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Focusing on FAMs: How Farm Account Managers Can Help Your Farm Succeed
219 Plays3 years ago
In this episode of the Direct Farm Podcast, we chat with Richard, a member of our Barn2Door Farm Account Manager team. We discuss the importance of Farm Account Managers (FAMs) and how they work closely with Farmers to increase their sales, access more customers, and save time.
www.barn2door.com/resources
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Transcript
Podcast Introduction and Focus
00:00:02
Speaker
Welcome to the Direct Farm Podcast, the weekly listen for farm selling direct. We'll talk about the four levers for farm success, which are quality, brand, price, and convenience. We'll hear from outside industry experts and producers like you to delight your customers, save time, and to increase your direct farm sales and business. We're glad you're here.
00:00:25
Speaker
Welcome to the Direct Farm podcast. I'm Garrett, your host for today's episode.
Guest Introduction: Richard Weisberg
00:00:30
Speaker
We've got a great conversation for you today with one of our Barn to Door farm account managers, Richard Weisberg. Welcome, Richard. Hey, Garrett. So tell me about your role at Barn to Door and how you work with farmers.
Role of a Farm Account Manager
00:00:42
Speaker
Well, as an account manager, our role is primarily to fill any product gaps, making sure that the account and the farm is comfortable using the Barn to Door system.
00:00:50
Speaker
A real bread and butter is helping with online marketing, primarily social media marketing, and of course, getting the most out of emails. And what does that look like from a day to day basis? Oh, it's just it's a lot of great meetings. We connect with several farms we're working with throughout the day. A lot of times it's back to back. So it's pretty nonstop, especially at certain seasons when we can actually get on the calendar with some farmers for sure. But it's a lot of fun. Yeah. What kind of farms do you end up working with?
00:01:16
Speaker
Ooh, what farms do I not work with? I work with a lot of producers as, you know, they could be as short seasonal flower operations to year round protein operations, fiber farms. I work with seafood producers and fishermen and women, everything under the sun. Yeah. Awesome. There's a really big variety there. Is there something that you see more common than others?
00:01:38
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. I'd say the most common would be protein producers and produce, you know, a lot of great varieties. Those are huge umbrellas, as is. I work with lots of beef producers and CSA's, large-scale CSA's, quite often as well. But it's always fun getting these niche producers as well and raising market awareness for things like lamb or fresh salmon or even certain types of fibers and mushrooms and whatnot. Yeah, that's awesome. Why do you think it's so important to have farm account managers when farmers are using Barn
Supporting Farmers' Business Potential
00:02:06
Speaker
to Door?
00:02:06
Speaker
Well, I'm a little biased, of course. But really, most agricultural folks, they don't raise their crops, they don't raise their produce and products with the intention of then spending their time on marketing or spending time on social media or making sure they're sending out emails in an appropriate and best practice way. And so you may have heard the adage, you know, do what you do best, hire the rest. We're the rest. We come in, we help communicate best practices and help develop habits.
00:02:34
Speaker
These farms can take control of their businesses and the markets they reach out to. Yeah, because as we know, farmers are just so busy. A big pull with Barn to Door is that we do a lot of that heavy lifting on the technical side and getting the website set up and everything for them. And so having those account managers is really great because you guys, again, are assisting them in a process that might be a headache if they were doing it solo, right?
00:02:58
Speaker
Oh absolutely, absolutely. That's our big goal really is to help save them time and make sure that you know what little time they do have left to market is used effectively. And it's got to help with the experience to have somebody to help them step by step you know to have that voice to have that name somebody that they can connect to as they're going through this process you know how important do you think it is to be able to be that person
00:03:22
Speaker
I think it's huge. To have a relationship with someone who understands your business is not something that's common for any small business owner looking to expand or scale or really grow in a tenable way. We really try to be at the point of contact that they know us on first names. They can reach out to us whenever and any time of day. We try to provide as much time as we can to help these farms and really so they get the most for their time.
