Cold Calling

DANNY WILLIAMS ‘COLD CALLING’

Each month our special correspondent Danny Williams* replies to a reader’s letter...

I am an Exhibitionist….

Firstly, I must apologise to all of those whose Letters to Danny remain languishing at the bottom of Cold Calling’s extraordinarily large mail sack. Normal service will be resumed next month.

The decision to resist the otherwise thoroughly rewarding monthly ritual of sorting through the post has been taken to allow me to express the pains and gains of taking part in a trade show. Not just any trade show but yes, you’ve guessed it, FIT Show, which took place last month at the NEC. The process that led towards blowing quite considerable sums of hard-earned began a couple of years ago in fact, when I decided that there must be an alternative to the generally parlous state of the composite door market in the UK. After yet another run-in with a supplier that, despite sending me a door that was faulty and which should never have left the factory had anyone bothered to even glance at it, and who decided to add insult to injury by treating me like a leper because I had the temerity to actually complain about the rubbish they had sent me in the first place, I decided to see if I could do my own thing. In fairness, there are some pretty decent composite door manufacturers out there and my beef, as usual, is with the larger firms for whom the words ‘service’ and ‘product quality’ have no bearing on their company offer these days. But even amongst the quality suppliers, there is very little product differentiation, perhaps other than price. And I have been there before with sash windows…when you’re one of dozens flogging white plastic sash windows in an area, the only obvious difference is going to be price. And that, as we all know, becomes a race to the bottom. So, I decided late in 2019 to have a look around for something that offered an obvious difference.

I found that difference very early on in the form of Gerda, a Polish company that is well established in mainland Europe and a household name in its home market. Our own research, Gerda’s appraisal of us and the UK home improvement market and a little problem with a bug that decided to take the planet by storm, took us to within a few nervous months of the FIT Show, which for me and my team was never in doubt as the only way to deliver such a product to the market… Anyone that has decided to launch a product at a trade show will have gone through the sometimes nerve shredding process of knitting everything together. Gerda is an incredibly well-run, privately-owned firm that, after apparently being bitten once or twice previously, showed a cautious response to our approach, which was initiated by our Production Director Ray, who had dealt with the firm previously. Astonishingly, they were unaware of the reputation and prominence in the industry of yours truly and they needed a little more detail. But we got there, and then the business of ensuring the product is aligned with the UK market had to take place. Visits to Poland followed and by their people to good old Blighty. Particularly memorable were the guided tours for their techies around various Essex housing estates, and much discussion, about such essential details as differing damp proof course heights, took us into the early hours sometimes…oh how we laughed! FIT Show was booked early in 2022 but we held back our partner’s name as some details were still up in the air. When we confirmed the stand we had just three months to plan and build it. Gerda set to work on the amazing pods that showed the doors to perfection and we did the rest. When FIT opened, it all looked fantastic…we had built it, but as everyone in the hall wondered…would they come? I am no FIT virgin, a statement that I am sure I will come to regret. It had been some years since I last threw money at it but it was everything that I had hoped for and then a great deal more. I had a shiny new product and brand that undoubtedly drew people in if only out of curiosity, many of them sharing my feelings about the product and service quality issues within the door market. The numbers were terrific: we had 198 people take the time to fill in our forensic enquiry form, that is so detailed we now know their inside leg measurement and sperm count. Since the event I have had people enquire through Facebook and Linked In and have missed calls from punters trying to track me down. We didn’t stop for the three days. But this year’s FIT did far more for us: Our new partners from Poland had no prior experience of the UK home improvement market although their products have been available in social housing and other narrow sectors for some time. They were overwhelmed by the professionalism of the event and of the exhibitors, in terms of the stands, but also of the people and their enthusiasm. They now have an appreciation of the potential for their products here and learned about the commitment and enthusiasm of the people in the front line, the retail installers and the exhibitors and other supply partners to Pioneer that I managed to introduce our new friends to. As a result, whilst we thought we were receiving pretty decent treatment from Gerda before FIT, their experience at the show was a real game changer, with the UK now the number one priority for them. FIT Show enabled us to meet more people in three days than a bunch of reps would have brought in in two years, although now I have a serious need to recruit some decent people to follow up everything that we have begun (you know where to find me!). For me this FIT Show lit a fire in me that perhaps had cooled a little: we have all been through the strangest period that most of us will ever experience, now facing global conditions that not even the brightest and best informed could have predicted. Inflation, supply chain, recruitment, war (yes we have learned a great deal about the localised issues with Ukraine in the past few weeks) are just some of the torrent of problems being fired at us. But those three days at FIT reminded me of the qualities that are available wholesale throughout our industry and why I love it: professionalism, enthusiasm, commitment, drive…and actually, a unity that is rare in any other walk of life. We won’t be beaten nor dulled by a world that is currently an unpleasant place to be for many people and a tougher challenge than many of us have previously experienced. When our backs are against the wall, all we think about is how we can overcome the barriers and thrive.

Thank you FIT: we couldn’t have done it without you. I have booked for next year.