Category: 3 Keys to Better Business

Know your Checkbook: It is more Blessed to Give than to Receive

In our household, the second grader regularly reminds her dad and me that “sharing is caring.” This bold statement can be applied to something small like sharing her apples with me while she eats her popcorn on Sunday night or agreeing to fill a few extra shoeboxes for boys and girls during Operation Christmas Child during the holidays. In other words, she enjoys sharing and knows the importance of it.

As we approach the holiday season, it seems like there are numerous opportunities to give. You can give your time, you can give gifts, you can give blood. You can give as an individual, a family or a business. Giving can be a spontaneous gesture like dropping a donation in the red kettle or it can be planned. Any way you give this season, and throughout the year, remember that it is indeed “more blessed to give than receive.”

Not only will you be blessed as you give, giving is healthy. Studies have shown there are several health benefits to giving. They include lower blood pressure, less anxiety and depression and increased self-esteem. Anytime you can do something good for others and improve your own health, that seems like a win-win.

Giving also makes us happy. Research shows that giving both money and time provides humans an emotional surge because feeling good is a product of doing good. It’s built into our neurochemistry. Giving triggers feel-good chemicals like endorphins, dopamine and oxytocin. And it’s true across cultural and economic lines, too, according to a Harvard Business School study.

Who doesn’t want to reduce their stress levels? It turns out that giving also lowers your stress. When we are overall happier, we are less stressed. Studies also show that volunteering and giving to others can help us with improved self-esteem and can reduce cases of depression.

Giving is contagious. Have you heard of paying it forward? It is a real phenomenon. It feels pretty amazing to be in the fast food or coffee line, and when you get to the window to pay, the clerk announces that the car in front of you has paid for your order. Because of your happiness, and the fact that giving is contagious, you will likely pay for the person behind you. It is a true chain reaction.

Giving builds relationships. If you give your money, time or material gifts, you must have a connection to an individual or an organization that you believe in. That contact is someone you can build a relationship with. You never know where that relationship can lead. It could lead to further relationships, a future employee or customer.

As you can see, the benefits of giving are many. Not only are you helping others, but you are also reaping the rewards, too, in terms of better health, less stress and more happiness. It truly is better to give than receive. There are numerous opportunities to give around the holidays. Give where you can.

Know your Customer: Help your Customer Set Goals for the New Year

As we start thinking about closing out this year and preparing for a new one, there isn’t much time to reflect on the past. We need to start looking ahead to what we want to achieve in 2023, and our customers are not any different. They are likely going to rely on you – their feed and supplement dealer – for some good nutrition advice. You know about their program and understand their challenges.

Once you do understand the overarching goals for their program, it is a good idea to ask them if they have planned out their year to see how they can best make progress. A good method to establishing goals

is to make sure that they are S.M.A.R.T. Goals should be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-bound. Let’s explore how you can help your customers set goals that match this set of criteria.

SPECIFIC

Help your customers define as many details for their goals as possible. Who is involved? Is there a deadline? Where and when will these goals be achieved? For instance, maybe you have a customer who is planning their first production sale. A very specific goal could be to host a production sale in March to sell 40 yearling bulls and average $4,000.

MEASURABLE

Every goal that is set should have a unit of measurement to indicate success. For example, your customer doesn’t just want to breed a majority of his or her cows. The measurable goal would be to have 95% conception rate.

ATTAINABLE

It is great to dream big; however, goals should be set that can be reached. Remember, Rome was not built in a day, and goals likely won’t be achieved overnight either.

RELEVANT

The goals defined should align with the overall goals of the operation. If the operation wants to raise bulls that produce high-performance calves for the feedlot, the owner or manager probably wants to focus on sires that have desirable growth and carcass traits. A goal to have 100% conception rates isn’t relevant if your customer puts one 2-year-old bull out with 50 cows.

TIME-BOUND

Make sure every goal set has a deadline and work ambitiously to meet those deadlines. Take that one step further and expand your goals to include short-term and long-term goals. Perhaps a short-term goal for the operation is to purchase a new a ram before breeding season (within two months). A long-term goal might be to host an on-farm club lamb sale in the spring (within the next year).

