Category: Business Topics

Today’s Young People are Future Customers

For years grandpa and dad made all the purchasing decisions around the farm or ranch. They decided which color of tractor to drive, which bulls to breed the cows to and even which minerals to feed. But as the years go by, the next generation of customers – my generation –  is starting to make buying decisions. And as a millennial, I might need you to reach out to me just a little differently than dad and grandpa did.

Being classified as a millennial means I’m in an age group with other 18 to 34-year-olds. That’s a wide age range of potential and future customers, and we make our decisions a little differently than grandpa did. Here are a few pointers on grabbing my attention and converting me from a potential customer to a repeat customer:

Reach out to me early on. As part of the millennial generation, I might already be a customer of yours, especially with show livestock and performance horse product lines such as Sure Champ® and Vitalize®. But just because I’m young, doesn’t mean I’m not interested in other product lines. Keep the lines of communication open, and make sure I know how to reach you when I do need to buy more products for my growing livestock operations. For example, I might be buying Sure Champ for my show animals now, but as I develop my herd or take over my family’s herd, I will want to learn more about the VitaFerm line of products and how they will keep my cattle healthy, performing and help increase profitability.

Show us results. My generation thrives on instant gratification. We like to see results and we like to see them quickly. Share research summaries with us that describe the results we might see with your products. We also like to hear from others who have had great experiences. Providing a sample of a quick-response product like Vita Charge Gel is a good idea, too. These kinds of samples are great door openers to conversations about other products and one of the best investments you can make.

Be innovative and stay connected with us. Our generation has technology at our fingertips. We get news from social platforms like Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, and if we are going to learn about your products and services, you’re likely going to have to promote them on social media as well. That connectivity is a two-way street. “Word of mouth” is still the most powerful marketing tool, but instead of us setting around the local feed store or coffee shop, we comment and share on social media. We like to share positive comments on our experiences, so look for those as we engage with you on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook!

Have a conversation with us. Millennials like to be engaged. We don’t want you to give us a sales pitch. We want you to talk to us and include us in the conversation, so we feel like part of the solution. Start the conversation with questions to discover our goals and priorities and give us options.

Be authentic. Because technology is so easily accessible, the ability to find answers to our questions usually is too. We will do our own research and find out in a heartbeat if you have clouded over anything just to make a sale.

Times are changing, but thanks to the foresight and leadership of my dad and grandpa, I’m ready to start making decisions about our operation. Just remember, I make decisions a little bit differently than the generations before me, but keep your conversations real, show me results and work with me, and this potential customer will become your regular customer. Keep connecting with me in innovative ways as technology changes and evolves, and watch your business grow.

Youth Project Opens Doors

For 25 years Don Bush, Powell Feed & Milling, knew Ken Gillig and competed against him in the world of animal nutrition. Gillig, the BioZyme® Key Accounts Manager since 2016, was formerly an ASM, and Bush had been selling Purina through Powell Feed & Milling in various stores in Northern Arkansas.

However, at the 2014 Missouri State Fair, the friendship between Gillig and Bush became even more important when Bush’s daughter’s ram got very sick in the breeding sheep barn. Bush recalls that Gillig told him he had something he wanted him to try.

“Ken brought back a half-dozen Vita Charge® Gel tubes with a note on how to give them to our ram,” Bush said. “I told my daughter, ‘I don’t know what this foo-foo dust is, but it’s better than having a dead ram.’ Two days later he won the open sheep show.”

After that experience with his daughter’s prize-winning sheep projects, Bush knew there was something about the BioZyme products that worked. He helped Gillig get some supplements to producers down around him and told his boss he wanted to introduce the products into the Powell Feed Stores. Skeptical about the price of the products, he agreed. And Powell Feed & Milling has watched its BioZyme product sales grow, all while reaching VIP Dealer status each year.

“I knew it worked for us. I knew it would work for others,” Bush said.

Bush’s situation is a perfect example of why reaching out to young livestock exhibitors and sharing products are effective ways of promoting the products. If Gillig hadn’t shared the Vita Charge products with him, his daughter might have had a dead ram. And furthermore, BioZyme might have one less VIP dealer who has helped the health and performance of many producers in a large part of Northern Arkansas.

