Thinking Like Your Customer Helps Build Business

As the year winds down and you’re examining those sales figures, trying to decide how to best get over the hump and build some new business to reach your goals, one thing should come to mind: treat your potential customers like you would want to be treated. In other words, gone are the days of the hard-sell, and here are the days of thinking like your customer would think to solve their challenges.

John Jeffrey, BioZyme® Area Sales Manager (ASM) for Oklahoma and Eastern Kansas, said there are three points to consider when talking to potential customers and trying to develop new accounts. Thinking like a customer is key so you know what his or her challenges are and how the products can help, but first, you must build a relationship with the potential customer.

Perhaps statesman Abraham Lincoln would have been a great sales trainer back in his day. He once said, “When I get ready to talk to people, I spend two thirds of the time thinking what they want to hear and one third thinking about what I want to say.”

Potential customers are just like you. They value their time, want to have a relationship built on trust and understanding, and appreciate the follow-up that isn’t too bothersome. Put yourself in their shoes to start developing business.

  1. Identify a need. Jeffrey said when a producer approaches him at a trade show, meeting or even calls him on the phone, the first thing he does is visit with the person to discover the gap in his or her program. This is the foundation for a relationship built on trust and further understanding their needs. Ask the questions: What are your goals? Are you meeting them? If not, what is missing? Discovering the challenge will help put you in that producer’s shoes and understand further what the frustrations are and what supplement can potentially fill the gap.
    “You won’t get anywhere if you just start providing them with a lot of information. First, you’ve got to make them realize they have a challenge and that they need something to fix that challenge,” Jeffrey said.
  2. Consider their time. Jeffrey reminds all salespeople, that nobody owes you time, so make the most of their time when you are visiting with potential and current customers. One way to make the most of your time and theirs is to leave your phone in the car. The one exception is if you are expecting a very important call, such as receiving word on a family emergency, and then, silence your phone and explain to your client before your meeting that the only way you will take a call is if it is of the upmost urgency and that you are expecting that type of call.
  3. Follow up. “Persistence pays, but don’t be annoying,” Jeffrey said.
    He said he likes to follow up with potential customers, and though he doesn’t have a set schedule, he does like to be persistent and available to answer further questions, especially in today’s competitive mineral market. Once again, he puts himself in his customers’ shoes, and thinks about how often he’d want the follow up or how he’d want his questions answered and makes sure he is available to answer questions.

Perhaps statesman Abraham Lincoln would have been a great sales trainer back in his day. He once said, “When I get ready to talk to people, I spend two thirds of the time thinking what they want to hear and one third thinking about what I want to say.”

Potential customers are just like you. They value their time, want to have a relationship built on trust and understanding, and appreciate the follow-up that isn’t too bothersome. Put yourself in their shoes to start developing business.

Critical Thinking Can Grow Your Business

Meetings can be one of the best ways to work collaboratively to help grow your business and work ON your business, if you structure them correctly, involve the right people and ask the right questions. As Lisa referred to in this month’s letter, the best way to advance your business is in the dining room, looking toward the future, and not necessarily dwelling on the past.

Another way to look at working ON your business is through critical thinking sessions or brainstorming meetings. According to the website, www.barefootbrainstorming.com, there are several ways to make your next strategic planning session productive and move your business forward.

  1. Have an agenda. Have a list of goals that you want to accomplish during the set time of the meeting. The agenda shouldn’t be too specific, but the end results should answer the questions of who will be responsible for achieving the assigned duties or tasks.
  2. Value time. Make sure you have a start time and end time and keep track of time throughout the meeting. Time is a valuable asset, and if the participants know the meeting will start and end on time, with plenty of short breaks to check email and return calls, they will be more focused during the actual meeting time.
  3. Put away the PowerPoint. Nothing is more boring than seeing a screen of numbers and charts flash before the attendees’ eyes, only for a brief amount of time. And, the focus is drawn away from what is being discussed and rather diverted onto copying the numbers onto a notebook. Instead, print out notes, provide colorful pens, markers and colored pencils for notetaking, as the colors are soothing, and help promote creative thinking.
  4. Play. Some of the most productive meetings will include small toys or gadgets to engage all five of the senses because according to one blog site, “when we engage both our left and right hands simultaneously, we use 80% of our brain power!” The blog recommends the following for each of the senses:
    • Sight – colorful toys, pictures, and crayons.
    • Smell – Play-Doh, and Mr. Sketch scented markers.
    • Touch – tactile toys (slinkies, legos, pipe cleaners, and Play-Doh).
    • Sound – music.• Taste – candy bags including chocolate, caramels and gummy bears.
  5. Encourage participant engagement. Invite people from various teams or departments to the meeting for a fresh perspective, but let your expectations be known. Everyone should participate. And, every idea has some merit, even ones that seem a little far-fetched, can be responded to like this, “yes, and then…” building on an idea to get a different, but positive outcome in the future.
  6. Assign a recorder for all ideas. Every idea has some good merit, and it is important to keep those ideas flowing. Assign one or two people to write the ides on a big poster so everyone can see them, and when it is time to start critiquing ideas, start with positive feedback first.

