Category: Dealers Like You

Valley Vet Supply is a name recognizable to many in the livestock and equine business as a go-to for their animal health and nutrition supplies. And rightfully so. A pair of veterinarians recognized the need of its customers and created the mail-order retailer for veterinary supplies in the small north central Kansas town of Marysville in 1985. In 1999, their online store, www.valleyvet.com went live, making them one of the early adapters of e-commerce, and today, they sell livestock, equine and pet products from coast-to-coast, including BioZyme^® small pack products.

Keeping at the forefront of their customers has always been a priority for Valley Vet and is one reason they have adapted so well to technology. Although this nationally recognized company has a massive web and social media presence, personal service has always been a priority, explains Kori Simmons, Director of Marketing. She said that the veterinarians, Drs. Ray Shultz and Arnold Nagely, still come to work daily, and are available to answer customer phone calls, something they both enjoy. 

However, with the number of clients that Valley Vet serves and the diversity of their products, it has adapted its marketing program to include more information through video on its social media platforms. Simmons said this has proven to be a successful way to partner with its vendors and reach its customers. 

“Do not underestimate the power of video. In today’s day and age, people are less apt to read and more apt to watch a 30-second video – short, quick and to the point. It’s better to have five 30-second videos that are broken up than to have a five-minute video,” Simmons said.

Simmons said their marketing team realized the power of video compared to a typical post when they were analyzing engagement. So, they started using more video with simple giveaways and sweepstakes by partnering with some of their vendors. However, with COVID-19, the realization that their customers were looking for information, helped them transition their video content, and they saw an even greater boost in their customer engagement.

Prior to COVID, Simmons said their vendors and partners would come in to train the Valley Vet call center and marketing teams to ensure everyone was saying the right things to end-users. Once that came to a halt, they realized the need to continue to get their messages out to their customers, so they started producing Facebook Live sessions with their vendors.

“We started partnering with our vendors, and what we started doing was less of an infomercial and more of an educational focus. With a product focus versus topic focus that fills in with some product information, the engagement was night and day different. Since COVID, our engagement is up about 50%, and really and truly the only thing that has changed is our video engagement,” Simmons said.

Valley Vet typically has between 50 to 100 people watch each Live video, with a growing number of those being a regular following. She said it is not unusual for them to have 30,000 views after the Live is over. They have had great success keeping a regular time and day for their Facebook Lives, Tuesday and Thursday at 3:30 p.m. This helps them measure and compare engagement by keeping a consistent time and cadence.

Simmons recommends getting all speakers online about 30 minutes before your Facebook Live to test sound, lighting and background. Make sure that the background isn’t distracting; you might need to clean your office or go to a room with fewer windows if it is too bright. Make sure you have a speaker with a good personality, and one that can answer the questions that are asked. And make sure you have a person to monitor questions, even after the Live program.

“Make sure to actively monitor customer questions. Put yourself out there to answer questions. Make sure it happens,” Simmons reminds.

Although Valley Vet sometimes does prerecord and edit videos to post, the engagement on their live videos is just too good. Simmons said their engagement is usually quadruple on a live video what it is on a prerecorded video that they put on social media. She advises keeping prerecorded videos for product focus on your website, but to keep them short and to make sure they are updated as any changes are made.

Regardless the size of your business, you can make a big impression with Facebook Live and prerecorded videos. Follow the advice that Simmons offers to grow your customer engagement. Video is a tool that is here to stay! 

Dealers are the heartbeat of the BioZyme ® organization. They connect the end-users to the products that help the animals stay healthy and performing. During times of unprecedented challenges, like a pandemic and uncertain markets, BioZyme developed the VitaFerm Conserve line to help dealers reach a new market of customers and keep Amaferm in front of their existing customers.

Read what some dealers had to say about Conserve and how it’s helped them grow their customer base.

