.

Cost plus pricing: The oldest and simplest method of setting prices

Cost plus pricing is the simplest method of determining price, and embodies the basic idea behind doing business. You buy something, sell it for more than you spent buying it (because you’ve added value by providing the product), and the difference between your price and costs equals profit.

A lot of companies calculate their cost, determine their desired profit margin by pulling a number out of thin air, slap the two numbers together and then stick it on a couple thousand widgets. It’s really that simple. This method involves very little market research, and also doesn’t take into consideration consumer demands and competitor strategies.

Pros of cost plus pricing

1. It takes few resources.

Cost plus pricing doesn’t require a lot of additional market research. Cost of product is something businesses are mostly aware of by adding up different invoices, labor costs, etc. Businesses can then take the total costs and place a margin on top of them that they believe the market will bear. Cost plus pricing is especially helpful when you have no information about a customer’s willingness to pay and there aren’t direct competitors in the marketplace.

2. It provides full coverage of cost and a consistent rate of return.

As long as whomever is calculating the costs per item is adding everything up correctly, cost plus pricing ensures that the full cost of the product is covered, allowing the mark-up to generate a positive rate of return.

Cons of cost plus pricing

1. It’s horribly inefficient.

The guarantee of a target rate of return creates little incentive for cutting cost or for increasing profitability through price differentiation. This inward facing approach discourages market research, including watching your competitor’s prices. Plus with no research, you have minimal data on your customers’ perceived value of your product.

2. It doesn’t take into account consumers.

Perhaps the biggest downfall of cost plus pricing is that it completely disregards the customer’s willingness to pay. To make money, a customer must be involved. They’re the most important part of selling anything, so any pricing strategy that doesn’t take customer value into account is creating a vacuum that’s sucking all of the profit out of the business.

Furthermore to be blunt, customers don’t care about how much something cost you. They understand there are costs associated with doing business, but consumers care more about how much value you’re providing.

In summary, cost plus pricing isn’t ideal for most businesses, unless you truly cannot spend some extra time on the most important aspect of your business – your customers.

Competitor based pricing:  logical, but ineffective

Competitor based pricing is a lot like a bad case of plagiarism in a college class. Because you don’t want to do the work yourself, you look at your competitors’ prices for similar products, and set your prices similarly.

Imagine stacking all of your competitors on a totem pole with the most premium or luxury brand on top and the bargain brand on the bottom. You then decide where on the pole you fit, place yourself in there and set your price accordingly. This is not the way to do business.

Pros of competitor based pricing

1. It’s fairly simple.

If you’re in an industry with even one or two direct competitors, you can implement a reasonable competitor based pricing strategy. In most industries, marketing and product managers will then have to do relatively little research to find a price.

2. It’s low risk.

It’s rare to royally screw up using this form of pricing, and chances are if your competitor has never filed bankruptcy, neither should you.


Cons of competitor based pricing

1. It leads to large missed opportunities.

You will miss the opportunity to work closely with your customers and provide them true customer service if you just sell a product without any extra perceived value. You will likely lose profits and not take advantage of improving your product or business. Maintaining a lower price than your competitors isn’t always the best way to attract consumers, and as Lisa’s chart on page 2 showed, prices are not a priority like customer service and communication.

2. Formed by group consensus and lacks personal responsibility.

Competitor based pricing operates off the assumption that businesses already in the market have the correct answer and that every decision competitors’ make is intelligent. However, if a large portion of companies all use this tactic, then with time, competitor based pricing can lead to the entire industry losing touch with demand.

Summary: Competitor based pricing should be a part of everyone’s pricing process, but not the central pillar. As we alluded to before, competitor based pricing also gives you too much of a “set it and forget it” mentality. Pricing is a process that requires data and attention. If you’re not changing your prices and differentiating your product over time, you’re not sustainable. Yes, you should know what your competitors’ prices are, but knowing your customers and their demands is more important. If you take elements of all three of these pricing strategies, you should see increased business and an increase in your profits.

Managing Heat Stress

Heat stress impacts cattle performance and costs millions of dollars in annual economic losses. Animal responses to heat stress include reduced dry matter intake, decreased average daily gain, decreased milk yield, decreased fertility and poor reproduction.