Onboarding vs. Account Management
00:03:48
Speaker
So we have different types of managers here at Barn to Door. We have our farm account managers, which we call our FAMS, and then our farm onboarding managers, which we call our FAMS. And so obviously you are the FAMS side of things, but how does that differentiate from the FAMS, the onboarding managers? Oh, great question. Our FAMS, the onboarding managers are essential to the setup and understanding of the direction of the business coming into Barn to Door.
00:04:13
Speaker
I'm extremely grateful we have a huge awesome crew of people that are onboarding these farms. So they usually handle the incoming here. They get a good understanding of the direction the business wants to go and what their priorities are, help get everything set up and established, move forward with the website process and make sure that the farmer has a solid understanding of using their account.
00:04:33
Speaker
Once the ball is passed to my court here, we can really expand on what the onboarding managers have pretty much laid out and worked with on the farmers. And we can focus more on marketing and driving sales and growing the customer base. I am extremely grateful that we have a farm team to help take that burden off of the farmer's plates as well as our plates. So we can focus on in what I believe is a little more fun. But it's a two person team and yeah, we're fortunate to have the onboarding team for sure.
00:05:00
Speaker
That's awesome. And when you're dealing with farmers and the different accounts that you work with, do you stay with those accounts for as long as they need your service? Does that ever get handed off to a different account manager? Because I'd imagine there's a lot to do with, again, the face and the voice, you know, someone that you're comfortable with working with your website, right?
00:05:17
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. And that's a terrific question. If the farm comes on board and they have a subscription that comes with an account manager, usually we try to stick with that account and that farm account manager for as long as they're with Barn to Door. We try not to rock the boat too much.
00:05:32
Speaker
As our team grows, you know, the territories and the states that were allocated will change. And so there is always some flexibility that happens, but we try to keep that to a minimum. Sometimes we have to make one-off changes. I recently had to forfeit one of my accounts who I really quite enjoyed working with, but they have an international
00:05:50
Speaker
team member who's helping them manage their marketing and with time zone differences, it just made more sense for them to go to our Nashville office. So I am keeping an eye on them because I really want them to succeed
Maintaining Farm Relationships
00:06:00
Speaker
as well. But sometimes there is a switch of account manager if it just makes sense for time zones and accommodating the needs of the farmer.
00:06:07
Speaker
Do you ever keep in touch with those farms after they know your name and they've heard, they've been talking to you plenty of times. I'm sure you can form a connection with them, right? Absolutely. You know, I'll be looped into a lot of newsletters and marketing efforts anyway. And it's always nice staying up to date and seeing how these farms are doing, these businesses are doing, you know, it's not uncommon. Occasionally we'll place an order here or there if we really believe in their product and we're excited about it. And importantly, they serve our area. That's usually a big limiting factor for us.
00:06:35
Speaker
So occasionally, you know, we'll stay in touch as much as we can. I usually keep an eye on things. We have a pretty good record of what's going on.
00:06:41
Speaker
Yeah, that's great. That's really great to hear. Let's move on more into the details of farm account managing. What are some of the ways that your team is able to manage the farmer's accounts?
Scaling Strategies for Farms
00:06:50
Speaker
Oh, wow. Well, first and foremost, we kind of have a structure, but we try to accommodate where the farmer is at and how comfortable they are using technology. But the first things we do are things like marketing audits. It's usually best to be able to build off of the success that the farm is already having, where they're already engaging with their communities.
00:07:08
Speaker
and they're customers and so social media is a huge one. Lots of farms come to us with some experience with social media and so how can we help bring their efforts to the next level and make sure they're spending their time well. The next one we look at email collection strategies, growing an email base and the importance of email marketing. Hands down the most effective form of marketing online that there is.