“BioZyme hit the nail on the head with Conserve. With the world in somewhat of a crisis and producers having a lot of questions about what the markets are going to be like this fall, BioZyme offered a good basic mineral. The first cost a rancher is going to cut is mineral. With VitaFerm Conserve, they can still get a good basic mineral package with Amaferm included. I’ve brought in a few new customers at the Conserve price point that were interested in the Amaferm advantage that I might not have gotten otherwise. I’ve sold a lot of the Conserve with Garlic since the IGR has to be put out early in the year to help with fly control. After about a week, the garlic is helping with the flies. The customer response has been good, and their cattle are looking good.” – Tee Hale, Union Center, South Dakota

“I’ve gained at least two new customers by offering the Conserve mineral this spring to people who just want to save money. The guys in my area don’t want to spend extra on their mineral, so this has been a welcome addition to the VitaFerm line.” – James Bartonek, Olmitz, Kansas

“If I could summarize the new Conserve mineral in one word, it would be diversity because you can go so many different routes with it. The various forms are a big advantage. When times are tough, guys can still get a nice range mineral and have the garlic in there for fly control. I think that is the biggest thing right there. I’m excited to give my customers an economical line that competes with other brands, and it seems to be doing well for customers who have bought it. You can get it in various forms, in these challenging times that we are facing with the coronavirus and all the markets not cooperating the way we want them to, it gives guys more options to stay with BioZyme and keep using our products.” – Blake Bauer, Bingham, Illinois

Care that comes full circle might be the BioZyme® company motto, but for one of its leading Vita Charge® dealers, that care is something put into practice every day. Tera Rooney Barnhardt, DVM, is a wife, a mom of two young children and a leading bovine veterinarian, consulting feedlots and dairies in Western Kansas. She makes it her mission to ensure that beef and dairy cattle under her watch have the best care possible.

“I think when there is a problem with a group of calves, we tend to lean toward what we can do now to fix it. A lot of times that comes in the form of an antibiotic or vaccine. These are wonderful tools for our industry, but we’ve got to be stewards of these types of tools and explore technologies that might otherwise make a consumer more comfortable to keep choosing beef and dairy at the grocery store,” Rooney Barnhardt said. “Many times, if we think about the events that led up to the wreck, we’ll do a better job of preventing or at least preparing for the next one. I’m not a nutritionist, but I’d make a pretty bad veterinarian if I ignored the largest system in a cow’s body!”

Keeping those bovine digestive systems in check isn’t always easy, but it’s a job that Rooney Barnhardt does with zest. Her passion started while growing up on her family’s farm in Southwest Kansas. Her grandfather loved cows, and “he lit a fire in my belly to love cows too,” according to the Kansas State University alumna. She earned her bachelor’s in Animal Sciences and Industry, a master’s in Biomedical Sciences and her Doctorate of Veterinary Medicine from K-State, before her first stint in a mixed animal clinic in rural Kansas, where she said she became acutely aware of how important the digestive system is to the health of all animals, both big and small. Today, her primary focus is on bovines, both beef and dairy.

“I hit the road every day thinking about what an awesome gig I have – I work with the people who put food on our tables. We make sure that food is safe, nutritious and sustainably produced. It’s a privilege to have consumers who want beef and dairy products for their families,” Rooney Barnhardt said.

The health and welfare of those animals starts at birth. Many of Rooney Barnhardt’s clients raise their animals from birth to harvest, so getting them off to a good start is vital. That is one reason she decided to become a BioZyme dealer.

“I was honestly frustrated that we’d see so many problems in herds or with animals that came down to nutritional deficiencies. Cow-calf herds can be raised in a low maintenance manner where I practice because of all of the available crop residues and grassland. They can be low maintenance, until they can’t. When clients would come to me with a problem, and we’d need to have a solution that made sense when you put boots on the ground – BioZyme seemed to accomplish a lot of that for me,” she said.

Although most of the cattle that Rooney Barnhart oversees are managed well, fed well, and are typically healthy, when they do get sick, she likes to use the Amaferm® advantage used in the Vita Charge to keep the animals she does have to treat healing quicker.

“If I can utilize the animal’s immune system to its maximum potential because I have every other wheel on the track, that’s how I prefer to practice veterinary medicine. I like to stay on the proactive side of problem solving. I like the Vita Charge line for this reason. I can utilize this product in its multiple forms to get an animal or a pen of animals back on track.”

And her favorite products: “I don’t leave home without a tube of Vita Charge Gel in my truck. If I’m treating individual animals, we get better results if I can get their gut back on track sooner. And since I can’t forget the other 4-legged friends on the ranch, I also like to keep Vitalize on hand. I see how many things a good farm dog can eat in a day at the ranch or dairy. Man, do they need some assistance from what I have seen!”

Care that comes full circle. For this dealer, that motto is how she lives her life.

