There are several traditional methods to grow your business. However, BioZyme® offers support to its dealer network for its marketing and outreach efforts and rewards dealers enrolled in the Dealer Rewards Program for their creativity and their efforts.
Area Sales Managers, the Outreach Support Center and the Marketing Team are all available to assist dealers in their marketing and promotion efforts. Brainstorming with these groups will help you find some creative and unique ways to grow your business. You will also find resources that are readily available for your use, like online posts using Promoboxx or mailers and print advertisements.
Some of the most inventive methods of promotion are the results of creative thinking on behalf of a dealer and his or her ASM. Digital billboards, signage at local livestock auctions and targeted producer meetings focused on specific audiences are all some “out of the box” methods to help promote your business.
Year-end Planning
As the end of the year approaches, you will want to think about ways to spur end-of-the-year sales and thank your customers. This might be with a customer open house, a newsletter to talk about calving preparedness or a producer meeting to talk about products. Remember planning these in advance is always a good idea, and the BioZyme staff is available to help.
In addition to growing your business, you can also earn dealer reward points. Dealer Reward points were created to motivate and reward dealers for their participation and efforts to educate and market the BioZyme products. Points can be accumulated through the year for many of the tasks already mentioned. They can also be earned for completing the Master Dealer Training Program, going on a sales call with your ASM, after-hours dealer trainings and much more. Once you have participated in an activity, work with the staff to make sure your points get calculated.
Use the information in the Online Dealer Center to see a complete list of activities that can earn reward points. But, don’t be afraid to propose an idea that isn’t on the list. We always love to hear your original ideas and get especially excited to share them with other dealers. Those new ideas will earn you points as well.
Once you have points, you can redeem them for a variety of items, from caps and jackets representing the various product lines to gift cards, an iPad and even a show box. Points accumulate during the year and need to be redeemed by Jan. 31 the following year or they are wiped out. The rewards make great gifts for customers, employees and even nice swag to keep for yourself to wear with pride as you promote your business.
Get creative with your promotion. Brainstorm with your staff, family members and the BioZyme team that is here to help you. Take action. Earn rewards. Watch your business grow
As the year winds down and you’re examining those sales figures, trying to decide how to best get over the hump and build some new business to reach your goals, one thing should come to mind: treat your potential customers like you would want to be treated. In other words, gone are the days of the hard-sell, and here are the days of thinking like your customer would think to solve their challenges.
John Jeffrey, BioZyme® Area Sales Manager (ASM) for Oklahoma and Eastern Kansas, said there are three points to consider when talking to potential customers and trying to develop new accounts. Thinking like a customer is key so you know what his or her challenges are and how the products can help, but first, you must build a relationship with the potential customer.
Perhaps statesman Abraham Lincoln would have been a great sales trainer back in his day. He once said, “When I get ready to talk to people, I spend two thirds of the time thinking what they want to hear and one third thinking about what I want to say.”
Potential customers are just like you. They value their time, want to have a relationship built on trust and understanding, and appreciate the follow-up that isn’t too bothersome. Put yourself in their shoes to start developing business.
Perhaps statesman Abraham Lincoln would have been a great sales trainer back in his day. He once said, “When I get ready to talk to people, I spend two thirds of the time thinking what they want to hear and one third thinking about what I want to say.”
Potential customers are just like you. They value their time, want to have a relationship built on trust and understanding, and appreciate the follow-up that isn’t too bothersome. Put yourself in their shoes to start developing business.
Meetings can be one of the best ways to work collaboratively to help grow your business and work ON your business, if you structure them correctly, involve the right people and ask the right questions. As Lisa referred to in this month’s letter, the best way to advance your business is in the dining room, looking toward the future, and not necessarily dwelling on the past.
Another way to look at working ON your business is through critical thinking sessions or brainstorming meetings. According to the website, www.barefootbrainstorming.com, there are several ways to make your next strategic planning session productive and move your business forward.
Meetings can be productive, and they can be a way to start planning for growth in the future. Critical thinking is a tool that allows various perspectives to be shared, while hearing fresh ideas from different team members. Pull up a chair, make room for creativity and start planning the steps to grow your business.
Last month we talked about working on your business instead of in it. We are going to continue that discussion by focusing on some thought processes that might help you stay focused on just that.
The ways we think about past experiences can help or hinder the development of insight that makes working on the business more difficult than it is just by its nature. When we make decisions based on habits of the past, we lose out on some of the great changes possible in our lives. Working on the business means not forgetting the past but leaving it in the kitchen while sitting at the dining room table.
Working on the business should allow one to achieve performance breakthroughs, or in other words, create impact in the areas that drive the improvement we all desire. I like to use the term A to the 4th power (A4) to help me stay true to working on instead of in business. The four terms come from Scott Snell and Ken Carrig’s forthcoming book, “Strategic Execution: Driving Breakthrough Performance in Business”, and are Alignment, Ability, Architecture and Agility.
