Marketing & Sales, Pt 2 — Navigating trade shows

Introduction

James Harper (narration): This is Filter Stories. I'm James Harper, and we are now in the second half of an episode about marketing and sales from the Coffee Producer Toolkit, the series made in collaboration with Lucia Solis. If you haven't heard the previous episode, listen to that before you listen to this one.

To remind you quickly, the goal of this series is to help coffee farmers have more profitable farms. But I think this information is incredibly valuable for you too, and hopefully it's already shaping your coffee journey. I hope you use it to change the industry for the better.

In the last episode, we looked at the importance of story, and at producers figuring out which buyer is the right kind of buyer for them. Now, in this second half, we look at how producers can actually go out and find buyers.

Very few producers have buyers for their specialty coffee close by. There are some exceptions — for example, The Coffee Quest, a specialty coffee green sourcing company that's invested heavily in buying stations in quite remote parts of Colombia. They're often the only buyer for specialty coffee, the only place a producer can bring their truck of coffee and get paid a premium for it. But if a producer wants more buyers than just them, that's going to get very difficult. And then there are the nuances of the specialty coffee B2B market on top. It is a very high hurdle, and I wish it wasn't so difficult.

That said, we are also in an incredible moment where the barriers to a producer speaking to a roaster directly have never been lower. You can reach out to a roaster on Instagram, or through a platform like Algrano. They agree a sale, and the shipment is even handled by an intermediary. These options exist now.

But don't forget that the producer we're talking about is primarily an agriculturalist, and they live in a culture that's very different from the one in the global north, where the buyers who pay high prices are to be found. So remember: while a lot of what you're about to hear might sound really obvious to you, for a lot of producers this is all going to be a big stretch.

And so, pressing play.

Farm visits

James Harper: So, a producer has figured out their story. They know the kind of buyer who's right for them. But now, how do you actually get in front of the buyer to have an actual conversation?

Lucia Solis: This is the hard part, James. And the bad news is that there's no single answer. But the good news is that means there are many different things that have worked for different producers, and often in unexpected ways.

James Harper: Yes. So the first way we want to look at is when somebody comes to visit your farm. Farm visits are probably the most familiar way that producers meet buyers. It's much more common for a buyer to come and meet them on the farm than for the producer to go abroad to a trade show. Farm visits are a fantastic opportunity, but with some caveats.

Lucia Solis: Absolutely. I think that when a buyer has been to your farm and they've met your family and they've seen your land, the relationship can be completely different from one that exists only through email or WhatsApp messages. That can be a really special connection that can last years.

James Harper: For example, that is why Diego from Aquiares loves farm visits.

Diego Robelo: Estar muy abierto a recibir a personas en tu finca. O sea, yo nunca le he dicho a alguien que no puede.

James Harper: Diego's philosophy is to be super open to anybody. It could be a roaster buying just two bags, or 20 containers. Everybody is welcome, because any one person can become a champion for your farm.

Diego Robelo: Un campeón de tu marca, ¿no? Un representante. Le va a contar a alguien.

Lucia Solis: And it's worked out really well for Diego. But like we said, the things that work really well for some producers don't work that well for everybody. For that, we have Karla Boza sharing her experience. She mentioned to us how she was getting a lot of visits. Some were great, but often those visits could be a big waste of time.

Karla Boza: Solicitudes, muchas, muchas, muchas, muchas. Gente así, gente así, pero ya así de clientes eran tal vez unas tres, tres o cuatro al año.

James Harper: Yeah, she mentions how farm visit requests come in constantly, but only three or four of them every year actually turn into customers. And farm visits are an issue more than anything else because they require so much time. She mentioned one particularly bad guest.

Karla Boza: Por ejemplo, me acuerdo una vez de que nos escribió un estudiante.