“At the end of the day, I’m a veterinarian in the trenches of the cattle industry. I have a couple of kids at home and I feed the same beef I help raise, to my family. They drink the same milk that my dairies produce for your family. I’m excited to be a small part in the process that keeps the world fed. If you have questions about how your food is produced, please don’t listen to a celebrity, politician or athlete; check in with a farmer or veterinarian. I am happy to be that person for you.”

Hale Feeds LLC Keeps Moving Forward

“Keep moving forward.” That’s the advice that young, progressive BioZyme® dealer Tee Hale offers his contemporaries and other new dealers. “We have great products; you’re never going to lose by trying to push forward. Dive in head-first and try for the best. You’re never going to make it if you don’t try.”

Tee, along with his parents Jim and Teresa Hale, and his brother Tye own Hale Feeds LLC at Union Center, South Dakota. Tee manages the daily operations of the dealership along with the feed sales from the on-ranch “feed shed” while running about 300 momma cows with his parents. His brother lives nearby and works for a neighboring cow-calf operation.

Because he uses so much of the product himself and understands the benefits of Amaferm®, Tee said it is simple for him to sell the products to others. He can share the advantages of a high-quality program for both cattle and horses.

“I take the approach about cost, per head, per day. What are we going to put in this cow this day? What is it going to cost me? There is the opinion out there that VitaFerm® is a little costly, but it is a premium mineral, and that is what people need to understand. You’ve got your Amaferm in it, that’s a big selling point right there,” he said. “I had bought a set of 60 bred heifers last spring that I turned out on Concept•Aid® right away; and put on HEAT® through the summer. In the fall I had one open out of those 60 head. Right there I can tell that story and it gets people’s attention. For about 15 cents a day, you can feed this product and it works.”

Tee said he is excited about the new products that BioZyme is introducing; he has already begun selling the VitaFerm Concept•Aid 5/S HEAT. He said the VitaFerm HEAT is popular in his area of northwest South Dakota, as it is a cost-efficient and effective product for producers.

When Tee isn’t ranching or selling livestock feed and supplements, he likes to rodeo. He said he’s seen remarkable results with the Vitalize® products on his horses. The results he’s seen with the Amaferm advantage in his horses, has helped him promote those advantages to cattle producers too.

“There is a lot of competition in the area, and it’s all in the same price, but this one has more to it. I can feed my horse something, and I know if it works on their guts, it is going to work on a cow’s gut. And I see a huge difference in my horses,” Tee said.

Phone conversations are the most effective communication method for Tee to share his business with others. He spends parts of each day driving between his ranch and his parents’ where he has time to talk on the phone. And even though South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem never formally “shutdown” the state due to COVID-19, Tee said he likely wouldn’t have left the ranch much in March and April due to calving season. Brandings in May were really the first times people gathered, and even then, they respected one another’s space, but they don’t stress about social distancing, according to Tee.

Life will move forward as usual, and Hale Feeds LLC will have new products to market with the Amaferm advantage.

Provides Nutrition Needs To Bull Customers and Others

Cattle producers are often said to be the original stewards of the land. Their genuine passion for caring for their land and livestock is in their blood. They know if they take care of their cattle and the land, the cattle will take care of them. Taking care of his cattle before and after the sale is how Mark Rohr, Proven Sres Services, Hays, Kansas, became a BioZyme® dealer in 2014.

As the owner of Lazy H Ranch, where he markets between 100-150 registered Angus and Charolais bulls each spring, he wanted to be sure that those bulls continued to receive the best nutrition possible after the sale. That’s when he became a dealer and started recommending his customers use the VitaFerm® and Vita Charge® products to keep their new bulls healthy and reproductively sound.

“I wanted to offer the best of the best for my bull customers. At least 35% of my customers have started feeding VitaFerm, and that accounts for at least 50% of my bull sales,” Rohr said.

As a VIP dealer, Rohr not only offers the best products to his customers; he also offers top-notch service. He connects with them each monthly, if not more often and makes sure they have everything they need. He answers their questions promptly and relies on his ASM and National Sales Director for answers when he doesn’t know the answers, knowing they will respond quickly.

He suggests utilizing the ASM as a lead to new customer relationships. He appreciates when the ASM makes a cold call first to explain the Amaferm® advantage and ROI of the various product lines. Then, he can follow-up and share his own unique experiences with his customers. As a user of the products, Rohr can give first-hand accounts of what the products do, how they work and the benefits he has experienced in his own herd.

