Business Topics Archives - Page 7 of 31 - BioZyme Online Dealer Center

How Can an Inventory Calendar Assist in Marketing Plans?

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

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

Create a Marketing Strategy

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Know Your Customers: Discover Their Needs

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Master Dealer Program Offers Product Info and Marketing

Knowledge is power. At BioZyme®, we want you to have as much knowledge as possible about the products that we offer. That is why we have created the Master Dealer Training Program. The Master Dealer Program is a series of online training modules that allow individuals within your company to learn about each product line and ways to use different products to cross sell and upsell.

In addition to the basic Master Dealer Training Program, there is a Year Two program for those who have completed the first step. In Year Two, dealers will learn about some newer products that have been introduced, as well marketing techniques such as Promoboxx.

“I feel that in the last three days of going through all the training courses, I have learned so much that as a rancher myself, I was not aware of. I look forward to using your products as well. I appreciate the opportunity to learn all this information,” said Missy Rerich, BWI Inside Sales, Schulenburg, Texas.

The Master Dealer program is open to all dealers and is available under “Training” in the Online Dealer Center. Multiple people per dealership can participate in the Mater Dealer program and can work at their own pace to watch the short educational videos and take the quizzes to pass the program. Once all qualifications are met, your dealership will be designated as a Master Dealer on the Dealer Locator map and receive special signage for the store. Each person who finishes the program will receive special BioZyme Master Dealer apparel so customers can easily identify those who have gone the extra mile to provide excellent knowledge and service. Additional awards are given to those who also complete the Year Two program.

The Master Dealer Program is simple. It is a free way to grow your business by providing you with the product knowledge you and your employees need to help sell the BioZyme lines of products. Engage in the Master Dealer Program today. Knowledge is power. Power is watching your business grow.

Steps Dealers Can Take to Grow Their Sales

If you want to grow your business, you have to move forward and upward, sometimes doing things outside of your comfort zone. Abraham Lincoln once said, “I may be a slow walker, but I never walk back.” It’s ok to grow slowly, but it’s not ok to go backwards in your growth!

At BioZyme, we want to see our dealers succeed and grow. That’s why we’ve provided the tools and programs to help you grow. Let’s review.

Engage in Promoboxx

Remember that we said a majority of farmers, 94%, have a smart phone or cell phone. A big share of them also have access to social media. For those who are not active on social media, they probably have a spouse or kid who is on social media, whose accounts they “creep” or scroll through periodically. Because we know not everyone has time to create social media posts, BioZyme has created social media posts that align with its national marketing messages and put those into Promoboxx, and easy-to-use platform to help you create awareness of your company with BioZyme information on your social channels.

Promoboxx is free to BioZyme dealers to use, and provides you access to various pre-created posts to share on your social media accounts. As a dealer, you can use the entire post or various assets of it like the copy or just the photo. Content is updated regularly to keep it fresh for you. To learn more or get started with Promoboxx, visit www. biozymedealermktg.com.

Quarterly Dealer Mailers

Direct mail is a great way to get a message in front of customers. Each quarter, BioZyme creates a message with a focus on one product that is timely for that particular production cycle/time of year. If the dealer sends its customer mailing list to BioZyme, via an excel spreadsheet, it will prepare the mailer to send to those customers, free of charge. And, if you have your customer mailing list split by species or product lines, that is even better. That way when it comes time to send a Vitalize mailer, those with sheep or goats won’t get the mail.

Watch your email and the Dealer Facebook Group for sign up information for this program.

Product Educational Opportunities

In addition to having a product focus for the customer mailer during each quarter, the BioZyme Team also provides a live training for dealers each quarter around that same topic. These trainings take place on the Dealer Facebook Group. These sessions are also recorded, to allow more dealers to watch on their own time.

In addition to dealer trainings, any time a new product is released, a training is conducted and a new product video is put into the Online Dealer center (ODC).

Of course, the Master Dealer, is always a great way to learn about the products and selling techniques. Look for some enhancements to his program in the coming year!

Get Your Store Ready

Nothing is more discouraging than going to a store, looking for a product, and not being able to find it because there is no signage, or it is buried behind some other irrelevant product. If it is weaning time, get your Vita Charge® products on an end cap with signage that promotes stress recovery.

Upselling and cross selling are great techniques. Keep gel products on the sales counter and when a customer buys Vitalize® Equine Digest More Plus, be sure to suggest they might also like the Vitalize Equine Gel.

Signage and product placement will help you sell products in your store more often than you think. You can’t sell what the customers can’t see.

We’ve provided you four simple steps to help you market your business. Follow these steps and watch your business grow!

