100 Episodes in Review: Barn2Door's Favorite Podcasts Picks
We're celebrating 100 Direct Farm Podcast Episodes! We sit down with the Barn2Door Farm Account Management team to revisit their favorite Direct Farm Podcast episodes and the tactics that successful Farms shared to increase sales and save time & money.
FAM Favorite Podcasts:
Favorite FAN Feature: Old Rich Valley Farm
How To Secure Sales Before the Busy Season
The Farming Student Has Become the Master w/ Chucktown Acres
A Farmer's Market(ing) Campaign to Grow Faster Online with Bennett Farms
barn2door.com/resources
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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:
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Rory Loughran: Welcome to the Direct Farm Podcast. I'm Rory your host for today's episode, the 100th episode of the Direct Farm Podcast. We've got a great conversation for you today with the members of our Farm Account Management or FAM team. Our FAMs are dedicated to helping Farmers implement tactics to help drive sales, access more customers, and save time and money.
As this is our 100th episode of the Direct Farm Podcast, we'll hear from the FAMs regarding their favorite podcast episodes, the tactics that came out of those episodes, and why these tactics have become their go-to best practices [00:01:00] to share with Farmers to aid in their success.
First up we have Kevin Soncrant. Welcome, Kevin.
Kevin Soncrant: Thanks Rory. Glad to be here.
Rory Loughran: Yeah, for sure. So, what is the episode? What's the one you share the most with the Farms that you work with?
Kevin Soncrant: It's subscriptions by Old Rich Valley Farm.
Rory Loughran: Awesome. Yeah, Amy and Will with Old Rich Valley, they're awesome. Great family out in Virginia. What are some of the ways that Amy and Will are using subscriptions that you think is really helpful and makes you wanna share this with other Farmers?
Kevin Soncrant: Sure, yeah. So they're doing quite a few things that are really making people's lives easier and so a big part of what they do is provide convenience for customers. And so they allow them to choose how they pay, whether that's weekly, monthly, or pay in full at the beginning of the subscription.
And then they have, I believe they said six different delivery options to choose from as well as farm pickup. And in our world, convenience is king, it can be the make or break point for a sale. In addition, subscriptions are a way to help prevent having like a freezer full of meat that you hope people are gonna buy and instead, you know, from a Farmer's Market or another outlet for them, the majority of meat that they have [00:02:00] stored in their freezers it's already bought and paid for. And at the end of the day, one of the things I mentioned that I really liked, is that education plays a big role in the subscription process.
So they really take an opportunity to educate their buyers by sending out recipes and providing ways to cook the different cuts or ground beef, because a lot of cattle farmers and have a lot of extra ground beef, right? And so a lot of times with these subscriptions, buyers are getting more than they know what to do with.
And so being able to educate them on how to use that or how to cook some of those off cuts that people aren't used to seeing, it really helps encourage the customers to use them and want them as opposed to just seeing it as like a wasted product.
They also shared a couple other things that maybe aren't necessarily ways that they're using subscriptions, but I thought were really interesting facts. They said a lot of people that joined their subscriptions were not existing customers and they found that it was actually very appealing to an entirely new set of customer base that had a budget in mind and knew how much meat they wanted. Towards the end they said that right now, about half of their sales are through subscriptions and herd shares and a lot more new customers.
So it really didn't take away from their existing customer base.
Rory Loughran: [00:03:00] Yeah. And that's I think something to highlight there too is, if that's half their sales, then half of their sales are guaranteed income month over month, which is huge. That goes a really long way, especially in farming. And I think something else that you pointed out that I really liked there was when you're doing proteins, it's hard to avoid the freezer space problem. But at least knowing that all that is already spoken for and having that sitting there, you don't have to necessarily be worried about making sure that you're selling that at markets or calling people up and seeing if they need more beef, that all that ground beef that, maybe you're worried about getting through is already spoken for with those subscriptions.
And you can make sure you're moving it through the door.
Kevin Soncrant: Yeah, absolutely.
Rory Loughran: Awesome. You work with a lot of Farms, why are subscriptions so helpful to Farmers using Barn2Door while also, as we kind of already have touched on, so convenient for their customers?
Kevin Soncrant: Yeah, sure. So really like at the end of the day, subscriptions are a game changer for both farmers and customers. Farmers can use it to plan for the future, especially when they're processing meat, it's helpful to be able to plan and know what they need to process and how much they've already sold.
But then for them, they also know that they've [00:04:00] guaranteed sales coming in and they know what product they'll be moving. The best part's knowing exactly how much money they're gonna be making for subscriptions as you highlighted earlier. From the customer standpoint, they're gonna have meat for the next year without having to worry about the costs, right?
Depending on how the Farmer sets up the subscription, customers have the option to pay it all up front recurring. But regardless they can enter their payment info once, they don't have to worry about it again for the length of the subscription. If a customer wants a half a beef, but they don't have the freezer space, which a lot of us don't have a chest freezer or a walk-in freezer or they don't have the cash flow to get a half beef, they can purchase that through the subscription and get that over the course of the year and pick it up and pay monthly. So it just makes it really convenient for customers.