Building trust is the first step in any business relationship, according to Rohr. To build trust he shares his own experiences and works potential customers using other products into the VitaFerm products gradually.

“Offer them a product we have that their company doesn’t. Something like Vita Charge to help reduce stress with vaccinations and weaning. Or if I want them to try the VitaFerm products, I tell them not to go full-bore, but to try it on half or part of their cows so they can see the difference for themselves,” he said.

Rohr hosts a customer appreciation event each summer. He also makes sure to have plenty of BioZyme and Amaferm information available at his sale so his customers can leave with the information they need about a high-quality nutrition program.

As the industry becomes somewhat more volatile, Rohr said sharing key benefits that can be looked at as opportunity costs of the products will be even more important than ever. For cattle producers those include conception rates, especially for those utilizing A.I. and embryo transfer, calf vigor at birth and cows cleaning themselves at calving. Bull fertility is also key.

“I am in partnership on another set of bulls on feed at another location, under different management but the same mineral program, using a different vet service, we had 100% semen check there, and that vet wanted to know what we do to make that happen. As far as fertility in our bulls, the VitaFerm mineral and Amaferm advantage has been awesome,” Rohr said.

With results like that, it’s easy to see how Rohr can use personal experiences to build his customer base and help his bull customers at the same time. Thanks for being a part of the dealer network, Mark!

Second Generation Dealer Provides Services and Answers to Livestock Challenges

Providing a quality product to customers while delivering top-notch services are traits that come naturally for second-generation BioZyme dealer Jeff Cluxton, at Ripley, Ohio. Jeff’s dad, Tom, started using VitaFerm® products in 1974 and became a dealer. The family has appreciated the impact that the BioZyme products have had on their 175 head cow herd and have shared that with their peers.

“VitaFerm’s been good to us. It’s a product that we strongly believe in as users of it, so it helps us be able to sell it to people. We’ve always used the product here on the farm, so we know what works best for people.

If they are in the embryo world, we try to direct people to Concept•Aid® products. Even our commercial cattle producers, will use the Concept•Aid 8/S or the Concept•Aid tub,” Jeff said.

Perhaps the thing that differentiates Jeff and assists him in helping others is the relationship that his family has had with local veterinarian Brian Cowdrey. According to Jeff, Dr. Cowdrey’s parents used the VitaFerm products and now he uses them too. And when a client has a challenge that can be fixed with the help of a nutrition product, the vet sends his client Jeff’s way, which Jeff says makes for a unique situation.

“If the customer will be obedient and do what the veterinarian recommends, we get a lot of business from Dr. Cowdrey. Word of mouth from the vet drives a lot of my business. About four to five years ago we had an outbreak of anaplasmosis here in the county, and word of mouth and VitaFerm offering CTC and IGR became a very popular product around here,” he said.

But that isn’t the only relationship that has helped Jeff grow his business. He said he’s been able to market the VitaFerm Gain Smart® Stocker and Vita Charge® Stress Tubs to the Buckeye Valley Beef Cooperative. The group of local, younger beef producing families are working to raise beef for the consumer to buy from the farm or through local retail outlets, with the knowledge that this beef is locally sourced and has never been treated for sickness. This group of progressive cattle producers has used the Gain Smart Stocker to help ensure the cattle they are feeding for their ultimate customers put on healthy, efficient pounds and meet their strict criteria. He said they use the Stress Tubs at weaning.

As an on-farm dealer, Jeff says he is always available to help his customers. He does chuckle that his wife suggests he set some office hours, but he says he’s here to help. For instance, he has an old truck that he’ll leave a bag or two of mineral in if someone is in the area at a kid or grandkid’s ball game and wants to pick it up. He even tells about a customer who drove out of his way to get 20 bags because Jeff had the product he wanted on hand.

“I won’t turn down a customer. I will help someone out. People are busy, but you can gain a lot of business by being flexible,” Jeff said.

He shares a story from last Christmas. Since he’s also an Umbarger dealer, he has the chance to sell Weaver show supplies. Somebody had ordered a show box for Christmas gift. He offered to wrap and deliver to the customer’s front porch on Christmas Eve when that family was at another Christmas celebration. The customer was overjoyed by the service Jeff provided. He said by providing that type of service, he sees the potential of a return customer for show feed or breeding mineral in the long-term.