Meetings can be productive, and they can be a way to start planning for growth in the future. Critical thinking is a tool that allows various perspectives to be shared, while hearing fresh ideas from different team members. Pull up a chair, make room for creativity and start planning the steps to grow your business.

Letters From Lisa – November 2019

Last month we talked about working on your business instead of in it. We are going to continue that discussion by focusing on some thought processes that might help you stay focused on just that.

The ways we think about past experiences can help or hinder the development of insight that makes working on the business more difficult than it is just by its nature. When we make decisions based on habits of the past, we lose out on some of the great changes possible in our lives. Working on the business means not forgetting the past but leaving it in the kitchen while sitting at the dining room table.

Working on the business should allow one to achieve performance breakthroughs, or in other words, create impact in the areas that drive the improvement we all desire. I like to use the term A to the 4th power (A4) to help me stay true to working on instead of in business. The four terms come from Scott Snell and Ken Carrig’s forthcoming book, “Strategic Execution: Driving Breakthrough Performance in Business”, and are Alignment, Ability, Architecture and Agility.

ALIGNMENT

Alignment conveys the deceptively simple notion that execution depends on everyone working together toward the same goal. Alignment is the “sine qua non” of execution; without it, nothing else much matters.

It provides clarity of purpose and direction, momentum to overcome inertia, a focus for decisions and actions, and resilience in the face of change or disruption.

Today, misalignment has become the norm, not the exception. There’s often a substantial gap between understanding the requirements of strategy and each person’s work. Disengagement can create this misalignment, which unfortunately leads right into working all day in the business instead of on it.

It is, therefore, a constant challenge to emphasize the mission-critical elements that unite the organization toward its strategic purpose and work to achieve those outcomes. An important part of alignment is clarifying with others how work that they are accountable for leads to those strategic outcomes, or in other words, how overall success is attributable to them.

ABILITY

In any endeavor, whether it’s business or sports, great execution requires great skill.

Usually, what begins with a discussion of alignment often evolves to a deeper discussion of ability. This isn’t just a focus on productivity, but on attracting and developing; raising skill levels; all while keeping aligned accountability.

ARCHITECTURE

The design of your organization, as well as its underlying infrastructure, processes, technologies and controls constitutes the domain of organizational architecture. Your organization’s design makes a big difference in terms of reliability, alignment and continuity of performance.

In terms of working on the business, ensuring a valid organizational architecture is critical for resource flows, information availability, decision-making and processes that propel the organization forward.

Try to focus on ways to streamline your organization’s architecture, simplify structures, improve processes, and clarify roles, responsibilities, accountability and communication flow. This includes building connections and opportunities (meetings AND one-on-one conversations) to improve joint decision-making.

AGILITY

The ability to respond and adapt is critical for achieving organizational goals. Ironically, one of the most common inhibitors of agility is our approach to execution. In an attempt to drive better performance and maximize efficiency, many organizations create a situation in which change is difficult. The harder they work in the business instead of on it, the more challenging it is for them to see the need for change, or to flex, adapt and adjust appropriately. People hate change, but in reality, if you are not constantly changing you are not working on your business but in it.

There’s a great book (see picture) that summarizes these concepts way better than I have. Take the time to read it and then get to work ON your business at the dining room table, not in the kitchen.

Don’t Forget To Automate!

REMINDER!!
PromoBoxx, our social content sharing platform, has an automation feature set up where we schedule content monthly and it automatically shares to your page. Dealers who are engaged in PromoBoxx will receive 250 Action Rewards Points each quarter. When you have the automation feature set up, you will receive the points each quarter without having to do anything.
This program is free to use and easy to sign up. Visit www.biozymedealermktg.com to get started. If you have any questions, comment below and we can help!