Rory Loughran: Yeah, those payment options are huge. And I know being able to, as you said, a whole beef or a half beef, that's a big investment for folks. And so being able to space out those payments is really great for the consumer. And a lot of times, as a Farmer, you might have kind of ups and downs of the seasons where you're busier and things are quieter. So knowing that money will be spread out across all those seasons, it goes a really long ways, too. [00:05:00] Not having it like big feast or famine eras.
Kevin Soncrant: That's a great point. Great point, Rory.
Rory Loughran: So Kevin, Barn2Door recently just released Ongoing Subscriptions, and I'm really glad that you chose this podcast as the one that you wanted to share about, because this is a new feature with Barn2Door. We're really excited about it. I know a lot of Farms have been waiting for it. Have you been working with Farms to implement this feature?
Kevin Soncrant: Yeah, I have and it's a relatively simple process and Ongoing Subs are what most of us expect as customers, right? Rory, like you think about a lot of the subscriptions we have, they're essentially ongoing. Spotify, Netflix, maybe a gym membership. Many of them that we have, we sign up once, we get our product, or our service every single day, week or month and we'd never have to worry about it again. And so it's really kind of the expectation of the world. And so the fact that we now have that for Farmers and for their products it's just gonna make everybody's life a lot easier.
Rory Loughran: Yeah, that's really awesome and great to hear that you're already working on it with Farms to implement it. I know it's still really early in the process, but have you seen any results from that or what have some of the results been with Farms?
Kevin Soncrant: Yeah, I think the biggest result we're seeing right now, Rory, is just a general [00:06:00] excitement from Farmers that they don't have to worry about signing people back up for subscriptions when they end. You know, at the end of the day, it's just saving them time and a headache of worrying about that.
People are excited and it's great. I think we'll see more feedback come in as they implement it more and more, but right now people are happy with it in.
Rory Loughran: Yeah that's great to hear. Awesome. We're excited to keep hearing how that goes. Well, Kevin typically when Farmers think of a subscription, I think Amy and will even say this in the podcast, like the first thing that comes to mind is a CSA. And they're like, "oh, this is something that's built for produce Farmers who are doing a CSA and giving people produce every week."
But this feature as Amy will point out, can be really great for protein producers. Could you maybe talk about that and how you've seen protein Farms use this subscription feature as well?
Kevin Soncrant: Sure, yeah. I mean, ultimately their subscriptions are great for moving whole animals and for different cuts that people aren't normally drawn to. At the end of the day, most customers, they just want steaks and they want the nicest steak cuts. But with the subscriptions and the way you can set 'em up with bundle boxes or herd shares or doing a subscription for a half.
Essentially, you're just allowing [00:07:00] as a farmer, you're able to move the whole animal. You don't have to worry about getting backed Up on too much of one item. Like we mentioned earlier, ground beef is something that a lot of Farms, they just end up storing in their freezer for months and months. And so that's a worry taken off the plate.
So yeah they put it really well throughout the podcast about how beneficial it can be for all types of Farms, regardless of the products that they're.
Rory Loughran: Yeah, definitely. Cool. So then kind of continue on that. How does this, the structure of a meat share or a herd share subscription?
How does it play into helping Farmers consistently move more of those products and gain that recurring revenue too?
Kevin Soncrant: Yeah. So what it allows them to do is allows the consumer to sign up for a half beef share and they have that half beef divided up over 12 months or whatever they subscribe to. Ultimately it helps the Farmers plan production, cuz Farmers know how many sales they already have accounted for and if they sold out and if they have the capability to produce more, then they can start to maximize their Farm's true potential, right?
Best of all, like, these herd share options, these meat share subscriptions, they really just help the Farmer move the whole animal, not just the high value cuts like steaks that many customers want [00:08:00] or think they want.
Rory Loughran: Yeah, definitely. And I think that ties back to like what you were saying about education and kind of teaching people, there's a lot of really great cuts on a cow.
Kevin Soncrant: Absolutely man. And that was what I loved about this podcast, Rory, was the way they started. That was essentially a theme throughout the podcast. And they started by talking about how education's so important, even not related to subscriptions. Just them as Farmers and how much of a learning process everything is and how they like to share that knowledge and, you know, At the end of the day, like the mistakes aren't mistakes, cuz they're learning from 'em and they're making themselves better.
And that education goes both ways I think and they made a strong point to emphasize that throughout the podcast.
Rory Loughran: Yeah, no, Amy and will are always really big on telling people, " if hopefully you can learn from the mistakes we've made, hopefully we can learn from the mistakes you might have made and everybody can keep rolling the ball forward together."
Kevin Soncrant: They're a big reason why this community is such an awesome community, right? People like that.