Don’t discount the youth exhibitor. They might buy a bag or a bucket of Sure Champ® products. Or maybe a young equestrian uses the Vitalize® products. However, those youth likely have parents who own livestock or a business who could be positively impacted by the BioZyme products as well.

Potential opportunities are everywhere. Ken Gillig seized the opportunity to help a young sheep exhibitor at the Missouri State Fair. But what he ultimately did was help grow business and change the lives of many livestock producers for years into the future.

Dealer Spotlight: Spring Canyon Feeds

Customer service isn’t just a catch phrase for Spring Canyon Feeds. It is a family value passed from one generation to the next. Kari Schultz, along with her brother and dad, Tyson Mann and Bruce Mann, own Spring Canyon Feeds, serving farmers and ranchers in the community surrounding Kirk, Colo., where she grew up.

“We’re not just selling a product. We strive to provide. It’s in our blood,” Kari said. “Even growing up, if we had something pressing to get done today, and a neighbor called and needed help, my dad would stop what he was doing and put everyone else first.”

That is the kind of service that Kari and Spring Canyon has provided and continues to provide since the dealership started in 2014. Kari is engaged with her customers, understands their livelihoods, and works with the resources available to her through BioZyme® to help her customers thrive.

Kari started feeding the VitaFerm® products in 2014, but with no local dealer former ASM Brad Hill convinced her it would be a good little “side business” to go along with her farming and cow-calf enterprise.

About the same time the Spring Canyon dealership started, Megan Douthit-Downey, Saint Francis, Kan., had heard about VitaFerm products from her veterinarian. Although 50 miles away, Kari was still the closest dealer who offered all the product lines Megan was looking for, but more importantly provided her great services.

“Kari is a rock star,” Megan said. “She comes out and we tell her where our hay piles are and what cuttings they are from. She core samples everything and submits samples to Dr. [Susan] Day, and Dr. Day puts rations together for us. For us, it’s about getting the most bang for our buck. The products are not always the cheapest, and not always the most expensive, but customer service goes a long way.”

As a cattle producer, Kari understand the value of forage sampling and supplementing nutrition when and where needed. She appreciates the services that BioZyme provides its customers, and more of her customers are learning to appreciate those services too.

“We believe whole-heartedly that if you don’t know what you’re feeding your cattle, you don’t know what they need. We need to make sure what they are eating is actually meeting their requirements for them to perform at their highest potential, it is necessary to know what they are lacking and provide them with those nutrients,” Kari said. “BioZyme is great at providing that service to us. I really enjoy Susan’s frankness. She lets us know what we need or what we don’t need in our rations.”

Kari said many of the more seasoned producers in her area, who at one time didn’t think their cattle needed a mineral package, are started to see the value in the products she sells, especially with the Amaferm® advantage. She said they understand that Amaferm helps their cattle put on more pounds through increased intake, digestibility and absorption, and to the producers, more pounds equal more dollars.

“Kari’s product knowledge is incredible,” said Jake Warntjes, ASM who covers Eastern Colorado, Western Kansas and Western Oklahoma. “She studies the nutrition side of things, what Amaferm will do for the animals and knows the research that backs it.”

Jake is also complimentary of her customer service skills, saying Kari is good at getting customers connected to the resources they need, such as himself or Susan for nutrition needs.

In December 2017, Kari had the opportunity to expand those services even further. She, her dad and brother purchased the feed store in their small community, and her “side business” has turned into full-time business and a service for the ranchers of Yuma County, where cows out-number people.

At the store, which is open 6 days a week, Kari sells most everything for livestock, including the BioZyme product lines, tags, sorting sticks, medicine, gloves, boots, rodent and pest control. She also carries some pet foods and small pet items. And she is expanding the services her store provides.

She has worked closely with a veterinarian to get some prescription medicines on-hand so if a rancher needs something, the vet can work through her to get one animal treated. She is also working with a Genex rep and A.I. tech to promote her services in the area. She hopes to eventually add marketing services to her store.

