Since then, I have attended over 50 fairs and expos all over the world. I attended as factory representatives, salespeople, designers, sourcing agents, vendors and regular buyers. I have been on both sides of the buyer/seller interaction.
In doing so, I have seen how small to medium sized vendors interact with buyers roaming the expo floor.
Typically, a spiral notebook and a pen is carried by the salesperson representing the vendor. As a new buyer approaches their booth, a business card is given to the salesperson and immediately stapled onto a page in their ever fattening notebook. A customer chooses a product he/she is interested in, asking questions about MOQ, color, packing, dimensions, logistics and of course price. Interactions last for 5 minutes or an hour and consist of one item or dozens. Along the way the salesperson is furiously sketching notes next to the clients stapled card, trying to calculate with his/her pocket calculator to answer the clients question.
At the end of the interaction, the salesperson says goodbye to the buyer, promises to send them a quote for the items he chose soon, and starts an interaction with the next customer approaching the booth. At the end of the show sometimes you can have hundreds of interactions, leaving you exhausted with a bloated notebook filled with chicken scratch. When you get back to the office, you must try to reply to all your show interactions, remember who each client was and what particular products they wanted and why, and send them a quote and refreshed introduction. Quotes are often pieced together haphazardly. Excel spreadsheet with rows of varying size full of undersized product images, Simsun font, product dimensions and price. You make these at the same time you are trying to catch up on the work you missed while at the show, and often cannot get caught up for weeks or months after the show is over. Sometimes you never get around to some of your contacts, and hope they find you at the next show.
When I walk the show as a buyer, I come with a different purpose.
Gathering ideas for the following years product line, fulfilling a client request, seeing themes in the marketplace or shopping for inventory. I visit booths that I feel are in line with what my company is looking for, and ask pointed questions that help understand how a vendor’s product can help our company grow. This interaction is important, the clearer the information and answers I get, the better feeling I will have dealing with you in the future. A bad impression will leave a me walking away from a booth entirely to move on to one with similar items but better customer service.
After the show, I will have met with potentially dozens or even hundreds of booths, relying on my own notes to try to recall what items I was interested. I return to home and try to compile that information into a plan for the future.
This is an important moment for the vendor/buyer relationship. It is a critical time where if the vendor can send the buyer a concise, clear, helpful correspondence in a prompt manner, the buyer can feel helped. The vendor can show value, not just one of the nameless notebook scratchers. These are often the vendors that will earn the business from the buyer in the future. The early, well-prepared bird catching the worm.
I have been in both these positions. I have carried the bloated notebook as a vendor sales representative, and I have waded thru thousands of factory emails with quotes as a buyer. Often as a buyer, I will go with the email that comes in the fastest, that is the most clear, easiest to understand to my western eyes, and who’s price is seemingly fair. Many times, I will receive emails and quotes months after the initial interaction. At that time, the choice has already been made, and no matter the price or quality of the quote, the order has been placed and the email gets disregarded.
PDQE puts an easy-to-use tool in the hands of the vendor that helps them answer buyers’ questions instantly, compile stylish and easy to understand quotes for the items they are interested in, and send those quotes instantly or on a predetermined future date.
I have been designing PDQE for the last 6 years, since I was in Taipei on business. I met up with an old friend, Tice, and together we designed the framework for the PDQE system. Tice is a talented programmer, app developer and traveler. That picture is Tice and I back when we were younger and better looking.
When the pandemic swept the globe, making face to face expo and fair interactions almost impossible, the project stalled. Over the years after the pandemic, we have improved and built upon the original idea. We added features to help vendors and customers, we streamlined the process and made it simpler, and we focused on design.
Today, PDQE is your personal vendor/supplier assistant. It’s designed to scale, accepting methods of inventory migration that allow you to upload/edit your entire inventory or product database into PDQE with a touch of a button. With that information PDQE can start making your life easier!