Product Knowledge Helps Build Trust

When your customers come to you looking for a product, they are typically also looking for a solution. Solutions are answers to their challenges, so if you want to make the sale, you must be prepared with the answers, or the information they need about a product. The number one way to make a sale is by building trust. The best way to build trust is to provide reliable, accurate information about the products you are offering.

One recent online survey of consumers showed that the number one expectation of the stores they visit was knowledge of the products sold in the store. If you and your staff are knowledgeable about the products, that is meeting the customers’ expectations and the first step needed to build trust. At BioZyme, we know how important that trust is to making the sale; that is why we have created multiple ways to ensure the product information is available to you when and how you want it so you can share it with your customers.

Online Dealer Center

All product information is available at your fingertips at the Online Dealer Center (ODC). Find key selling points, ingredients, feeding rates and ordering information for any of the BioZyme products your customer might be looking for. Even if they are not sure the exact name of a product, you can search by species, program or product line, and a variety of products will appear from your search.

Literature

The Marketing Team creates a wide variety of brochures and educational materials across all brands. From one-page sell sheets to tri-fold brochures to extensive product guides that give specific details about every product, these colorful, easy-to-use pieces are available to you to have at your dealership. They can be sourced two ways. First, you can print them yourself from the ODC by selecting the Marketing menu and dragging down to “Marketing & Sales Aids.” Or, if you would like to request hard copies of these brochures, drag down to “Marketing Requests” under the Marketing menu and follow the steps outlined to make a request.

Product Videos

Some people learn better through video or hearing a presentation. For that purpose, a quick promotional video has been created for each product to share the highlights of the uses and benefits. These product videos can be found on the product pages on any of the brand websites or by viewing a product in the Product Center found in the ODC. These are great to be able to play in-store for your customers and each video is 30-seconds to less than two minutes in length.

Master Dealer Program

The Master Dealer Training Program is an online comprehensive training program that provides all employees at a dealership with the information that they need to talk about the products with potential customers.

At BioZyme we want to be proactive in providing you the answers you need so you can build trust and provide your customers solutions. What other ways would you find it helpful to receive information to educate customers and potential end-users about our products? Let us know! You can always reach out to the Outreach Support Center or your ASM to let them know what other methods you would like to see used for providing education and information to you about products.

Marketing Focuses on Driving Customers to our Dealers

The Marketing Team serves many functions at BioZyme; however, its primary objective is to connect prospective end-users with dealers in their area. They do this by driving traffic to the Dealer Locator on the website so customers can find the products they need to solve their challenges close to home and begin building relationships.

How do customers and potential customers find the Dealer Locator? The Marketing Team creates awareness and demand for all of BioZyme’s product lines through various tactics. Everything the Marketing Team creates from a national, regional or local level has connecting the dealer to the end-user in mind. Initiatives include social media posts across all brands, digital advertising with leading industry partners, print, radio, television commercial, events, partnerships with respected industry partners and more. Every media piece includes a call to action such as clicking a link, scanning a QR code or visiting the website to encourage the viewer to learn more about the specific product and find a dealer near them.

The Marketing Team doesn’t do its job blindly. Just like the Sales Team sets a sales goal each month, Marketing also has a goal for reaching potential and current customers and driving them to the Dealer Locator. This goal of 5% is met or exceeded for every brand, as Lisa talked about in this month’s letter. For example, Vitalize Equine had more than 6,800 clicks on the dealer locator, which was nearly a 12% conversion rate. However, a more aggressive brand like VitaFerm had 26,000 clicks or a 27% conversion rate!

Hitting that goal is very important to ensuring what the marketing the team is doing is effective and ultimately driving traffic into your store, and the data is evaluated regularly so adjustments can quickly be made, if necessary. Since the Team knows that the customers are going to the Dealer Locator and reaching out to Dealers, it wants you, the dealer, to have the most current information listed on the website.

There is a Dealer Locator on every brand website as well as the main biozymeinc.com site. Once on the locator, end-users can enter their zip code to find you, their local dealer, including your basic contact information such as name, address, phone number, fax number, email and website. The more information we have from you, the more we can provide. In addition, the locator also lists the product lines you carry. Finally, if you or someone within your dealership has completed the Master Dealer program, that is also designated, with a note that the “Master Dealer is certified as having extensive product knowledge and many products available,” giving you an added competitive edge.

Marketing to the end-user pays. The Marketing Team works tirelessly to make sure customers know they can reach out to the dealer network wherever the customer is located and find someone knowledgeable about the BioZyme brands. Let us drive the customers to you.

How Can Improvements Benefit your Business?

New and improved. Bigger and better. Safer and more accurate. All of these phrases might have your customers’ heads spinning when what they really want is the BioZyme products that they and their animals have come to rely on over the years at an affordable price.

As we continuously improve our products, we want to inform the customers why these improvements were made. Were we offering a second-rate product before? No. Did our product need to be improved? Maybe not. However, if we never make changes, we are never striding forward.

