Ivy Hartman: We’re continuing our coverage here on SBTV.com of the SEMA Show 2007 in Las Vegas. I’m Ivy Harman and with me is Clifford Pafford who is the sale director for Creative Material Technology.
Clifford Pafford: Yes, I’m the sales director in the automotive division, among a number of other divisions. We have material 4, 87 different markets here. We’re doing an automotive show.
Ivy Hartman: All right. Well talks about the products here that you’re talking about.
Clifford Pafford: Sure. What we have here is my main branding is a CrystaLiner ®, Clear Spray and Bed Liner gives you true and instantaneous color match. No VOCs, no solvents, low pressured spray system that’s UV stable.
Ivy Hartman: And I like to coin phrases they said it’s a do-it-yourself project.
Clifford Pafford: Okay.
Ivy Hartman: So it’s not, you know and then it’s nice and eco friendly as well.
Clifford Pafford: Well exactly and actually the product is that I’m here to talk to you about right now is the do it yourself or brush on bed liner system. What are customers have shown us is that there is a problem with bed liners that chalked and grayed out over time.
Ivy Hartman: Yeah. It’s unsightly so you really, when you get the bed liner is to keep it looking nice and in your bed and so your product has made it so that something simple that they can do themselves and I have to take it in and have something fancy that recoated it or something.
Clifford Pafford: Right. You don’t have to pay $500.00 to have it spray it again.
Ivy Hartman: Right.
Clifford Pafford: What I have is, if you take can A and pour it into can B, stirred up, put in the pan, rolled on, you get a brand new colorful top throws.
Ivy Hartman: And I hear that SEMA Show this year has been especially successful for you, how is that?
Clifford Pafford: It has been really successful this year. It’s very interesting, I have less people coming through the booth but I have more qualified people who are asking the right questions that are making buying decisions.
Ivy Hartman: I hear that a lot of this show, you know, it’s nice, SEMA has given you some accessibility to those people who can make some of those decisions anyhow but this year, you actually did, you prepared a little differently for the SEMA Show, can you talk about that?
Clifford Pafford: Yes. I talked to all my sales guy and everybody is working in the booth, let’s have some written goals for the show and let’s try and have the right conversation to the right people because you’re doing the one thing or another at the show. You’re either trying to sell things and make deals for your branding. I’m here this week, just make deals and sell product. I do other shows to brand in the regional market. This show I just sit and making deals and selling products.
Ivy Hartman: In small business perspective—
Clifford Pafford: Yap.
Ivy Hartman: Talk about how you made the decision, whether or not you’re going to brand or you’re going to make the, you know, context that you need and.
Clifford Pafford: Where I am in the business and entering this particular market, I have better penetration than some other construction markets and the homeowner markets but in the automotive market, I need a more direct downstream installer phase. So what I needed to do here was, is to get my people to have the right, eight or 12 conversions a day with the right decision makers to build that phase.
Ivy Hartman: What do you say to them and how do you prepare your people? We’re talking about shows in general for any small business owner.
Clifford Pafford: Okay.
Ivy Hartman: Who goes to a show, you know, talk about concepts for them.
Clifford Pafford: Yeah. I discussed it. We went through was, you know, what is our goal; are we branding or are we trying to make deals. And if we’re going to try and make deals, how do we have the right number of conversions for the right people. So I’m aggressively having my people ask qualifying questions. Are you the decision make, are you going to this in the next three months? What are the barriers that have prevented you from making this decisions.
Ivy Hartman: Those are good questions and so you’re finding that they are having more qualified conversions.
Clifford Pafford: Yeah I think that you can really only have eight or twelve quality conversion each day. So if I run 300 people a day through the booth, that doesn’t do anything for my business or for those customers. I need to talk to the right people. The other things I had that my people do is have written goals for the show. How many of these are you going to sell, how many conversions are quality you’re going to have day, how many business cards are you going to pick up and write them down so they actually have it.
Ivy Hartman: Okay, you talked about picking a business card. So I’m sure there’s a plan then proposed show is follow up, what do you have in mind for that?
Clifford Pafford: Already building the data based to contact people, I already have a follow up system. I have a three step follow system that we’re going to contact people by via e-mail, via CD that’s going in the customers that came through and then we’ll do a follow up phone call.
Ivy Hartman: You talked about branding, you know.
Clifford Pafford: Yeah.
Ivy Hartman: Sometimes, that’s another thing that you might be doing at a show as a small business owner or any kind of show, talk about branding.
Clifford Pafford: Well when I’m branding, what I want to do is make a big splash, have the area in balloons and have everybody talking about, if it has been over booth, to look at the crystal liner or clear liner. So I’m doing a whole different approach and I’m spending my advertising dollars connected to the show in a different way.
Ivy Hartman: What do you think about people who are trying to do both at a show?
Clifford Pafford: I don’t think you can do both successfully. I think you really have to make a decision and do one or the other. And either is appropriate depending where you are on your growth cycle or in the market you're in. Where I am in this growth cycle, I need more qualified installer installing crystal liner and my other decorative coatings in the automotive market so that’s what I’m doing here. In two years or in a regional show in Long Beach, or a show in Atlanta or you know a car show on Cape Cod, I’m going to brand, here I’m talking installers.
Ivy Hartman: Great. Well I know that you built a display and have and brought it with you.
Clifford Pafford: Okay.
Ivy Hartman: So talk about the display.
Clifford Pafford: Okay. What I have here is a before and after of a bed liner. What we know except the aromatic which is non UV stable chemistry, the polyurethanes, creating bed liners use, it doesn’t stable out.
Ivy Hartman: But they tell it will.
Clifford Pafford: Well and that’s why they are black and say bloated them up with charcoal and pigment so you can’t see the change and when the change actually happens, it’s really ugly.
Ivy Hartman: Okay and you can tell by this display.
Clifford Pafford: Right. When you at the display, you could see what it looks like. This is a fiber, 7 year old liner. We have a washable system and a foam roller that any do it yourself are going to do in this driveway and no solvents, no VOCs. I wanted to wear gloves, they don’t need a respirator and they’re not spray so this is an over yourself, you know job or product, WD product or you can get it directly from us at linersolution.com
Ivy Hartman: Well perfect, that’s a great note to end on. Thanks for being here with us Clifford.
Clifford Pafford: Thank you.
Ivy Hartman: And much luck to you here at the SEMA Show and we’re going to continue our coverage all throughout SBTV.com site of the show that’s here in Las Vegas so keep tuning right here.
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