Keeping animals healthy and growing and keeping customers happy and returning are ways that Spring Canyon Feeds stays engaged with their customers.

Engage With Your Customers To Sell A Program

BioZyme® offers many great products for all phases of production. But some producers get comfortable with one product, and don’t always know how to transition to include other products. And sometimes, the new products seem overwhelming. However, with some engagement with your customers, and discussing the benefits of the Amaferm® advantage through all phases, you can expand your marketing to a program-based approach.

Matt Weigel, owner of Darlington Feed & Ag Center in Darlington, Wis., said he works closely with his producers to make sure they understand each step of the feeding process. For instance, he said the dairies he works with all incorporate Amaferm Digest More® in their feed. When Weigel asked if the producers were pleased with their calf feed, they said yes. Then he suggested the Vita Charge® Stress Tub to help them wean better and stay healthier. And the dairies liked them as well. Of course, they all start their program with Vita Charge Neonatal.

“I’m not afraid to give away a stress tub, and I’ll eat the $60 because I am confident I’ll sell 10 more tubs and more product,” Weigel said. “You’ve got to look at the big picture and be open minded. If a producer likes it and uses it forever I’m money ahead.”

He said he is on the dairy farms that are his customers at least every week or every other week to make sure the customers get their questions answered, and to fix any problems before they surface. Although his store represents other products lines, he truly believes in the Amaferm advantage and uses the VitaFerm products on his own cow herd.

“I wear my VitaFerm hat! We really promote VitaFerm because we know it works. I try the products on my own animals and they work. I like them, and I can promote them,” he said.

Another way that Weigel works to engage with his customers and promote products is to take advantage of the assistance the BioZyme Marketing Team and his ASM provide. In 2017, ASM Trent Gabler worked with Weigel and the Marketing Team to create a postcard mailing promoting VitaFerm HEAT® to those producers who use Concept•Aid®. Darlington Feed saw a significant increase in their HEAT sales after that mailing, according to Gabler.

Finally, Weigel said he’s not afraid to use other customers as references. He’ll share the results that ‘Joe Smith’ had when using a product and he said other producers have the mindset that if Joe Smith had great results, then I should try it too.

Using products, proactively making farm visits and sharing testimonials are great ways to engage and promote products. Offering a trial product might cost a little initially, but the returns will pay off in the long-term. Getting customers to use a program and not just one product will also pay dividends and keep that customer active all year long. Look at the big picture, and sell the program.

Grow Your Business Through Engagement

Without customers, business survival looks bleak. There are two key ways to grow your customer base and subsequently grow your business. First, don’t lose your current customers. And secondly, recruit new customers.

According to an article on marketingwizdom.com, “The average business loses around 20 percent of its customers annually simply by failing to attend to customer relationships.”

These are customers that the business has already recruited, mostly likely sold to at least once, but simply didn’t follow up with through simple engagement. Twenty-percent adds up over time, and if a business doesn’t work to recruit new customers, it won’t be long before the business no longer exists.

Get Referrals. One of the best and most cost-effective ways to gain new customers is through referrals. But more importantly, referrals are a way to continue interaction and communication with your current customers, while building relationships with new customers and clients. Communication and interaction is vital to long-lasting relationships.

As with any project you need to set your goals first. Do you want to gain a new customer each day? Two per week? Ten per month? Be realistic in the amount of time you plan to devote to recruiting new customers.  And remember, while recruiting new customers is important, keeping the lines of communication open and engaging with your existing customers is important to keeping them happy and keeping them returning.

Offer incentives. Although referrals can and do happen without incentive, people are sometimes afraid of giving out others’ names. But if there is a small incentive included, that fear usually disappears. Sample incentives include:

  • For every name that you refer that buys product from me this month, I’ll give you X% off your next order
  • For every customer you refer me to, I’ll offer you a Vita Charge® Stress Tub at $X cost

And if you don’t offer an incentive, do show appreciation. Those two little words go a long way and give you one more opportunity to interact with current customers.