Now is a great time to work with your customers to help them set S.M.A.R.T. goals for their next production year. It’s always good to encourage writing down the goals where they will see them on a regular basis and posting deadlines that they can measure on a calendar that they also see regularly. Make sure their goals include a quality nutrition program. They will thank you, and you can watch your business grow.

Effective Action: Care that Comes Full Circle Comes from the Heart

Have you ever wondered about the phrase “care that comes full circle”? It isn’t just a fancy little catch phrase that BioZyme® throws around. It is the company motto that the company and its employees live by each day. Where does the care come from? It comes from the heart.

One of the things that sets BioZyme apart from other companies is this care that comes full circle. It’s in our people. It’s in our products. It’s in our research. President and CEO Lisa Norton compares it to a boomerang that is properly thrown.

“When you throw a boomerang properly, it will always come back to you. If we make supplements at BioZyme that help animals perform to their fullest, then that care we provide to them will ultimately, come full circle and put food on our plate. Now that is care that comes full circle,” Norton said.

Simply put, caring comes from the heart. This is true if you are talking about making nutrition products for a chicken with a with a rather short lifespan or a newborn child who depends on you for its every need.

Caring about what you do and how you do it always starts with the heart. If you start from the inside out – with the heart – not only will your care shine bright, but that care will boomerang back or “come full circle.”

Our research shows care. With more than 100 published studies, BioZyme never introduces a product until it has been carefully and fully researched. Research starts with a team of scientists and continues to real-life scenarios. Our proprietary fermentation processes are backed by 70 years of research – both in the lab and applied.

Our products show care. It’s no secret that the products that we market and sell do what we say they do. With a research-proven prebiotic like Amaferm® that has been studied and used for more than 70 years, you and your customers can rest assured that the products are carefully manufactured. Amaferm is made one place in the world – St. Joseph, Missouri.

Our people show care. Our people care about the products they make, the way they promote them and the people they work with. They are carefully trained in production best practices and safety manufacturing. They keep safety for themselves, others and the product top of mind.

Not only do our people show care about products and people within the BioZyme family, they extend that care into the greater community. They are active in civic organizations, community projects and helping neighbors. They know that care that comes full circle is a boomerang effect.

From the research, products and people, our care that comes full circle starts in the heart. We know that our dealers have heart too. We hope that you never forget your heart and how to give, and receive, that care.

Tell Everyone: Marketing Plans Start NOW

Marketing is one of the most important things you can do for your business. Regardless of if you are selling widgets or high-quality feed supplements, marketing is going to help you grow your business, build relationships with your customers and increase your profits.

As we move into 2023, there are more marketing opportunities than ever before. We no longer live in your grandpa’s world of driving downtown and putting an advertisement in the local newspaper made with clipart provided by the local cattle association, hoping for results.

Dealers, you have so many options available to you. So, grab your yellow legal pad or even your iPad, and take notes, because your marketing plans start now.

Make a plan. Divide your year into quarters and break each quarter into months. Decide what is important to your customers during those given months. If it starts getting hot in March or April where you live, you will probably want to start promoting a mineral that includes HEAT® in February or even earlier to make it top of mind. Market Sure Champ® products in the months leading up to and during livestock shows in your area. If you have a big wall calendar or like to use excel spreadsheets, use these tools to help visualize your plan.

Create a budget. Do you know how much money you have to spend on marketing? Do you plan to spend money each month? Every other month? Is the dollar amount dependent on sales or time of year? As you prepare your annual budget, set aside some marketing dollars for advertising, promotional items and even a producer meeting. If you have those funds budgeted early on, you should not spend them on other items, and know that you have the money reserved specifically for marketing efforts.

