A food exporter meeting importers from twenty countries
Five days, a tasting counter and a queue. Every importer was promised samples and a price list, and some heard two different sets of terms.
What changes
The situation
A food stand is busy from the first tasting. Importers, supermarket buyers and hotel chefs arrive in groups, taste, ask about shelf life and minimum order, and leave a card. Nearly all of them are promised samples.
Before
Cards went into a bowl. After the show the export managers tried to recall who wanted what. Samples went out late and to the wrong addresses, and the first messages were sent a fortnight after the conversations.
Setting up
Products are grouped into ranges, each with its product sheet and export price list as catalogues. The WhatsApp message is written in English and Arabic. The show has a target for leads and one for qualified leads.
At the show
When the counter is three deep, a rep saves a quick lead: a name and a line of text. Cards in the bowl are batch scanned every hour and reviewed in the quiet minutes: Dates, private label, wants halal certificate, 1 to 3 months.
For buyers in a hurry the rep opens WhatsApp from the lead, with the message and the link to the price lists already written. Importers tend to answer it the same evening.
Each sample is a task: Send 2 kg assorted dates and the certificate, by Sunday.
On day three an importer who visited on day one comes back and speaks to a different rep. When she scans his card, the app shows who met him first. She reads the first rep’s note before she says anything about exclusivity.
After the show
Each export manager is handed the leads for their markets, with the sample tasks attached. The dispatch list is the task list. Buyers who have had no message after a day appear on each rep’s reminder, hot ones first.
What this team would watch
The scenario has no results to report. These are the numbers the app shows that a team in this position would track:
- Leads with a WhatsApp message on the same day
- Sample tasks done on time
- What visitors asked about most
- Leads against the show's target
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