Schedule the calls. Set aside 30 minutes a day for a week to make new customer calls. If those calls only take 15 minutes each, you can make two calls a day and engage with 10 potential customers. Even if half of those people purchase product, you’ve gained five new customers in a week. Follow that pattern, and over time you’ll have 20 new customers in a month and watch that revenue soar. And surely over time, those 20 customers will have friends that they will be glad to refer too.

Keep communicating. It doesn’t matter if it’s a new customer or long-time customer, keeping the lines of communication open are key to retention. Create a communications calendar where you follow up with each customer on a regular basis. Contact them to see if they need any products, follow up after the sale to make sure they are happy with their products and reach out to them in between to see if they have any general questions or just to see how their lives are going. Customers like it when you are interested in them and engage in their activities.

Referrals are great ways to build your customer base. Remember to keep those lines of communication open between both current and new customers and watch your business grow.

Customer Success Matters

Customers are the lifeblood of our business. Without their success and their repeated business, it is likely that our business isn’t going to succeed either. As dealers, we need to consider ways to help them succeed and then recognize their efforts.

First, we need to know our customers and understand their goals. Recognize what their individual production schedules look like and what their ultimate goals are. Do they sell their calves at weaning time? If so, you probably don’t need to push the VitaFerm® Gain Smart® product line to them. Do they compete with their horses or livestock? Then perhaps the Vita Charge® Gel or Vitalize® Equine Recovery Gel needs to be a staple in their show box. Customer success isn’t just about selling products; it’s about providing services and motivation to help them succeed.

Do you have a customer that is offering the same mineral program year after year because “that’s how granddad did it.”? If so, perhaps you need to suggest forage testing their hay and offering some alternatives to a more updated supplement program that will better fit their current operation. Maybe the customer didn’t know you offer forage testing and feed analysis. Once they discover the supplements they really need, they might even discover they are saving money over time. If you create an environment for your customer to succeed, they are more likely to succeed and become loyal customers.

But what happens when your customers find success? Congratulate them as soon as you can, and in person if possible. If you don’t think you will see them in the store or at their ranch for a few weeks, pick up the phone or drop them a hand-written note expressing your happiness for them. The fact that you noticed their achievements will go a long way in their customer satisfaction and your professional relationship with them.

Be sure to not only congratulate them, but to let others know about their achievements as well. Customer achievements can range from having a successful production sale to selling the Grand Champion Barrow at a recent livestock show to having a child get accepted to the college or university of his or her choice. Once you know of these success stories, start sharing them with others. There are several ways to share these stories.

Use a bulletin board in your store that allows you to “brag” on your customers. You can post newspaper clippings here. You can ask your customers to submit their photos and accomplishments to you to post on the bulletin board. People like to see what others in their community are doing, and it makes them feel good to be recognized for their successes.

Take that recognition to the next level. Perhaps you distribute a company newsletter or have a Facebook page. Share your customers’ achievements on these venues so more people see them, especially if they relate to success with your products. Producers will buy a product based on peer-success and not just because a sales person said it works (read more about this in Tell Everyone).

If you create an environment for your customers to succeed, and they succeed, they will likely become repeat customers. They will also tell others about their successes, and if you tell others about their successes, your business will continue to grow.

April 2018 – Letters from Lisa

Engagement is needed from everyone for success – employees, customers, dealers, partners and the organization. The inset definition clearly shows that engagement can mean a lot of different things. And while April is Bob’s and my anniversary month, I do not consider myself any kind of expert on a formal agreement to get married. I am also routinely late, so understanding an arrangement to do something or go somewhere at a fixed time is not up my alley either. And my Mom always reminded me while growing up that if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all. Therefore, just the mention of a fight or battle leads me to want to quit writing about that type of engagement. So, the only definition left is the action of engaging.  We all know I believe ACTION is the key to everything so engagement when it means action is right up my alley. To be engaged is to be fully absorbed and enthusiastic to the point one is easily and innately self-motivated to do the positive action needed for success.

A recent Gallup study indicated that when their clients actively pursued engagement, success soared to a ratio of 9:1 from 2:1, engaged to unengaged. Perhaps that’s why engagement’s use in the inset graph is moving up.

