Use the Marketing Tools that BioZyme Offers to Help You Sell

Regardless of your dealership size or status, BioZyme® offers a variety of tools to help you share about the products, promote the products and help educate your customers about your business and the goods that you offer.

Ty McGuire, Area Sales Manager in Michigan, Western Ohio and Kentucky, encourages all dealers to learn about and use the tools that are offered to them. He said that starts with product knowledge so you can talk about products and costs at the drop of hat when the subject comes up in conversation.

“Knowledge is power. Wherever you are, you should know the products and be able to talk about them,” he said.

One of the best ways to familiarize yourself with the products is through the Master Dealer Training Program. This online training tool gives a brief overview of all the products. As an incentive to complete it, dealers are offered a special designation on the Online Dealer Locator, in store signage and a Master Dealer Jacket.

For new products, Facebook trainings have taken place on the BioZyme Dealer Facebook Page, another resource that offers timely information, tools and company news.

Another great tool that McGuire recommends his dealers use regularly is the Online Dealer Center. The Online Dealer Center allows dealers to gather product information and trainings as well as monitor their own sales activities.

Promoboxx and social media are two more marketing tools that McGuire said have been game-changers during the past few years. As people have technology and information at their fingertips, it is important to have a presence on social media. Platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are becoming increasingly popular for businesses to publicize featured products and in-store promotions.

The BioZyme Marketing Team creates regular posts through Promoboxx that align with current advertising campaigns. Dealers can sign up for Promoboxx and use these posts or elements of them across all brands to help create awareness on their business Facebook pages.

Perhaps one of the most important tools a dealer can create is a customer mailing list. Mailing lists “fill the pipeline with contacts,” according to McGuire, and those contacts are essential when it comes time for BioZyme to send quarterly mailers.

For someone who hasn’t started a mailing list yet, McGuire suggests starting with a simple Excel spreadsheet and start adding names, mailing addresses, city, state and zip codes. You might also want to add a space for phone number or email and even the types of animals or products they use for future reference. If you are not sure how to get all these addresses, start with getting information from the check or envelopes that the remittance comes in from bill payments.

Marketing tools exist and so do people who are willing to help. Don’t forget to reach out to your ASM or the Outreach Support Center. The tools and people that BioZyme offers are available to help you succeed.

Opportunities to Address Challenges Lead to Sales

For some on the BioZyme sales team, they take the relationship approach to getting products in front of customers. It is more about being problem solvers or helping the potential customer reach their production goals with a nutrition program, than it is “selling” a product.

Brett Tostenson, ASM who represents South Dakota and Eastern North Dakota, said he does extensive homework about a potential customer’s production goals, both commercial and seedstock, before he ever makes contact or sets foot on his or her ranch. With the use of the Internet and state-wide ag publications, there is typically a plethora of information about the larger cow-calf producers he calls on.

“I’m a huge proponent of connection-based selling to help them meet their needs. I look at the birthdates and sire groups in their sale catalogs, see if they have a ranch website or Facebook page, and Google to see if there is information about them, where they market their cattle. This helps me have a plan before I ever meet them,” Tostenson said.

He adds that is it is imperative to be genuine in the conversation, and with knowing background about their operation or having a mutual contact, it shows that you have an interest, and you are not just another cold call salesperson.

Once he knows about their operation, he will set up a time to stop by to look at their cattle, which he enjoys doing. Then, after he’s seen their cattle and had a good conversation, he’ll listen to any needs the producer might have like poor breed-backs, retained placentas or low conception rates. That is when he tells them about the reproductive mineral he uses on his own herd, VitaFerm® Concept•Aid®. His closing statement is strong:

“I don’t try to sell something I would not use on my own cattle.”

Once that trust is established and the producer decides to try the product, Tostenson will put him or her in touch with a dealer. He does follow up to make sure the dealer and the product is meeting expectations. And, he said it is important to be visible at their sale, but just to say hello, and not to talk shop on their big pay day.

The Consultant
Similar to Tostenson, Ty McGuire, who represents Michigan, Western Ohio and Kentucky, said he too likes to help potential and current customers meet their operation goals. He likes to consider himself as more of a consultant rather than a salesperson.

