Dealer Spotlight: Shnurman Sire Service, LLC and SP Genetics LLC

Isaiah Shnurman is a researcher. When he and his family decided to open Shnurman Sire Service, LLC & SP Genetics LLC, a reproductive and embryo transfer (E.T.) facility four years ago in central Iowa, he started exploring the best nutrition he could provide bulls, donors and recips coming to this new facility. The research pointed to BioZyme ® products, and after he saw the results first-hand he joined the dealer network.

“We were looking to fortify the nutritional side of our facility,” Shnurman said. “We really started leaning toward Concept•Aid ® and other VitaFerm® products because they are the most tried, true, proven with research when it comes to numbers and being able to have university data to back up these products. We weren’t going to promote something or use something that wasn’t going to work for us.”

The research behind the BioZyme products assists Shnurman in providing exceptional customer service by showing how to increase efficiencies and profits through a nutrition program. He said any time that producers can learn ways to save money, they are willing to learn, especially when it has real-world data to back it up.

“When it comes to nutrition, anything in the cattle business comes down to dollars and cents and even if we see a 1-2% increase across the board on something we’re using – in the long run that does pay off. With Amaferm ® in the products we are seeing an 8-10% increase in efficiency. On one animal that might not sound like a lot, but on a few thousand, you’re talking about making those cattle more efficient and more productive across the board,” he said.

In addition to the research and data, Shnurman said it has been rewarding to see the products work on the cattle at their facility. He houses and collects some of the most-well known A.I. sires in the business, including the $800,000 Angus bull, SAV Elation. All bulls are on Concept•Aid and Vita Charge ® Stress Tubs. He said the Amaferm advantage in these products has maximized the bulls’ abilities nutritionally to get better quality semen from them.

Education and communication go hand-in-hand for Shnurman. He sends out customer newsletters twice a year with information about new products, what is happening those particular times of year, thanks his customers for their continued business and reminds them he is there for their nutrition needs.

He also hosts producer meetings twice a year. These are more in-depth than the newsletter and offer timely advice about calving, calf resuscitation (CPR) during calving, mating decisions at breeding time, and cow-herd and bull nutrition for increased fertility.

Although newsletters and meetings are good methods of communication, Shnurman says nothing can replace a good face-to-face meeting with a producer at his or her operation, something he tries to do with his all his customers.

“The most important thing a dealer can do is actually go out and visit with their customers and look at cattle with them. Going out and taking a couple of hours out of your day to visit with them about their program will be helpful. They might consider one thing a nutritional hole in their program, but if you go out and actually visit with them, you can learn a lot and helpfully fill in some other holes in their program where they can use some other nutritional fortification.”

In the fall, after harvest is complete, he’ll start working with his customers on forage testing. He said he tests a lot of corn stalk bales to see how those residues will work as a nutritional resource. Then, he starts hay testing to see what nutrients the hay is lacking so the producers can plan their supplementation protocols before the need to feed hay begins. That might be a little more challenging this year according to Shnurman, as good quality hay is at a premium with the early drought and then the excessive rains leading to low production. He knows that everyone faces different challenges and has different goals, and that is what he appreciates about the BioZyme products.

“Not every product we have is for everyone. But we have a product that will do something good for every operation out there,” Shnurman said.

Customer service – making sure all of his customers are happy – is his number one goal. And right behind that is making VIP Dealer Status. With the way that he studies the research, reaches out to his customers and provides top-notch service, Shnurman is well on his way to VIP.

Share Your Story

It’s the anniversary dance at a friend’s wedding. The emcee announces for all married couples to gather on the dance floor. Immediately, the newlyweds are seated, being the most recently married. Then in five-or 10-year increments, couples are dismissed by the number of years they have been married. One couple remains, dancing hand-in-hand like they have for 57 wonderfully wedded years. Don’t you wonder what their story is? What is the secret to their success?

And now you’re wondering what that story has to do with being in business or more specifically the animal nutrition business. The point is, everyone has a story. Everyone, including you. And it is time to tell your story.

According to the Small Business Administration, there are more than 28 million small businesses, making up 99.7% of all U.S. businesses. That makes your story one in 28 million! Do you know your story? Do you have a 3-minute “elevator” speech to share with someone if you were mingling at a party or at a networking function where you didn’t know others in the room? Think about it. What is your story? What makes you unique? And I know there is something unique about each and every one of our dealers.