What do these changes mean? They mean that the products that you and your customers have come to know and rely on over the years are just getting better. Yes, they still do what they say they do – provide a good gut feeling, help improve conception rates, mitigate heat stress and more. However, the products do all of that safer and more accurately while enhancements are made to make the products more appealing to the animals.

Below are some talking points for you and your staff to keep on-hand for when your customers have questions.

BioZyme cares about providing safe products free of even the tiniest particles of metal and other debris and has invested its resources in a series of screens, filters and magnets to ensure that the only things in its bags are the products your animals want to eat.
Accuracy is important to the customer. It is important to BioZyme too. That’s why the company engages in a series of automated testing and checklists to ensure what we say is in each bag is in that bag. Our labels match the ingredients inside the bag to put your minds at ease.
Consistency is important. We want the bag of product you open today to be the same as you opened last week and the week before. Due to need for consistent flavor, we have worked with one of our international Amaferm ® distributors to develop proprietary flavors for each product line that will be introduced in early 2022, so each bag of product will continue to have the same appealing taste, bag after bag after bag.
Care that comes full circle is the heart of BioZyme. Amaferm, our precision prebiotic, is at the core of that care, but we also like to pair Amaferm with the probiotic, that we added to our Stress Tubs to make them more effective. We are always trying to make our products better for your animals.

Improvements mean one thing. We are moving upward. As long as we are making improvements, our customers can feel good about the steps we are taking to provide their animals the best products that do what we say they will do, while helping improve their bottom line.

Staying Innovative to Ensure Consistency and Palatability

If something leaves a bad taste in your mouth, you probably aren’t going back for a second bite. The same is likely true for animals of all species. That is why during a random survey of customers and sales staff we asked them to explain safe and accurate products from their perspective. Palatability was in their top three concerns. Yes, palatability, or the fact that something tastes good is important to customers and salespeople when it comes to animal products.

Therefore, BioZyme® Inc. has been working to make sure the products it sells are palatable to the animal and have the same taste with each and every bag. According to Lynsey Whitacre, Ph.D., Companion Animal Business Development Manager at BioZyme who also works on the Research and Development Team, much time and effort has been dedicated to ensuring all products will have superb palatability.

Whitacre said BioZyme has been working in cooperation with a European company that is an expert in flavorings to establish proprietary flavor profiles for each line of BioZyme products. Not only is this company a flavor expert, it is also an international distributor for Amaferm®, so this new partnership allows us to deepen our relationship.

First, a sample of all of our products was sent to Europe so the company there could get an understanding of each of our products and the current smell. Once they understood the various product lines, they could start creating a proprietary flavor for each product line. The trick is to make sure the products are not too tasty.

“We took it a further step because especially for the free-choice minerals we want it palatable enough that they will eat it, but not too palatable that it will lead to over consumption,” Whitacre said.

However, it wasn’t enough to just find the ideal flavors for the mineral products. Whitacre also said it was important to BioZyme to make sure that the liquid and gel products are palatable and pleasing to the animals.

“Even though the animals don’t get the choice to eat or take the product, in the case of Cattle Drench where it is administered, we still want the product to be palatable and enjoyable for the animal,” she said. “By developing liquid flavors that we can add into those products it highlights our commitment to palatability and making safe and accurate products that are highlighting palatability when it maybe isn’t the most important thing. I’m excited about that!”

Each line will have its own distinct flavor so when you open a bag of VitaFerm®, you will know it is VitaFerm, and when you open a bag a Vitalize, it will be different from any other product line. Flavors will be familiar flavors that people are used to and should recognize, Whitacre said.

Final samples of the flavors will be mixed into products and tested on actual animals in the next few months. Since these flavors are proprietary, they will undergo the registration process with plans of being introduced early in 2022.

You asked. We listened. Palatability is important to you and your animals. Therefore, it is important to us. Be looking for new and improved products with a proprietary flavor profile coming soon.

Producing Safe, Accurate Products Continues to be BioZyme’s Mission

In a world where things change at a rapid pace, one thing has not changed at BioZyme® Inc.; we continue to make products that do what we say they do. This promise comes from a focus on safe, accurate products, and has always been a priority to our company. However, we have moved the needle even further this past year, investing time and resources to make sure you and your customers know we want to provide the safest, most accurate products on the market.

With a motto of “care that comes full circle,” safety is always top of mind. That safety starts at the plant located in Saint Joseph, Missouri. Most dealers and customers who have toured the plant will agree that it is one of the cleanest production facilities that they have ever been to; however, that is how the plant looks 365 days a year, not just when guests arrive. According to Lisa Norton, President and COO, safety starts with cleanliness.