One of the most valuable lessons Jeff learned from his dad, and one he shares is to always be willing to find out the answer to a question when you don’t know the answer.

“Always be truthful and honest to your customer, and they will always come back to you. If you don’t know the answer, be willing to say you don’t know but you will find out. That goes a long way for you.”

Jeff Cluxton & Sons is a dealer that shows care that comes full circle while differentiating his business through long-time user experience and outstanding customer service. He’s sharing the knowledge from his dad with his customers in Western Ohio. Thanks for being a great dealer, Jeff!

An Innovator In E-Commerce

Online shopping; some say it is a double-edged sword, but it is here to stay. It is an efficient way to purchase the supplies a person needs and wants without fighting crowds and pushy salespeople. Others contend that it takes away from local businesses. However, one BioZyme® dealer, who is an innovator in e-commerce, has found his niche in the online retail business while educating his consumers.

Chris Mallon, owner and manager of A to Z Vet Supply (www.atozvetsupply.com) in Dresden, Tennessee, was one of the first pet supply sellers to have an online business, back in 2003, when the internet was still the “wild, wild west.” Although the transition from a catalog to a website didn’t happen over night and not without trial and error, his company has grown, experienced some website changes; and he’s excited to launch a fresh designed, custom website in the very near future.

“We look at our business differently. I’m not a widget-seller. I’m an educator. I travel around the country and speak at conventions and educational seminars [for dog breeders]. The backbone of our business is dog breeding. We work with dog breeders to educate them on a sciencebasis just like BioZyme does, on nutrition and vaccinating and worming and all these things they need to bring healthy puppies to market and what happens beyond,” Mallon said. “Puppies grow up in a breeder’s environment and then they leave to go to a new household or go to a pet store to be sold. That’s a whole new environment and that just shuts down their system. Of course, the Amaferm® in the Vitalize® Dog Recovery Gel is a great thing to send along with that puppy to keep its system intact and even if it stresses, there’s no impact on its digestive tract and it won’t have diarrhea, etc., etc… So, we educate people on these things.”

Mallon said education is vital to what he does. Once he or his staff has educated a consumer on a product or how to use a product, the sale is secondary. When a consumer understands the product, the sale isn’t as challenging to make. And once they start using a product they trust that works, they don’t turn back. Then, they start telling their friends who tell their friends and referrals come pouring in. He said that is how he’s used the Vitalize Dog Recovery Gel and Vita Charge® Liquid Boost to grow his business during the past two years.

“I’ve got people hooked on those products. I gave a great educational seminar, so they try the products. Once they implement them, there’s no reason for them to think about it again because they keep coming back and are like, ‘wow, this really works!’”

As a pioneer in animal supply e-commerce, Mallon offers three tips to set yourself apart in online retail.

1. Educate your consumer. The only way Mallon said you will set yourself apart from your competitor is to provide education. Without a consumer being able to hold and “experience” the product, they need to feel connected to it. That might be with a testimonial blog or video, but make sure to offer more than a product picture, description and price. He said when people do visit his website, he hopes they call the 800-number, but if they do not, the information they need to know more about the product and make a buying decision is available directly on the website.
2. Invest in a website. “Websites are the cheapest salesperson you will ever invest in and the more money you put into that salesperson, the better off you’ll be because that website is working 24/7, seven days a week for your initial cash outlay.” Make sure your website is user friendly, on a reliable platform and contains the items that you carry in your store, if you have a storefront.
3. Prepare for the future. Mallon said that by 2025, its predicted 90% of all online orders will be submitted via cell phone – not a desktop computer or tablet, so when you do decide to join the world of e-commerce, make sure your website can be pushed through on a cell phone.

In addition to its website, A to Z Vet Supply is also found on social platforms like Facebook and Instagram. Mallon said he uses those tools to help draw people in to find his website. Although he uses the Promoboxx content on the Facebook page, he said his typical content is funny dog videos that people will watch, then they see his website, visit that and perhaps call him with a question. Another valuable tool he recommends is Google Analytics, a free resource to track and reports website traffic.

Yes, online shopping is here to stay. A to Z Vet Supply has proven itself an innovator in the digital information and retail space. Chris Mallon uses his skills and knowledge to educate before the sale, being a true champion of “care that comes full circle.”