Rory Loughran: Definitely. I was gonna say too with what you were saying about wholes and halves, right now with processing being what it is, subscriptions are a game changer for that. And being able to [00:09:00] know and plan ahead of, "I'm gonna need X many animals to process to fulfill this many subscriptions", that just makes planning, processing so much easier. And I know, I think will touches on that in the podcast as well.
Kevin Soncrant: A hundred percent and what he touched on, I was actually just talking to a Farmer earlier today about this concept, like his Farm and a lot of Farms have the capability to produce a lot more than what they produce. Like that is there If the demand is there. And so they can only plan that out when they know those sales are guaranteed to come in and subscriptions help 'em get to that point.
Rory Loughran: Yeah, definitely. Awesome. Well, kevin, thanks so much for joining us.
Kevin Soncrant: Yeah, thank you Rory. I appreciate it.
Rory Loughran: Next up we have Matt Greenham. Welcome Matt. Welcome on the podcast.
Matt Greenham: Hey Rory. Thanks very much.
Rory Loughran: Yeah. So, what episode did you choose as the episode that you tend to share the most with Farms or that you find really helpful for Farmers?
Matt Greenham: Yeah, thanks Rory. I choose a podcast that I share out a lot and I personally enjoy. There's so much to learn from it, and that is How to Secure Sales Before the Busy Season with Joe from Dirty Girl Produce down in California.
Rory Loughran: Yeah, Joe's [00:10:00] awesome. So obviously, yeah, that one is very focused on pre-orders. What would be some of the highlights that you could share with people about how Joe utilizes pre-orders?
Matt Greenham: Yeah, yeah. Look, I think Joe has done such a good job over the years. He's obviously been with Barn2Door for quite some time and the growth of his business has just been staggering. I think one of the things that Joe has really leveraged with his produce is to really take advantage of pre-orders in the preseason, right?
So he has, you know, obviously when it comes to produce and even if we use the example of protein Farms as well where you might have a fair bit of time between processing dates, there's huge opportunity to set up pre-orders, which is very easy to do in your store. And Joe has worked on that and mastered it to great effect, in particular with the way that he uses subscriptions to get people excited well before the produces even grown or picked.
Rory Loughran: Yeah, yeah. That's a great point too about protein Farms. Like [00:11:00] with a CSA or with produce that you're growing, it makes a lot of sense that you can't always do those products unless you're doing it through a greenhouse. You don't always have those products year round, so pre-sale makes a lot of sense, but processing dates can hold people up too. So being able to have more of that money up front, which kind of leads into the next question, but what is the benefit of doing pre-orders cuz I know, I'm sure you kind of run into sometimes Farmers that are, maybe are a little timid about doing pre-orders. And so what are the benefits for Farmers and for their customers with doing pre-orders?
Matt Greenham: Yeah, they really are quite powerful and, you know, underused in many ways. I try and bring it up with all my farmers because yeah, there's just in any business, especially in smaller businesses, there's downtime. And so pre-orders just takes advantage of that. The advantage for Farms is that it allows the opportunity for that recurring income. It allows for produce Farmers, for example, to secure income in the off season, okay? So during the winter and the spring and secure that revenue like I said earlier, before anything's even been picked.
So the advantage for the customer is food security. The consumers now we've [00:12:00] noticed are really focused on food security and making sure that they've got that food for, you know, set up for their family and this is a huge opportunity for Farms to provide that service. Now more than ever consumers are really looking to lock in their food planning for the year.
Rory Loughran: Yeah, and that's super nice. It's a guarantee for the customer. Obviously super great for the Farmer too, to be able have that money kind of up front. I was curious, I'm sure if I put on the farmer hat or I'm playing devil's advocate here, I'm sure there's a little bit of resistance around like the Farmer being nervous.
"Well, what if we don't get much rain this year and those crops that I've already sold don't grow very well?" Or, "what if some disease hits and I lose crops or I lose an animal that I was depending on?" So what is kind of your response to that when Farms are maybe bringing up those points?
Matt Greenham: Yeah, sure. I think, you know, especially if you're doing it for the first time, you just wanna try it out, right? So you don't wanna overextend yourself. So for example you might set up some subscriptions and this could, you could do this for a protein [00:13:00] Farmer where they've got, say in the next processing date, isn't for three or four months.
And of course the produce Farmers for the next season, but you don't have to overextend yourself. You could simply set up a few subscriptions and just, you know, have a variety there and start selling them, but just limit the numbers initially so that you can at least protect yourself if things don't work out.
And look, the other thing of course, is that consumers are understanding as well. So if the worst thing happens, you can certainly get in touch with them and make arrangements based on what you do have when the season comes around. But I think just starting out, just starting it and just getting confident with it, is really a great step in the right direction.
Rory Loughran: Yeah, no, definitely starts small. I mean, I think Joe mentions in that podcast too, that I think he started just doing tomatoes. And so yeah, it's kind of a great way to do that.
Matt Greenham: And now he's doing strawberries and he has so many subscriptions in his store and the vast majority of them he's doing in the preseason, and it's just, you know, Joe talks about how during that time he relies on a line of credit from the bank, right, to get him through. And now he's finding he's not [00:14:00] so dependent on that because he's just got people year after year that just wanna lock in those subscriptions. And again, it's well before the product's been picked.