“I want them to know that I am looking out for them, and they can confide in me for answers whether it’s about nutrition, A.I. protocols or anything. I am a straight shooter, and that helps gain their trust and get the sale,” McGuire said.

Typically, on an initial visit, he will leave them with some beneficial literature that might include the sale report from a local livestock auction market, along with some BioZyme product information and his business card.

He agrees that sales books are a great way to learn about operations, and you can tell a lot about calving times, calving windows, sire groups and just about the people from the contents of the sale book. He said his initial face-to-face meetings can last from 20 minutes to an hour, and you can tell how much a person will open up and trust another in a short amount of time. Once he has their trust, he likes to talk about Amaferm®.

“I will bend over backwards for a potential customer to get the Amaferm advantage into their livestock. We have great products for every species and every situation, and I want them to know I will help them meet their goals, not only with nutrition but in other areas, as well,” McGuire said.

Do your homework. Build the relationship. Gain the trust. Sometimes selling isn’t even about selling as much as it is helping a fellow producer meet his or her production goals. Relationship selling is all about helping others. And that is care that comes full circle.

Use Amaferm® to Sell Across All Species

With vitamins, minerals and supplements aplenty, there is one thing that sets BioZyme® products apart from all the rest – the Amaferm® advantage. This is the selling point used by many when it comes time to market the products we offer.

“I always talk about Amaferm and how it can help all species across the board,” said Lori Lawrence, ASM in Eastern Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

Lawrence attributes the brand recognition of Amaferm and VitaFerm® to the success of the products she helps her dealers sell, and she uses that recognition to trickle down into other products for other animals besides cattle. The product guide is her number one favorite selling tool.

“People are not typically single-species raisers, so that product guide is a great way to showcase all the products we have that contain Amaferm, all of them,” she said.

In her sales area, she might visit with a customer who has show lambs and a cowherd and a few horses. Therefore, she can talk about Amaferm and how it can help their lambs stay on feed and water, while helping with general herd health of their cows.

With an area that is predominately store front dealers that offer a variety of products, Lawrence said training new dealers and existing dealers on new products is a top priority. Because so many people do have multiple species, she recommends that the stores carry some of every product. She also encourages in-store displays during the high-selling seasons since often if a product is “out of sight, it is out of mind.”

“During HEAT® season or whatever season, I remind the dealers to bring a few bags of product into their stores to display. When they bring those products in for customers to see, their sales do increase. I like to remind the dealers that Amaferm is the biggest differentiation between our products and others they might carry. We are a premium mineral with premium results,” she said.

Western ASM Britney Creamer agrees that Amaferm is the key sales tactic that she uses. Creamer travels Colorado, Utah and Wyoming and also works with a diverse group of customers.

“Amaferm is always the first thing I talk about with customers and potential customers as it is the one thing that significantly separates the BioZyme line from competitors and provides the most overall benefits no matter the situation,” she said.

The Amaferm advantage of increased intake, digestion and absorption is important regardless of geography, production goals and species. Once a customer has seen the results in one species, he or she will typically understand them and be excited to use a product with Amaferm in other animals.

Creamer said once she has talked about Amaferm and its benefits, she likes to share examples of how the products have helped others. She makes sure they don’t have impractical expectations, and she always follows up.

“Utilizing testimonials, research and personal experience with products always seems to resonate best with potential customers and allows them to feel more comfortable or confident in what you are offering them. I make sure to not create unrealistic expectations as well because people want such quick results that they can visually see with their eye these days. It’s important to let them know what they can expect to see with the eye and also remind them that what is working inside an animal may take a few weeks to see on the outside,” she said.

With an ingredient like Amaferm, it makes differentiating the BioZyme products from their competition a little simpler. Sharing “premium minerals with premium results” across all species should be the goal of every dealer, and that is definitely what the Amaferm advantage does for you.

Letters From Lisa – June/July 2021

I believe that a profitable, fun business needs to be kept simple and can be easily described with a triangle. How?