First, determine what your story is. Perhaps, you are an equine enthusiast who became passionate about the products and want to share the products with all of your friends at the barn, show, rodeo, etc… Or, you might be a second-generation dealer who is taking over the reins of the family business – the farm and the feed dealership. Maybe, you are young person who felt there was a void in your “neighborhood” for a high-quality mineral program.

Once you determine what your story is and why you’re passionate about helping animals and their owners, determine who your audience is. Obviously, it is your customers. But, there are potential customers in your everyday lives too. Chances are your doctor or dentist has a dog or maybe even a horse. Do they know that you sell a product that can improve the health and well-being of their four-legged friends? And what about the local service organizations? Rotary, Kiwanis, Sertoma. Those groups are always looking for local businesspeople to come share their stories and how they are involved in the local community. Reach out to them to get on their calendar.

How will you tell your story? Of course, speaking engagements and one-on-one conversations are great. But you probably won’t be able to talk to everyone at one time so use other methods to share your story. Share it on social media. What do you do at the feed store on a daily basis? Did you go out to a customer’s ranch and take forage samples to send in? Document that with pictures to share on Facebook, Instagram or your business web site. People are interested. They have a desire to know what you are doing and how you do it. Explain the process. If you have customer newsletter, devote part of that to your story. Or work with your local paper to have a regular column in it to talk about agriculture and animal health – another great way to share what you are doing.

No, it isn’t always easy to talk about ourselves. And we might not think what we do on a daily basis matters. But remember, as a business you are one in 28 million. You have a story. Share it with those around you. You might be amazed at the positive feedback you receive.

How Employee Personality Profiles Can Save You Turnover Loss

If you’ve ever read the book, “Good to Great” by Jim Collins, you will understand getting the “right people in the right seats on the bus.” Companies don’t fail because they have bad employees, employees that aren’t trained properly or employees that don’t have the right personality. Companies fail because they don’t have the right people “in the right seats.” In other words, they have great employees, but perhaps they don’t have them in positions where they were meant to succeed.

Employee turnover is costly. There is no real way to measure it; you have the time and effort it takes to promote the vacant position, another employee has to fill in, resulting in decreased productivity; if the employee that left was one that others liked and respected, other employee morale could be down, also resulting in lowered performance or even causing others to leave their jobs. By the time you replace one employee that already understood your company culture and policies, recruit, hire and train a replacement employee, you are looking at spending thousands of dollars, and potentially having lost revenue due to losses in employee performance.

In his book, Collins talks about getting people in the positions that they are best suited for. Sometimes a company will hire someone on the premise that that person thinks they know their skill strengths, but they might not always realize their personality strengths and weaknesses. Although personality assessment does take time and money, the investment is typically one that pays off in the end and is less costly than employees leaving and having to recruit, hire and train.

At BioZyme, the employees took the Prism assessment. The results revealed insights into the employees “Emotional, Relational and Team Intelligence (ERT-i). This highly relevant and transformative data will provide you with critical information to impact your personal and professional performance, productivity and success.” In other words, the report likely told each individual things he or she already knew. However, it is an opportunity to let others within the company know more about how to work with each other and for supervisors to make sure they have the right people in the right seats on the bus.

Prism is just one of many assessments that companies can utilize. There are many options available at a variety of price points. Some come with further training while others provide a report and guidance on how to use that report.

So just how important is personality? As Virgin Mobile CEO Richard Branson put it, “Most skills can be learned, but it is difficult to train people on their personality.”

Let’s look at this example. For one Ohio-based company, taking a personality assessment helped its Human Resources and Management teams get people in the right positions. They discovered the person they had working the phones in a marketing customer support role was an extreme introvert. And while his degree was in marketing, he had a passion for graphic design. The company moved him into a design position where he could better use his talents and had no interaction with customers. He became very successful in his job. The same company discovered they had an employee who was very outgoing who hadn’t had the opportunity to talk to customers. They moved her into that customer support role, working on the phones. Not only did her career flourish, but customer satisfaction improved too.

Employee satisfaction and attrition go hand-in-hand. You can save the time and expense of employee turnover by making sure you have the right people in the right positions.

How Employee Strengths Help Serve Customers

Customers are the backbones of our businesses. They are the reasons we have a business, after all. And many customers are friends first or become good friends over time. They deserve the best when it comes to customer service, and you want to provide the best to them.