Dealer Spotlight: Foxfire Feed, LLC

Balancing their Business is a Labor of Love

When you can whole-heartedly see the results of a product and can believe in that product and the company that makes it, it is easy to say “yes” to becoming a dealer, even if it means balancing that with full-time careers and a herd of cattle.

That’s exactly what the mother-daughter duo at Foxfire Feed LLC, Pinetown, N.C., has done, but they wouldn’t have it any other way. Mother, Sandra Boyd, works as a secretary for their 5,000-acre row crop farming operation; her oldest daughter, Melinda, is an agronomist, and her youngest daughter and resident-showman, Madison, is away at school at Oklahoma State University. Together, they all work to promote and market feed and mineral and manage the cow herd.

“We just do this on the side, on the weekends, in the afternoons, whenever we get a chance, It’s a fun ‘little hobby’,” Melinda chuckles.

Their little hobby of being BioZyme® dealers started about four years ago. They are dealers for Roy Umbarger & Sons Show Feed and had been purchasing the Sure Champ® products from Umbarger for their own use and having great results with them. Once they started using the products, they were eager to start selling the products. The rest is, as they say, history.

“That worked out really well for us, and now we are selling more than we ever imagined! We just really trusted the products that we purchased, and we wanted to share them with everyone in our area. We first were using the Vita Charge® Cattle Drench and the Sure Champ Cattle.” Melinda said.

She adds that the products speak for themselves, and their success combined with that of their customers has been the best marketing tool that Foxfire Feed has used. She said when they travel to shows, people will often ask them what they do to keep their cattle looking so good.

“We don’t tell them all of our secrets, but we do tell them about the BioZyme products. The Sure Champ keeps them on feed, the green cattle drench, Vita Charge, is really a miracle worker when they do go off feed or are in stressful situations. We use the drench before every show, and we use Vita Charge Climate Control before every show because the heat and humidity are really big factors here in Eastern North Carolina. People notice our livestock and our customers’ livestock. They like what they see, and they buy it from us,” Melinda said.

Not only are they involved in showing their own livestock, but the Boyd family also provides sponsorship to some of the shows in the state. Melinda said the show industry is rapidly growing in Eastern North Carolina. Providing sponsorship to some of the shows not only puts the Foxfire Feed name out there, but it lets their customers know that they believe in them, as much as they believe in the products that the Boyds sell.

She does suggest that anyone that is interested in being a dealer should use the products first, as it helped her family have a greater understanding of how and why they work. However, if that isn’t always possible, she said the resources that BioZyme offers the dealers make being a dealer easy, especially with a busy schedule.

She said the Master Dealer Training Program is great at further explaining products, and the entire staff has been willing to help their dealership during their busy times. Their ASM Justin O’Flaherty always is willing to help them when they have a question.

“The whole company is very helpful if we need something. And with the time management that we have to figure out, it is a juggling act for all of us, that’s for sure,” Melinda said.

Being an outstanding BioZyme dealer is one thing that the Boyds of Foxfire Feed have definitely figured out. They give back to those who trust and use their products and rely on the many resources offered to the dealer network. They are passionate about the products and excited to share them with others. They truly are dealers that exemplify “care that comes full circle.”

Our Testimonial Campaign is Now Available on PromoBoxx!

We are excited to share that we have a full testimonial focused campaign now available on Promoboxx. This campaign features testimonials from all of our brands and is ready for you to share on your dealership social channels.
We will continue to add content to this campaign as it becomes available.

Show Your Customers Why They Need Sure Champ Every. Day

When it comes to raising a livestock project from start to finish, every day counts. From the moment your customers bring their projects home, their livestock depend on them to provide superior nutrition that drives appetite and health, and in turn, your customers expect their animals to gain and perform at the highest level. Feeding Sure Champ from the start and consistently can keep livestock on feed and gaining at their full potential despite the challenges of the show environment, providing your customers peace of mind that EVERY DAY will be their animal’s best day.

Helpful Tools:

7 Secrets to Achieving Work-Life Balance as a Business Leader/Owner

As business owners and leaders in a world of connectivity it is often challenging to have a separation between work and personal life, especially when you are involved in agriculture. Your customers are likely your friends, neighbors and maybe even your relatives. Smart phones and tablets keep you connected to everyone, starting first thing in the morning until late at night. Combine all that with the last-minute needs of many people, and it truly is hard to balance personal and professional lives.