So, for Joe, I think it's just great to be out there picking, knowing that when the season comes around to know that yeah, basically what you're picking is more or less being sold. And so, yeah, it's a good feeling.
Rory Loughran: Yeah, that's awesome. And I think too, with dealing with customers, if something does go wrong, I feel like the worry with the store is that you go there and shelves are just empty. You don't know why you can't talk to anybody about that. It's just empty.
But if you have your Farmer, you know, you can explain that. You can even do that through your social media, your email marketing, and kind of walk people through like, "hey, we had a crop failure this year. This is what we're gonna do about it. This is how we're gonna compensate you or make up for it or push things back, move things around." So I think customers really actually appreciate being able to talk to their Farmers through those types of things.
Matt Greenham: A hundred percent and that's the other thing, I mean that you can even turn that into a positive situation because, you know, most consumers they'll want to support your Farm, right? So whatever the situation is, let's just say you can't [00:15:00] fulfill the subscription for the length of time that you'd initially set up in your store. You know, you just do what you can and we've seen this before, you know, these things happen, right? Like, weather's volatile. There's drought, all sorts of things going on.
But yeah, your consumers are really understanding and you'll find in those situations they'll wanna support you as best as they can.
Rory Loughran: Yeah. And we've kind of touched on this too and you mentioned like Joe being able to be picking products, knowing that they've already been claimed or that they're spoken for. I know he also kind of uses it to help bankroll production. Could you maybe talk about how that is an added bonus of doing these pre-orders?
Matt Greenham: Yeah absolutely and Joe is a great example of this. And that's why, you know, one of the reasons why I find this particular podcast so powerful, cuz his message is really, when it comes to harvesting and there's labor costs and there's, you know, there's so many costs to consider around that time and he's already got the cash flow months and months before he's even out there.
So it just allows him financially to have better planning and organization when it comes time to ramp up and, you know, whether it's paying the staff for deliveries and the picking [00:16:00] and the, you know, standing at the Farmer's Market stalls. Yeah, so he works out to great advantage and it is, you know, it's just more money in your pocket so that things run more smoothly when, you know, when the selling season comes around.
Rory Loughran: Cool. So Matt, do you work with a lot of Farms that are currently doing pre-orders for their products?
Matt Greenham: I do, yes.
Rory Loughran: And so what are some of the examples maybe that, I know we've talked about kind of broadly like proteins or CSAs, but what are some of the other specifics that are really working well for people?
Matt Greenham: I really like to focus on pre-orders. And one thing that I really enjoy about them is helping Farms set it up and then watching them succeed. Cuz often they're very surprised to see how effective they are. If I may give you an example. So, I was working with a farmer down in Texas and it's just getting processing dates in his particular area, which was absolutely terrible.
And he had two or three secured for the year and his next one wasn't coming up for, you know, three or four months. But he had quite a lot going in, so there was enough product there to set up some subscriptions, some six month monthly subscriptions. And so we went ahead and did that and for him, it didn't even make sense. It's like, why would someone pay all this [00:17:00] money up front for something they're not gonna get for three or four months?
So there's really two parts to that. The first part is getting everything set up in the store, getting the timing right. The second part is getting the message out, right? And literally within a month of setting this up, he had sold out of most of that product that was gonna come. So, pretty much everything that he was taking into the process in four months time was sold out in subscriptions.
Rory Loughran: Wow, that's awesome. That's great to hear. Yeah, it definitely makes kind of balancing the hassle of processing a lot easier.
Matt Greenham: Yeah and I think the point is there, it's just what we were talking about before Rory, and it's just how consumers want to have that food security cuz it is difficult times and when people go into grocery stores and see empty shelves, that can be a really scary thing. And the best part is that, you know, the farmers are producing a much better product. It's a premium product and people are willing to pay a little bit more for that and so they should.
Rory Loughran: Yeah, definitely. And then as anything goes, especially you and your team with success, I'm sure there's a lot of different ways implementation can go with a lot of [00:18:00] these different strategies. So what are some of the challenges? What are some of the maybe successes that kind of come up when you're going through this process of implementing pre-orders?
Matt Greenham: The way I look at it, I think there's two challenges. The first is you gotta get the timing right? You know, you need a fair bit of time to market and, you know, get people used to the idea that this is what you're doing. And also in your marketing, whether that be on social media and certainly through your MailChimp newsletters, you want to be emphasizing the advantages and the benefits of people purchasing in this way.
So you need a fair bit of time to do that. So, that's the first challenge is you want to be able to set this up a few months in advance. The other challenge is making sure that you have enough people to communicate with, right?
And this is why we always stress, we're always talking about how important email addresses are, right? I say to a lot of Farms, like think of every email address you get it's like a gold nugget it's so important. And you know, one email address could be a customer and continued revenue for years and years to come.