Dealer Relies on Word of Mouth to Build Business

Word of mouth marketing is likely one of the original marketing strategies; yet it is one that 4 UP Livestock LLC still relies on for its success today. Although this dealer is somewhat new to the BioZyme® family, Kirstie and Brian Wachholtz are not new to building relationships in the business world. The couple, from southeast Wyoming, raise cattle and Brabant Belgian horses. Their BioZyme relationship story begins with a stud horse that didn’t handle hauling so well last year. That’s where VIP and Master Dealer Keith Micke encouraged them to try the Vitalize® Equine Recovery Paste (now Vitalize Equine Recovery Gel). The rest as they say, is history.

“We went to the Wyoming Equine Extravaganza last year and took some of our Brabant Belgian studs, and one of them was not acclimating very well. Keith brought over a tube of recovery paste, because it was still paste at the time, and said ‘Hey, I guarantee you need to do this. He’ll drink, he’ll settle down, he’ll be good.’ In half-anhour that horse was acting like he was at home,” Kirstie said.

On the way home, Kirstie and Brian swung by Keith’s, loaded up on products for their cattle and more Recovery Paste, and soon after became a sub-dealer for K Triangle Feed since Keith didn’t have anyone in that part of the state. They have capitalized on their own positive experiences with the VitaFerm® and Vitalize products in addition to their relationships from their off-farm jobs to promote and sell the products. Kirstie is a licensed practitioner for pulsed electromagnetic field (PEMF) therapy for horses and livestock. Brian is a farrier. Both work with clients in several Western states and travel to livestock and horse shows and rodeos, and while they are traveling can share the messages of the BioZyme products.

“With what I do, I was having a hard time finding a good solid electrolyte paste, where I felt that the cells got to metabolize. What I do is dubbed “cellular exercise” and with the therapy that I offer, when those cells get that exercise, you need something to feed that mitochondria, so I started incorporating the Recovery Gel into any diet where they have issues. Or, even if a horse has an injury, I have started incorporating it. I sell it at every show I go to from Nevada to Texas, it has traveled everywhere,” Kirstie said.

She adds that the prebiotics in the products work to assist the animals that she and her husband are helping since a healthy gut means reduced inflammation in the body. However, without a loyal and growing customer base, they wouldn’t have people to sell their goods and services to.

“Relationships are huge because in the cattle industry and the horse industry that’s still a large, large part of building clientele; it’s about actual relationships. You can’t sell a product if you don’t have a relationship because relationships of any sort create trust. Based on that trust, people will try a product or try a service they might not have tried in the first place,” she said.

Kirstie said one of her biggest customer success stories come from the Vitalize Alimend®. She had a client who was spending a lot of money to treat ulcers for her barrel horse. She started using the Vitalize Alimend, and she hasn’t had a problem since. She wasn’t winning anything and is now typically in the top three with the help of a horse with a healthy gut, thanks to Alimend.

She credits that success and others with the relationships she and Brian have built with their tried and true marketing method.

“It comes down to word of mouth. All of my husband’s and my clientele has been based off of word of mouth. We’ve never got a customer off Facebook. We’ve never got a client by our name coming up in a Google search. It’s been one person asking ‘Who’s your farrier? I need one.’ Or ‘Do you know someone who does holistic healing?’,” she said.

As we kick off a new year and a new decade, we spoke to some of the VIP dealers who have kept their businesses relevant and growing. We asked for their best advice, and they willingly shared some of their top tips on tactics they have used to keep their business relevant.

Tyson Basore, Basore Cattle Company, Deepwater, Missouri

“One thing we try to do is keep ourselves out there in front of the customer. We give a lot of hats and shirts to customers and potential customers to keep our name out there. We also hit up a lot of local bull sales and other events in the community where our customers are so we can have that face-to-face interaction. We’ve used social media through Facebook quite a bit and have also run radio ads.”

Jackie Coltrane, Coal Valley Feeds, Cherokee, Kansas

“There’s only one way to stay relevant. People don’t stay with a product; they stay with a face. The way we maintain stability is by gaining our customers’ trust and through customer relations. If they trust you, they will contact you when they have a challenge, and they will trust the advice you give them.”