However, it might be that not every employee you have is programmed to provide the customer service your customers expect. And that is ok. Every person has some strength or strengths that make them a valuable part of your team, and it is important to evaluate those strengths, communicate those strengths to them in the form of affirmation and use those strengths to be an important part of your team.

Perhaps you have an employee that is impeccable at cleaning, stocking shelves and maintaining inventory, but finds conversation with others mundane or even uncomfortable. Keep that employee in the back to clean and stock, and only use for customer service if someone needs help loading product.

On the other hand, perhaps you’ve hired someone to load out product and stock shelves, that never can complete the assigned task because he or she is always talking to customers and making product recommendations. That person clearly needs to be in a customer service role. Typically, extroverts who enjoy helping others make great customer service reps.

But what does this have to do with overall customer satisfaction? Employees who are doing what they are good at, show up and are engaged and will provide better service. Better service leads to increased customer satisfaction.

According to an article by Stuart Hearn on www.brandquarterly.com: “A 2016 Gallup poll showed that strength-based companies enjoy more profit, better sales, and higher levels of customer engagement. In large part, this is due to the fact that when employees feel positive about their performance, and they are able to work to their strengths, they feel more engaged, and are therefore more passionate about their company and their work. They’re also more invested, meaning they go that extra mile to ensure customers have a great experience. Employee engagement has been termed the ‘wonder drug for customer satisfaction,’ so every time you emphasize strengths in your employees, you should remember the domino effect it creates.”

It all goes back to getting the right people in the right positions. Capitalize on employee strengths to make sure your customers have the best service around. Customers can go anywhere to buy feed and mineral, but make sure they are coming back to your business to get the best customer service that they deserve!

Don’s Skimp on Winter Supplementation

Even though the first few weeks of fall have just “officially” passed, it is never too early to begin thinking about winter. It seems like producers and meteorologists alike have been discussing that this winter could be bitterly cold and snow covered, and if you are one of the many people who refer to the Farmer’s Almanac, you are probably already planning ahead.

Hopefully those plans include a high-quality nutritional supplementation program for your cowherd. The winter is when your cows will perform some of their hardest work for you. They are in their last few months of gestation and getting ready to calve as breeding season approaches. And often do all this while Mother Nature is at her harshest with sub-freezing temperatures and extra moisture flying about. Although this is the time of year when producers will start looking for a way to cut some expenses, those costs shouldn’t be cut in the way of cow nutrition. According to Kansas State University research, mineral only accounts for less than 4% of the total cow cost per year, whereas roughage is nearly 13% of the total cow cost. When you consider the return on your investment for feeding a high-quality mineral like VitaFerm, that investment pays big dividends.

Proper nutrition of the cow, especially during the last trimester, plays a key role in the development of the calf and ensures its survival once it is on the ground. During the third trimester, the fetus is being prepared for its life outside of the womb – the most rapid growth of the calf occurs, and the lungs mature, getting it ready for delivery.

University of Nebraska research indicates that proper nutrition of the fetus during pregnancy can have a positive impact on the overall health and immunity of the calf, while also impacting growth and carcass merit. “Results indicate that late-gestation maternal protein supplementation may affect carcass quality by affecting calf health. Results also indicate that calves from dams receiving a protein supplement had improved carcass quality.” ¹

All nutrients play a pivotal role in fetal growth and development, but it’s a matter of providing enough of the “right” ones at the “right” time. Energy and protein are the most common considerations when assessing a nutrition program during gestation as they are usually the most limiting nutrients. However, don’t take a good vitamin and mineral program for granted.

Metabolism and many other fundamental bodily processes rely on adequate macro and trace mineral supplementation. These nutrients play an important role in bone formation, hormone development and secretion, enzyme function and more. Trace minerals known to have a significant impact on reproduction and subsequent calf health are zinc, chromium, selenium, iron and manganese. Sufficient trace mineral supplementation ensures proper growth of the fetus and plays a key role in colostrum quality and immunoglobulins produced.

A cow’s nutrient requirements in early gestation aren’t terribly different than her daily maintenance requirements, but as fetal growth increases so does the rest of her nutritional needs. During this time, you aren’t just feeding the cow, you are also feeding her growing and developing calf. Once a cow enters lactation, she will need a much higher level of protein and energy. If her feeding program isn’t meeting her needs she will begin to pull condition off her back to continue providing for her calf, and her performance will begin to lag. You will also need to feed a first-calf heifer or second-calf female much differently than a mature cow. A young pregnant female that is still growing needs more protein than a mature cow. If there aren’t enough nutrients for the heifer and her growing fetus, she will use what is available first to meet her own growth and maintenance needs.