So, I guess that's a second challenge, especially if you're fairly new with Barn2Door and you [00:19:00] don't have a big email list, it just emphasizes the importance of growing your email list because when it comes to pre-ordering, you want to go out to as many people as possible.
Rory Loughran: Mm-hmm, yeah. It's a tactic that you see across so many other industries. Like there's not many companies that are making product without the guarantee of that cash flow coming in.
Matt Greenham: No absolutely And you know, I think the model works so effectively if implemented properly for our Farmers. And just getting that consistent revenue throughout the year is just super exciting and it helps you to make the most of your subscription with Barn2Door as well.
Rory Loughran: Yeah. Yeah, and I know Tom Bennett is another Farmer we have on a lot of the podcast and he always talks about too because he does subscriptions and he does protein subscriptions and that's kind of his way of, he does a lot of markets in the summertime, but those markets close and then he's like, before subscriptions, it was kind of feast or famine in terms of his income.
And so being able to do pre-orders is a similar setup where you don't have to go those months without any way of getting your products out to people. You can still have some income.
Matt Greenham: Yeah, you can fill in the gaps. Absolutely. You're not just relying on one [00:20:00] market source for your income.
Rory Loughran: Yeah. Well, so Matt, you've been a Farm Account Manager here for a while. What is your favorite part about getting to work with Farmers?
Matt Greenham: Yeah, thanks Rory. You know, I think for me I grew up in rural parts of Australia and it's interesting, I think the plight of Farmers there is similar to how it is here, you know. There's lots of weather challenges, Australia, well known for its droughts and floods and fires. And you know, it's not easy being a Farmer. I think it takes a lot of courage to do it. And so I think I grew up with that and I think I just really enjoy being in a position to help Farms expand the way that they can do business, right? And I think that's, for me, that's, what's so exciting about e-commerce and having an online store because it just provides you with so many different ways and so many opportunities to be creative in communicating with your customers and growing your customer list and in ways that you can't do without that kind of presence.
And so, you know, there's a lot to take on when a Farm joins Barn2Door, but I always find that when, you know, once people get [00:21:00] into a routine, which is what, you know, as Account Managers, we really work to get our Farms to do is just getting the routine of just focusing on all channels.
You know, keeping the messaging out there on Facebook, consistently sending out newsletters. It's all about keeping your product, keeping your store, top of mind. And this is ultimately the challenge of all businesses, right? It's just, you know, as consumers, all of us we're walking around and we've just got so much stimulation.
There's so much going on and we're being hit from all angles with people trying to sell us stuff. But it's no different for Farms and we all have to do that. So I guess, to answer your question there, Rory, I just enjoy guiding people through that journey and then seeing their reaction when they start to get success.
And it's like, oh wow, this actually really does work and I think this particular podcast is great encouragement along those lines because Joe went through a lot of those growing pains, right? In fact, Joe says in the podcast and I think it's such a powerful message that, you know, when he started out with Barn2Door, he's like, I was just a Farmer. I didn't really know a lot about, e-commerce having an online store, marketing, and, you know, consumer [00:22:00] behavior.
But he really leaned in, and even now he says it doesn't necessarily come naturally, but he puts a lot of time into it and he follows the script and it works for him and he's really very, very creative with that and he's seeing the benefits and it really excites us to see Farms succeed with the platform.
Rory Loughran: Definitely. Yeah, that's awesome. Joe's great. I always love talking with Joe and having him on the podcast, cuz he always is very honest about that. That it doesn't come natural. It's definitely not his forte or something he'd prefer to do. He always just wants to be out Farming. But you know, it's kind of an essential part to the business. So he finds a way he makes it work and he's doing really well with it.
Matt Greenham: He does, yeah. And I think it's like, you know, like all of us, we tend to resist things that create friction or things that we don't really want to do.
Well, you know, it's sort of like you're out there and you're in the sun. You've got things to do. You've got deadlines, all this sort of stuff. But finding the time for this and it doesn't even need to be a huge amount of time, but finding the time to, you know, work on emails, work on communicating with customers it really, really pays dividends cuz at the end of the day it just justifies all the work you're doing.
Rory Loughran: Yeah. Awesome. Well, Matt, [00:23:00] thanks so much for joining us.
Matt Greenham: Oh it's my pleasure
Rory Loughran: Awesome.
Next up we have Josh Schook. Welcome Josh. To start out, could you tell us a little bit about what your role is at Barn2Door as a FAM?
Josh Schmoock: Yeah, definitely. One thing that we as FAMs get the opportunity to do, is really connect with the people, the Farms, and help them support their business. So as FAMs it's twofold. One part being, helping Farmers leverage Barn2Door, you know, to manage their customer relationships and make sure that they're up to date on platform features and capabilities. Second part of that is helping them with their marketing. And I think that's probably the most fun part, really. Making sure that their email marketing platform is all set up the way it should be through MailChimp and making sure that their social media is really optimized.