“Our employees take great pride to make our products under clean conditions, free of harmful, foreign substances,” Norton said.

Not only does the cleanliness of the plant lead to a safer product, but it also leads to safer working conditions for the BioZyme employees, who are part of that circle of care.

Accuracy is also of upmost importance. We want to ensure that products are labeled appropriately and truthfully, and because we want them to do what we say they will do, they are backed by testing that ensures that the tag and the contents of the bag are in alignment. A major component of accuracy lies within providing the customer a consistent product. Every. Time.

“We strive to provide a product that is consistent in color, particle size and palatability. Although we don’t taste it, the animal does, and it knows from bag to bag if it is getting the same great tasting product it received last time, and that is important to us to deliver that to each animal,” Norton said.

Another key component of producing an accurate product is ensuring that it does what we say it does and understanding why it works, so that it can be replicated day after day. That is why research is a key pillar of BioZyme and the safe, accurate products we produce.

“Research is at the core of everything we do. We won’t release a new product if it hasn’t thoroughly been researched to do what we say it does, and that is why we can pride ourselves in our research database of more than 100 published journal articles about the advantages of Amaferm,” Norton said.

Automation in equipment checklists have been implemented to help ensure accuracy from mixing product to bagging product to loading it. For example, Jamie Miller, Director of Operations Support, said that automation in the past year has allowed mixing to go from a 13 or 14-step process to a one-mouse-click process, allowing for less error, more efficiency and quicker turn around. Due to an automated metrics checklist on bagging, that system has become more efficient, allowing for one more product run each day, making the entire company more efficient and accurate.

Because we care about safety and accuracy, you can be assured as a dealer, that your customers will not be disappointed with their purchases. They will open a bag each time that meets their expectations and their animals’ expectations, and their products will arrive to them quicker and labeled accurately.

Safety and accuracy. They are just two of the many important components to care that comes full circle and they are what we have teams working on every day at BioZyme Inc.

Program Keeps Medicine Costs Down for one Producer

Nutrition and health. The two are synergistic, and one multi-generation background operation in Oklahoma has found that if they keep their calves healthier from the start with a good nutrition and vaccination program, the calves stay healthier during their time on the ranch.

“Vita Charge® has been important to us. It’s helped us be able to run more cattle faster through the system without making any major changes and without spending a lot of money,” said Steve Howard of Howard Ranches at Waurika, Oklahoma. Howard Ranches backgrounds 14,000 to 15,000 calves annually.

According to Micky Worley, sales rep for Twin Rivers Vet Supply, Howard Ranches has been a long-time customer, buying vaccines from the company for more than a dozen years. But about four years ago, the progressive operation also wanted to keep their nutrition in check too, realizing that health and nutrition typically work better together.

“We know that premium nutrition like that offered through the Vita Charge program is a direct benefit to a good vaccination program. The Vita Charge Drench helps those calves’ digestive system get to working right. It keeps them on feed, keeps them going, keeps them gaining and performing,” Worley said.

Upon arrival, the Howards, give each calf a dose of Vita Charge Cattle Drench which provides a jump start to the digestive system and protects cattle during stress. It is formulated to help cattle recover quickly and does not interfere with antibiotics that might be given simultaneously. Amaferm®, a research-proven precision prebiotic that increases intake, digestion and absorption is the key ingredient in all BioZyme products. Once the calves are processed, they are turned into pens for up to three weeks to make sure they stay healthy before they are turned out to grass. In those pens, they have Vita Charge Stress Tubs waiting for them. The tubs allow cattle to get their daily dose of Vita Charge in a convenient method. In addition to Amaferm, the Stress Tubs also contain MOS to expel the bad pathogens in the gut.

“As soon as we started using it, we saw our consumption go up. Cattle went to the bunks faster and would eat more. There in turn, I know they started gaining weight from day one, instead of setting there several days just trying to get back to pay weight. In addition, before we started using the Vita Charge Drench, we would spend at least an extra $3 per head, per load using more medicine to treat sick cattle. That first year, from the day we started using it until the end of the year, we got in about 700 head and our death loss dropped one-half of a percent. Little things make a big difference,” Steve added.

In addition to the monetary cost savings of medicine since the Howards switched to Vita Charge, Steve said they are saving time and labor from pulling and treating sick calves. Their calves are not getting set back; they are feeling good and gaining.

“The return on investment is several times over what it costs to put the Vita Charge in them. I couldn’t be happier. Their consumption is up, their performance this year is better than I can remember. At the end of the day, they are healthy, eating good, feeling good and will make more money,” Steve said.

When a program saves time, money and keeps calves healthy and performing, that is an investment worth looking into. Not only do the synergies exist between the products BioZyme offers, but good nutrition works together with good health, keeping those cattle growing and gaining the way they should with fewer treatments.