Heiko explains the world of Trade Fairs to Frank
Transcript
Frank Nothing will happen. So, democracy being what it is, you can then choose the questions which interest you. So you have the focus on improving your English but also focusing on what is important for you. Okay, so the first set of questions are about the General Trade Fair strategy. Your exhibition goals: What are your primary objectives for participating in this trade fair? Are you looking to generate leads, strengthen relationships, or something else?
Product highlights: Which products or innovations are you most excited to showcase at the fair? How do they stand out in the market?
And your target audience: Who is your target audience at this trade fair? Have you tailored your approach to attract and engage them?
So that’s the first block of questions. The second block focuses on market insights. So sort of in relation to the trade fair, what are the current trends and demands in the German market that you have observed? How is your company positioning itself to meet these demands?
And again with the trade fair, how do you differentiate your products from those of your competitors at the trade fair?
The next point could be more interesting again because whilst not being there…
Your sales strategy: What strategies are you employing to attract and capture leads at the trade fair? Do you have any, this is a good one, do you have any innovative techniques for engaging visitors?
And then the follow-up plan: What is your follow-up strategy for leads generated during the trade fair? How do you ensure that they convert into actual sales?
The next block: Networking and partnerships.
Industry networking: Are there any likely key industry figures or potential partners you aim to connect with at the trade fair? How do you plan to approach these opportunities?
And collaborations: Have you identified any potential collaborations or partnerships that could be beneficial post-fair?
Then challenges and solutions.
Common challenges: What are some of the common challenges you face when exhibiting at trade fairs? How do you address them?
And the adaptability: How do you adapt your strategy during the fair based on real-time feedback and interactions with attendees?
Product feedback, real-time feedback: How do you collect and utilize feedback on your products from trade fair attendees?
And product development: Has feedback from previous trade fairs influenced any of your product development decisions?
Digital integration: Are you leveraging any digital tools or platforms to enhance your trade fair presence? How effective have they been? In addition to your physical booth, are you engaging with virtual attendees? If so, how?
Future trends: What future trends do you foresee in your industry and how is your company preparing to stay ahead? We touched on that last week a bit.
And post-trade fair strategy: After the trade fair, what are the next steps in your sales strategy and how do you plan to maintain momentum? So, 17 questions, 50 minutes. It’s all yours.
Just starting to narrow it down again. The general strategy, market insights, sales strategy, networking and partnerships, challenges and solutions, product feedback, digital integration, future outlook. Where do you want to throw your dart?
Heiko From the beginning. Okay. Right. Okay. So, what are your primary objectives for participating at this trade fair? I mean, is it worth the money?
Frank Exhibition goals, what are your primary objectives for participating in this trade fair? Do you look into it generally? So, what are our primary objectives for participating in this trade fair?
Heiko Yes. So, first I have to say that this trade fair is the biggest one in Europe. And I have to say that you can divide this trade show into two parts. The first part, and this is also the start of the trade show, is that the professionals are coming to the show. And at the end, on the weekend, it’s Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, there are more private end users or private people on the fair. And we are only for the professionals on that trade fair. And when we are looking at what we are doing there or what we are spending there, first, we are spending a lot of time because my colleague in the UK is involved, the product management is involved, marketing is a little bit involved, and also my sales and myself are involved. So, we are spending a lot of time. And next to that, we are also spending a lot of money for that trade fair.
The first thing I would like to mention is that we have from now on a new trade fair booth. So, it’s a kit with different things. So, we can build up a nicer one than we had in the past. So, that’s also important because this was also from the perspective of costs. It was not so cheap. So, we have to stay overnight and this is something also what is making costs. So, it generates costs. So, in total, I think we are speaking around 15 to 20,000 euros.