However, everyone does need some type of a break. No one performs to their highest during a season of burnout, and if you are not performing to your best potential, your sales will show. Perhaps instead of a balance, you need to decide the best way to “give-and-take” the time you need to grow your business, while still enjoying life. For instance, a start-up, young business will probably need to work harder, putting forth more effort than a well-established, highly respected company. That is part of the give-and-take or balance of being a business owner or leader.

Megan Sullivan offers seven tips on achieving some type of balance in your work and personal lives.

Set Boundaries and Keep Them. This is critical to your personal wellbeing in many different aspects. Be sure to set a time boundary. If you are typically open from 8 – 5, daily, it is acceptable to answer the phone a little early or even make a delivery. But much later than 5:30 or so, you need to call it quitting time and put up the phone and spend time doing something you enjoy.

When it comes to space boundaries, these are just as important as time boundaries. Make sure you have a space where you can leave work behind, like an office, shed or even in your pickup. Just make sure when you get you home, you don’t bring work with you.

Take Time Off. If you say you’re taking time off or time away, mean it. This is especially true on days you are sick or have medical appointments. If you have let your customers know you are going to be out, they will respect that, and not contact you.

Keep your Social Commitments. You remember what they said about all work and no play? It made Jack a dull boy. And it will make you a dull human being too. Not only are social opportunities a good way to keep up with your friends and what is happening in your community, they are also another way to promote you and your company (remember, life is all about balance).

Take Care of Yourself. Self-care is so important to being able to function properly. Be sure you eat healthy meals and snacks and take breaks throughout the day. If you are at a desk the majority of the day, get up and stretch. Walk around and get some fresh air every few hours. If you are outside in the elements most of the day, be sure to stay hydrated and take breaks when you can.

Part of taking care of yourself is also rejuvenating away from work. Take a vacation. Maybe you can’t afford the time or money for an elaborate trip. But, take time away. Take a long weekend away with your family. Go visit family or friends. Explore some part of the state or country you’ve always wanted to visit. There are several ways to get away and not spend a great deal of money, and ultimately, you will feel better for it.

Set your Own Norms. Remember, what works for your neighbor might not work for you. For instance, you know you have church on Wednesday nights. Make that a night that is set aside for family. It might be a family policy that everyone eats together either before or after church, and no cell phones are allowed. If the other stores in town are open late one night a week, you can choose to stay open or not. It is up to you to set your schedule and what works best for you.

Ask for Help. You don’t wear a cape, and you don’t have to be a superhero. Sometimes you can be more efficient if you ask for help. Or better yet, delegate some responsibility to other employees. Asking for help and delegating are ways that you can get more time back on your calendar or accomplish a task quicker with the help of others.

Know When to Say No. We live in a society of people pleasers and saying “no” to others is hard. But sometimes it is the best thing to do for your own sanity. Weigh the pros and cons. Is it worthwhile to you, your family or your business to say yes? If not, a firm no is always better than giving the asker the false hope of a “maybe.”

Work-life balance isn’t a myth. But it isn’t easy either. It takes some planning and time to achieve, but with the advice of these tips above, you can still grow your business while having a happy, healthy personal life too.

Online source for this story: https://quickbooks.intuit.com/r/ productivity/12secrets-to-achieving-a-good-work-life-balance-as-a-businessowner/

Bringing Balance by Investing in Youth

Getting involved. Giving back. Sharing a passion and her knowledge. These are all actions that have helped Riley Faris, Pueblo, Colo., get her business going during her first summer as a BioZyme® dealer.

Faris, who was involved in youth livestock projects growing up, has stepped up as a volunteer the past three years at the Pueblo County Fair in Southeast Colorado. She showed at this same fair as an exhibitor, and now enjoys coming back as a volunteer, assisting the swine superintendent with the hog show including duties ranging from weighing in the pigs, to breaking classes to helping manage the show on show day.

“I’m trying to help the youth with showing and to learn how to take care of their animals. Coming from an agricultural background, it is important to instill in the youth the importance of agriculture and the role it plays in our everyday life. Plus, when I was growing up, I had a lot of people help me, so now that I’m older I want to return that to the younger kids,” Faris said.

Faris is not only helping youth understand the importance of agriculture and assisting with the annual hog show, but she is also trying to teach the young exhibitors and their parents the importance of keeping their animals healthy with the use of a good nutrition program. As a newer BioZyme dealer, she takes the opportunities of being at the Pueblo County Fair and other surrounding livestock shows to discuss the Sure Champ® line of products and the Amaferm® advantage.