At the very top of the triangle and business must be its goals. Goals should not be plentiful, nor too complex. These goals must be supported with strategies that are so important that without their completion, the goals won’t be met. And then finally, these strategies must have amazing, defined tactics behind them, to ensure they are accomplished.

The triangle must be supported with investment and structure, as a well thought out set of business goals, strategies and tactics can only be completely successful if they have these behind them. Without all these features, a business will not be able to maximize its growth potential, since we need to make plans for the future to create opportunities, rather than simply wait for new business. Without an organizational structure that puts key employees together on a regular basis, it will be difficult to create effective strategies and impossible to hit the related goals.

Strategic management includes creating growth through introducing new products, using new distribution channels, expanding geographically or going after a new target market. These strategies give the path needed, while the tactics are much more concrete and are often oriented toward smaller steps and a shorter time frame. In other pages of this month’s VISION we talk about a variety of strategies and tactics to position products and hopefully help sell the BioZyme products.

Business is not simple, but it does not have to be complex either. Remember a triangle is the simplest form of a polygon and “It is always the simple that produces the marvelous.” – Amelia Barr

Dealer Spotlight: Earlybird

For one dealer, keeping education at the forefront of its customer service is key. Earlybird, with three Illinois locations and one in Missouri, has a sales and marketing team of individuals who grew up in the livestock industry and know the importance of youth programs. That is why it is imperative that they continue to provide education, training and support to their young customers today.

“No question is a bad one. We encourage you to ask us all the questions about your livestock. It is our job to do everything we can to get you on the right track. Nutrition, animal management and prepping for a show all goes hand in hand, and how you handle one or the other will affect your outcome,” said Codee Schmidgall, Marketing Specialist at Earlybird. “The beauty about our team is that they grew up raising and showing livestock and many of them go home and put the exact same efforts into their own. They live it, breathe it and know what it takes to be successful. All you have to do is ask!”

In addition to answering customer questions, Earlybird takes a proactive approach to educating its customers and supporting the youth. They have conducted and sponsored several multispecies clinics and shows around the Midwest. Recently, they conducted a show pig clinic in southern Illinois where a few of their feed specialists talked about “how to take care of and manage show pig projects from the time they enter the barn to the time they reach their target show.”

“When we do host a clinic, we encourage the whole family to come especially if the kids are just starting out! Showing livestock is a family affair and we think that if everybody has a little insight on what to do then it takes the pressure off just one family member,” Schmidgall said.

Creating partnerships with companies like BioZyme, helps Earlybird when it is time to provide educational opportunities. BioZyme will help sponsor an Earlybird show or donate products for events like the Illinois Beef Expo and other shows.

“Not only do we enjoy working with the BioZyme team, but we believe that their products work! Vita Charge® HydraBoost™ has been an absolute HIT with many of the pig breeders around Illinois and has become more and more popular with our out of state customers. Around this time of year, many families walk away with products like Vita Charge® Liquid Boost®, Climate Control Gel, and the Stress Tubs because that is what they use to #preptowin,” she said.

And, what sells their Sure Champ and Vita Charge products? Amaferm®, of course!

“The Amaferm Advantage is key! BioZyme has done such a great job at pushing information out there that backs these products up which makes our jobs easy. I cannot speak for all the feed specialists because they have their own preferences and experiences, but I know my family does not leave for a show without a bag of Sure Champ Cattle in our trailer,”Schmidgall said.

Earlybird is around for the long haul, for its seasoned customers and for its younger customers who are just getting started in the show industry. In addition, they offer two summer internships to students interested in youth and the feed business. According to Schmidgall, the interns are also great at interacting with the youth at as many events possible and help promote their customers’ successes via social media.

“The Earlybird mission has been based on providing a variety of highquality feeds that exceed the needs of our large customer base, but most off all we have put a strong emphasis on our service, and our ability to help families achieve their goals. This family-owned business has always had its sights set on supporting and promoting the next generation of the agriculture industry; and we will continue to make it a priority!”

That’s care that comes full circle.