And why are we participating at this trade fair? This is something like a strategy in the DACH region and it’s an international fair. I have to say, it’s not a national one. It’s an international fair and we are in our DACH region not so successful in that, let’s say, bike business. When we are looking at the British market, they are much more successful in that area. They are working with a company called Madison, but also with Trek bikes. We tried, I would say, three or four years back to be also successful in that business area, but this was not so easy. There are not so many important distributors on the market. There is just one buying group. I have spoken to a buying group called ZEG. They are located in Cologne and we have also spoken to two or three important distributors from that market. So, that’s Paul Lange, but also, as an example, Hartje. But they were not interested in working with us.
What were the reasons for that? So, that’s also product highlights. When we’re talking about product highlights, it’s important for us that we can present our SmartWasher. SmartWasher is an important part for us in that area. It’s not so easy to sell our aerosol spray like 5-56 or a cleaner or a lubricant, something like that, into the market. For us, it should be easier to sell the SmartWasher. The problem is that Paul Lange, in my opinion, the biggest distributor in that market, is selling at the moment a machine from a competitor from France. So, they said two or three years back that they are not interested in working together with us. And now we heard from the market that they have a cooperation with our competitor Bio-Circle. So, that’s not so easy for us because it was planned from our side that we will have a meeting with Paul Lange at that trade show. That’s not so easy for us at the moment because now it looks like they have a partnership with our competitor Bio-Circle.
But talking about the product highlights, yes, this is one part, but we also would like to speak about Evapo-Rust, that’s a rust remover. It’s also a product I can see in that market and it’s also an innovative product, also like our SmartWasher. And we will present also our new platform Greenforce. So, talking about, let’s say, bio-products like 5-56 Bio or our CRC Hydro Power. So, these are new products with new technologies or with new bio-formulations. So, these are our highlights. Yes, we have Bio-Circle competitor is also present at the trade fair, but we are the first when we are talking about bio-products of the CRC Hydro Power. So, that’s something really new for the market.
Frank Just to sidetrack a minute, when you speak of the competitors also exhibiting at the trade fair, will you or someone from the others in the team, will they go across and speak with them? Do you have a friendly working competitive relationship or is it like Coca-Cola and Pepsi? Do you avoid each other like the plague?
Heiko What I have seen on the website of the Eurobike trade fair, there are many competitors from us on the trade fair because it’s easy to produce aerosol spray cans. So, yes, and that’s normal that there are many competitors on that trade fair. They are mainly coming from Italy, but also from other countries. And I have no relationship to them. But there are also some other competitors like the WD-40 and also Brunox. And normally, I’m always speaking to them when I’m seeing them at a trade fair. So, that’s not a deep relationship, but it’s a good relationship.
You know what’s going on, you speak with each other. Exactly. It’s a little bit of small talk, but also asking some questions about new products or something like that. But it’s on a normal level. And I have seen that we are in the same hall, so the ways are not so far away.
Frank Okay, so given that there’s a lot of competition and given that some of them don’t want to join your fantastic opportunities and given that you are going to spend an awful lot of money, a drop in the ocean for CRC at least, but the 20,000 euros, let’s take the highest end of the spectrum, 20,000 euros, you guys need to earn that money back. How are you going to do that?
Heiko We have some meetings planned with some of our potential distributors we would like to work together with. This is one part. And the second thing is that we are speaking to the professional end users. So, these are the mechanics from the bicycle shops. In every city, you have one, two, three bicycle shops, and these bicycle shops normally have also, let’s say, a small garage. A workshop, a small workshop.
Workshop, yeah. And for that workshop, they need our products, spray cans, but also Evapo-Rust, as I explained, our rust remover and also the SmartWasher. So, it’s like a little bit of a push strategy that we say, okay, we will introduce our products to the workers and they are asking their distributors for our products. And on the other hand, as I said, we will have some meetings with potential distributors, with potential customers.
Frank Okay, so just let me run this past you. So, here in the area where I live is a very good bicycle shop who is also somehow a relative of Sylvie or a friend of Sylvie, but there is a connection between that shop and Sylvie. And assume that this person will come to Frankfurt and will visit your stall. Why should he go to a distributor, another middleman, and not order directly from CRC if it’s fine? Why should he go that extra step? It’s too complicated.