Choose your vehicles. Once you know your budget and what you plan to market, determine which outlets you would like to use for your marketing. Do you plan to rely solely on social media? Will you print stuffers to go with your invoices to promote new or timely products? Do you plan to advertise on the local radio station or with the local sports boosters on the high school football programs? If you know your customers or the potential customers you are trying to reach, you can determine which of the vehicles are relevant to them. Whichever vehicle you decide on, make sure you know the cost, the deadline and the file format you need to provide if it is an external company like a newspaper or radio station.

Use social media. Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and TikTok are growing in popularity. Social media offers several benefits, with the most popular being that it is free. Other benefits include that it is widely accessible by most people anywhere, including at their fingertips, and it allows you to interact with your customers, whereas traditional advertising only allows for one-way communication. Use social media to your advantage. If you are not fully comfortable with some of the tools and platforms, remember that BioZyme offers Promoboxx as free service, and you can link your Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts for free content.

Evaluate your action. After you have conducted your marketing action, it is always important to evaluate the outcome. Did a particular advertisement or promotion drive customers to the store? Did your business experience an increase in sales due to your marketing efforts? Take notes. If the sales didn’t increase, chalk one up for experience. If the sales went through the roof, write it down and plan for something very similar for the same time the next year.

Marketing is ever evolving. You don’t have to do it alone. Be sure to reach out to your ASM, use the tools provided to you in the Online Dealer Center or contact a member of the BioZyme Marketing Team. We are here to help you market your business and increase your sales.

Know your Checkbook: Quality Customer Service can Increase your Bottom Line

Providing excellent customer service doesn’t cost your business anything. However, if even one customer has even a somewhat bad experience, it could cost you everything. Customer service is crucial to business and ultimately sales. Think about how fast news spreads, especially in a small community, and even more so with the aid of social media. People share positive experiences, and they are like endorsements. But one bad experience can make its way through the rumor mill in record speed, ruining your reputation and your sales.

A recent survey of American Express showed that 70% of customers are willing to spend 13% more on average with companies they believe provide exceptional customer service. Making a conscious effort to impress your customers creates the kind of reputation that promotes word-of-mouth referrals and upsell opportunities – ultimately increasing sales.

Another study showed that a 2% increase in customer retention has the same effect as decreasing costs by 10%. In an environment where businesses are increasingly concerned with their bottom line, companies may focus a lot more on improving customer satisfaction.

The best part of increasing your customer satisfaction levels is that customers keep coming back. These retained customers cost less than new customers. Why? Because you aren’t spending marketing dollars trying to get them in your stores – services you’re already providing are convincing them to come back.

Just what is that returning customer worth? According to an online article on Lireo.com:

  • Increasing customer retention by 5% can increase your profits up to 125%
  • Loyal customers are worth 10 times as much as their first purchase on average
  • Companies that make customer service a priority make 60% higher profits than their competitors

How to Improve Your Customers’ Experiences and Retain Them

  • Ask your customers for feedback – When you show that you care and that you’re willing to listen to your customers, they will appreciate it and want to give you their business. Really listen and try to implement their suggestions and feedback, and then show what changes you have made based on their suggestions.
  • Offer a good mix of products – Make sure you have the products that your customers use the most on-hand including seasonal items relevant to the animals’ nutritional development.
  • Keep your store easy to navigate – Keep your aisles clear, and set up a good flow. Keep like or complimentary products together so your customers don’t have to go from corner to corner to get the two products they came for.
  • Train your employees on how to handle complaints respectfully – Negative interactions spread to twice as many people as positive interactions. If an employee handles a complaint well, the chance of the dissatisfied customer spreading his or her discontentment decreases.

Customer service is something we strive to perfect each day but now that you know it can help your profits, be sure to give a little extra attention to the customers. Your customers will surely notice, and you can watch your business grow.

Know your Customer: Listening to Customers will Build Relationships

We’ve heard it and probably said it repeatedly — the customer is always right. Listening to your customers is a great way to build relationships and create customer loyalty. The one thing we know about loyal customers is they are repeat customers who tell others about your business.  