00:07:29
Speaker
So our support comes into talking about best practices, sharing what other of our most successful farms are doing and how we can help lean into what we know is working in their area so they can start seeing the results that they want, whether they're looking to grow their customer base, increase their sales, um, or some farms just come to us looking to save time and how we can get the most out of those systems there.
00:07:50
Speaker
After we go through the foundations of marketing, we continue to look for ways to help streamline their business. If they're looking to scale or grow or break into different markets or different geographic areas, how can we help them make that step? That's awesome. I mean, that's it is the complete package, right? Oh, yeah, we try to be. We try to be. It's a lot of fun. It takes a lot of burden off of their shoulders, I think.
00:08:11
Speaker
That's the hope. And so I have some farms that I love them and they always get worried that they're harassing me or asking me too many questions, but it's job security. So keep asking us questions.
00:08:22
Speaker
Do farmers have complete control over their account? Like, do they choose how much assistance they want when developing? Or, you know, what are the different ways? Yeah, you know, there's a lot of flexibility and a lot of control that the farmer has, especially on the pace at which they're going, what they're comfortable with, you know, we will push a little bit, you know, if I'm told that your goal is to expand your sales, I'm going to do my best to make sure that you know how to do that in a reasonable amount of time and in the most time efficient ways.
00:08:49
Speaker
Sometimes, you know, if the objective is to grow sales, but maybe there's a smaller customer list, our goal is to identify and drill into areas that they can see the results they want, you know, in an effective way. And so sometimes though they want to increase sales, maybe the focus needs to be growing a customer list so they can increase their sales. And so there is a lot of flexibility that the farm has. We may try to push them in one direction or another based on what we see is working, but ultimately it's the farmer's business and we're here to support them.
00:09:17
Speaker
I like that there is that level of customizability that varies from, you know, farm to farm. And it's nice that you guys were able to adapt to be able to meet their needs in the way that they need it. Yeah. Well, you know, especially with agriculture and in the industry, you can't put every farm into certain boxes and certain categories. Every business is going to be at a different level. Everyone's going to have different goals. And our goal is to identify that and help them move forward.
00:09:43
Speaker
So what kind of tools or resources do you guys have that you're able to give to farmers so that, you know, if they want to do things by themselves or there's a situation where they can't reach you, what are some things that they could use?
Barn to Door Resources for Farmers
00:09:56
Speaker
Awesome question. I bring this up to my accounts probably too much and a lot of farmers might be tired of me saying it, but the learn centers are go to resource. It's great library full of how to videos, tutorials on not only how to use the web store,
00:10:10
Speaker
with your Barn to Door account, but also marketing best practices, what we see working, where we even highlight farms that are doing really well and share their success. So other interested farms can learn from that. We also have excellent programs like the Barn to Door Connect, great program to hear it from someone other than me. Sometimes you gotta hear it from another farmer. And we get that, we understand that. So the Barn to Door Connect is a great opportunity, same with the Barn to Door Academy, our most robust ongoing training system there.
00:10:39
Speaker
But, man, I mean, even with the Direct Farm Conference, we have lots and lots of resources available. Even the tools we use, whether it's becoming more familiar with social media and the business suite, MailChimp, and getting the most out of that platform, we have quite the arsenal to help farms.
00:10:54
Speaker
So when a farm is brand new to the service and they are passed along from the farm, the onboarding manager to you guys, how much of a difference does it make in the farmer, the location or the type of farm? Oh, wow. I mean, there's always going to be differences, especially when it comes to strategies and the tactics that you employ. Um, but there's probably more similarities than you might imagine.
00:11:20
Speaker
We have some farms that are nestled right up to metropolitan areas that are doing very well. The market's right there. But we similarly have farms out in the boonies, you could say, that are performing just as well, if not better, than some of these farmers in what you might consider more advantageous geographic area.
00:11:39
Speaker
And so the strategies to grow an online community and the online customer base are largely the same. That's the wonderful thing about being online is while we could be separated geographically, it's an area where we can all accumulate and create a community.