Rory Loughran: Awesome. Yeah, it's it definitely is like, both those sides of it. What are some of the common areas that you like really focus on when you're meeting with Farms? What are the things that are oftentimes the first priorities?[00:24:00]
Josh Schmoock: Yeah. Myself personally, I really like to focus on like the power of their community. No pun intended, but really planting the seed for their business throughout that community and leveraging marketing to do that. And also like the old fashioned going out to markets, going out to different places, to actually shake some hands.
Rory Loughran: Yeah, definitely I like that's a really cool emphasis, cuz I think a lot of times something I hear from you guys on the success team a lot is that Farms come in and they're really looking to target, a huge area, perhaps their whole state, or even sell out of state.
And for some Farms that does make sense. But a lot of times there's a lot more buyers than they maybe think right in their communities. They just need to tap into that more. So that's really cool that you guys really focus in on that and that's always a priority for you.
Josh Schmoock: Yeah, absolutely.
Rory Loughran: So we're kind of going through the episodes here as this is the 100th episode of the Direct Farm Podcast. So what is an episode that you find most helpful that you like to share with Farms if they're maybe starting up and just having a [00:25:00] first couple meetings with you, what's like your go-to episode that you share with Farms?
Josh Schmoock: Yeah, I think in my opinion, one of the most powerful ones that I like to share with Farmers is one by Chucktown Acres: The Farming Student has Become the Master. Great title too, right?
Rory Loughran: Yeah, awesome. Well, So what's kind of the reasoning behind that? What are some of the topics that are covered in this podcast that you find are really applicable to other Farms?
Josh Schmoock: It's hard to choose just like a couple, but Alex really honed in on the need of the use of social media but he touched on like, the learning curve of Barn2Door. I think that's something that's really important for folks to know, especially starting up their business. It can be a grind and it can be a lot of work, but a lot of that work that you put into it will come out and be really beautiful in the end.
Rory Loughran: Yeah, definitely. I like the word learning curve. That's a great way of putting it. Just because it takes a little bit of investment and figuring some things out at the start but you start to get it down, you take the training wheels off and then you're going.
Josh Schmoock: Yeah, absolutely. And like, that's one of the [00:26:00] most rewarding things too, is like, when you almost take off those training wheels or when the Farmers take off those training wheels and like, they have all this power inside of them the entire time and they're able to do it. It's great.
Rory Loughran: Yeah, that's awesome. Really cool. Well, so Josh, what do you like most about Alex's approach to social media? Is there anything that really like stands out about from that episode that you were like, "oh, that's the money talking point right there." even when you share that to people are you're like, "this is the part to really hone in on"?
Josh Schmoock: Yeah, again, it comes into like so many different, great things are like covered in the podcast. I like how Alex really honed in on the need of the use of social media with utilizing your community. One thing is midway through he mentions like just doing it, right? Like just getting out there and doing it no matter, like how uncomfortable it could seem. Like one really great quote that I had, like from the podcast is, "when you're a new business, people are going to forget that you exist. You have to remind them that you exist." And I don't think that there's anything more [00:27:00] powerful than that there.
Rory Loughran: Yeah, no, that's so true. I mean, I feel like, especially in the world of social media, I feel like every year you hear some statistic about how people's attention spans are getting shorter and it's like, you just have to keep on it. And I feel like that's probably a lesson that you would apply to a lot of different things, or a lot of different elements of running a business is just stay at it, keep doing it.
Would you say that's true or what are some of those other areas that you kind of are usually encouraging people, like, just keep it up, keep it going. I feel like email marketing is one that comes to mind for me, but...
Josh Schmoock: Oh, yeah, definitely email marketing. Kind of going back to the community side of things, I mean, getting involved in your local community. Getting involved in local schools. As school starts to ramp up, one thing that I've been trying to push people towards is doing like Farm tours for students.
And a lot of other Farms have had really great success in doing that. And again, that kind of plants the seed for the next generation to get them more interested in farming and some really great products.
Rory Loughran: Yeah, definitely. [00:28:00] That's really cool. Awesome. Well, thanks Josh. Thanks for doing this and thanks for coming on the podcast.
Josh Schmoock: Yeah Rory, thanks for having me.
Rory Loughran: And last, but certainly not least we have Richard Weisberg. Welcome Richard.
Richard Weisberg: Hey, thanks Rory. I'm always happy to be here.
Rory Loughran: So, your favorite episode, what's the one that you kind of go to the most and share with Farms the most?
Richard Weisberg: Oh, okay. Easily it would be a Farmer's Marketing Campaign to Growing Faster Online. Tom Bennett's just got nugget of wisdom after nugget of wisdom and then there's something for everybody there.
Rory Loughran: Yeah, I'm a little biased. I got to record this with Tom, but this is definitely one of my favorites for anybody that's doing markets or even just events and the ways to get all those customers who might be one time, spotty buyers really locked into to your online store and subscriptions and things like that.
But as I kind of just, I guess, introduced there, this podcast covers a lot. So what are some of the key things that Tom shares in this episode that you really like to share with Farms and help them implement as part of their business?