James Harper: A master's student from the UK who wanted to be hosted for three days, be fed, and sit with her for hours talking about migratory birds. She was particularly bothered in this instance because his attitude was demanding rather than asking. And she has arguments with her father about this, because Latino culture is very hospitable and the family finds it hard to say no. But at the end of the day, it is a business expense.

Karla Boza: En El Salvador y en Latinoamérica en general somos muy hospitalarios, entonces como que queremos andar atendiendo a las personas, es muy parte de nuestra cultura. Y eso está bien, está bien que seamos así, pero también tener la mentalidad como negocio de que esto es un gasto para ti también.

Lucia Solis: And James, this is something I feel really strongly about. I'm more on Karla's side. I feel like a farm visit can be real labour, and a lot of that labour is invisible labour done by women, in terms of preparing meals and doing laundry. Farm visits are a really good opportunity to connect with potential buyers and build those long-term relationships. But lots of people are interested in visiting farms, and they may not always be customers. So in that situation, I think it's very reasonable to charge for your time, charge for the visit, and potentially find another income source.

Finding buyers online

James Harper: So now let's look at how you can go out into the world to find buyers. And to proactively find buyers, you actually don't need to travel. You can find buyers online.

Lucia Solis: Right. So coming back to Karla Boza, her family farm has about 70 hectares of coffee in El Salvador. She was somebody who wanted to find new buyers without travelling, and her strategy is something I think most of us would try first.

James Harper: She emailed buyers directly. But the buyers she emailed were importers.

Karla Boza: El primer año le escribí a todos los importadores de café que yo supiera que existieran o que encontré en Google o qué sé yo, le escribí a todos.

James Harper: But it totally failed. She didn't get a single response.

Karla Boza: Y recibí cero, cero respuestas de vuelta.

Lucia Solis: That's unfortunate, but I'm really not surprised that a random email from a coffee producer saying "I have coffee to sell" got zero responses from these big importers.

James Harper: But then I admire how she shifted her strategy.

Karla Boza: Si no les interesa, me voy a ir a buscar a los clientes de ellos, que son los tostadores.

James Harper: She instead decided to write to roasters directly on Instagram. She wrote a lot of messages — around 20 roasters a day. And when it came to telling her story, like we mentioned, she didn't have to do anything special. She just highlighted the things about her farm that would matter to each particular roaster. For example, one English roaster she reached out to was very focused on women, so she led with the fact that her farm is mostly run by women too. And she also tried to find personal connections wherever she could.

Karla Boza: Había unos tostadores en Europa que su mascota era un perrito salchicha, entonces yo les decía como que, ay, yo también tengo un perrito salchicha.

James Harper: Like the fact that she and the roaster both had the same kind of dog, a sausage dog. Another time, she reached out to a UK roaster and noticed that they had a young daughter about the same age as her sister's daughter in El Salvador, and so her opening message just mentioned that connection. And bit by bit, it worked. Roasters started writing back, and she began to form deep relationships with them. Those two young girls even became pen pals.

Karla Boza: Y se hicieron pen pals, o sea, se escribían de Inglaterra a El Salvador, y me parecía la cosa más linda.

Lucia Solis: James, I had a similar situation to Karla, but instead of wiener dogs, it's beagles for me. They're a demanding breed. So when I see someone else that has a beagle, I know that we immediately have a lot to talk about. And I think this is the point. Coffee is all about a personal connection. So producers, don't be shy about finding creative ways to connect.

James Harper: When in doubt, go for the dogs.

Lucia Solis: And we also want to mention another great way for producers to reach out to roasters online. We think you should check out Algrano, an online marketplace for roasters and producers to connect. It's free for producers to create a profile, and once you're part of the network you can take advantage of several services. Algrano helps with shipping logistics, but they can also evaluate samples and send them out to potential customers, which can be a huge time saving for you. And there is no size requirement, so don't worry that you're too small to qualify.

Social media

James Harper: Okay, Lucia, before we move on, let's touch on what is the right way for a producer to use social media.