Customers, like everyone, are busy people. When they are comfortable enough with you to share their challenges, goals and concerns, that means they are in the relationship building phase. It is important to them, and your business, to actively listen to what they have to say. 

Let’s explore five tips to actively listen to your customers. 

  1. Pay attention. 

Make sure you give your customer your full attention so you can acknowledge the concern. Make eye contact and realize that your body language speaks volumes. Try to avoid folded arms or excessive looking around and being distracted. 

  1. Show that you are listening. 

Smile and use body language, like an occasional nod, to show you are paying attention. Take notes if it is something of great detail like a ration. Make sure your posture is open and inviting, with your head up, shoulders back and your arms to your side and not crossed. Small comments like “yes” or “hmm” also note that you are listening. 

  1. Provide feedback. 

Ask questions to clarify any points of confusion or to clarify a particular point. If you need more information, ask for it when the customer is finished talking. 

  1. Defer judgment.  

Allow the customer to finish sharing his or her message with you. Interrupting will seem disrespectful and could lose a sale and a friendship 

  1. Respond appropriately. 

Treat the customer like you would want your mother treated — with respect and understanding. Be candid and honest with your response, and don’t make promises you can’t keep. If you don’t have an immediate answer, let them know. “I hear your concerns about XYZ. Let me talk to my distributor, ASM or another person, and I will get back to you within X days,” is always a good response. They should respect the time you have given them to hear your concerns and the time you are going to take to further investigate.  

Listening to customers will help build trust, strengthen relationship and create loyalty. It also provides opportunities for cross selling and upselling. Did you have a customer come into your feedstore to buy cattle mineral and hear him also talk about the goats his wife recently bought? That sounds like a great opportunity to talk about DuraFerm® Goat Mineral.  

Listening can take shape in multiple forms. Be present. Listen to your customers. Build their trust. Keep their business. 

Dealer Retreat Offers Prime Opportunity for Growth

Professional development opportunities don’t come along every day when you are in the animal nutrition business. However, BioZyme® offers an opportunity that will help you grow your business, allow you to learn more about the products you sell and give you the chance to build valuable relationships with other dealers and the BioZyme staff.

Each June, BioZyme offers a day-and-a-half of professional development to its dealers who have achieved a specific sales goal the year prior. You’ve probably seen some promotional information for the 7th Annual BioZyme Dealer Retreat in the last two VISION newsletters. If you sold at least 50 tons of product in 2018, you’ll want to be watching your mailbox this month for your invitation.

The Dealer Retreat offers educational sessions led by BioZyme staff that covers marketing, selling tools and product highlights. There are also typically times for interactive discussions when dealers can exchange what works best for them in a given scenario or with a specific product.

Mark Johnson, Sleepy Hollow Farm, Centerville, S.D., attended his first Dealer Retreat in 2018. He highly recommends it to anyone that has the chance to attend, especially newer dealers. He said learning more about the products, meeting BioZyme staff in-person to discover who to call for what, and hearing what works for other dealers were the most beneficial parts of the retreat.

“We’ve really interacted more with the home office, mostly just because we figured out who to talk to from personal contact made at the dealer retreat,” Johnson said. “Last year, we really enjoyed getting to know the marketing staff better and realized how much was available to us.”

Johnson took what he learned from the Promoboxx session last year and made his first Facebook post at the Dealer Retreat session. And, due to that Promoboxx post, he made a sale to a new customer before the evening’s casino night was over.

“I would say Promoboxx contributed to almost 50% of our new leads since the last Dealer Retreat,” Johnson said.

Johnson’s experience is just one of many positive experiences that dealers have when they attend the Dealer Retreat. He said if it works into his schedule, he would attend again for further opportunities to grow his business, network and continue learning about the products and programs BioZyme offers.

The Dealer Retreat is not just a great place to learn, network and help grow your business. There are also some inspiring speakers, good food and entertainment and sales awards presented as well. This year dealers will experience a change of venue, moving from Saint Joseph to the Argosy Casino Hotel & Spa in Kansas City. There will still be BioZyme plant and headquarter tours available to those who wish to tour. And even if you have toured in the past, upgrades and changes are continually made to improve production and efficiency so the tours are always encouraged.

