A facade supplier sorting specifiers from traders

The situation

A consultant who will specify a curtain wall for a tower is worth months of patient work. A trader who wants a price for forty windows wants it tonight. Both stand at the same counter, and both leave a card.

Before

Every card went into one box. The sales manager sorted them after the show from what the reps could recall. Traders waited a week for a price they had needed in a day, and several consultants were sent a trade price list.

Setting up

Two teams are created under one sales manager. The product list is the company’s own: curtain wall, windows and doors, cladding. Each range has its catalogue. The show is added with three targets: leads, qualified leads and pipeline.

At the show

Reps tap what the visitor asked about, their part in the decision and when they need it. A contractor’s procurement manager with a live project, who asks for a quotation this month, scores hot. A trader collecting price lists scores lower, and gets the trade catalogue on WhatsApp at once. A consultant who will specify next year is noted as such, with a technical meeting as the next action.

Between eleven and two nobody has time for that. Cards are batch scanned at the counter and reviewed over coffee, while the conversations are still fresh.

After the show

Each evening the manager selects the day’s project leads and hands them to the project team, and the trade leads to distribution. Each lead goes to whoever has the fewest open, its tasks move with it, and the new owner is told. One handover made by mistake is undone within the two minutes allowed.

At the review meeting the manager exports the list and shows the directors a number that is not a count of cards.