Educational Resources At Your Fingertips

Gone are the days of flipping through voluminous, outdated encyclopedias for information. Instead, our first instinct is, “I’ll just Google that.” But how does information get onto Google? Did you know that the BioZyme® Marketing Team utilizes various search engine optimization (SEO) tools and Google Analytics to determine what end-users are looking for on Google and various search engines? They do. Then, they use that information to develop educational resources that you can use to help educate your customers. Those resources are available at the click of a button at www.biozymeinc.com.

Gestation Calculators are available for cattle, sheep and goats. These calculators allow the breeders to input breeding dates to get their anticipated calving, lambing or kidding dates and also provide the suggested dates for beginning to feed Concept•Aid®. If your customers are already on a year-round Concept•Aid feeding program, there are also gestation tables available for each species. Visit the “Resources” tab at vitaferm.com and duraferm.com to try them out!

Product Quizzes exist for Gain Smart®, Concept•Aid, and Vitalize® so users can discover which product will be best suited for their management scenario. With several great products in these various lines, the Product Quizzes allow you to input information about your animals and the feedstuffs you have available to them before selecting the ideal supplements. These can be found on the product pages on these brand websites.

Cost Calculators are effective tools to help predict how Amaferm® and the various product lines can help add money to your bottom line. A variety of calculators exist including a VitaFerm Cost of Gain Calculator, an Amaferm Value Calculator and a Forage Savings Calculator. All of these are found on the “Resources” tab at vitaferm.com. The Amaferm Value Calculator is also found under the “Resources” tab on the Gain Smart page.

Hay Testing and Forage Analysis is vital to know what nutrients you are needing to supplement with. At BioZyme, we offer hay testing as a service to our customers. Once that report is received, it is important to know what to do with the information. On the VitaFerm, Gain Smart, DuraFerm and Vitalize pages under the “Services” tab, you will find complete information about hay testing with a form that tells how to interpret you data and an another interactive form that allows you to input the protein and energy information to get even more information about which products to feed.

The BioZyme website is full of useful interactive calculators and tools just like these. Check back often or watch the Dealer Facebook page for updates as more are added.

Sure Champ® In The Classroom Gets A Makeover

If something isn’t broken, there is no need to fix it; however, there is always room to make improvements in the tried and true. That is what has been happening this winter and spring as the Sure Champ in the Classroom website received a makeover to provide more user-friendly information that is easier to find, broken down by both topics and species.

Sure Champ in the Classroom is an online resource designed to help young people #preptowin in life. The online resource offers educational information about basic animal husbandry, livestock evaluation, preparing a cover letter and resume, preparing for CDEs and more.

“The Sure Champ in the Classroom resource page has especially been targeted to help agriculture educators and advisors thrive and develop their lesson plans in the classroom. With the progression and popularity of ‘virtual’ resources, we have come to realize that education doesn’t just happen in the classroom – it can happen anywhere. We revamped our resource page to be more user friendly for all demographics: teachers, students, advisors, 4-H and FFA members alike,” said Jessie Judge, BioZyme Marketing Brand Manager for Beef and Show Livestock, who manages the website. “These resources cover a wide scope of topics to help teachers in the classroom, support students getting started with new livestock projects, provide tips for career development endeavors and more. We’re all familiar with the phrase ‘the best learning happens in the barn,’ and that same principle drove our decision to overhaul our resources – the classroom can be ANYWHERE. Learning isn’t confined to just the classroom.”

BioZyme® feels that it is important to have well-educated young people involved in agriculture as they become industry advocates. The company also wants these same young people to succeed both in the show ring and in and out of the classroom. The makeover of this site divides learning activities by species so someone with a pig can easily go to the pig resources to find information about selection, nutrition, reading ear notches, commingling animals and a checklist of equipment needed when showing pigs. If you are preparing for a livestock judging contest, a variety of judging classes with placings, cuts and reasons are posted under the Judging Classes and also divided by species. Finally, a host of educational topics live under the educational posts that range from reading a feed tag to preparing for an internship or job interview.