ALIGNMENT
Alignment conveys the deceptively simple notion that execution depends on everyone working together toward the same goal. Alignment is the “sine qua non” of execution; without it, nothing else much matters.
It provides clarity of purpose and direction, momentum to overcome inertia, a focus for decisions and actions, and resilience in the face of change or disruption.
Today, misalignment has become the norm, not the exception. There’s often a substantial gap between understanding the requirements of strategy and each person’s work. Disengagement can create this misalignment, which unfortunately leads right into working all day in the business instead of on it.
It is, therefore, a constant challenge to emphasize the mission-critical elements that unite the organization toward its strategic purpose and work to achieve those outcomes. An important part of alignment is clarifying with others how work that they are accountable for leads to those strategic outcomes, or in other words, how overall success is attributable to them.
ABILITY
In any endeavor, whether it’s business or sports, great execution requires great skill.
Usually, what begins with a discussion of alignment often evolves to a deeper discussion of ability. This isn’t just a focus on productivity, but on attracting and developing; raising skill levels; all while keeping aligned accountability.
ARCHITECTURE
The design of your organization, as well as its underlying infrastructure, processes, technologies and controls constitutes the domain of organizational architecture. Your organization’s design makes a big difference in terms of reliability, alignment and continuity of performance.
In terms of working on the business, ensuring a valid organizational architecture is critical for resource flows, information availability, decision-making and processes that propel the organization forward.
Try to focus on ways to streamline your organization’s architecture, simplify structures, improve processes, and clarify roles, responsibilities, accountability and communication flow. This includes building connections and opportunities (meetings AND one-on-one conversations) to improve joint decision-making.
AGILITY
The ability to respond and adapt is critical for achieving organizational goals. Ironically, one of the most common inhibitors of agility is our approach to execution. In an attempt to drive better performance and maximize efficiency, many organizations create a situation in which change is difficult. The harder they work in the business instead of on it, the more challenging it is for them to see the need for change, or to flex, adapt and adjust appropriately. People hate change, but in reality, if you are not constantly changing you are not working on your business but in it.
There’s a great book (see picture) that summarizes these concepts way better than I have. Take the time to read it and then get to work ON your business at the dining room table, not in the kitchen.
Balancing their Business is a Labor of Love
When you can whole-heartedly see the results of a product and can believe in that product and the company that makes it, it is easy to say “yes” to becoming a dealer, even if it means balancing that with full-time careers and a herd of cattle.
That’s exactly what the mother-daughter duo at Foxfire Feed LLC, Pinetown, N.C., has done, but they wouldn’t have it any other way. Mother, Sandra Boyd, works as a secretary for their 5,000-acre row crop farming operation; her oldest daughter, Melinda, is an agronomist, and her youngest daughter and resident-showman, Madison, is away at school at Oklahoma State University. Together, they all work to promote and market feed and mineral and manage the cow herd.
“We just do this on the side, on the weekends, in the afternoons, whenever we get a chance, It’s a fun ‘little hobby’,” Melinda chuckles.
Their little hobby of being BioZyme® dealers started about four years ago. They are dealers for Roy Umbarger & Sons Show Feed and had been purchasing the Sure Champ® products from Umbarger for their own use and having great results with them. Once they started using the products, they were eager to start selling the products. The rest is, as they say, history.
“That worked out really well for us, and now we are selling more than we ever imagined! We just really trusted the products that we purchased, and we wanted to share them with everyone in our area. We first were using the Vita Charge® Cattle Drench and the Sure Champ Cattle.” Melinda said.
She adds that the products speak for themselves, and their success combined with that of their customers has been the best marketing tool that Foxfire Feed has used. She said when they travel to shows, people will often ask them what they do to keep their cattle looking so good.
“We don’t tell them all of our secrets, but we do tell them about the BioZyme products. The Sure Champ keeps them on feed, the green cattle drench, Vita Charge, is really a miracle worker when they do go off feed or are in stressful situations. We use the drench before every show, and we use Vita Charge Climate Control before every show because the heat and humidity are really big factors here in Eastern North Carolina. People notice our livestock and our customers’ livestock. They like what they see, and they buy it from us,” Melinda said.
Not only are they involved in showing their own livestock, but the Boyd family also provides sponsorship to some of the shows in the state. Melinda said the show industry is rapidly growing in Eastern North Carolina. Providing sponsorship to some of the shows not only puts the Foxfire Feed name out there, but it lets their customers know that they believe in them, as much as they believe in the products that the Boyds sell.
She does suggest that anyone that is interested in being a dealer should use the products first, as it helped her family have a greater understanding of how and why they work. However, if that isn’t always possible, she said the resources that BioZyme offers the dealers make being a dealer easy, especially with a busy schedule.
