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.

Letters From Lisa – December 2021

Outreach is an effort by individuals in an organization to connect and assist the efforts of other organizations. Outreach can help acquire new customers, re-engage past customers, encourage repeat purchases or upsell opportunities.

It is a well-known fact that companies using outreach as a strategy grow faster since they tend to believe in changing the future using recommended actions not just hoping the future turns out for the better. It is this fact that motivates me to constantly look and see the actions we take at BioZyme® to provide this connection to the amazing organizations that support us in the goal of providing “care that comes full circle” to the animals we have the honor to support.

Looking is a physical act; seeing is a mental process of perception. Seeing involves recognizing or connecting the information the eyes take in to ensure one is creating meaning. So, when I look for outreach at BioZyme what I see that has meaning is really four-fold. It includes our marketing, our dealer center, our outreach support team’s efforts and our ASMs in all that they do in the field. How do each of these try to connect and assist you?

Marketing At BioZyme, marketing’s number one goal is to push consumers to the Dealer Locator at biozymeinc.com so they can find you. Every marketing effort we do is measured on that goal. These metrics are tracked monthly and in a yearly accumulation as you see below.

Dealer Center In a survey of 4,500 consumers via Facebook, it was found that the number one expectation of the stores they visit was knowledge of the products sold in the store. Our dealer center offers many things, but its main purpose is easy access to product education. Through our product center you can get the desired knowledge directly or in a manner you can easily share via quick product videos.

Outreach Support The Outreach Support Center has one goal, touching dealers and users of the BioZyme products to ensure they know we care and are here to help them anyway we can orders, content, access, connectivity. Calculated defined contact pays dividends when the investment goal is growth.

ASMs Our area sales managers’ job description states their job is to sell and service our existing dealer/distributor network and customer base AND to identify and cultivate new partnering and growth opportunities to grow the business of the territory (you).

I think defining outreach as a way to connect and assist is a good focus as we approach Christmas. Isn’t that exactly what God did by sending His Son. He had an earthly Son so we could connect, and He used His eternal life to provide the assistance we need for all the days long if we choose to embrace it.

Merry Christmas!

BioZyme Christmas and New Years Hours

Our offices will be closed Friday, December 24 for Christmas. There will be no shipping or pick up on Thursday, December 23 or Friday, December 24.

Our offices will be closed Friday, December 31 for New Year’s. There will be no shipping or pick up on Thursday, December 30 or Friday, December 31.

We hope you and your family have a blessed holiday filled with family and joy!

December 2021 Changes

We have lots of changes happening this month. Be sure to check them out below.

PRODUCT UPDATES

  • In November and December, the Vitalize® Horse Treats will be packaged in Christmas packaging for the holiday selling season.

CUSTOMER PICK-UPS

  • Due to BioZyme Capital Improvements at both Stockyards and Easton locations and the resulting limited space for storage, customer pick-ups will need to be picked up within two days of the requested ship date requested by the customer which is reiterated upon the receipt of the email notice that your order is ready. We appreciate your cooperation during this time and hope we can count on your support without moving to more extreme measures.

LOGISTICS UPDATES

  • At BioZyme, we are continuing to experience logistics challenges for our ingredients and materials, such as our packaging, which are resulting in both shortages and increased costs. We are working tirelessly to overcome these challenges to keep pricing under control and continue to deliver quality products quickly.

FULFILLMENT UPDATES

  • We are currently testing a new fulfillment process on our tubs, and as soon as the test is proven successful, all orders for tubs will be fulfilled directly from the manufacturer. Please watch your email in the coming weeks for more information about this change.

January 2022 Changes

FULFILLMENT UPDATES

  • Starting January 1, 2022, BioZyme® will require a minimum order of 2.5 tons, and we will no longer be mixing pallets. These changes are being implemented due to the ongoing challenges we are experiencing with reliability and availability of LTL shipping. Distribution partners are available for smaller and mixed pallet orders with coverage in over 30 states. If you need help working through these partners, please contact your Area Sales Manager or the Outreach Support Center.

PRICING UPDATES

  • Starting January 1, 2022, new MAP pricing goes into effect for several of the Page 2 products. Separate communication with the updated pricing was sent by both mail and email in November. If you did not receive this information, please contact Jennifer Miller at jenmiller@biozymeinc.com.

February 2022 Changes

PRODUCT UPDATES

  • Starting February 1, 2022, Vitalize® Blazin’ 32 oz bottle packaging will be updated from a 32 oz twin neck squeeze bottle to a 32 oz pump bottle.

Protein: The Keys to Identifying Protein Needs

Protein is essential. Not only do ruminants both large and small depend on it for good digestion and proper rumen function, but animals in general, rely on protein for adequate meat and milk production. Protein is necessary to supply the ammonia needed for microbial growth and to provide the amino acids needed for absorption from the small intestine. A protein deficiency can limit microbial activity, microbial protein synthesis and rate of digestion. In turn, these can impact feed and energy intake. Finally, if an animal receives insufficient amounts of protein, meat and milk production can be dramatically reduced.

However, spending money on protein supplementation may not always be the best investment for a producer to make. You need to know when to supplement protein and how much to provide to make it a wise investment in your operation.

Follow these three helpful tips to ensure proper protein supplementation.

  1. Identify Protein Needs.

Requirements for protein vary throughout the year and depend on the animal’s stage of production. A cow’s protein requirements will vary from about 9% to 12%, while a doe or ewe’s protein requirements range from 7% to 15%, depending on where she is in the production cycle. Requirements are lowest post-weaning to late gestation and continue to increase as the female gets closer giving birth. Protein requirements are highest immediately post-parturition due to the increase in protein needed for milk production during lactation.

  1. Identify What is in Your Feed.

You know the stages of production when additional protein is required, but do you know how much protein to supplement with? Before you start a supplementation program, you need to know exactly what they are already consuming. Protein can come from pasture, stored forages and grain. By understanding the nutrient profile of your available feedstuffs, you can better identify what supplements you need in your feeding program to meet nutrient requirements and optimize animal performance. BioZyme® Inc. offers forage testing and ration balancing, free to its customers, to help them gain a better understanding of what they are missing in their livestock diets. If you are interested in participating, please contact your Area Sales Manager.

  1. Identify the Protein Supplement that Best Fits your Scenario.

Producers have options when it comes to choosing the protein that will work best with their management practices. BioZyme offers its protein supplements in a tub or meal form to accommodate various management scenarios, allowing for maximum convenience along with improved animal performance. In addition to the added protein, the Amaferm® found in BioZyme products increases the rate of digestion, allowing animals to meet their nutrient requirements faster and on less feed. Increased forage digestion provides for greater microbial growth and production of microbial protein to provide the animal with more protein for growth, lactation and reproduction. Furthermore, with Amaferm in the diet you effectively reduce the need to supplement large amounts of protein because you are making more of the protein in the forage available to the animals.

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.