00:11:54
Speaker
And so the strategies of growing a brand and brand awareness and brand familiarity are all going to be very similar. The fulfillment methods might change, you know, whereas one farm could do a weekly delivery route in a suburb, another farm might have to only make it once a month in order to make their long drive worth it. But the service that they're providing is nearly identical.
00:12:15
Speaker
So we've talked about how farm account managers are able to assist farmers to customize their experience, to be able to work with them as they're developing their online business.
Benefits of Effective Account Management
00:12:24
Speaker
But indirectly or directly, does this also help the customers who are purchasing things from these farmers?
00:12:33
Speaker
Awesome question. I would say directly more than anything helps the customers with their purchase. You know with the access and with the ability to work with thousands of farms across the country we've been able to pick up a lot of buyer trends and how people are purchasing their food. I hate to sound like a fear monger but you know there is a real sense of scarcity out there today. You know buyers are going to the grocery stores and other supermarkets and they're seeing
00:12:58
Speaker
empty shelves. And so by understanding how customers are shopping from farms across the country, mainly bundles, especially subscriptions, we've identified that that's peace of mind for these customers. And by knowing how buyers are buying, we can share those best practices with our farms. So our farms are more likely to hit the nail on the head and hit the mark and meet buyer expectations wherever they are in the country.
00:13:23
Speaker
Yeah, that's fantastic. What are some of the best practices do you think that farmers can implement when maintaining their account? So apart from getting direct assistance from you and using all the different tools and resources at their disposal, are there any kind of like general practice things that you think would benefit them?
00:13:41
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. Even if you have loyal repeat customers and you've been in the game for a long time, thank you to the advent of the internet and in particular social media. The attention span of your average buyer is slim to none nowadays. There will always have to be an element of marketing.
00:13:58
Speaker
And so I would say best practice is even in the off season, keep your farm and your business top of mind as simple as a happy holidays. Even if you don't have anything to sell, you want to make sure that your customers are having that relationship with you year round. And there's a lot of great ways to do that. I'm a big advocate naturally of email marketing, even a simple social media posts, but you want to avoid any possibility that your buyers with their limited attention span look elsewhere.
00:14:27
Speaker
That's great. That's really good to hear. So are there any farms that you've worked with that come to mind? Maybe someone who wasn't doing so well online who already had that presence when they came to barn to door and they got that account manager, were they able to turn things around and boost sales or maybe save time in places where maybe they weren't being as efficient?
Success Story from Pennsylvania
00:14:46
Speaker
Absolutely. A farm that immediately comes to mind is a great guy, great farmer out of the Pennsylvania area. I've enjoyed working with him quite a bit, but he has awesome product and he stands by his product, but there was, I guess not a solid understanding or at least awareness of what was out there and how to get his products out. And so there was a lot of social media posts that were getting some traction here. They're Craigslist, occasional tractions, but
00:15:11
Speaker
Very infrequent repeat in loyal, you know, buyers. When he got onto Barnadora, we got him onboarded, thanks to the onboarding team. And one of the first things he was interested in was how he could start growing his loyal customer base and not have to rely on constantly marketing and these no guaranteed result.
00:15:30
Speaker
And so we ended up setting up subscriptions and shares for his produce. And he thankfully stepped away from Craigslist and got some folks subscribed and really started creating a recurring revenue, which was the first time he was able to see that on a consistent basis for his farm. And so, you know, it's a small amount at first, but even getting five shares out the door on a regular basis and having a regular cashflow,
00:15:52
Speaker
It gave him peace of mind and eventually as he continues to expand it can really give him a financial peace of mind and you know Take a lot of question of who's gonna sell this product and if he's gonna be able to sell it So he's I'm excited to watch him continue to grow
00:16:07
Speaker
Yeah, that's fantastic. I love that and that's got to be satisfying for you as well to be able to help them in those ways because obviously you're helping someone with their business, which is for most farmers, their livelihood and their lives. So it's just got to be a great feeling, right? Absolutely. One of my favorite things is on usually the first call that I have with a farm, I love going over their goals and their priorities, you know.