As Figure 1 reflects, the severity of heat stress is commonly estimated by temperature-humidity indexes (THI).

Some have hypothesized that it is not just the extent of heat stress alone that affects animals, but also the duration of the heat stress. This is supported by anecdotal evidence from the field, where it is commonly observed that adequate night cooling reduces the impact of heat stress during multiple-day periods of elevated temperature and humidity.

It is also presumed that the minimum threshold where animals begin experiencing heat stress is a function of the production level of the animal. For example, in growing steers the threshold is considered to be a THI of 84, whereas in a high producing lactating dairy cow the threshold will be considerably lower, starting at a THI of 70. At the same ambient temperature, a higher-producing dairy cow will have to dissipate more heat to the environment than a lower-producing cow of the same size.

In addition to reduced performance, physiological responses to heat stress include increased respiration rates and body temperatures elevated above 39°C (102.2°F). Body temperature rises when cows are no longer able to dissipate body heat to the environment, and is a very sensitive indicator of heat stress. Cows may exhibit panting and drooling as behavioral and physical responses to heat stress.

Feeding Amaferm® during heat stress has multiple benefits including improved digestibility, increased energy availability, improved rumen function and decreased loss of performance. The improved digestibility observed with Amaferm provides more energy to the animal during heat stress when intake is reduced. Amaferm has been shown to improve milk yield performance with lactating cows under heat stress (Figure 2) and help maintain body condition (Chiou et al., 2002). The benefits of Amaferm in dairy cattle production can also be translated to beef brood cow and feedlot performance. In summary, feeding Amaferm during heat stress can:

  • Increase digestibility.
  • Increase energy availability.
  • Improve microbial protein yields.
  • Help stabilize rumen function and pH due to stress disrupting feeding patterns, which can lead to consumption of unusually large meal size.
  • Improve milk yields and help maintain body condition.
  • Improve overall performance.

If you have questions about heat stress in cattle, please email support@biozymeinc.com and we’ll put you in touch with one of our nutritionists. Also, be sure to check out our mineral products, VitaFerm® HEAT and VitaFerm HEAT CTC 3G, specifically designed to help you combat summer heat stress and the effects of fescue pastures.

Product Focus: VITAFERM® HEAT

KEEP THEM COOL, KEEP THEM GRAZING

A common question our dealers, Area Sales Managers and nutritionists receive is what product should I feed after Concept•Aid®? VitaFerm® HEAT is a logical next step for producers who are concerned about heat stress and insect control. VitaFerm HEAT is a vitamin and mineral supplement used to reduce heat stress during warm seasons of 70 degrees and above, especially in fescue pastures. VitaFerm HEAT contains Amaferm® and Capsaicin, research proven to lower body temperature, which can help improve conception rates and maintain pregnancy. It also includes garlic, a natural insect repellent.

VITAFERM® HEAT

Key Selling Points:

  • Ideal summer mineral because it helps combat the negative effects of heat stress and fescue grasses.
  • Contains organic copper, zinc and manganese to support reproduction, immunity and hoof quality.
  • Contains Capsaicin, a unique combination of added extracts to help maintain circulation to support animal performance in both heat and fescue situations. Capsaicin is research proven to lower body temperature, which can help improve conception rates and maintain pregnancy.
  • Also includes garlic, a natural insect repellent.
  • Amaferm is a natural feed additive that acts as a prebiotic increasing digestibility to maximize the energy value of feed. It is research proven to maintain performance during heat stress. Amaferm supports the beneficial microbial population and fiber digestion that is often limited in fescue.

vitaFERM® HEAT ctc 3G

Key Selling Points:

  • All of the above plus…
  • VitaFerm Heat CTC 3G provides FDA approved level of Aureomycin® for control of Anaplasmosis that can severely impact reproductive performance within infected herds.

April 2016 – Letters From Lisa

’P’ for price

Pricing is one of the four P’s of the marketing mix, the pillars that support and sustain your business. The first is Product; the second is Place (distribution); the third is Promotion and the fourth is Price. All four of these factors must be implemented before you can succeed in business.

I am going to focus on price, which some people consider an afterthought to the other three. But, I argue price is the most important factor, and it’s critical to your business that you get it right. Remember price is the only element in the marketing mix that produces revenue; all other elements represent costs.