If engagement is so crucial to success, why do organizations pursue it so ineffectively? The answer is that becoming actively engaged is hard work—work that many cannot see affecting their bottom line on any kind of a time line. With this in mind, engagement as a successful business strategy takes a major commitment to ensure all (yes all) of the following exist:

  • Belief in the organizational vision and the success it will provide from every angle of the organization, but especially from the top,
  • Trust that is built by trusting others. This requires a basic belief in people, a belief that people are essentially trustworthy,
  • Accountable performance measures,
  • Communication that aligns actions with the overall business goals,
  • An effective recognition and reward system that involves verbal and/or written acknowledgment as well as a physical reward,
  • Frequent, clear and specific feedback that focuses on what is being done well and what needs improvement,
  • Leaders who are personally interested in and care about their team, and who elicit their input and opinions,
  • Integrity,
  • Team work,
  • An inclusive passion for WOWingness (internal & external).

Engagement is needed from everyone for success, but don’t diminish your role as the leader. Consultant Keith Ayers stresses that the role of great leaders is to get people excited about and committed to their organization’s vision. He explains: “Leaders are either increasing engagement, or they are decreasing it. There is no middle ground.” Don’t let yourself get stuck in the middle!

Dealer Spotlight: YOU!

We know that Amaferm® is the heart of each of product that BioZyme® makes and markets, but it is the extensive network of dealers that is the true heart of our business. Without dealers our products would not be able to get into the hands of so many customers and make such a large impact on the animal nutrition industry.

With nearly 1,000 dealers spread across the country, surely there is a dealer close enough to help a cow-calf producer, an equine enthusiast or even the young person getting started with his or her first junior livestock project. The dealer network is one of our best assets, and without YOUR dedication, drive and direct relationships with so many end-users, we’d be just another supplement company.

As dealers you are the ones who have built strong relationships with our customers. You know their families, their operations, and their needs. We hope you always feel comfortable talking to us about new needs we haven’t thought about or ways to improve our products based on what the customers need and want.

Dealers provide personalized service. Yes, we strive to provide customer service every day. However, we can’t be everywhere at once. With dealers like you to provide service prior to and after the sale, you make a difference, and provide more than just a product. The service might be educating the customer about what is the right supplement to meet his or her goals. You might pull forage samples to have tested, or you might offer local community support through a cattlemen’s organization or the local youth rodeo. Local dealer support is important to you as a dealer and to us as a company, but we can’t do it alone.

Dealers are truly the heart of our business, but they are also the faces of our company. When your local customers think about ordering a pallet of Concept•Aid® or picking up some Sure Champ®, they aren’t thinking about the scientists who initiated fermentation of the Amaferm or the person who loaded that pallet back in Saint Joseph, Mo., they are thinking about you – their trusted BioZyme dealer who they have a relationship with.

It is our goal to make sure our dealers are as much as part of the company as anyone. That is why we are continually looking for ways to provide you services and information to make you more efficient in your businesses. From tools like this newsletter to the Online Dealer Center to your Area Sales Manager and the Master Dealer Training Program, we hope you take advantage of all the resources provided to you.

Stephen Wilds And Brian Funk: Attention To Detail Is Key For Mixing Products, Prepping Orders

Imagine a mixing container that can hold up to 6,000 pounds and measuring system so precise that it notifies you if your recipe ingredients are either too little or too excessive. This equipment and software, the 3-Ton Compound Double Ribbon Mixer and Beta Raben Batching Software, are what Stephen Wilds, Mixing Operator at BioZyme® Inc., uses each day to make the high-quality products that you market to your customers.

Stephen has been the second-shift mixing operator for nearly one year and said that close attention to detail is given to every batch of product mixed.

“If we mess up, the product is messed up, so we must be very diligent whenever we are putting ingredients in,” Stephen said. “Getting the correct amount and getting the correct ingredient is very important. The Batch Report pulls all ingredients except the hand-adds, and our scale is so precise that it tells you if you have too much or too little that you’ve added by hand. I have to certify everything is accurate. It’s mixed up and sent over to the bagging line.”