She said the Master Dealer Training Program is great at further explaining products, and the entire staff has been willing to help their dealership during their busy times. Their ASM Justin O’Flaherty always is willing to help them when they have a question.
“The whole company is very helpful if we need something. And with the time management that we have to figure out, it is a juggling act for all of us, that’s for sure,” Melinda said.
Being an outstanding BioZyme dealer is one thing that the Boyds of Foxfire Feed have definitely figured out. They give back to those who trust and use their products and rely on the many resources offered to the dealer network. They are passionate about the products and excited to share them with others. They truly are dealers that exemplify “care that comes full circle.”
When it comes to raising a livestock project from start to finish, every day counts. From the moment your customers bring their projects home, their livestock depend on them to provide superior nutrition that drives appetite and health, and in turn, your customers expect their animals to gain and perform at the highest level. Feeding Sure Champ from the start and consistently can keep livestock on feed and gaining at their full potential despite the challenges of the show environment, providing your customers peace of mind that EVERY DAY will be their animal’s best day.
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As business owners and leaders in a world of connectivity it is often challenging to have a separation between work and personal life, especially when you are involved in agriculture. Your customers are likely your friends, neighbors and maybe even your relatives. Smart phones and tablets keep you connected to everyone, starting first thing in the morning until late at night. Combine all that with the last-minute needs of many people, and it truly is hard to balance personal and professional lives.
However, everyone does need some type of a break. No one performs to their highest during a season of burnout, and if you are not performing to your best potential, your sales will show. Perhaps instead of a balance, you need to decide the best way to “give-and-take” the time you need to grow your business, while still enjoying life. For instance, a start-up, young business will probably need to work harder, putting forth more effort than a well-established, highly respected company. That is part of the give-and-take or balance of being a business owner or leader.
Megan Sullivan offers seven tips on achieving some type of balance in your work and personal lives.
Set Boundaries and Keep Them. This is critical to your personal wellbeing in many different aspects. Be sure to set a time boundary. If you are typically open from 8 – 5, daily, it is acceptable to answer the phone a little early or even make a delivery. But much later than 5:30 or so, you need to call it quitting time and put up the phone and spend time doing something you enjoy.
When it comes to space boundaries, these are just as important as time boundaries. Make sure you have a space where you can leave work behind, like an office, shed or even in your pickup. Just make sure when you get you home, you don’t bring work with you.
Take Time Off. If you say you’re taking time off or time away, mean it. This is especially true on days you are sick or have medical appointments. If you have let your customers know you are going to be out, they will respect that, and not contact you.
Keep your Social Commitments. You remember what they said about all work and no play? It made Jack a dull boy. And it will make you a dull human being too. Not only are social opportunities a good way to keep up with your friends and what is happening in your community, they are also another way to promote you and your company (remember, life is all about balance).
Take Care of Yourself. Self-care is so important to being able to function properly. Be sure you eat healthy meals and snacks and take breaks throughout the day. If you are at a desk the majority of the day, get up and stretch. Walk around and get some fresh air every few hours. If you are outside in the elements most of the day, be sure to stay hydrated and take breaks when you can.
Part of taking care of yourself is also rejuvenating away from work. Take a vacation. Maybe you can’t afford the time or money for an elaborate trip. But, take time away. Take a long weekend away with your family. Go visit family or friends. Explore some part of the state or country you’ve always wanted to visit. There are several ways to get away and not spend a great deal of money, and ultimately, you will feel better for it.
Set your Own Norms. Remember, what works for your neighbor might not work for you. For instance, you know you have church on Wednesday nights. Make that a night that is set aside for family. It might be a family policy that everyone eats together either before or after church, and no cell phones are allowed. If the other stores in town are open late one night a week, you can choose to stay open or not. It is up to you to set your schedule and what works best for you.
Ask for Help. You don’t wear a cape, and you don’t have to be a superhero. Sometimes you can be more efficient if you ask for help. Or better yet, delegate some responsibility to other employees. Asking for help and delegating are ways that you can get more time back on your calendar or accomplish a task quicker with the help of others.
Know When to Say No. We live in a society of people pleasers and saying “no” to others is hard. But sometimes it is the best thing to do for your own sanity. Weigh the pros and cons. Is it worthwhile to you, your family or your business to say yes? If not, a firm no is always better than giving the asker the false hope of a “maybe.”
Work-life balance isn’t a myth. But it isn’t easy either. It takes some planning and time to achieve, but with the advice of these tips above, you can still grow your business while having a happy, healthy personal life too.
Online source for this story: https://quickbooks.intuit.com/r/ productivity/12secrets-to-achieving-a-good-work-life-balance-as-a-businessowner/
