Show and sell for exhibitors

The six o’clock alarm blares through your ears. You jolt into an upright position.

After half an hour of fumbling around in the kitchen and bathroom, you stumble in the dark to your car to find it frosted over.

You breathe a visible sigh and head inside to get water to melt it off with.

The journey out to Mystery Creek begins as your eyes find some focus and your fingers remember what it’s like to feel things.

It’s a slow drive – 20kmph along Airport Road to Mystery Creek Road, where you sit at 15kmph before you finally reach Mystery Creek Events Centre.

The rest of the team show up at the site in a sleep deprived state and huddle around a heater, trying to escape the 7.45am chill.

You look up to gate two and see hundreds of people who will soon flow through Mystery Creek.

New Zealand Natural Clothing chief executive Phil Grant knows the daily process of exhibiting at Fieldays all too well.

The Norsewood-based company, which rents a house in Taumarunui for the week, specialises in woollen garments to wear whether shopping or on the farm.

They have attended the last seven Fieldays, exhibiting from C19, and added a second site at K26 in 2012.

Throughout the week, Grant can be found tearing back and forth between the two sites to keep an eye on things, running errands and spinning “sock yarns”.

“I’ll [also] hang around the sock bins for a few hours and act as a soxpert,” he said.

Along with running errands and convincing customers that they are in dire need of new socks, Grant is prepared to deal with any issue that arises so the rest of the team can stay focused on what matters – great customer service.

Customer service is at the forefront of the New Zealand Natural Clothing operation, with purchases made at Fieldays accounting for “as high as 10 percent of turnover” for the year.

“You have to be ready to engage any issue that comes up and deal with it for the team,” he said.

This year, with exhibitors anticipating lower attendance because of the low dairy pay-out and an increase in online shopping, New Zealand Natural Clothing are running a competition via social media in which someone will walk away with a cash-spend for their online store.

“It’s a ploy to say, well, if we aren’t going to bottom-line it very well from the sales, we can hopefully make it up in gaining contacts we can actually directly talk to following the event,” he said.

It’s a busy week for Grant with plenty of other sites to have a look at, and plenty of customers in need of beanies, socks, scarves and jackets.

The highlight of Fieldays for him?

“Getting around the displays … visiting the [motor]bike shop stands, oh, and counting the cash.”

Ag Attachments wholesale sales executive Martin Gray spends his week a little differently.

“It’s mainly dealing with the public,” he said.

The Te Rapa based company source attachments for agricultural machinery from around the globe. Stoll front-end loaders, Dromone hitches, Unigreen spray machinery, and Anbo grapples are among some of the products they have to offer.

“[It’s] explaining what the machines do, talking to contractors, talking to dealers.”

Gray, who has been with Ag Attachments for three years, said he hasn’t noticed much change at the event over the years.

Because Ag Attachments are a wholesale company, talking to dealers is a key part of their week.

“It’s probably a shop window for us,” Gray said.

“The farmers are a secondary customer – the dealers are our customer – so you’ve got to show your product off so that the end user wants to buy it.”

The company have signed on for a different site this year (C35) after being underwhelmed by the foot traffic they were getting at their location last year.

“Where the site is is quite important for foot traffic, so we’ve got a bigger one which is beside John Deere and Power Farming – the big boys,” Gray said.

In another bid to boost the numbers coming to the site, Ag Attachments will be giving a small gift to the first 300 people to visit their site.

The exhibitors do everything they can to make the most of the people coming through the doors as crowds begin to thin around three o’clock.

When five o’clock hits, the exhibitors finally get a chance for a breather.

The tills are cashed up, the stock is tidied and the sites are all shut up for the night.

You stumble on tired legs back to your car.

Vehicles start up all over the ground, heaters going full-tilt, and you make your way home – 15kmph along Mystery Creek Road, 20kmph along Airport Road – as your heavy eyes begin to lose focus.

After fumbling around the kitchen and bathroom for half an hour, you flop into your bed and fall asleep before you can say “Hello! How are you today?”