Business Topics Archives - Page 28 of 31 - BioZyme Online Dealer Center

September 2016 – Letters from Lisa

ADD VALUE TO YOUR MARKETING IN A DOWN CATTLE MARKET

During the past few years, beef producers have been experiencing record high prices. However, according to “Money” magazine, “Beef prices, which have been increasing for years, recently hitting rates high enough to inspire outbreaks of steak thefts at supermarkets and even the return of cattle rustling, are finally coming down to earth.”

Down to earth? The magazine goes on to say the decline in price is not because demand for meat has decreased, but because cattle are fatter? The author has obviously never gone through calving, dealt with VFD or tried to find feed when a drought or flood is at hand. He calls prices “down to earth”; the beef industry calls them challenging. In any case, producers will have to take steps to improve margins, and we will have to market our products to them in a way where they will see the added value of using BioZyme^® products.

Value is a funny thing. There is no doubt that in the absence of value-added marketing, virtually any product’s price can be driven down to the most bottom line – price. The problem? When you are only selling price you’ll never be able to sell value. Adding value requires creativity, innovation and a willingness to out-work your competition. But the real sad truth is that if you continue to sell the way you always have, price will continue to rule. So, make a change before your competitor does! As the famous confederate general, Nathan Bedford Forrest, once said following a battle, “I won because I got there firstest with the mostest!” You need to do the same thing. The question then is, what do I do? Step one is to keep marketing top-of-mind. Most of us cut marketing in tough times – DO NOT DO THIS! In addition, make sure you incorporate these eight strategies into your marketing plan:

1. Set expectations high – just accepting that times are challenging, therefore, sales will be down, just isn’t OK.

2. Never stop studying – the products, the market, the attitudes, etc.
– in every down turn a new millionaire is born.

3. Find your light bulb – if you are turned on, the customer will
be too.

4. Make sure you can differentiate yourself – be faster, cheaper or
have a sharper focus on customer service.

5. Build your spokes – hire passionate, experienced team members
and work with the best partners, like BioZyme, to ensure a great
product and customer experience.

6. Be bold – just do it!

7. Plan ahead – five minutes of planning saves 30 minutes of doing.

8. Really understand the products you sell.

– What are the features?

– What benefits do they offer?

– Who will buy them?

– How can you easily match their traits with the customers’ needs?

A value-added attitude must result in an active mind with “Just DO IT” actions! After watching the Olympics this summer, being motivated should be easy. Let’s go get ’em!

A Producer Meeting Sure to Produce Results

It makes sense to align marketing strategies with positioning products, and producer meetings are a great way to get your brand in front of customers and potential customers. Invite them to your store, showcase your products, provide them some valuable information that might add profitability to their outfit, and offer them refreshments. And, before you know it, you have just shared your brand with a group of people who need and want your services and products.

In addition to promoting specific products, producer meetings are a great way to let producers learn more about you and your business. Time is a precious commodity. Make sure your producer meetings are time-sensitive to what your customers are dealing with. Prior to breeding season you might address pre-breeding and cow nutrition; weaning is a critical time in an animal’s life, so host an informational meeting prior to weaning to showcase products that will help reduce stress and promote gain.

The Sure Start^® Program is one program that you can promote at a producer meeting. It was designed as a simple program to keep calves healthy, eating and performing. The three step program is an easy sell, but you have to get the program out in front of people in order for them to notice, then ask about and finally utilize the program.

Our statistics show that overall growth for dealers that held a producer meeting is 78.8%. By following these simple steps you can easily host a Sure Start Weaning Producer Meeting or a meeting with the topic of your choice.

Reach out to Your Area Sales Manager to Discuss the Date and Location
Our marketing team can help with invitations and posters to let your audience know about the meeting. Details about the event and who you would like to send the invite to must be received three weeks prior to your event.

Request a Sure Start Weaning Marketing Package
Call Jody Purvis, Sales Support Coordinator at 816-344-5755, and request a Sure Start Weaning Marketing Package. We’ll send you literature and signage for your store and meeting.