Heiko No, for me, it’s not too complicated. And it’s also our business model that we are not selling directly to the workshops. We are 90-95% only working with distributors. And normally, this is what we have seen when we looked on that market and that’s the same one when we are looking at the automotive aftermarket. The workshops normally are always working with distributors for the spare parts, rear parts, for the machines, for the bicycles, for everything.
Frank Okay, so it’s the business model. I appreciate that. What is the advantage for both you and the bicycle shop to work through a distributor?
Heiko It’s easy for the workshop to place an order at the distributor and it’s much more convenient for them. For us and also for the workshop, it’s horrible to put something new in our system, so that took a long time and that is what we are not looking for. The distributors have normally, in the meantime, very good online shops or online presence. And for the workshops, it’s really, really easy to put an order in the system of the distributor. They can find every product in an easy way. It’s not like when you are ordering something at Amazon. For me, that’s a high-level system and normally the distributors are using, in the meantime, also very good online shops. They can find in an easy way the product they need.
Frank So, one of the strategies would be to speak with the bicycle shop and show them the product so that they, in turn, promote CRC with their distributors, so they become an indirect reseller for you. They say, look, we see this fantastic product. Do you have this in your product range? Yes. Then can I have it? No problem. Or the answer is no, we do not have it, but we have an alternative product which is just as good as that from CRC. So, that’s the risk.
Heiko That could be a risk. That’s correct. And what is also important for me, as I said, we are not so deep in this market. So, for me, it’s important to know the requirements of the mechanics of these workshops, which kind of products they are using, why they are using them. That is something that is also important for me.
Frank So, is it an interesting market, the bicycle market? Is it an interesting market for CRC or is it so interesting that it’s worth investing 20,000 euros?
Heiko Yes, this market is of interest. I’m not talking about many aerosol cans because they are normally not using so many and also not so different products from us. They’re using normally a cleaner and silicone spray or lubricant, but for us, it’s important that we are successful with the SmartWasher. And this is what we have seen in the UK market. And that should help us to bring SmartWasher in total on another level, on a higher level. This is our main target.
Frank Okay, so how am I to understand this process? So, I could be a distributor who walks past your booth and I see this green baby bathtub on a set of wheels. And it looks nice, it looks interesting. And then I just stand there and then I will be brutally attacked by a team of marketing and sales experts who will want to sell me this thing on the spot. Is that the way I should see it or how is the process?
Heiko We are not so many people on that booth. I’m painting a dramatic picture, that’s all. Yeah, we are only two persons on that booth, so not more every day. But how did we or what are our experiences from the last trade shows we were present? I’m talking about Eurobike two years ago, I’m talking about Eisenhower, and also talking about the Anuga Food Tech. It was always like that, that we said there’s just one person from our side speaking to another person. It was also important to know from which area the potential customer is coming from. So is it coming from Spain or from where it’s coming from? And then we said, okay, Spain is in that area. You have to speak to that guy. But as I said, we are only two persons on that booth and that’s Sebastian and myself, and together with Dave Smith. And Dave is a development manager for SmartWasher. And he has many experiences because he is selling SmartWasher every day in the UK. He was present at some other trade fairs, some on the British market. So that’s easy for us. So we have seen that there are some distributors from other countries also at that show and he will speak to them and I will speak to the German or to the Dutch ones.
Frank Okay, that was going to be my next question. So, Jose from somewhere in Madrid comes walking by and he likes your products and your man in Spain maybe gets the business but you have the costs because it’s in Germany, it’s in Frankfurt, it’s your manpower that’s going there, it’s coming out of your budget. And so, Jose in Spain or sorry, your person in Spain will reap the benefits of your hard labor. Not a fair situation if I’ve got it right.
Heiko Yes, it is like it is. So there are many or there are some other traders also in Germany where we are spending a lot of time because Germany is the most important industry in Europe. So most of the or many of the most important shows or fairs are in Germany. So we have the advantage that we don’t have to travel.
Frank Yes, that is an advantage. You don’t have to travel very far. It’s basically far.