Lucia Solis: Yes. I've seen some producers feel really frustrated when using social media, feeling like they want to quit. But producers, don't give up yet. The problem is not social media. The problem is not targeting the right audience. Your goal when using social media should not be to get as many followers as possible, because your target audience is not a general consumer. Your target audience are your buyers.

James Harper: Yeah, and I think Cristian Reyes has a really good approach.

Cristian Reyes: We are very focused on roasters.

James Harper: He uses social media to keep his prospective customers and his roaster customers updated on what's happening on the farm.

Cristian Reyes: Because we want to communicate that roasters working with us are trying to show as much as possible the way they work with farmers.

James Harper: They post photos, for example, during the harvest.

Cristian Reyes: So people can watch what we are doing. And they see the quality of the work and the effort, also to appreciate. We want to show them there is a lot behind it.

James Harper: Now, Cristian has two Instagram handles, one for the farm and one for himself personally. His personal Instagram he uses as a kind of coffee lifestyle account, just showing people who he is and what he's getting up to. Again, coffee is a people business, and roasters really relate to the personal stories he's sharing about his coffee life.

Cristian Reyes: In that one, I post a lot of things that I'm doing daily, and some people really like it, and they enjoy looking at what we are doing, and they feel curious, and they ask.

Lucia Solis: And that's another thing to bear in mind too, James. When it comes to building a reputation for your coffee and reaching out to roasters, you're not just reaching out as a farm. You're reaching out as an individual. People need to like you. People need to see you and to know who you are. Coffee is a people business, and your social media has to reflect that.

It comes back to the idea of telling your story in your own words. An app like Instagram is a really accessible way to tell your story, by just posting pictures of the daily stuff that's happening. And I know it might seem boring to you because it's your everyday life, but you don't know what buyers on the other side of the world will find interesting.

For example, it may seem boring, but sharing weather updates can actually be really helpful. Maybe you're getting more rain than normal and the farm is looking extra lush. Or maybe you got a storm that blocked roads and created transportation delays, or perhaps that storm washed away some trees and you'll have a slightly lower yield than expected. Or conversely, you're in a drought and it's delayed flowering and potentially delayed the harvest. All of this is a way to bring potential customers in and to communicate challenges throughout the whole season, which can also explain potential price changes.

James Harper: And also, importantly, use Instagram and social media as a calling card.

Lucia Solis: Ah, yes. I don't carry around physical business cards any more, because I rely exclusively on Instagram. But I do have to say, make sure you make it really clear how potential buyers can contact you. There are a lot of times when I look at accounts and they have beautiful pictures of the farm, they show coffee processing, maybe pictures of farm dogs — but if I wanted to get in touch, it's not really clear who I can talk to or how to talk to them.

So producers, look at your account and ask yourself: if someone wanted to buy my coffee, do I make it easy for them to do that? Make sure you have your email or WhatsApp on there, or whatever your preferred method is, so that someone who has a question knows where to go.

James Harper: Absolutely. And don't bother trying to get on TikTok. Coffee buyers are not on TikTok. Don't waste your time.

Lucia Solis: Yeah, I agree, James. I'm not on TikTok at all. But I think that may just be us showing our age. Maybe there is a future in TikTok coffee sales.

James Harper: Okay, so now let's move on to the next level of getting in touch with buyers directly. We've covered the easiest thing, which is just welcoming people who turn up to your farm and giving them a tour. Then the next step, which is still free but does cost you a lot of time, which is reaching out online. And if you've done both of those, the next step is to physically go to where the buyers are. And that will often be a trade show. So we're going to cover all of that coming up next.

What a trade show is really like for a producer

James Harper (narration): Pressing pause. In these next and final sections we talk about trade shows, and here I want you to get a glimpse of what that experience might be for a producer.