Hang Signage in Your Store and Create a Display Area
A display area could be as simple as putting a Vita Charge^® Counter Display next to your till or creating a pyramid of Vita Charge Stress Tubs

Send Out a Text Message Reminder
So many people communicate via text message these days. Email a list of cell phone numbers to Katie Vaz, Marketing and Communications Manager at kvaz@biozymeinc.com, and we’ll send out a reminder to all your contacts the day before the meeting.

Host the Meeting
Your ASM will give the presentation, but it is nice to have a few producers there that can give a testimonial about how well the program has worked for them.

Follow Up
Follow up is important to any good marketing effort. Make sure you have all attendees fill out a contact card at the meeting. These cards should be given to your ASM ASAP. We’ll send out a follow up card and make sure these potential customers are included in any future national marketing campaigns. Don’t forget that a personal phone call can go a long way in securing the order.

Trust and Experience Help Dealer Position Products

Personal testimonials and relationship building have been equally important in positioning BioZyme^® products to customers for one novice dealer in southeast Iowa. Cecil Reed, who became a dealer in January, says the fact that she and her family have had personal success using various BioZyme products helps her marketing strategy. The producers in her area build a stronger trust factor when they hear about her personal experiences, and that helps build relationships and sell product.

“Once the growers know that I have had success using the products on mine and my family’s operations, I find out the grower’s goals for their operation and suggest products with their goals in mind,” Reed says.

The marketing tools that BioZyme provides allow Reed to back up her testimonials with research and product facts, which help position the products. She has posters and brochures grouped by product lines in her office, and she carries literature in each vehicle so she has something to put in front of potential customers, giving them something to read and think about after she leaves. She adds that direct mail is part of her future marketing plans since so many producers in her area still rely on the written word.

“I have found it beneficial to have posters hung around my office and buildings as they strike up questions and conversations,” she says. “I also really like using the flyers to hand out to customers that want to use our products. When I am able to get something into the hands of potential customers it keeps them thinking and keeps their interest sparked.”

Reed grew up near Bloomfield, Iowa, on her family’s diversified farm that included cattle, row crops and a sheep flock that allowed her and her sisters to show competitively at the local, state and national levels. She graduated with an agronomy degree from Iowa State University in December 2014 and within the next year married and started her business, NexGen Ag Solutions. In addition to selling BioZyme, Reed also sells Pioneer seed.

“Adding value to your farm” is the tag line for NexGen Ag Solutions, and carrying value-added products for the producers in her area is important to Reed. With producers watching their expenses and questioning the prices of BioZyme products, Reed can share her personal success stories. She says her go-to message is the “Amaferm advantage” because it does increase digestibility, and in her area where forage quality isn’t superb, this message really hits home.

Another testimonial she shares is for Vita Charge^® products, especially Liquid Boost^®. She says her dad treated a freshly-weaned lamb crop that went off feed with these products, and he witnessed immediate results when they started eating again the next day. Reed said her dad was sold on the products.

“The products are simple to use, and yet cover a diverse audience,” she says. She said after attending the recent dealer retreat in June, she was impressed that the same HEAT supplement works for producers in the extreme heat of Louisiana and other Southern states. When she shared those endorsements with her own customers, they were convinced that the product would work for them, and it has.

Reed has been aggressive in sharing her vision for the products. She has a business Facebook page, where she shares information with customers and potential customers, has used radio advertising and newspaper articles to inform growers that she is a dealer and talks one-on-one with people in her area. She is sponsoring awards at the Davis County Fair – a bag of Sure Champ^® – for the grand champion overall steer, heifer, wether, ewe, barrow, gilt, buck and doe. She also plans to have a hospitality area at the fair with cold drinks for the exhibitors where she can talk about BioZyme and its products. She says in the future she would like to host producer meetings to educate producers as well as exhibitors and their parents of the benefits of various BioZyme products.