Although that run-down of tasks might seem simple, it really is quite complex. Stephen reviews the run list each day to make sure he has the ingredients needed to make all the products that need made for that day. Then he starts production of product, which is all driven by sales as warehouse space is limited. The mixer holds up to 3 tons per batch, or the equivalent of 120 bags per batch.

Stephen says he typically makes multiple products per day, but if he is making all the same product, he can sometimes mix as many as 30-35 batches per day. Once the product is mixed, it moves to the bagging line. BioZyme invested in a state-of-the-art fully-automated Concetti bagger two years ago, which can bag, load and wrap and pallet at a rate of 1,200 bags or 24 pallets per hour.

Once the product is made, and dealers have placed their orders, Brian Funk starts pulling the orders together. He checks the orders each morning when he arrives, prioritizes the orders by due date and makes sure there is inventory to fill each order. Then he starts “picking” or putting each order together so it is ready to ship once the trucks arrive to take the BioZyme products to the dealers.

Brian typically fills smaller or mixed pallet orders first thing in the morning before the delivery trucks start arriving to ensure accuracy on the mixed pallets that he must hand pack. Once trucks arrive he said it is easier to work with full pallet orders – those that contain 50 bags of the same product.

“It usually gets pretty hectic, but I stay very organized,” said Brian, who has been with the company nearly three years.

He typically fills 15-20 orders per day, depending on order size. He said he has picked as many as 31 orders in one day. Truckload orders are 17-18 pallets each.

Attention to detail and accuracy are top priorities for both Stephen and Brian, but they also appreciate the respect the management gives them to do their jobs.

Sam Norton, Director of Plant Operations, commends both Stephen and Brian for being self-motivated workers who do their jobs well. He also said they spend a lot of time cleaning when there is down time, which doesn’t go unnoticed, as many who have toured the plant have commented on the cleanliness of a supplement plant.

“We all work hard at getting the customer what they ask for, what they need and what they are paying for,” Sam said. “We can’t have a bad day because if we have a bad day in production, we all have a bad day. We do everything as efficiently as we can, and we are always looking at ways to be more efficient.”

Brian reminds the dealers to always check their orders for accuracy when they get delivered. He said even though he works to make sure every product and the correct quantity is sent to the correct destination, sometimes with multiple trucks arriving at the same time, there is room for human error.

From research and fermentation to drying, mixing and picking, there are a lot of people that keep our company running. We hope you have enjoyed getting to meet just a few of the behind-the-scenes folks that are the heart of our company.

At The Heart Of Keeping Biozyme In Gear: Garret Glaubius

Garret Glaubius consistency and accuracy keys to amaferm® production

Consistency and accuracy are crucial to putting out a product that livestock producers across the United States have come to expect from the BioZyme® brands. The heart of our product, Amaferm, is produced in St. Joseph each day, and Garret Glaubius in Amaferm Production, keeps a watchful eye to make sure that the best product possible is produced.

He mixes two liquids, one of those the Aspergillus oryzae that Tyson has fermented, with wheat bran and then dries the mixture to no more than 10% moisture to produce Amaferm. Garret said the outside weather elements play a role in what he does each day due to humidity and moisture in the air.

“I call it feeding the beast,” he said.

Throughout the day he makes changes to the parameters and fan speed to keep the moisture in check, never letting it get above a specific level where mold will begin growth. Ideally, Garret said he likes to run the dryer at a rate of 1,200 pounds per hour, producing 10,000-12,000 pounds per day. However, that all depends on the weather, as he pumps in outside air to help dry the product, and if there is high moisture in the atmosphere, that will bring the rate down to 1,000 or 1,100 pounds per hour.

“We are consistently working to get better,” Garret said. “We try to do the best we can in everything we do.”

He said some of the technology they use allows them to continually track moisture, and the moisture reader collects 30-60 data points every second, but he feels there is always room to improve.

Garret enjoys the diversity of working at BioZyme, saying there is a new challenge each day. He also likes to challenge himself to keep the dryer running at maximum potential while still putting out a quality product. He also said the employees at BioZyme make it an enjoyable atmosphere.

“Everyone here is helpful and friendly, and it is just a good environment to work in,” he said.