Keith Micke, K Triangle Feed, Glendo, Wyoming

“I try to stay involved and like Britney Creamer once said, I’m a walking billboard. I never leave home without a VitaFerm jacket, cap or gloves. And I always have gloves to pass out when the weather is cold. But the biggest thing I do is make time for my customers and potential customers. The other day I was out with new customers and asked if I could see their cows. They were tickled pink. They said they had never had any type of salesman ask to see their cattle. In addition to making time to spend one-on-one, being seen at the county fairs in my area is important, and I always have a booth at the state fair. I run short spots on my son’s football and basketball games’ broadcasts. Ashley Fitzsimmons has helped me with a flyer in the Wyoming Livestock Journal for a few months, and I have recently started using Promoboxx on Facebook. Word of mouth is still important, and if I see a long-time customer around someone who is interested in the product, I’ll ask how they like their mineral. Hearing positive reviews from a current customer is a great way to build trust around here.”

Mark Rohr, Proven Sires Services, Hays, Kansas

“Proven Sires Services’ success in growing our business relies primarily on customer relations. Our customers depend on us and VitaFerm ® to make the right choices for their operations. If the right choices are made, and the product is successful in their programs, then PSS and VitaFerm are successful in gaining the trust of those customers. These success stories then attribute to the growth of PSS by word of mouth, in and beyond the community. All of this, however, could not have been accomplished if it hadn’t been for a great product and a BioZyme® team to back up the product and its dealers.”

Hunter Morris, Twin Rivers Vet Supply, DeKalb, Texas

“Getting out there and hustling. Seeing what the customers’ problems are and how you can help solve those problems with a great product and great customer service. Without customers, there’s no business.”

According to these five dealers, building strong customer relationships is the key to staying relevant and prospering in their businesses. Stay in front of your customers, learn the best way to engage with them, and offer some swag in the form of shirts, caps, jackets and gloves to stay top of mind, too. Communicate with them – use radio, social media and get out and interact with them at industry and community events. Staying relevant is vital to your growth this year and in the years to come.

BioZyme Dealer Puts Focus on Future

With a name like Heritage Farm Supply, you’d think the business has a focus on its past, its heritage. However, just the opposite is true.

The Weaverville, N.C., farm and feed store is dedicated to helping its customers thrive and survive and ensuring there is a future in agriculture for today’s young people as well.

Store co-owner and manager Anna English said that Heritage Farm Supply first became a BioZyme® dealer because it was looking for a premium product to offer its customers. She had heard about BioZyme and its product lines, did some research, and decided their products were the right fit for her customer base. Then, once her own family started using the products, sales really started to take off.

“We use the product ourselves, so it is easy to sell the customer on a product we believe in. The biggest selling point for us is using it in our own operation, and it is easier to sell products when you use them and believe in them,” English said.

She and her family run about 100 mama cows and have started using embryo transfer and A.I. extensively. She said the VitaFerm® line has helped them achieve their goals with their cow herd, and in return, she has started reaching out to other purebred producers in the area.

English uses the assistance of her Area Sales Manager Justin O’Flaherty to help share the BioZyme message, including hosting producer meetings for cow-calf producers. She said that since the BioZyme lines are rather new to her area, the producers are willing to come learn and ask questions about them.

Another audience she is working with that will have a major impact on the future of agriculture and the future of Heritage Farm Supply is the youth in her area. English said that urban sprawl is taking over and moving toward them, away from Asheville; and it is important to continue educating youth about agriculture and its impact.

“As rocky as agriculture is right now, it is important for us to know there is a future out there, that people are getting educated in what agriculture is and what we do as an industry. If we can get kids involved, at least they will be an advocate for agriculture in the future,” she said.

Because the future is so important to English and Heritage Farm Supply, they support several youth livestock shows in the area. Since English and her family also show livestock, that was an easy outlet for them to get involved with the kids showing livestock. They are also involved in the FFA program at the local high school and do a lot with its alumni program so they can support the kids through agriculture in as many ways as possible.

Selling a premium product and supporting superior youth are both tasks that English takes to heart. She encourages new dealers and those considering selling BioZyme products not to get hung up on the price. “Don’t let the price stand in your way. It can be kind of a sticker shock, but it is a premium product and your customers will use it. The price is what sets it apart,” she said.

When you’re advocating for the future and promoting a product that helps animals succeed in life, you’re doing great things. Thanks, Anna English for displaying “care that comes full circle.”