Author: sgrobosky

Effective Easy Breeding with VitaFerm® Concept•Aid®

How much is one more calf worth?
When it comes to the cow-calf producer each live calf is added profit to his or her bottom line. That is why it is so important to help them determine which VitaFerm® Concept•Aid® formula to use and educate and encourage them to begin feeding that formula at least 60 days prior to calving through breeding.

Because there are so many formulas available of the VitaFerm Concept•Aid, we have developed several tools to help you educate your customers on their differences and help them decide which is the correct formula for them.

Videos
A short video about each formula is available online if you click on the product tab. Each video is about one minute and highlights the features and benefits of each product. These are ideal to share on your own social media or on a dedicated screen within your dealership as well.

Spec Sheet
In the same online tab as the videos and in the Online Dealer Center under the product information, you can find a spec sheet about each product. This will outline specific nutritional information and feeding rates in a simple, easy-to-follow format. These are in a downloadable format and easy to print.
They make a great quick reference to keep on hand.

VitaFerm Concept•Aid Product Navigator
This five-question quiz is a simple way to help producers discover which formula is best suited to their management scenario and resources. After the producer answers questions about feed availability and production goals, a formula will be suggested to them. You can help them adjust accordingly with your product knowledge.

It is important to emphasize to your customers that not only does the VitaFerm Concept•Aid assist the cow herd during breeding, it provides the cows great nutrition year-round and provides them added absorption of nutrients they need from the feedstuffs and forages available to them.

GET TO KNOW YOUR CUSTOMERS AND THEIR NEEDS.

Be sure to understand each of your customer’s individual challenges to help them achieve reproductive success and profitability in their herd. Is their calving window longer than they would like? Too many open cows due to poor breed back? Low-quality forages available due to extreme weather patterns this past year? Find out what they are facing and recommend a VitaFerm Concept•Aid for them.

Challenge: Poor breed back rates leading to more open
cows.

How to Relevantly Position VitaFerm Concept•Aid: Reduce your risk by investing in the Concept•Aid mineral program to maximize your reproductive efficiency. Leverage the power of organic trace minerals, high levels of vitamin E and selenium to promote optimized fertility and quick reproductive tract repair to ensure a faster breed back.

Challenge: Constant weather challenges led to tightened budgets, and often times, mineral and supplementation programs were cut leading to thin cows, which resulted in poor conception rates and longer calving seasons.

How to Relevantly Position VitaFerm Concept•Aid: Reduce your labor and length of calving season with the help of Concept•Aid. You can trust the Amaferm® advantage to deliver more energy for reproductive success while elevated vitamin E levels lend to faster reproductive tract repair and quicker breed back to shorten your calving window, helping to maximize your efforts.

Challenge: Irregular weather patterns have resulted in low-quality forages and winter pastures.

How to Relevantly Position VitaFerm Concept•Aid: Don’t let winter grazing limit your performance. Let Concept•Aid help maximize digestibility and absorption with the power of Amaferm! Choose the phosphorous level that suits your forage best to help promote milk production and higher calf weaning weights.

Challenge: Soft markets and fewer calves on the ground
will require higher weaning weights to differentiate and stay profitable come sale time.

How to Relevantly Position VitaFerm Concept•Aid: Allow Concept•Aid products to deliver optimal digestive health and nutrition through the power of Amaferm resulting in performance that pays. Through increased absorption and elevated levels of
phosphorous, you can expect an 11% increase in calf weaning weights above the national average (Source: VitaFerm Reproductive Success Report)

Effective Action: Producer Meetings Can Help You Meet Sales Goals

Producer meetings serve multiple purposes. They are a great way to interact with customers and meet potential customers. They serve as an educational tool and a way to say thank you. However, did you know that they can also help you meet your sales goals?

That’s right. Producer meetings can help you meet or exceed your sales goals. There is no better time to ask for the sale than when customers and potential customers are excited about the products. Perhaps you had your ASM or someone from BioZyme come in and speak at your meeting. Or, even better, maybe you had some local, loyal customers share about their results with the products you offer. That will get the other attendees excited, because if the products work for XYZ Customer who everyone in the tri-county area strives to be like, then it is likely to generate interest in those same products at your meeting.

At the conclusion of the meeting, offer pre-order discounts for products that were discussed at the meeting. Make sure these discounts are attractive enough to make them worthwhile to the customer, but still at a level where you will be profitable. If you are taking bulk orders, the sales should help you meet your sales goals.

  1. Clearly Outline Pre-order Terms: The night of the producer meeting announce the pre-order opportunity to your customers. Make it exciting and let them know they are the first customers to have this opportunity, which makes it even more exclusive. Let them know how much they owe up front, and that they can’t back out of the order once it has been placed.
  2. Offer a Discount: Who doesn’t like a good deal? Offer a discount for their pre- order business! Perhaps their discount is one or two percentages greater than the discount you will run in the store the next week since they took the time to attend your dealer meeting.
  3. Create a Deadline: All good things must come to and end, and so do these specials. Maybe you run the special for two weeks or through the end of the month. Whatever deadline you decide, stick to you, but make sure you announce it to everyone through your advertising and marketing efforts and stick to it. When the pre-order deadline closes, it is over.
  4. Follow up: If you have customers at the Producer Meeting who are on the fence about the products and are not sure about making a pre- order, follow up with them with a simple phone call or better yet, stop in and visit with them. See if they have any questions and if they are ready to try the product. Remind them there is no better time to try it than when it is on sale!