Heiko Exactly. And I’m positive and I’m hoping that we will have enough leads that we are successful. So yes, I know we are spending a lot of time but hopefully we will be successful.
Frank Okay, so what is your definition of a sales lead?
Heiko For me, it’s that the success rate when we are looking at the beginning and that I have the impression that we will be successful with more than 50%. That is something for me that when I say.
Frank So that’s the conversion rate. You want to convert your sales lead into a sale and if you have 50 plus 0.1% then that will be successful. But what does a sales lead have to be in order to make it interesting for you to follow up this lead and to try and convert it to a sale and the sale isn’t complete until the money is in the bank. So okay, yeah, quite a long way ahead before you can actually say we have a customer. So what does it actually mean to say that we have a lucrative, a hot and interesting sales lead? What does it actually have to mean?
Heiko We have to look at that from two different, let’s say, corners. Because when I’m speaking to a workshop and the guy or the worker from the workshop is interested, for example, in our SmartWasher, that’s not so easy that we have a sale at the end. Because as we said earlier, we have to find a distributor who’s selling the SmartWasher to that guy. And it could be that he is speaking to many other salespeople, marketing people from that show and at the end that he can’t remember anything. And this is also a critical point for me. And on the other hand, as I said, when we are talking to potential accounts, customers, and then it should be much easier because then you have a direct contact to somebody who can make a decision or who’s able to make a decision. And that is something completely, in my opinion, completely different. And for me, when I’m speaking to a distributor and he is explaining to me how big he is or what a market share he has, then I can decide if it is an important lead or not an important lead. And that’s something I have to evaluate with many questions. And also, I have to look at how he is reacting to my questions, what he is doing.
Frank I’m going to provoke you here. The impression that I get is that, again, to paint a little bit of an analogy here, a provocative analogy, but with respect to me, it sounds like you’re going on a fishing trip. You have a fishing rod and at the end of the fishing rod and the line is some bait, something nice for the fish to eat. You throw it into the water and then you wait for the fish to be attracted to the bait and then hook. And then you pull the fish out. You have a conversation with it and then you either eat it or you throw it back into the water. Sales lead conversion. To me, it sounds like a reactive process, not a proactive process. Now, I’m going to take out of this equation the meetings that you have met, set up, and people that you will speak with because you have done the preparation. I just want to focus on two people, everybody on a relatively high income. You can work out how much per hour that’s going to cost, plus all the extra costs. And you’re going on a fishing trip. Doesn’t sound proactive to me.
Heiko How many times were you on the trade show booth? How many times did you work on a fair, Frank?
Frank I have been not many times, certainly never as an exhibitor, because the costs are simply too prohibitive. And even as I had my own language school back in the early 2000s, we just couldn’t afford these things. As a person attending a trade fair, it is part of my strategy to generate sales leads for myself. But I have the deep problem that I too am a market player. I want to sell something as that person I’m speaking with. But I don’t want to buy his product and he’s not necessarily interested in my product at a specific point of time. If I collect business cards, then I’m quite happy. At that point, if I just get some contact, I’m happy. Apart from which, everybody knows that if you sit at a trade fair in a booth and sell your product, or if you go there as a person having a look at what’s available, it is exhausting. It is 100% exhausting. So that’s my experience with trade fairs.My provocation remains the same.
Heiko Coming back to that, you are 100% right. You’re 100% right. And I can tell you why. As I said, the Eurobike is a huge trade show with so many people, so many different trade show booths. And we are just one very, very, very, very small part of that trade show. The first time when I was at Eurobike was in the year 2020 in Friedrichshafen. I was there because I said, what is our strategy with SmartWasher? Where could it be from interest? And I said, in the bicycle area, there is a possibility that we can be successful. And I visited that show. And after that show, I was really impressed about how big some booth stands were. And on that show, I have seen, as an example, one of our potential distributors, Paul Lange. I can’t tell you, Frank, how many square meters, but I can tell you there were more than 20 people from Paul Lange on that booth. And when I’ve seen that, I said, yes, this trade show is very nice, very, very huge. And we should be there. But as I said, we are just one small, a very, very small part of that business. So we have a booth of four by five meters or four by three meters. So you can’t find us, let’s say like that. So, and you are absolutely right. We have to look that we will find the important contact persons. So we have to look on the other booth or on the other stands. We have to speak to them, and we have to look very carefully who is walking around. And then it’s important for us to say, hello, are you interested in our products? May I show you what we have? This is something we have to do.