“Equipping young people in our industry with the tools they need to win and be successful in life is vital to the success of our business because these young people are the future of our industry. When they surpass the show ring, many of them will seek careers in this industry and contribute to our progression as an agriculture industry at large. It is important for Sure Champ to make an impact on these young people early on through means of education and leadership opportunities not only to leave a lasting impression and emphasize our Care that Comes Full Circle vision, but to ensure they are prepared to go into the career field and thrive in supporting the industry we serve,” Judge said.

If you have a young customer who is new to livestock showing or who needs material to study for an FFA or 4-H project, guide them to the Sure Champ in the Classroom page. There is a wealth of information there that will help them #preptowin in and out of the show ring!

Letters From Lisa – May 2021

“Upon the subject of education. . . I can only say that I view it as the most important subject which we as a people may be engaged in.” – Abraham Lincoln

Too many companies seem to believe that ignorance makes for the best customers. Actually, the more informed and empowered customers are, the more satisfied and confident they are with their choice of you. And that kind of confidence almost always leads to loyalty. In the end, isn’t that what all of this is really about?

By only reaching people to convert them into customers, you are limiting your potential to generate new customers. So, if you want to change how people perceive you, you need to distinguish yourself as a leading educational voice.

Customer education doesn’t just boil down to one or two small benefits. Its positive effects are numerous. They’re also intertwined, and when done well, it feeds a much bigger machine, helping to fuel your business’s growth.

To begin assessing the needs of your customer education initiative you must know your customers’ pain points, then you can develop a plan to help overcome these. For this, you’ll need the right tools and resources to help.

There are a wide variety of first-class tools available through BioZyme in our Online Dealer Center. These will help you deliver efficient and effective training. The below graphic is a good visual to keep your education track on course.

Dealer Spotlight: Maryville Vet Clinic

Vets Provide Year-Round Nutrition Plan

Care that comes full circle is more than a motto. It’s the way we live, taking care of the livestock and animals that take care of us – livestock that provide a livelihood and protein products to feed the world and companion animals that provide joy and friendships to many. An ideal candidate for a BioZyme® dealer is a veterinarian – they are providing care to animals in multiple ways – both preventative care to keep the animals healthy and restorative care when an animal needs healed.

Maryville Vet Clinic, LLC, Maryville, Missouri, has been a BioZyme dealer since the 1980s. Dr. David Frueh and his original veterinary partner were dealers, and when Dr. Frueh became a single-vet practice, he liked the products so well, he continued to sell them. Today, all three veterinarians within the practice, Dr. Frueh, Dr. Patrick O’Connell and Dr. Gina Stoll, like the benefits of the products and recommend them to their clients.

“Here, we try the product first. We never want our customers to be the guinea pig. So, if there’s a new product or a different product we feed it to our own cattle. Dr. Frueh has seen how products like the Concept•Aid® has increased conception rates and how the condition of his cows has benefitted from the mineral. He’s a believer in the product. Once you see how the product works, it really sells itself,” said Stacy Liebhart, Office Manager of the Clinic.

Liebhart said that 90% of their practice is large animals, and a majority of those clients are cattle producers. Therefore, they have formulated a nutrition program they recommend their customers stay on throughout the year to maximize their herds’ health. Their program includes the VitaFerm® HEAT® mineral.

From January through about March or April, during the bulk of calving, customers are recommended to feed VitaFerm Concept•Aid® 10; then during grass tetany season, they advise switching to VitaFerm Concept•Aid Mag/S. During the hottest months of the year, which can vary from May or June to September or November, it’s HEAT season, and that is when they sell and advise their customers to use VitaFerm HEAT. Once the temperatures consistently cool down, they put their cows back on the regular VitaFerm Concept•Aid.

Just like with any new product, Liebhart said the doctors tried the HEAT line when it was introduced. She said they were conservative with their first order of HEAT mineral to feed their own cows, but it didn’t take them long to see the benefits and wanted to get more to offer their clients right away.

“It only took one pallet of mineral and they were like wow this stuff works, and now that’s all we recommend during the summer months. So just like all products we had to make sure it worked before we recommended it to our customers,” she said.