00:16:30
Speaker
And it's very common for the farmer to tell me that their goal is to step away from their full-time gig off-farm because they want to pursue their passion. They want to do what they love and they want to be on the farm full-time. Now, it's long slog. It's potentially a large income you have to replace on a recurring basis. But even if it's a couple, if one of the spouses, one of the partners is able to step away from their off-farm job to work on the farm full-time, that can change the dynamic of their family.
00:17:00
Speaker
They can spend more time on the farm with their animals, with their passion projects, with their kids in some cases. In some of my farms that I work with, even affording them enough time to have at least one meal with their family a week was a life changer for them. And so it's these small little wins that help me get out of bed every morning. I don't know. I love it. It's a ton of fun.
00:17:21
Speaker
So since you've started here at Barnador, how have you seen the team grow and evolve, and how has the company grown to better accommodate farmers?
Extending the Buying Season
00:17:30
Speaker
Yeah, oh, that's a terrific question. So I've been with Barnador for well over a year and a half now, and as any startup, it changes fast. It's one of the nice things about working here, I think, is
00:17:41
Speaker
We always have to learn and we always have to adapt and grow with the environment that we're in. And so the FAM team, of course, no exception. You know, our team has grown, it's become more streamlined. You know, we've had different priorities as time goes on. But the big direction that we're moving now and what I think is the most exciting as well is we're making sure that we're getting ahead of farmers and their schedules.
00:18:03
Speaker
As seasonal as it is, we want to make sure that we're extending the buying season. That if you're a protein producer, you're able to sell all of your product before you even go to the processor. And hopefully the deposits you take in can help cover processing fees, for example. If you are a produce operation, hopefully you can sell some of your produce in shares and CSAs even before you start to harvest to take off some of that burden and the hyper-seasonality of your income.
00:18:29
Speaker
We're always looking for ways to be better and be more proactive rather than reactive. We are good at putting out fires, but we want to prevent the fires from happening in the first place. So that's definitely the direction we're going out and we are creating more content and you may have seen in some of the newsletters as well where we're trying to get ahead of and be a little more aggressive with our marketing in order to help farms sell out. So what are you most looking forward to for the future of Barn to Door?
Future Expansion Plans
00:18:55
Speaker
As we continue to grow, as we continue to serve farmers, what are you looking forward to the most?
00:18:59
Speaker
Ooh, wow. That's a good question. I mean, my default answer is more farms coming on board. I am looking forward to the time where we have a large enough fam team where we can cover the whole country. No one gets left behind the cracks and you know, there's so many farms coming on board now. Like we're doing a great job keeping up to date and we're staying on our toes for sure.
00:19:20
Speaker
There's so much time to spend out there. That's right. And the sky's the limit for us, I think. Bingo. Exactly. Richard, I really appreciate you talking with me today. There's definitely a lot to learn. Definitely a lot that account managers can do to help farmers with their business. And I think that being able to use all these resources that are given to them can really help in the long run. Absolutely. Reach out to your account manager.
00:19:47
Speaker
We're here for you. We're having fun. I want to extend my thanks to Richard for joining us on this week's podcast episode. Here at Barn to Door, we're humbled to support thousands of farms across the country who implement sustainable agricultural practices and support their local communities. To learn more about Barn to Door, including access to numerous free resources and best practices for your farm, go to www.barn to door.com slash resources. Thank you for tuning in and we'll see you next week.
00:20:18
Speaker
Thank you for listening to this episode of the Direct Farm podcast. You can subscribe anywhere you listen to podcasts to automatically download new episodes. For more free resources that you can read, watch, and listen to, visit farntador.com slash resources. Thank you again for tuning in and we'll see you again next week.