At this year’s Pueblo County Fair, Faris was able to sponsor showmanship awards for the Grand and Reserve Champion showman of each species, while promoting the products that help their livestock stay on feed and water and keep healthy.

“This year because of BioZyme and all of the support they offer, I was able to get showmanship banners for hogs, sheep, goats and beef.

I am also giving each of the winners a little goodie bag with some additional fun things and added information about the Sure Champ line, specifically designed for show animals,” she said. “The kids were so excited. Typically, the grand and reserve champion animals get banners, but they have to give them to the buyers, so the kids were excited they got to bring their showmanship banners home with them.”

In addition to the awards she provided at Pueblo County, she sponsored awards for the Grand and Reserve Grand Market Animal classes at the neighboring Otero County to Fair. Both sponsorships led to product awareness, and with the county fair and state fair about a month a part in Pueblo, she said she sold some additional Sure Champ between the county fairs and the Colorado State Fair.

“The most rewarding part is watching the new kids that come up through the programs or the kids that reach out to me and watching them succeed and seeing the look on their faces when they know they have accomplished something,” Faris said.

Although Faris genuinely enjoys watching the youth grow, learn and succeed, she knows that being involved in the local shows has created awareness for her business, and helped increase her sales.

“Give a little bit of yourself and your time, and people will start supporting your business,” she said.

Finding the Balance Between Leadership and Management

When it comes to running your business, would you rather have a leader or manager in charge? Seems like a trick question until you really think about it. However, it is best to have someone who can balance both the traits of a leader and a manager and work in the business while also working on the growth of the business.

A leader guides or directs. We often think of leaders setting behind large mahogany desks in big cushy chairs. They set budgets, give inspirational talks at the company’s monthly meetings and cheer on the employees who have reached milestones. Everyone wants to be an all-powerful leader.

A manager on the other hand, sets among the employees in a not so cushy chair, and lives by the budgets set forth for them. They often oversee one team or division of the company, and make sure that tasks are assigned and completed on time, team goals are met. Managing can sound dreary and sometimes like the controlling force behind the worker bees.

However, both leaders and managers are needed in successful business settings. Are you a leader or a manager? The problem with this either-or thinking is that both are needed in a well-run enterprise.

According to a post at www.inpserity.com: “Leaders focus on high-level objectives such as inspiring and motivating the team to success, which can be exciting and powerful. Managers focus on organizing, planning and overseeing daily operations and that can sound mundane.”

You might be thinking back to Lisa’s letter, and wondering, in your position, should you be working in the business or on the business. The answer is, both.

A well-balanced supervisor, regardless of title, will have some traits of both a leader and a manager. Although a manager’s first priority is to make sure employees get their job complete in an efficient order – working in the business; it is also important to the employees to hear from their manager positive feedback on how they accomplished the task – working on the business. That is a good example of how a supervisor needs to balance the roles of both manager and leader.

Here are six questions for you to ask yourself, according to Insperity. com, to help you balance your manager-leader role to make your employees and your business more efficient.

1. Is the work getting done well without my intervention? If yes, concentrate on motivating the team to keep performing well. If not, put on your manager hat and ask the team what’s getting in the way of better performance, then help them implement changes.

2. Do you focus on results or the process (how the job got done)? If you focus on results, good for you. That’s what is most important. If you tend to focus on process more than results, challenge yourself to become more comfortable with the reality that many alternatives may exist to getting the same result.

3. Do colleagues in other parts of the organization come to you for advice? If yes, you’re probably seen as a leader. If not, look at what you can change to support and inspire others. What do you spend the most time talking about? The tasks at hand, processes and deadlines, or the big picture and strategy? Managers need to discuss both but pay attention to whether you’re leaning too hard one direction or the other.

4. What do you spend the most time talking about? The tasks at hand, processes and deadlines, or the big picture and strategy? Managers need to discuss both but pay attention to whether you’re leaning too hard one direction or the other.

5. Do you ask employees to accomplish objectives without explaining the need behind the request? Employees are more likely to go the extra mile if they understand why they’re being asked to do something.

6. Who is responsible when things go wrong? Do you blame the team or yourself? A leader understands that it’s ultimately his or her responsibility for the success or failure of a team.

Remember, there is no one right to lead or manage your team, but you will need to balance your skills so that you can encourage them to get the work done while also serving as a coach and motivator. Being a manager and a leader at the same time will allow you to work in and on the business, achieving the best results for everyone.

 

Information from this article from: https://www.insperity.com/blog/leadershipvs-management-strike-right-balance-business/