Reed plans to use the CONNECT Online store more heavily in the future. She predicts that CONNECT will benefit her Vitalize^® horse customers since many of those products have a lower feeding rate and are not reordered as often, as well as assist her with inventory control.

Cecil Reed is a true believer in the BioZyme products and the differences they make in livestock. With her winning attitude and belief in the product, she has positioned the products in the spotlight for many producers in her area. “As long as I build trust with my customers, and trust helps build relationships, it is easy to position the products,” she says.

Consistency is Key to Great Branding

Your favorite country band is coming to town and you have tickets. After months of waiting, the night of the show is finally here and you get to hear all of your favorite songs. However, that morning the band decided they didn’t like playing the same songs every night so they played two hours of pop covers instead. You leave feeling dejected and can’t understand why they wouldn’t play the music that made them great.

Though this would probably never happen with a band in real life, it does happen with brands quite often. Consistency is repetitive, and because we are the ones delivering that message day after day we sometimes feel like our message has become boring. What is actually the case is that consistency paves the way for creativity with an impact and is what moves your brand from a good one to a great one.

So, what is your brand? A brand is what sets you apart from everyone else. It can be anything – a symbol, design, name, sound, reputation, slogan, emotion, employees and more – that separates one thing from another. A brand gives your business an identity. Do you want to be just a feed salesperson, or someone everyone knows because of your consistent message and identification? The sales person who listens to your customers’ goals and offers suggestions to help achieve those goals? According to North Star Marketing, here are four advantages to being consistent with your branding message:

Consistency helps manage perceptions. By thinking carefully and deliberately about your brand, you can shape how people perceive your organization. Consistency connotes professionalism, purpose and stability.

Consistency conveys outlook and attitude. A focused effort to establish and maintain consistent branding will deliver a very specific set of impressions: Are you serious? Are you intentional? Do you follow through? Are you focused?

Consistency eliminates issues surrounding brand confusion. For many companies, their branding is actually more of a hindrance than a help. A consistent brand should instill confidence rather than confusion.

Consistency protects your investment. Without established brand standards, many organizations spend thousands of dollars crafting a logo and building a message, only to have it degraded by inconsistent, sloppy application. Build equity in your brand by being consistent.

As you position your product before customers, be sure to brand yourself or your business. Keep the message consistent in your producer meetings, brochures, Facebook posts and media interviews. If you use a tag line on the bottom of a direct mail piece, make sure that same tag line is on your web site. If you have a logo, keep it consistent on your marketing pieces – don’t change the font or color. Remember, when you need help with marketing pieces, you can contact Katie Vaz at kvaz@biozymeinc.com. She can help you work toward consistency in your positioning by adding your logo or brand slogan to any of the current marketing pieces.

Source: http://www.northstarmarketing.com/2015/05/07/the-difference-between-a-good-brand-and-a-great-brand-consistency/

Added Value Should Mean Added Profitablity

Adding value is the process of changing or transforming a product from its original state to a more valuable state; from one set of characteristics to other characteristics that are more preferred in the marketplace.

Today, the “produce-then-sell” mentality of the commodity business is being replaced by the strategy of first determining what attributes consumers want in their products and then creating or manufacturing products with those qualities. Market forces have led to greater opportunities for product differentiation and added value because of:

Increased consumer demand regarding health, nutrition and convenience;
Efforts to improve productivity; and
Technological advances that enable production of what consumers desire.

Adding value to products can be accomplished in a number of ways, but generally falls into two categories: innovation and coordination. One or both of these must do more than add value. To be sustainable, they must also increase profitability.

Innovation

Innovation focuses on improving existing processes, procedures, products and services or creating new ones.

Impact on profitability – sales revenue is a function of volume and price. Value-added products allow more emphasis to be placed on the price part of the equation, initially, but ultimately they will also impact the volume, thereby increasing sales revenue. Your company’s strategy should be to find sources of revenue where you can have both high volumes and good prices.