Frank So it is more a networking opportunity. It is more a partnership opportunity. And the real work happens when everyone’s gone home and everyone gets the phones and says, okay, let’s talk and let’s drink coffee and see what happens. So it’s less about generating sales because that is, I think, everybody in a trade fair knows that it’s just too enormous to fathom. So everybody just wants to say, hello, here I am. This is my house. Here’s some literature. But the most important piece of paper is a business card with an email address. And if you get 500 of those and you convert them, 250, then that looks like something worth looking at.
Heiko We will not have an order block with us. This is completely different to an automotive show when we are at an independent automotive trade show organized by our buying groups or our distributors. That’s completely different. Then you are speaking to workers from the workshop, from the garages, and then you can sell. Because at these shows, you are listed with your products and then it’s easy. You can tell them a price. You can show them some activities, some promotions. That’s easy. And then you can sell. So at the end of the day, you can say, wow, we have sold products, the amount was, let’s say, 5,000 euros.
Frank You produce some tangible metrics that you can feed into your system and then you produce and say, okay, there is a concrete result in euros.
Heiko But at this show, because this show is not organized by a distributor, we are not listed at any of them. And from that side, for us, we can’t sell anything directly. Hopefully, at the end, it’s a way to find distributors, potential distributors, and some leads. But we can’t sell anything at that moment.
Frank Okay, so a completely different strategy. So there’s two of you. So let’s say you and Sebastian are going to be there at some point during the week. So you then, how should I understand this? You stay at the booth and make sure that somebody bites on your fishing line and Sebastian walks around and says, hello, I am Valala. And then when he’s tired, you come back and then he goes and looks at the fishing line and you look at the fishing line and you go out and say, hello, here I am, or how am I supposed to understand it? Aside from all the pre-arranged meetings.
Heiko Yeah, normally that is the way we are doing on these kinds of fairs. That’s correct. We are on our stand. We are, let’s say, waiting for the visitors and then we are speaking to them. Some of them come to our booth because they see like our SmartWasher or they see our spray can and asking us, what’s this product can do?
Frank But on the other hand, and this is something that is, or what will be much more important for this trade show, we have to speak or we have to ask people who are walking around.
Now you have the one, you have the one fantastic advantage is that you are a person who is connected with the industry. You have a product that is of interest to the industry. You are all in the same aquarium swimming around. But there are a couple of weirdos like me who have nothing to do directly with the product and who just want to at best collect your business card. And hopefully you will remember our conversation three days later. The chances of that are less than zero. How do you deal with this kind of situation? But you might actually end up speaking with somebody who is not related to the industry in any shape, size or form, except through some other connections.
Heiko Yeah, you’re right. That could happen or that happened many times. And this is why I said in the beginning, you have to ask the right questions that you can analyze if it will be a good lead or not lead. And sometimes this is when you are working like in a media market that also can happen there. Somebody is coming in your store asking many questions about, let’s say, a TV screen or something else. And at the end, at the end, it was only something that he asked for informing himself.
Frank Buy it online somewhere cheaper.
Heiko Or he’s looking who is in that area selling it cheaper or something like that. Or what also happened in the past that a guy from a competitor, and I’ve never seen that guy before, was coming on our booth and asked a lot of questions. And at the end, he said, thank you and goodbye. And two days later, I have seen him on a trade show booth of our competitor. So that can also happen. That’s not nice, but I’m not doing that when I’m going to a competitor booth. I’m always telling them, hi, I’m Heiko from CRC. We are also selling aerosol cans and I have seen your booth. Blah, blah, blah. This is how I’m doing my conversations.