For one, even getting there is just not feasible for many producers. A smallholder farmer with a hectare or two, who might have a take-home pay of three and a half to four thousand euros a year, attending an international trade show, solo, off their own back — Lucia and I were so frustrated with this piece, because we see the value of trade shows, of making that face-to-face connection with buyers, and yet it is so inaccessible for the majority of producers. We even debated whether we should include it at all. But we decided we should, because the fact is that for many producers, especially those who are going to be hearing our podcast series, they're going to be really motivated. They're probably going to be leaders of a cooperative, or they might have formed a contact with their national coffee association, or maybe even a coffee company with much deeper pockets who could afford to sponsor a small producer to attend the trade show. And also, even for larger producers — and we're going to hear from one soon — trade shows are expensive, and they have to be really frugal.

So let's say a producer does attend a trade show. The pressure on them is going to be enormous, because they are going to the show representing more than just themselves. They're representing an entire community of people. Maybe it's their own cooperative who paid for them to go.

For example, I was at a coffee event in Honduras, Let's Talk Coffee, a few years ago. That was not a cheap show, over a thousand euros to attend. And I remember speaking to a Honduran producer who was the representative for a group of producers, a whole community who had pooled their money together so he could be there. He felt an enormous responsibility not to walk back empty-handed. And he was really frustrated, actually, because in that specific instance 90% of the people were other producers and only 10% were buyers. He told me how much pressure he felt he was under to show some results. So I really want to emphasise that pressure some producers are going to feel. I feel so fortunate that I've never had to face that kind of pressure myself.

And the worst thing is the hard truth: a producer is probably not going to make a sale at a show, because relationships take years to build. Trust takes a long time to form. With me at Filter Stories, it takes years of relationship building for a single partner sponsor to collaborate with me once. So producers who go to these shows are going to get rejected, or ignored. They're going to come back empty-handed, especially the first time. And imagine how devastating that's going to be. They're going to walk back to a community that maybe had a tough harvest and were really hoping for a good buyer, and then you tell them, yeah, I had a few good conversations, got a couple of business cards, but nobody bought anything. No containers are going to get sold.

So that's one side of it. The other side is that I see a lot of producers who haven't really figured out how the global north, and especially the specialty coffee industry, works, and how relationships and sales take place there. For example, in some cultures where producers come from, the most important thing is to sign the guest book. They can go back to the community and say, look, look at all these signatures, look at all these emails. But from my perspective, as a specialty coffee person in the global north, that doesn't mean much. I'm not going to respond to a cold email just because someone said, hey, sign the guest book. I'm going to respond to an email once there's been a personal connection and a story I've related to.

Another one I see that's very typical: some coffee producers just have tables overflowing with green beans. And they're like, look, here are some green beans, take your pick. As a specialty professional, I know that's a terrible way to market coffee, because it's not about the beans on the table. It's about the story and the relationship.

And then finally, what's really heartbreaking sometimes is that I see producers on the outskirts of these shows, lurking around the entrance. They have passes, they could go in, but they're just on their phones, not engaging with the community, with the world that's in front of them. I don't know why that is. Maybe culturally they're thinking, yeah, look, I saw the show, I saw what there was to see, and that's it. But they've missed the point. A trade show isn't something you just passively walk through. You have to work it.

Look, maybe you've met me at a coffee trade show, and I'm sorry if that's happened, because I run around like a headless chicken. For me it's a sprint. I've travelled a long way on my own dime, and I need to make the most of every single hour. I have an agenda. I have a list of people I want to see. I understand the value of face-to-face connections. And if you try to talk to me at a trade show, I am so sorry — I have to prioritise keeping this podcast running, and my time is so precious.

What's so crazy about this whole thing is that trade shows are so important for producers to make real relationships with roasters. It's critical. And just getting there is really hard. And then, once you get there, knowing how to navigate it is hard too, because a producer is going to have to assimilate into the culture of the global north and the specialty B2B community, which works in its own unique way.

All this to say: it's a huge learning curve, and it takes producers many years to learn. It took me many years to learn as well.

