Lenexa Farmers' Market Spotlight

Lenexa Farmers' Market Spotlight

July 1, 2021 | Farmers markets ยท Supporting Kansas

As a market manager, do you focus solely on the customer? What about the vendors? Or is it an endless struggle between the two? Lenexa Farmers’ Market manager Jenny Doty speaks of how creating a tight-knit community of vendors has been her secret sauce for helping the market better support its customers.

 
As the Lenexa Farmers’ Market opens for its fourth season, Doty places an emphasis on team building within the vendor community. “We want market days to be our vendors’ favorite part of their week,” says Doty. She believes that if vendors enjoy their time being at the market, that will transfer to the customers’ overall experience. The market staff welcome vendors to the market each day as they arrive and let them know to reach out if they need anything. Vendors help each other out by promoting each other’s products through social media as well as developing collaborative products. Doty and her market team work to build strong communication lines with the vendors and between the vendors. When an issue arises, Doty practices timely, direct and discreet communication with vendors and promotes the same sort of communication among vendors themselves.
 
To further build on this, Lenexa staff takes a different approach to the annual vendor meeting model where one typically informs vendors of details for the season ahead. Instead, Doty invites vendors to engage with each other in discussions that evaluate the previous season and share ideas for moving forward. In the meeting, she separates vendors into small groups to discuss varying topics to build a sense of collaboration and help solve any of their current business challenges. Furthermore, she asks them to offer ideas for how to build a better connection between each other. Another way market staff promotes friendship among vendors is by recognizing vendors who are particularly enthusiastic about the market and connecting them with new market vendors. The veteran vendors welcome the new vendors into the market community and help them learn the ropes.
 
Vendor booth placement is key in making the market successful and the market staff put much effort into getting it right. Vendors selling complementary products are placed near each other so they can work together to stimulate sales. They place vendors who get along well together in closer vicinity to each other so they can help each other out during rush periods. Doty also encourages vendor collaboration by allowing vendors to sell other vendors’ or farmers’ products. Once the product is approved by market staff the businesses work out the details. “We have so many unique and amazing Kansas-made products. It might not make sense for a farmer to have a booth for just one specialty product, but our customers would still like to support them. To solve this, we allow other farmers and vendors to bring these products to the market. We really try to focus on collaborating in areas that another vendor at our market is not able to fill, like sunflower oil and the dried beans that JET Produce and Meats has started to bring to market,” said Doty. In this way, Lenexa makes their market more accessible to support some of the most western Kansas farmers, allowing them to sell to a larger population center in the state. “These farmers are all a part of our state economy and our customers should have access to Kansas’ finest,” said Doty.
 
Regarding more technical aspects of the market, the Lenexa Farmers’ Market has found that the Manage My Market program has proved helpful in ensuring efficient communication with vendors. They use the program to provide an easy way for vendors to submit their applications and identify their booth location on a market map. Vendors create their own account on Manage My Market. If they sell at multiple farmers’ markets, they can easily submit their documents to several different markets that also use the same program. “Using Manage My Market has helped to substantially cut down on time spent on administrative market tasks," said Doty. "Which leaves us more time to dedicate to customer experience activities made possible by the market’s sponsorship program."
 
The Lenexa Farmers’ Market hosts various entertainers using funds from market sponsors raised through a variety of sponsorship options. Businesses can commit to being a Presenting Sponsor in which they sponsor the market throughout an entire season. Alternative options are the Market Day or Promotional Item Sponsors. The Market Day Sponsors pay a set fee to promote their business for one day to market visitors. Promotional Item Sponsors pay costs for a promotional item to be distributed at the market and may attach their company logo to the item.
 
In light of these well-rounded efforts, the Lenexa market is looking strong as it heads into the new season. Doty is hopeful the market will continue to see the same growth it has experienced over the past three seasons.
 

Note: Jenny Doty loves to share her passion for promoting markets! Don’t hesitate to reach out to her at 913-477-7132 or jdoty@lenexa.com with questions about Manage My Market or creating sponsorship opportunities for your market.

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