To be sure that your cows are receiving adequate nutrition, provide them a high-quality supplement like VitaFerm® Concept•Aid® . The high vitamin and mineral fortification caters to the heightened nutrient requirements of the cow during the last trimester and early lactation. BioZyme ® utilizes proteinated chelated minerals, the highest quality and most stable bioavailable trace minerals on the market, and high levels of Vitamin E in all their Concept•Aid products. In addition to a suite of vitamins and minerals, Concept•Aid includes Amaferm® , a precision prebiotic designed to enhance digestibility by amplifying the nutrient supply within for maximum performance. It is research-proven to increase the energy available to the animal resulting in more milk production as well as to the ability to initiate and maintain pregnancy and fertility.

Concept•Aid is available in different formulations to complement different forage types and qualities to maximize animal performance. BioZyme also offers Concept•Aid in a tub for added convenience, and multiple protein options to meet protein requirements during specific stages of production.

Final fetal development in the third trimester is important to getting a live, healthy calf on the ground. Make sure your cows are ready in that final trimester to deliver a healthy calf that will grow, gain and put profit in your pocket. Take the steps to provide the right nutrients at the right time and be sure to give your calves the nutritional advantage they deserve.

 

*Research cited: ¹ https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1021&context=westcentresext

October 2018 – Letters From Lisa

PEOPLE DRIVE CULTURE. CULTURE DRIVES PERFORMANCE.

Let’s look at these sentences backwards. Business is all about performance, so business is all about culture. And therefore, business is all about people. I believe whole-heartedly that every business is not about its product, its location, or its finances. Businesses are about people.

I also believe EVERY person wants to do good and make others happy (pretty simple), but communication and personality routinely get in the way (pretty complex) of that. How we work through this dynamic is obviously very important since all a business really has to help it succeed is its people.

Finding more of the right people has been a challenge for BioZyme ® , so we have had to reach out for some help. A recruiting company we are working with suggested we implement their personality assessment system to screen potential hires. They encourage this approach because there is proof that assessment-based hiring is more profitable and productive. I was thinking this was a great idea and trying to figure out how to get it going when I stumbled across a “60 Minutes” episode on a guy who is cloning previously successful polo horses in Argentina. Luckily, we have quite a few folks I would like to clone. So, thinking in that frame of mind and then realizing the value of understanding who we might be hiring and how they fit into that team; I thought assessing our entire current team might be a great idea to advance this journey of simple/complex where people drive culture and culture drives performance.

The tool is called the Prism. It analyzes more than 50 human traits and skills across seven integrated modules, including: Primary Personality; Personality Under Pressure; Processing; Decision Making; Conflict Management; Motivation; and Fundamental Needs. It has been a great experience for us. Our coach used me and Alan Lee to help our team understand the results on all of these points. I won’t share them all with you, but I do want you to see a little bit of what he and I learned about each other (it won’t surprise you). We are completely different on three of the four processing measurements. As two visionaries who are very driven to grow our Company, understanding this about one another in concrete terms has been very helpful when working on opportunities.

I have learned four very useful things from this experience:

1. No two people are the exactly the same.

2. No one is exactly the same as me. Thank goodness I know, but this is important for me to remember so I walk in others’ shoes and then join our shoes together before making decisions.

3. Most people, but not all, act differently under pressure.

4. Self-reflection and then thinking about the reality of that reflection in how one operates are very important each and every second of every day when working with a team.

New Vitalize Product Available November 1

BioZyme’s recent acquisition of Cogent Solutions Group has given us the opportunity to expand our Vitalize product line with two exciting new products. Vitalize Alimend and Vitalize Alimend K9 will be available to order starting November 1, 2018 as part of our Vitalize companion animal line of products. Register below for one of our two upcoming dealer webinars to learn all about these new products.

Webinar #1
October 16, 2018 at NOON central
Register Here

Webinar #2
October 24, 2018 at 7 PM central
Register Here

New Social Media Marketing Tool

We have teamed up with Promoboxx, an online marketing platform, to give you access to social content for our brands. Promoboxx allows you to easily access and share social content about our products to your Facebook, Twitter or Instagram account.

Visit www.biozymedealermktg.com to get started!

If you need help, please don’t hesitate to reach out to Ashley Fitzsimmons at afitzsimmons@biozymeinc.com or (307) 575-1082.