The relatively new HEAT product is a great example of value-added innovation. By adding Xtract 7065, garlic and Amaferm^® we have a summer mineral that adds value by:

Lowering heat stress so animals eat instead of standing in the shade or the ponds
Repelling insects
Increasing digestibility so food consumed is utilized more efficiently offsetting the negative impacts of fescue in certain areas of the country

The product is priced such that we have the profitability part of the
equation covered. In its first year, 26 tons of product was sold.
However, the added value that this product provides has impacted the volume part of the revenue equation as well; sales grew to 455 tons in 2015, and to 1,202 tons as of June 30, 2016. This value-added product has accomplished the strategy of finding a source of revenue where we can have both high volumes and good pricing for maximized sales revenue.

Coordination

Coordination focuses on arrangements among those that produce and market products. Horizontal coordination involves pooling or consolidation among individuals or companies from the same level of the food chain. An example would be hog producers combining their market hogs to make a truckload. A coordinated effort is needed to impact cost reduction.

Impact on profitability – before examining value-added processing and marketing, cost minimization must be achieved. Only efficient businesses will be able to survive and compete. Adding value cannot take the place of reaching the efficiencies attainable through technology and economies of scale.

Our mega dealers are a good example of coordination. They buy large orders and then disseminate the product out in smaller amounts at a significantly lower cost and more efficiency than an LTL company.

No matter innovation or coordination, in the end, value-added is a fairly simple concept. Create relationships with customers to encourage repeat business, improve tactics and your profits will go up.

You Can Only Pick Two

As a marketer and designer, I have always quietly laughed at this diagram that is often shared online by seemingly frustrated freelancers or business owners who are fed up with the expectation of their customers.

A simple Google search of this “good, fast, cheap diagram” will show that not only does the marketing and design industry share these feelings, but that modifications of these little circles show up everywhere in nearly every profession from construction to investment banking to the food industry.

While there may be much truth to these circles, I have learned over time that frustration diminishes quickly for both service provider and customer when you identify where you both fit within the diagram. If you occupy different circles, it simply means that maybe you don’t have to offer what your customer expects and what your customer expects is not possible based on what you can provide. But when you do exist in the same circles, the relationship can be pretty perfect.

We have taken it upon ourselves to modify a diagram for you as dealers. BioZyme dealers most definitely represent the QUALITY PRODUCTS circle as you carry the best products in the business as indicated by the ingredients and proven record of their ability to create performance that pays. There are other circles you may represent as well. Now it is up to you to identify which level of expectation your customers have and what circle(s) they fit. It’s ok that some customers might not fit perfectly. They merely need to be educated on why “quality” is important or how the service you offer directly impacts the value they place on time or having a consultant at their door to help make important decisions for their operation. Sometimes it is ok to just know that they have no interest crossing over into overlapping portions of the circle, and you don’t have to waste each other’s time or resources marketing to that type of customer.

The sooner you begin existing in the same circle(s) so that the product and service you are providing matches your customers’ expectation, the sooner you will create an environment of known expectation and synergistic goals in which everyone involved is satisfied with the end result.

August 2016 – Letters from Lisa

For about six months I worked on a project we called the “messaging matrix.” Its original intent was to ensure everyone in our company was sharing the same benefits and messages about all of our products and brands. This started as a simple Excel spreadsheet, but consumed about 400 hours of my time and had so many columns I felt like a data miner. By the end of it, the project ended up being one of my most difficult, stressful and eye opening. I had never read horizontally across all of our brands and products at the same time. I had always looked at them vertically or one at a time. Sounds silly I am sure, but after much thought I realized “what a mess!” We had products that fit nowhere, branding that was going across multiple sectors within beef cattle and branding that was going across multiple species (VitaFerm^® was beef, sheep, goat and dairy).