Take the time and action to grow your business.
When you receive your invitation to Dealer Retreat, RSVP with a “Yes” and reap the benefits.

Collaborate with our Marketing Team to Enhance Your Business

Whether you’ve been a BioZyme® dealer for years or you are in the early stages of being a dealer, there is one thing for certain; the company is here to help you succeed and grow. From your Area Sales Manager to Business Development, Outreach Support, Customer Support, Nutrition Support, Marketing, Quality Control and Production, every employee at BioZyme is here to help you thrive in your dealership.

Jordan Milliren, who represents Iowa and Southwest Minnesota, is just one of the ASMs that makes sure his dealers have the marketing tools and support they need to grow and generate sales. He credits Trent Gabler and Mike Wadle, the previous ASMs in his territory, with building a solid foundation of dealers. Milliren said he works to ensure those dealers have the tools and resources they need to promote their products to current and potential customers.

“My dealers know their customers better than I do. They know if a mailer or touch-point is going to end-user customers, those customers are going to call and usually do business with them,” Milliren said.

Although sometimes unsure at first, he said his dealers are usually willing to work with him on a mailing. After all, it is to their benefit and cost effective for them. He credits the creativity and working relationship he has with the marketing team at BioZyme. He said he often has ideas for mailings or e-blasts, and they put them together to make them happen.

“I think it is important for our dealers to know that marketing does pay. I’d put our marketing team up against anyone in the industry. They have the ability to do some pretty creative stuff for our dealers, and it is to benefit their business, as well as BioZyme’s,” he said.

Brand awareness and education are priorities when it comes to Milliren’s marketing goals. When introducing a new dealer, he likes to introduce the person as a dealer with a small promotion just to help that dealer generate business. And with so many competitors on the market, making the touch-points, creating brand awareness and sharing one or two benefits is important.

“We don’t want to give customers too much information at once, but hit the highlights, like how a stress tub can help your calves at weaning time or why Concept•Aid® is important at breeding,” he said.

Milliren said he likes to send quarterly mailers to keep the brands in front of customers who have busy lifestyles. For instance, during planting and harvest, farmers might need a gentle reminder to check their cattle’s mineral, even though they know it is important. He said monthly e-mails help keep that brand awareness high as well.

Marketing can be a big undertaking. But with the assistance of your ASM and the BioZyme marketing team, you can work together to promote your business. Remember, there are many ways to work with the BioZyme staff. Just reach out to your ASM or the Outreach Support Center and let us know how we can help you grow your business.

Collaboration Grows Business

If two heads are better than one when it comes to planning, just think how good things could be if we worked together in groups of three or four, or even more? But sometimes as an employee in a small business or a small-business owner, you might just be flying solo. That is why collaborating with others is so important to grow your business.

The connections you form with others, and the different ways you collaborate with those people you formed connections with, will help you grow your business to new levels.

An article from www.thebalancesmb.com offers five ways you might grow your small business through using collaboration, regardless of the industry you are in.

