A trade fair is a filter, not a sales channel
Buyers arrive at a trade fair with a bag and leave with a bag. Between those two points they walk a great distance, look at a great many products and speak to a great many people. What they often leave without is a decision, because the fair was treated as a place to collect and not as a place to eliminate.
The useful way to think about a trade fair is as a filter with a hard deadline. A large hall contains more suppliers in this category than any buyer can evaluate properly, and almost all of them will look competent in a photograph and reasonable in a conversation. The value of the visit is not what you add to your list. It is what you remove from it, with a reason attached.
That reframing changes preparation. If the objective is a shortlist, the work starts before the flight and finishes after the return, and the days on the floor are only the middle of it. What follows is that sequence, written for a buyer of ceramic sanitaryware.
Before: decide what you are filtering for
Three decisions belong to the week before, not to the first morning in the hall.
The categories you are actually buying. A buyer looking for two-piece WCs, wall-hung pans and bidets is not helped by a stand full of shower enclosures. Write the category list down, with the mount types you need, and use it to decide which halls to walk. Wandering is the most expensive activity at a fair.
The three things you intend to verify. Not thirty. Three, chosen because they are the ones that would stop an order. For most buyers in this category they are the body specification and its evidence, the factory’s ability to repeat a finish, and the packing that protects the product in transit. Everything else can be handled later by document or by visit.
The schedule. Appointments with the suppliers you already know, and targeted time in the aisles for the ones you do not. A fair with a schedule produces a shortlist; a fair without one produces tired feet and a bag of brochures that are still unopened a month later.
Bring one more thing: your own documents. A drawing of the installation you have in mind, a specification sheet from your market, the last container’s packing list. The conversation changes completely when the supplier is answering your drawing rather than presenting a catalogue.
Look at the section, not the shine
A stand is lit to make glaze look flawless. Every supplier knows this, and every stand is designed accordingly, which is why the most informative thing on a stand is usually the object that was not designed to be looked at.
A section sample. If the supplier has cut a body in half, look at it. A cut section shows the wall thickness of the body, the way the trap is formed, and whether the ceramic is consistent where nobody will see it. Suppliers who bring one are usually the ones who are comfortable with the answer.
Two batches, side by side. Ask to see the same finish on two units made at different times. Colour drift is the failure that costs most in this category, precisely because it is nobody’s fault and everybody’s problem. A supplier who can show a match has understood the question.
A closed assembly. Open and close the seat. Look at the gap between the cover and the body, the alignment of the hinge, and whether the movement is consistent across units. Assembly tolerance is a factory habit, not a specification, and it is visible in a way that a photograph never is.
The carton. Ask for a packed unit, or at least a carton. Look at the board grade, the internal protection, the way the product is restrained, and the printing. A carton is the cheapest thing on the stand and the clearest evidence of how a factory thinks about the last mile.
The questions that end a conversation early
Most of the useful filtering at a fair is done by four questions. None of them is hostile. All of them are hard to answer with a brochure.
- Which models in this range hold which certificates, for which markets? The answer separates a supplier who tracks approvals per model from one who holds a general certificate and hopes it covers everything.
- Who owns the mould for this shape, and is it available to other buyers? The answer tells you whether a private label on this shape means anything.
- What is the position on colour and matt finishes? In our range white bodies carry no minimum order quantity and colour or matt finishes carry a minimum of 30 per model, and a supplier who can state their own position that precisely is a supplier who has thought about it.
- What happens when a unit arrives broken or faulty? The answer should be a process — evidence, authorisation, remedy — rather than an assurance.
One more, if the conversation is going well: ask what the production window is, and listen for whether the answer distinguishes production from the whole cycle. Our own figure is 30 to 40 days for production, and it is not the same number as the time from order to container, which also contains sampling, payment, inspection, packing and booking.
What a stand cannot tell you
A stand is a constructed environment, and it is worth being explicit about what it is not evidence of. It is not evidence of capacity, because a stand shows samples and not a kiln. It is not evidence of consistency, because every unit on display was chosen. And it is not evidence of who actually made the product, because a trading company’s stand looks exactly like a factory’s stand.