As a person who claims to be incredibly organized and run an organized ship, I had to go into hiding for a while to save face and then ended up having to take the team on a retreat to get this fixed. The end result of this project has been amazing, and it includes:

Strengthening our message so our dealers can benefit from a more consistent message
Reorganizing our products in a way that makes more sense for our customers
Developing a new searchable product center in the Online Dealer Center for easy quick reference to all these great brands and products (remember 43% of end users expect to get product info from you – their dealer)
Building excitement of stronger branding power

brand /brand/
noun
noun: brand; plural noun: brands
1. a type of product manufactured by a particular company under a
particular name.

So let’s talk branding power. Interestingly enough the word came from our roots. More than a century ago, cattle ranchers used branding irons to mark which animals were theirs. As the cattle moved across the plains on their way to Chicago slaughter houses, brands made it easier to identify which ranches they were from.

With the introduction of packaged goods in the 19th century, producers put their mark on a widening array of products—cough drops, flour, sugar, beer — to indicate their source. For example, in the late 1880s as the Coca-Cola Company was getting started there were many soda producers in every market. Before Coca-Cola could get a customer to reach for a Coke, the company needed to be sure the customer could distinguish a Coke from all the other fizzy caramel-colored beverages out there.

In the first sense of the word, then, a brand is simply the non-generic name for a product that tells us the source of the product. A Coke is a fizzy caramel-colored soda concocted by those folks in Atlanta. For more information on brands and brand consistency see this month’s Tell Everyone article on page 8.

I will end this month with a challenge – something I wasn’t doing prior to this 400-hour venture. Are you differentiating marketing from branding? Let’s work together to create evangelists for our businesses.

Using Your Inventory Calendar as a Marketing Tool

Setting an inventory calendar can be useful for more than just inventory management. It can serve as the framework and guide for your marketing schedule as well. It makes sense to align marketing and promotion with the inventory your housing at the time and to be prepared to turn seasonal stock as quickly as possible.

Consistency is often one of the biggest struggles 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:

Radio Ads
Facebook Posts / Social Media
Event Marketing
Email Marketing
Text Messaging Service
Local Business Flyers

Next, reference your inventory calendar to know 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 3-5 months in advance.

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.

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. There are several tools and programs you can use for social media, email marketing and text messaging services that allow you to schedule in advance so you only have to manage these messages once per month.

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.

Forecasting Sales Seasonality

Inventory management is an art that can elevate your business to new heights if done well. It is highly variable, and the optimal system is different for each dealer. There are many tools that can be implemented to improve your inventory management – and cash flow!

Techniques such as First-In First-Out (FIFO), setting par levels, having a contingency plan to address unforeseen issues should they occur, auditing regularly and classifying inventory so you have a system to prioritize the most important stock are all vital parts of inventory management.

Successful inventory management involves balancing the costs of inventory with the benefits of inventory. Many dealers fail to fully appreciate the true costs of carrying inventory, which includes not only direct costs of storage, insurance and taxes, but also the cost of money tied up in inventory. This fine line between keeping too much inventory and not enough is not the only concern. Others include:

Maintaining a wide assortment of stock — but not spreading the rapidly moving ones too thin;
Increasing inventory turnover — but not sacrificing the service level;
Keeping stock low — but not sacrificing service or performance;
Obtaining lower prices by making volume purchases — but not ending up with slow-moving inventory; and
Having an adequate inventory on hand — but not getting caught with obsolete items.

Perhaps one of the most important elements to finding this balance is accurate forecasting.

A huge part of good inventory management comes down to accurately predicting demand. Make no mistake, this is incredibly hard to do. There are so many variables involved and you’ll never know for sure exactly what’s coming, but you can get pretty close. Here are a few things to look at when projecting your future sales:

Trends in the market
Last year’s sales during the same week/month
This year’s growth rate
Guaranteed sales from contracts and subscriptions
Seasonality and the overall economy
Upcoming promotions
Planned ad spending

If there’s something else that will help you create a more accurate forecast, be sure to include it.

A helpful planning tool would be to graph product sales from last year by month so you have a picture that serves as a rough forecasting tool to help stay ahead of ordering and marketing.