Yes, Producer Meetings might serve as a great source for education and fellowship, but they can also help you meet your goals.

How Can an Inventory Calendar Assist in Marketing Plans?

Developing an inventory calendar can be useful for more than just inventory management. Although managing your inventory is its primary purpose, it can also provide the framework and guide for your marketing plan. It seems practical to align marketing and promotion with the inventory you’re housing and to be prepared to turn seasonal stock as quickly as possible.

Why do you need the marketing plan, anyway? You surely don’t want to set on the inventory you have for long, and you don’t want to be short on inventory for specific seasons of high demand like breeding, weaning or calving. That is why it is vital to have a marketing plan, which often is synergistic with the inventory you maintain.

Create a Marketing Strategy

Before you create a marketing calendar, it’s important to decide on an overall marketing strategy. Some questions to consider include:

  • What is your estimated marketing budget for the entire year?
  • Who is your target audience?
  • How frequently will you promote your company?
  • When is your peak demand? Factor in different times of the year, such as weaning, calving or fairs.
  • What kind of media will you use? See the list below. Once you have answered some of the above questions and have started thinking about your strategy, you can start planning your marketing calendar. Consistency is often one of the biggest hurdles for dealers and establishing a marketing plan can give you a guide to follow to help you stay on course and in front of your customers in the most effective way possible. First, establish the list of marketing tools you plan to use to reach your customers. That list may look something like this:

Once you’ve established your product focus for the month, detail your marketing plan to include specific tactics, contacts you need to reach out to, deadlines, etc. If you haven’t, be sure to sign up for Promoboxx to get the most updated BioZyme content. In addition, coordinate with your ASM to have any custom materials designed to help you spread your specific message.

First, establish the list of marketing tools you plan to use to reach your customers.

Next, reference your inventory calendar to see what items you should be promoting for that respective month. Promotions need to be done in advance of your selling season to prepare customers, so it’s always good to set your marketing plans in advance. A general rule of thumb is to begin talking about products six weeks to a month before that buying season really starts to take off. Your customers and prospective customers are studying and researching the next product they’re going to use well in advance of making a purchase.

An inventory calendar will help paint a visual picture of the opportunities you have to focus on, what promotional efforts could be combined or if it is necessary to run multiple campaigns simultaneously. Obviously, margin and/or volume will factor into your focus each month, but don’t leave out ‘door-opener’ products that could generate traffic or interest as well. And don’t forget to have inventory for any cross promotion or upselling opportunities that you plan to promote.

Once you’ve established your product focus for the month, detail your marketing plan to include specific tactics, contacts you need to reach out to, deadlines, etc. If you haven’t, be sure to sign up for Promoboxx to get the most updated BioZyme content. In addition, coordinate with your ASM to have any custom materials designed to help you spread your specific message.

At the end of the month, you should revisit each marketing medium used and analyze its effectiveness so you can make any necessary adjustments for coming months. As you review your marketing calendar, be sure to also revisit your inventory schedule to make sure you have everything on hand so you can meet the demands of your future marketing plans.

Know Your Customers: Discover Their Needs

Customer service is what will set you apart from your competitor. Sure, you might know your customers’ names, their kids’ positions on the high school basketball teams and what kind of horses they have. But do you really understand their animal health and nutrition needs? There is only one way to find out; ask.

Customer service is more than loading products in the back of someone’s pickup or even delivering to their ranch. It has to start with knowing what their needs are. The simplest way to discover their needs is to merely ask. Ask them what they are needing in a breeding mineral for their cows. Find out what their weaning protocol is and suggest including Vita Charge® in their program. Ask them what they need for their sheep or goats. Find out if they have horses and dogs. The key to knowing is to simply ask.

With the logistics of transportation issues causing some added strife in getting some ingredients and moving products to their destination in a timely manner, we suggest that it is never too early to start thinking about finding out about your customers’ needs.

Although BioZyme has significantly reduced its turnaround time on processing orders, we can’t always assume that transportation will

remain as efficient as it has been. Especially with winter weather and the challenges that gives to haulers, it is best to have the products your customer will need in stock.

Planning ahead is always a good idea. If a person isn’t 100% sure
on the products they need or want, it gives you time to explain the differences. It gives the customer time to get their hay samples tested, if that is their desire, and it gives them time to get a ration developed, if that best fits their need.

Providing your customer the tools they need like hay testing, ration development or even basic education is the best way to get to know your customers and offer them with some up-front service from the beginning of your business relationship.

Don’t let your customer service slip from the start of a new partnership. Find out what products they need, how much they need and when they need them by. Follow through with ordering the products to have them in hand before the customer needs them. A happy customer is one who will tell others about the great products and services he or she received, and you will be able to watch your business grow.