One of the defining moments of my international selling
career came during a five day woodworking machinery exhibition in Hannover in
May 1995. I remember the month, the hotel we stayed in, the Chinese restaurant
we went to, and a whole lot of other irrelevant detail that has frequently
reminded me of the importance of those few days. It wasn’t my first LIGNA Show,
nor would it be my last, and I went on to exhibit in the city many more times for
different companies over the years.
The company I worked for at that time was a distributor
and/or occasional re-seller for a number of woodworking machinery
manufacturers, with our main business being in the reconditioning of machinery
rather than selling new, and this Tale focuses on two of the manufacturers
whose products we frequently sold, Wadkin from the UK and Weinig from Germany.
It is a story of a different manufacturing approach that fostered a different
sales outlook both for their direct staff and for their selling partnerships.
It also goes some way to support my long held belief that the British are first
class innovators and engineers, excellent marketeers, but not such great sales
people - I love sweeping generalisations!
Wadkin carried many of the hallmarks of British
manufacturing excellence, producing superbly engineered, rock-solid, durable,
and stable machinery, and had built its international reputation for machines
that rarely failed and always performed. Founded in 1887, they became the
biggest name in British woodworking machinery and certainly held that position
into the 1990’s. Their main product range was moulders, for making door and
window frames, skirting boards, picture and dado rails etc, but they also
manufactured table saws, drills, finger-jointers, and a wide range of workshop
machinery. While they made a number of products for stock, many of their main
moulding machines were tailor made to their customers’ specific requirements.
So in the main, they sold a machine and then made it.
Weinig was founded in 1905, and in the 1990s performed more
like an automotive manufacturer, and it is fair to say that by then they had
long overtaken Wadkin in terms of the international popularity of their
machines and service. They made similar machines of a similar quality to
Wadkin, engineered to German precision standards, but as they rolled off their
production lines it was the responsibility of their sales representatives and
global selling partners to just sell what they had made. So in the main, they
made a machine and then sold it!
Throughout the LIGNA ‘95 exhibition, our stand was populated
by a mix of our own sales staff, representatives from our principal suppliers,
our customers, and a couple of crates of the taste of Manchester – Boddingtons
draught beer in a can (to quote one of our Australian customers “Jeez! They
even have instructions here on how to open the can!”). We were joined by a
group of Weinig’s US sales team , who
were warm, outgoing, and fun, but highly professional, and occasional
representatives from Wadkin, who were no less professional but reticent to join
in the camaraderie of the stand, and much less confident in the presence of
their competitors. The Weinig people were happy to share a drink with us where
the Wadkin people barely touched a drop and drifted on an off stand during the
show. There was not enough beer to get drunk on, just a gesture and an
alternative to orange juice. There was a confidence and warmth about the US
Weinig team that was lacking from Wadkin, and that is what influenced me the
most. Weinig’s confidence was not over-confidence bordering on arrogance. It
was confidence borne out of excellent training, product knowledge, and the
freedom of their sales people to make decisions. The Wadkin people were equally
knowledgeable and well-trained, and it struck me then that the best sales
people are those who are empowered to make those decisions and just get on with
the job of selling.
Back at the Queen’s Hotel on an evening where Wales versus
South Africa was televised in the Rugby World Cup, we were surrounded by Welsh
people, South Africans, the Australian still effusing the virtues of a can of
beer with the opening instructions on the can, and the Weinig US sales team who
were there to socialise with their international customers and selling
partners. Only one of Wadkin’s direct sales team had joined in the fun, and he
left early. The Weinig guys were continuing to get on with the job, getting to
know the people who both used and sold their machinery, building long standing
international business relationships, putting themselves forward as good people
to do business with, and engendering trust. The contrast in approach between
the two companies could not have been greater, yet their products were very
similar, and their customers pretty much the same.
So what did the experience teach me? Mainly that the process
of selling has essential operational and emotional ingredients. Our customers
need two things: the right product at the right price, and trust in the person
and company selling to them. So if your customer relationship is not right, you
may still achieve occasional sales when the product is right, but you will
struggle to sell to them on a regular basis.
It is interesting to note that since 1995, Weinig has
continued to expand globally, growing both through the acquisition of other
European and US woodworking machinery brands, and by establishing overseas
offices in Australia , China and Japan, and by setting up a manufacturing
operation in China. Conversely, after
twenty years of struggle Wadkin finally went into liquidation in 2010 and their
intellectual property rights were purchased by a long established UK
distributor A.L.Dalton Ltd. of Nottingham. Which camp would you rather be in?
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