Liebhart said their dealership is unique as their main source of income isn’t from supplement sales; however, those sales have made the animals that the doctors take care healthier and more productive over time.

She also recommends for every dealership, regardless of its situation to stay current on all the BioZyme products, which she says is her responsibility. She often recommends the products that she knows will work well to the doctors during various seasons because she is the one who makes the time to keep up on all the training. For instance, during calving she often recommends Vita Charge® Clench Gel to accompany treatments for scours or Vita Charge Gel when a calf is has digestive issues or Vita Charge Drench at weaning.

From preventative health care to making an animal feel its best, veterinarians are busy people. They work on animals big and small, and they make great BioZyme dealers, providing that care that comes full circle. Thanks for being fantastic dealers, Maryville Vet Clinic!

Effective Action: No Reason for Summer Slump

Alan Jackson might have claimed “there ain’t no cure for the summertime blues,” but that is probably because the VitaFerm® HEAT® mineral didn’t yet exist when he sang that number one hit back in 1994. With ingredients like Capsaicin, Amaferm® and garlic, the HEAT package found in many BioZyme products is the perfect solution to your company’s and your customers’ summertime blues.

The full line of HEAT products will help your customers’ animals thrive during the summer temperatures and while grazing on fescue. With the Amaferm advantage and Capsaicin, both research-proven to lower body temperature, which can improve conception rates by maintaining pregnancy, HEAT is an ideal supplement for both cows and ewes during the summer months. The included garlic helps deter insects. In addition, the HEAT package is available in Gain Smart® Stocker HEAT. It is also readily accessible for show livestock of all species during the summer months in products like Sure Champ® Extreme, Vita Charge® Climate Control Gel and the Vita Charge® Stress Tub with HEAT.

Often times, the results that others see with their BioZyme® products will help sell them to others. Like this testimonial from Steve Olson in New York:

“I’ve seen some great results since starting to use the BioZyme® products. The product I really like is the VitaFerm HEAT mineral. When Jack [Oattes] told me about the product with chili powder and garlic in it, I’m half-Italian, so I knew it would help repel insects. The HEAT definitely helps with fly control. I can go out and see my cows in the pasture and tell which ones are eating it based on the lack of flies on them compared to the cows that haven’t eaten it that are bunched up and have flies landing on them.”

Or this one from Carter Ward in Missouri:

“Prior to using Sure Champ® EXTREME, we exclusively used Climate Control Paste (transitioned to Vita Charge® Climate Control Gel July 2019) on our cattle to keep them cool through the summer. While at Hereford Junior Nationals, I got a bucket of Extreme to try out. I put our Angus cattle on it just prior to the Junior Nationals a week later and saw a HUGE difference before even leaving for the show. Despite the heat, our cattle were eating more, consuming more water and even their hair coat really came on in the last few days. We were huge advocates for Climate Control Paste and now even fans of Extreme. It’s a new staple in our feeding program.”

However, if you are looking for other ways to help promote the HEAT package to your customers, the Marketing Team is always prepared to help you. One very effective way to promote products seasonally is through the mailers that BioZyme sends each quarter. In Q2, the mailer will have a HEAT message to remind your customers to prepare for summer stressors and contact you for your mineral needs.

The quarterly mailer program is available to all dealers. You can simply opt-in by contacting Ashley Fitzsimmons, Regional Marketing Coordinator, and providing her with your most current customer mailing list. The deadline for the Q2 HEAT postcard is 5 p.m., CST on Friday, May 7. Fitzsimmons reminds dealers that there is no limit to the number of times you update your mailing list, and there is no limit to the number of quarters a dealer participates in the mailer program.

Other ways that you can promote HEAT products to your current and potential customers is with Promoboxx. The Marketing Team will have a plethora of campaign material on Promoboxx that you can add to your own social platforms, saving you the time of creating content. Of course, if you are looking for a unique advertisement, billboard or mailer, the Marketing Team has the creative talents to help you. Contact your ASM for more details.

With a little bit of marketing effort and some word-of-mouth success stories, the HEAT line up of products can help take away your summertime blues and get you over that summer slump!