That last point is worth a question of its own. Ask where the plant is, how many people work in it, and whether casting, glazing and firing happen in the same place or across suppliers. A factory answers with specifics; a trader answers with a country.
For context on our own side: the plant is in Chaozhou, Guangdong, it covers 51,000 m², employs 285 people, and casting, glazing, firing, QC and export all sit on the same site, with our own tunnel kiln. That is the kind of answer that can be checked later, which is the only kind worth collecting at a fair.
After: the follow-up that decides the outcome
The fair ends and the value begins to evaporate. Cards go into a drawer, brochures into a shelf, and the memory of which stand was which fades faster than anyone expects. The follow-up has to happen while the notes still mean something — within two days is a working rule, and it is the same rule whether the buyer or the supplier is applying it.
Grade the list before you write to anyone. A is a supplier you want a quotation from, with a specific model and a specific market. B is a supplier worth a second conversation once a question is answered. C is a supplier you are not pursuing, and the reason should be written down, because in a year you will not remember it and will waste an afternoon rediscovering it.
Then send one question per follow-up, not a list. A message that asks six things gets an answer to the easiest one. A message that asks for the AS 1976 report, or the drawing for one model, or a confirmation of which certificate covers which model, gets a document or an admission.
Finally, decide the next physical step. Either a factory visit, a remote audit, or a sample request with your own specification attached. A supplier who has been through one of those three is a supplier you know something about. A supplier you only met at a fair is a supplier you have an impression of.
What to carry, and what to leave behind
The practical list is short, and it is mostly about not relying on the fair to remember things for you.
- A one-page summary of what you buy, in what volumes, into which market, with your contact details on it.
- Your own drawings or specification, folded, so a technical conversation can start on the stand.
- A camera and permission to photograph labels, section samples and drawing sheets — not just products.
- A notebook with a page per stand, and a reason written at the top before you walk in.
What to leave behind is the urge to be thorough. A shortlist of five suppliers with reasons attached is worth more than thirty cards collected politely, and the point of the trip is to produce the former, not to prove you covered the hall.
Frequently asked questions
How many suppliers should I plan to meet?
Fewer than you think, and with a purpose each. A buyer who intends to leave with a shortlist of four or five suppliers will prepare questions for each and remember the answers. A buyer who intends to see everything will leave with a bag and no decision, which is the same outcome as not going.
What should I look at first on a stand?
The things that were not built for display: a cut section sample, a carton, two batches of the same finish, a drawing sheet. Products on a stand are chosen to look right. The section, the packing and the drawing are chosen by the production process, and they are harder to stage.
Is a trade fair a good place to negotiate a price?
It is a place to establish a price basis, which is more useful: which list, which currency, which delivery term, how long a quotation holds. A figure agreed on a stand without those four attached is a figure that will be revisited the moment the specification is confirmed.
How quickly should I follow up after the fair?
While the notes still mean something — within two days is a reasonable working rule. After that, the detail that made one stand different from another has gone, and the follow-up becomes generic. Generic follow-ups get generic answers, which is how a promising contact turns into a mailing list entry.
How do I tell a factory from a trading company?
Ask where the plant is, how many people work in it, and whether casting, glazing and firing happen on one site. A factory answers with specifics that can be checked. A trader answers with a country and a promise, and becomes vague when the questions move to the kiln.
Which trade fairs do you exhibit at?
Rather than publish a calendar that may be out of date, we would rather answer directly: send us the market you buy for and we will tell you where we will be and when, or arrange a visit to the plant in Chaozhou instead. A factory visit shows more than a stand does.
Related on this site
Documents and certificates
- Ask where we will be, or arrange a plant visit instead
- The plant, the kiln and the QC record you would be auditing
Related reading
- Auditing a sanitaryware factory remotely
- A factory visit checklist for sanitaryware
- The Hotel Project Spec Cycle