Accurate inventory management incorporates what you know about customer and product demand from the past and present to (ideally) predict your best course of action in the future.

Optimize the value of such information by coupling your inventory management and marketing promotions to work together (More on page 10). For example, such insights can reveal potential opportunities to leverage quantity-based pricing suppliers may offer, while at the same time empowering you to offset times of lower demand with promotions or ‘packaged’ deals that strategically drive sales.

It is always best practice to ensure you have product on the floor at least 2 weeks prior to the beginning of selling season for each product and then use the forecasting tools above to prepare for restocking throughout the season.

June/July 2016 – Letters from Lisa

Proper planning and implementing best practices can help relieve stress due to the seasonality of our industry. From ice-cream stands and landscapers to hotels and feed stores, many small businesses are seasonal — meaning they don’t rake in much cash for some portion of the year. While making seasonality work in a business isn’t typically easy, there are ways to alleviate some of the stress.

Plan Ahead

“Measure twice, cut once” is an old adage that still rings true, especially for a small business. Look ahead at least six months to plan appropriately. To carry the business through slower periods and complete lulls, consider saving cash during the busy months. Look hard at every element, from inventory to staffing, to avoid tying up cash unnecessarily during slow months. And, don’t forget to take advantage of slow stretches to prepare for the peak season.

Work Year-Round

One issue for many seasonal businesses is that they lose visibility in the off-season. So part of the challenge is keeping customers connected, and using downtime as a time to regroup, re-evaluate the business plan and expand customer relations.

Many businesses choose to stay open year-round by switching their focus to a different niche. Many ski shops, for instance, sell bicycling gear or kayaks in the summer. Not only does this supplement revenue, but it also hedges the risk since mild winters may inspire people to ride bikes. Other seasonal entrepreneurs start a new business altogether in the off months. Nancy Swenson and Craig White, owners of Beach Farm Inn, a Wells, Maine, bed-and-breakfast, earn 75 percent of the $75,000 to $100,000 of the inn’s annual revenue between the Fourth of July and Labor Day. A rainy summer, Ms. Swenson says, can take a sizable bite out of revenue. While the couple offers various off-season promotions (like cooking-class weekends) to rev up the inn’s guest numbers, they’ve started another venture in the winter months. Mr. White turned a woodworking hobby into a business making wooden furniture. He now makes $30,000 to $40,000 between December and March selling his handmade furniture — or nearly half of the total revenue generated annually by the inn. He uses the inn to help market the furniture, since the rooms are furnished with many of his crafts. “There are years where the weather is terrible or things happen in the world that you just can’t control,” Mr. White says. “Having that extra income…acts as a buffer.”

Market Creatively

Some seasonal businesses are able to extend their season by finding creative ways to get customers interested in their offerings year-round.

Wayne Bronner, owner of Bronner’s Christmas Wonderland, a Frankenmuth, Michigan, Christmas decor store with 260 year-round employees, finds he can keep visitors buying Christmas goods all year by tying promotions and marketing to timely holidays and seasons throughout the year. In the days leading up to Mother’s Day, for instance, he decks out the front of the store with ornaments displaying messages for mothers. In summer, the store plays up wedding-inspired gifts, such as Bronner’s Newlywed’s Ornament Collection, a gift set of 12 ornaments for newly married couples that sells for $67.99.

He also offers sales and discounts in the off-season to spur more sales. For Valentines Day, he has a “14-14” sale — 14% off any item that costs more than $14. The store uses quirky advertising on billboards to attract summer travelers who might be looking for a fun stopover. The store “markets the novelty of shopping for Christmas decorations in July,” Mr. Bronner says.

Seasonality doesn’t have to mean no cash or nothing to do. In fact, if you look at it as a time to turn up your workload it can mean new products. HEAT is a perfect BioZyme^® example. Historically in June and July our sales would drop to about 20 percent from normal. HEAT has almost gotten those months right up with all the others.

Go get ‘em tigers!