Richard Weisberg: Yeah, absolutely. You know, a lot of Farms when they get to [00:29:00] the account management side of things and they get online, they kind of just hope maybe that customers start falling from the trees and are popping outta the woodworks. But unfortunately, reality doesn't always work like that. So Tom does a great job in this podcast outlining different ways that he's been able to leverage in person communication, in person sales, especially at the markets, to growing his online business. Saving him time in the long run, increasing his sales and just having access to more customers.
Rory Loughran: Yeah, that's definitely a common thing. And I think Tom has even said that before, too. Like he remembers turning on his online store and being like, oh man, like, are we gonna even enough, like, supplies and things for tomorrow when all this is selling out like crazy. And he's like, that's not really how it works. Like you definitely have to work to get those customers kind of your marketing and such. So Richard for a Farm whose business is maybe largely focused around Farmer's Markets ,why is shifting customers to online? Why is that an important thing to do?
Richard Weisberg: Oh man. I mean, there's lots of different reasons. So I'll just touch on kind of the [00:30:00] first ones that come to mind. But one, keep in mind when people are going to the Farmer's Markets, they've usually withdrawn a set amount of money that they're gonna sprinkle across the market.
So, you know, they might withdraw a hundred dollars and then spread that across five or six vendors. Being online can allow you to increase the average sale that you have at the market just by opening up pickup. You've guaranteed sales, even if it's just for a handful of customers, but they're more likely to spend more on your web store and on your products online than they are in person, especially at the market.
So that's definitely a great incentive to increase your sales there. But keep in mind, you know, was it 1% of Americans can regularly attend a Farmer's Market? And so it's a great place to at least have an introduction, a handshake, some eye contact, but the likelihood of that person going back to the market week over week and creating regular sales for you, there is slim to none.
And so being online makes it easy for them to purchase when it's convenient for them. I think Tom mentions that a ton of his orders [00:31:00] come between 10:00 PM and midnight, as people are lying in bed, thinking about what to have for dinner the next day. They can't do that by going to the market. So online is just a huge convenience lever for your customers and for your business.
Rory Loughran: Yeah. And you kind of touched on the pre-orders there too. Could you maybe talk about like how you've worked with Farms and what that does, because I know Farmer's Markets are always tough. It's always kind of hard to know what inventory to bring and what to prioritize.
So like what's been your experience there with Farms?
Richard Weisberg: Yeah and you're hitting on a great point of conversation as well. Cuz you know, you only have so much space in your truck or the coolers you're bringing out to the market. So, for increasing sales, you can allow your customers to see more product that you have available online, and especially if they need to, you know, reserve some product or you have really hot sellers.
Tom makes an illusion to someone who I think purchased 13 pounds of like smoked pork chops. I think if that customer just showed up out of the blue and was able to even get [00:32:00] 13 pounds as more pork chops, for example, there would be none left for the rest of their customers. So being online allows your customers to really make sure that if they have some particular items they want, they can secure those, meet you at the market in a convenient place that, you know, they've had a relationship with you in the past.
Rory Loughran: Yeah. And I think it's also a great way to kind of like build a relationship, but also kind of build like a little bit of exclusivity around it.
Richard Weisberg: Certainly.
Rory Loughran: If you have that relationship with a customer and they know they can go on your online store and pre-order bacon and make sure that they get their bacon when they come to your stand and maybe even they show up and you're like, oh yeah, I'll grab it from the back. You know, kind of make 'em feel like they're special and they got special products on hold for you. That goes a long way for customers, I think.
Richard Weisberg: Absolutely. And to that point as well, you know, I have yet to meet a Farmer that feels good when a customer wants a product that they no longer have available at the market.
Rory Loughran: Yeah.
Richard Weisberg: It's so much more convenient for the customer just to be like, hey, please reserve your products. We have it available, but you know, maybe we sold that in the market or we didn't bring it this week. So to [00:33:00] guarantee you're gonna get your product, purchase it online. We'll see you here next week.
Rory Loughran: Yeah, definitely. That's a great move. And then also, like I think something that I think I've heard you speak to before as well, is that being a point to get people onto the online store. Like that being a differentiator and maybe like a selling point for a customer that maybe they're really into the market experience.
But could you maybe speak to that as well and how having the online store and more options there could be a selling point?
Richard Weisberg: Yeah, absolutely. You know, it's not uncommon. I know in my own experience of shopping at Farmer's Markets, I'm having a good time. You know, I'll ask 'em if they have certain items available. Having a wider range of products online can help you drive traffic online just by saying here's a flyer or here's a brochure, here's how you can access our web store. You can see all of the products we have available or what we have available for this season. And so, pushing folks online can certainly help with customer loyalty. You're serving them better. You're offering them a more product availability than what you can typically bring to just the market.
Rory Loughran: Mm-hmm, [00:34:00] definitely. And you touched on something there with flyers, and I know this is, that's one way people kind of do what this next question kind of leads into, but this podcast and a lot of other podcasts really emphasize the importance of email collection. Why is that something that's important, especially if you're in a market setting trying to get people transitioned online?