  1. Collaboration will inspire you. While it is easy to get into the routine of “we’ve always done it that way,” just think, there might be a better way. But how will you learn a different way or technique if your business is unique to you and unique to your location? Ask around. Do you want to find a new customer service tracking software? Or do you need a new way to keep inventory? Chances are there is another dealer who has gone through the same growing pains you are experiencing. Check with your ASM, and he or she can probably point you to someone in the dealer network who would be glad to visit with you about their software or record keeping system.
  2. Collaboration helps you grow your network. Just like attending the Dealer Retreat provides a great opportunity for you to expand your business relationships with other dealers, collaboration can also help you grow your customer base. Have you considered collaborating with a bull stud or semen company to host a producer meeting? All those producers that breed cattle also need mineral. Collaboration can help you grow your network and grow your sales.
  3. Collaboration is educational. With almost every interaction you have, you should learn something. This might be something as minor as learning what day the local auction market café serves your favorite meal to discovering someone in the area is going to background 500 stockers and could benefit from the VitaFerm® Gain Smart® program.
  4. Collaboration can help you save money. Small businesses, or most businesses, often run on tight budgets. Isn’t it nice to know there are others out there that can help you save money? Instead of investing in a high-price marketing firm to help you with advertising and promotion, don’t forget to collaborate with your ASM and the BioZyme® marketing department to create a mailer or promotional ad for you. This is just one of the services BioZyme offers its dealers and it will save money in your marketing budget for other items.
  5. Collaboration solves problems. Remember that adage of “two heads are better than one.” Sometimes it is nice to have someone to share ideas or look for solutions with. “Think about the last difficult problem you faced in your business. When we get stumped, most of us immediately go to a partner, mentor or other trusted resource who acts as a sounding board and helps us work through the problem. The harder the problem is to solve, the more we can benefit from getting the input of someone outside of the situation. And when you add new viewpoints and experiences to the mix, the end result will often transcend what you originally set out to accomplish,” writes Alyssa Gregory, author of the article.

You might be a small business, but you don’t have to do your business on your own. Collaborate with your ASM, other dealers, the marketing team and other industry professionals. You can even collaborate with others in your community. Get involved with the chamber of commerce or a small business partners organization. With collaboration, you will have many thinkers, and you can watch your business grow.

Information from article: https://www.thebalancesmb.com/collaboration-grows-yourbusiness-2951718

How to Empower your Sales Staff to Ask for the Sale

Developing relationships and providing top-notch customer service are two of the keys to a successful business. However, if you want your business to generate profit, you need to grow your sales. Perhaps one of the most challenging things about business, once you’ve developed those relationships is making the actual sale.

“A lot of good conversations take place when we build relationships, but did we flat out ask for the sale? Even the most experienced sales staff feel comfortable talking about products and having rapport, but they are scared of being told ‘no,’ so they might avoid the ask,” said Trent Gabler, BioZyme® Inc. Sales Coach and former ASM.

The fear of rejection is a natural reaction; however, until the question is asked, the answer is always ‘no,’ and when you do get a positive yes, it makes you and your business’ bottom line and outlook a little brighter.

Gabler offers three methods to empower your staff to feel more comfortable in closing the sale.

1. Summary close. Once you have discussed a particular product’s benefits or the Amaferm® advantage, have one or two summary statements and then simply ask when the customer would like to try the product or place an order. You could summarize with the three main selling points of improving intake, digestibility and absorption each time. Just keep your closing statement simple with an impact. For example, you might say, “Concept•Aid offers the benefits of increased reproductive success. When would you like to give it a try?”

“I think the summary close is the best. It highlights the benefits and reconfirms why the producer should invest in your product. How can a producer afford not to use it? Then, suggest how and when to order,” Gabler said.

2. Now-or-Never. One way you can ask for the sale without really applying sales pressure is during a promotion or sale. If you are a dealer that offers a good deal during or directly after a producer meeting or during a particular season of the year, this is a particularly effective pitch, according to Gabler. People like to save money, so if they know they have to buy “now” or they will “never” save money, they are more likely to buy on the spot. With the now-or-never approach, you might say, “This promotion ends tomorrow. If you don’t place your order now, you will miss out on this incredible savings.”

3. Direct Ask. If you aren’t afraid of hearing no or maybe, then try asking directly, “Would you like to place your order today?” If you don’t ask immediately after your conversation, and your potential customer says they need a little time to think, make sure you follow up with him or her within two to three days of your original discussion. That allows enough time for the person to think about the products and do any research they might want to do, and yet keeps you and the products fresh in their minds. Never assume they will get back to you; that is why it is imperative that you reach back out to them.

Training your employees to have product knowledge, customer service skills and build relationships are all important. Those skills will lead to empower them to make the ask and close the sale. Making sales and hearing “yes” will further empower and elevate your employees’ self-esteem. Make the ask, make the sale and watch your business grow!