Without proper pricing, your gross margin will suffer and that will translate into less profit than you deserve and ultimately limited cash flow. Limited cash flow will eventually impact the sustainability of the business.

One trap that is easy to fall into is thinking that the price must be as low as possible to get any traction with sales. This just isn’t true. We routinely survey our end-user customers to see what matters to them in their purchasing decisions. What they say about price and its importance will surprise you. The following is a list of the top 10 factors to provide proof and understanding of the definition of value, or in other words, why you don’t need to assume your prices need to be kept to the lowest number possible to close the sale.

  1. Product makes a difference in animal’s health & performance.
  2. Product is easy to feed.
  3. Product is consistent in quality.
  4. Knowledge of product by sales personnel.
  5. Reliability of product supply.
  6. Personnel respond quickly to requests.
  7. Ease of contacting the right person for help.
  8. Product is packaged in useful quantities.
  9. Problems are resolved quickly.
  10. Ease of doing business.

So, instead of worrying about keeping prices low, worry about the items highlighted in yellow. Focus your energy on educating, having inventory, responding quickly and making doing business with you easy. If this is your focus, you can use value based pricing, which means believing that you can sell at our suggested retail price plus the freight to get the product to you. No smirking without giving it a try.

To end, I’ll quote Lawrence Steinmetz who wrote a book on sales called “How to Sell at Margins Higher Than Your Competitors.” “The first thing you have to understand is the selling price is a function of your ability to sell and nothing else. What’s the difference between an $8,000 Rolex and a $40 Seiko watch? The Seiko is a better time piece. It’s far more accurate. The difference is your ability to sell.”

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Tap Into the Online Messaging Board

The BioZyme Online Dealer Center hosts an incredible tool for gaining product knowledge and direct access to our nutritionist team. Here you can post questions about anything you’d like in regards to product information, selling tips, shipping or freight and more. You are guaranteed to receive a response from our team, but this is an opportunity to interact with dealers as well.

Great discussion is always happening on the message board and we invite you to join by going to the Online Dealer Center at www.biozymedealer.com and selecting Resources >> Message Board in the main navigation menu located at the top of the screen!

4 Ways to Improve The Way You Creep

Now is the time to begin thinking about your creep feed rations. Creep feed allows producers to efficiently put weight on young calves, as small calves are very efficient at converting feed to gain. Also, as calves pass the 90-120 day mark, they begin to need additional supplementation as the lactating beef cow is only providing 50% of the daily nutrition that the calf needs. Ideally, lush pastures would provide the additional nutrition; however, lack of pasture due to challenging weather or acreage constraints can limit this.

At BioZyme® we offer three different products that can be incorporated with feedstuffs found at your local mill to create a complete creep ration, and a fourth product that can be incorporated into any pre-formulated/bagged creep feed.

Our wide variety of proven products help keep your cattle healthy and efficient. Producers also notice a big different in consistency in intake, and calves transition more easily at weaning. All VitaFerm® products contain the Amaferm® advantage, which increases the digestibility of feed and improves digestive health, allowing for more efficient gains.

SURE CHAMP®
Proven in the show ring, but works equally as well in creep feed to help maintain the strong appetite and healthy digestive system needed to unlock the genetic potential of your calves. Contains high levels of essential micronutrients for the extra bloom that show and sale cattle require.

VITAFERM® SURE POWER 37™
A high protein and macro minerals pellet that is a great fit for building today’s modern creep feeds. Contains moderate levels of essential micronutrients to ensure animal performance. Use it alone for commercial calf creeps or together with Sure Champ to build high performance show and creep rations.

SURE START® PELLET
The ideal supplement for stressed cattle during weaning. This pellet also works extremely well as a creep balancer, bringing high levels of vitamins and minerals when additional protein is not needed. Works well in distillers and corn gluten-based creep feeds.

AMAFERM® DIGEST MORE®
A low inclusion way to supplement Amaferm in any diet. At the feeding rate of 0.5 ounces, Digest More provides 2 grams of Amaferm. Digest More is best suited when additional protein, vitamins and minerals are not required.

For more information about creating a custom creep feed ration, contact Lindsey Grimes, BioZyme Nutrition Field Support, at lgrimes@biozymeinc.com or 816 596-8779.