Richard Weisberg: Yeah, great question. Email collection is something I focus a lot on with the Farms that I work with. Farms that send out regular email communication, you know, three to four email touches a month on average, have about 30% more in monthly sales than Farms that don't have that email communication.
So it works and it works really, really well. It keeps your Farm top of mind. Your customers are always aware of what's going on, even if it's just a monthly newsletter, you know, and the last thing that Farmers wanna do is spam customers and be a nuisance and drive folks away. But folks that subscribe to your newsletters, especially at the market, are doing so to stay in the loop. They wanna know what's going on. They wanna know what products are available and they're eager to hear from these Farms.
Now with some [00:35:00] of the heat waves we've been seeing across the country as well, you know, even markets that are in season for the summer are subject to sudden closures right? And so having an email list, having email communication, a way to market to these customers saying, "hey, sorry, even though the market was closed down due a heat wave, you know, we're still running deliveries or you can still meet us for pickup on this date."
Rory Loughran: Yeah, definitely. So Richard, I know a lot of Farms that sign up with Barn2Door, they might already be doing Farmer's Markets or maybe they're thinking about getting into those and then over time, it's not uncommon to see Farms start pairing down their market attendance and either attending less markets or going to no markets and they do that because their online sales have kind of either surpassed or kind taken the place of those markets. Why is that preferred by Farms?
Richard Weisberg: Yeah, absolutely. That mainly just comes down to time savings.
You know, market sales are great and some markets are of course better than others, but it always stings a little bit when you gotta pack the coolers back up, [00:36:00] load up the truck and, you know, you've got full coolers coming back to the Farm, right? And so, a lot of Farms have been transitioning away from Farmer's Markets once they have a really strong email list and their time is better spent elsewhere. They could turn a four hour market day with, you know, questionable or inconsistent sales into a four hour delivery day where they're running 30, 40 deliveries with guaranteed sales, guaranteed product that they're moving and so it's just a better use for their time. And even Amazon charges for delivery fees and so they're making that time productive and increasing their margins as a result.
Rory Loughran: Yeah, that's huge. I mean, if you have employees, for example, you can have an employee sit at the market for five or six hours and maybe they'll sell a lot and maybe it'll go really well, but that's not guaranteed. Whereas if you have the delivery fee covering those drivers wages, then you know that the labor cut part is already covered then everything else is just profit for you. So that's really great.
Richard Weisberg: Yeah, bingo. You're touching on a really good point where, [00:37:00] you know, if they do have employees at the markets and maybe they're going to multiple markets in the week, in a perfect world, say they flip those all to deliveries. Not only can the delivery fees can pay for the wages like you said, but the farm can turn profit and so it's just kind of turning the whole profit opportunities on its head.
Rory Loughran: Yeah. And one another thing too is weekends. A lot of markets are centered around the weekends and deliveries. You can kind of do on your own schedule. Have you worked with any Farms that have kind of made that switch and kind of regained their weekends at least maybe a little bit?
Richard Weisberg: Yeah, absolutely. I remember one farm that I worked with, it was, gosh, I mean, it was really profound what they said. But they ended up saving enough time by going online, doing more deliveries, and streamlining their ordering system where for the first time in years, the Farmer had at least one day a week that they could have dinner with their family.
And it was a game changer for their family dynamic, their own sanity, you know. And so having more control over their schedule and not being so reliant on Farmer's Markets and the weather in some cases. Peace of mind and [00:38:00] time for the Farmer is huge, especially in industry where they don't have a lot of both.
Rory Loughran: Yeah, definitely. Seriously. awesome to hear. Well, awesome. Thanks so much, Richard. Definitely we want people to check this out as a final question Richard, what's your favorite part about working with Farmers?
Richard Weisberg: Yeah, pretty easy question for me. I'm pretty talkative so favorite part about working with Farmers is just having relationships and the person to person aspect of it. I think it's a privilege to be able to chat with people and help 'em be successful, especially in this relatively underserved industry. And I would say an overwhelming majority of the folks that I work with have been terrific. So I'd say the Farmers make it the best part.
Rory Loughran: That's great. That's great to hear. Richard, thanks so much. Definitely make sure to check out the episode of Farmer's Marketing Campaign to Grow Faster Online, that one's with Tom Bennett.
Richard Weisberg: Perfect. Thank you Rory.
Rory Loughran: Thanks Richard.
I want to extend my thanks to Josh, Kevin, Matt, and Richard for joining us on this week's podcast episode. Here at Barn2Door, we're humbled to support thousands of Farms across the [00:39:00] country who implement sustainable agricultural practices and support their local communities. We're honored to get the opportunity to learn from our most successful Farmers who share the tactics, resources and tools they use to grow and manage their Farm businesses.
If you wanna check out any of the podcast episodes the Farm Account Managers discussed today, they will all be linked in this episode's podcast description.
Thank you for tuning in. We'll see you next time.