Frank So you are going to be there for a couple of days. Is this fun? You enjoy trade fairs?
Heiko Yeah, I’m enjoying trade shows.
FrankWhy?
Heiko Sometimes it’s not easy. You have to motivate yourself. Sometimes it happened that there were not so many visitors on the fair and then you have to motivate yourself to speak to visitors who are walking around. And it’s also, I would say when you are on a one-day fair, that’s totally easy. Two days. Okay. It’s also, yeah, it’s easy. But after three days, it’s not so easy for your body and also not so easy for your brain, but you always find a solution. For me, that’s easy. When I’m looking back some years ago, when it was, I would say around 2015, I was on 17 trade fairs. All of them were on the weekend. Many of them from Friday till Sunday. And we have to also build up and take down the booths and the stalls. So normally you are on for five days on a fair. It was always for me, it was always okay.
Frank Yeah. If the family plays along with it, then yeah.
Heiko Yeah. This was the other side. Yeah. And of course, that’s another issue.
Frank Okay. So the next question is what I would call a loaded question because we can then follow up next Monday to see what happened. So can you list your expectations of this trade fair and then on Monday next week, we’ll compare the expectations and what happened? So are you going there? What do you expect to have achieved? Nice to have, important, and maybe the one with occasion surprise that you didn’t expect, which is what a surprise is. So what are your expectations for this?
Heiko Yeah. I will do that.
Frank Yeah. I want it. I wanted it now.
Heiko I thought you… No, no, no, no, no, no. Spontaneity is the rule in this game. Okay. Expectations. For me, the most important thing is that we are successful with some distributors. So what does successful mean? For me, it’s important that we not only have a good conversation, that at the end of the day, I would like to say that we will find two new distributors for us in that area, for the dark region. This is the most important thing.
Frank That’s a very concrete goal.
Heiko For me, that’s very important. Otherwise, yes, we have to find other ways that we are successful in that market. That’s also for me. But hopefully, I would like to find more distributors. So I’ve looked in the catalog and I have seen this one is a distributor and this one is a distributor. But there are so many companies on that show. And it could be that I have not seen every distributor who is important for that market. So hopefully, I will find one or the other distributor who is also important for the dark market. That’s also a goal from my side.
And when I’m talking about end users, for me, it’s important when we are showing a SmartWasher and also our other products. I would like to see a positive reaction from the workshop guys and that they are impressed from our SmartWasher, how the SmartWasher is working, how the SmartWasher is cleaning the parts, that the price of the SmartWasher is not too high. This is what I would like to hear. And that I have a better feeling about our products from a market perspective.
Frank Okay. Well, that’s three goals, three expectations. So next Monday, we can compare the results and see what has happened. Just to wrap up from last week, did you manage to have a chat with Cathy about the lack of activity concerning your…
Heiko No. I have written yesterday an email to Cathy about many urgent or important points. And because from her side, it’s a problem for me. There is no conversation at the moment. I can’t reach her. And yesterday, Sunday morning, I decided to write an email to her about really urgent things. Now it’s 10 o’clock. There is no reaction from her side. And this is not what I like to have. So, but it’s on my table and I have to react on that.
Frank Ouch, that hurts. Not a good situation to be in.
Heiko No. If she is not coming back to me because of that email, I’m sitting tomorrow morning in the car driving from my hometown to Frankfurt to the fair, then I have to call her once again.
Frank Yeah. Okay. Well, I keep my fingers crossed that there is some… I also keep my fingers crossed that you achieve the goals that you have set yourself in Frankfurt and that you have an enjoyable time.
Heiko And a nice fishing tour. Yeah. No, Frank, as I said, you’re 100%, right? I just have to warn you, sometimes I can be somewhere along the lines of a little bit ironic or so. Yeah. It’s a provocation in the sense that I just forget you’re going to get you talking.
Okay. All right. So good luck for the week.
Thanks a lot.
We’ll compare notes next Monday.
Yeah. See you, Frank. Thanks a lot.
Bye.