Okay, so let's hear the next sections. And from here, I'm going to let the episode just play out. I hope you've enjoyed it, and I look forward to speaking to you in the next episode. Pressing play.

Local trade shows

James Harper: All right, Lucia, let's talk about how to navigate a trade show.

Lucia Solis: So you might feel like you're ready to take the next logical step, which would be visiting an international trade show like World of Coffee. And there's real value in going to those shows, but they can be a big investment. So what we recommend is that before buying the plane ticket and booking your hotel and making this big investment in an international trip, think about what local coffee shows are available to you.

James Harper: And Lucia, here's a story about a producer visiting a local coffee trade show that changed his business.

Edilberto Tovar: Mi nombre es Edilberto Tovar. La finca se llama La Esmeralda.

James Harper: Edilberto is in Huila, Colombia, and he works with one of our partner sponsors for the series, The Coffee Quest. In his part of southern Huila, The Coffee Quest is one of the only specialty buyers around, so he wanted to diversify.

But first, a quick backstory. Edilberto's father really loved coffee farming. He passed away when Edilberto was still very young.

Edilberto Tovar: Como les decía, a la edad de doce años mi padre me puso a elegir mi proyecto de vida.

James Harper: And Edilberto grew up dreaming of becoming a coffee farmer himself. But when he was 18, back in 1996, he fell into a river and suffered a spinal injury that left him paralysed in both legs. By his own telling, it was incredibly difficult.

Edilberto Tovar: Duré mucho tiempo frustrado, desmotivado, pero con el apoyo de mi familia, salí adelante, me volví a motivar, y empecé otra vez a tenerle amor a la finca.

James Harper: But over time, with the help of his family, he found his way back into coffee. Not as a manual worker on the farm, but more as an owner, a coordinator, an administrator.

Edilberto Tovar: El café es mi vida, amo el café.

James Harper: And today he also buys coffee from neighbouring farms and processes it to a specialty standard. He recognised that he needed more buyers, so he went to a regional trade show in Neiva, about a three-hour drive away. And there, at this local trade show, he met a roaster from Austin, Texas, called Desnudo. They met Edilberto in person, heard his story, and really resonated with his resilience in life. That helped create a very strong commercial relationship between them.

Edilberto Tovar: Ser como un 40, 30% de mi producción.

James Harper: Desnudo now buys 30 to 40% of his annual production.

Lucia Solis: So all this to say: don't underestimate the value of local trade shows.

International trade shows on a budget

James Harper: But of course, the closer you go to where coffee roasters are, the higher the likelihood you're going to meet a coffee roaster. You could go to a regional trade show, but of course a better place, where you'll find more buyers, is a major international trade show.

One of the big issues with attending an international trade show is that it can be very expensive. I remember a trade show in Geneva where a simple pizza set me back 40 euros. But we want to be clear: you can actually attend international trade shows for much less than you think. And a master of this is the producer we heard from earlier, Cristian Reyes.

Cristian Reyes: You can travel and you can visit first without spending a lot of money, really.

James Harper: He attends many of the major international coffee trade shows. The flights, unfortunately, are expensive. But once he's there, he's found a way to keep his costs very low.

Cristian Reyes: Every time I have been visiting some coffee fairs, I try to reach out first to some friends. For example, in Geneva — everybody knows that Switzerland is bloody expensive. In Geneva I had a good friend from the past, and I asked him, hey, do you know someone who can host me? And then he said, oh, I have a friend who is now travelling. And he rented us the apartment almost for free. So we stayed in Geneva four or five nights, almost for free.

And also I try not to spend so much on food. Sometimes I even come to the fair with some food in my pocket that I bought in the supermarket. I'm paying my own expenses. I'm not coming from a big company where they give you a credit card and say buy whatever you want to eat, or stay in hotels where they pay. No. I have to manage my finances like normal farmers. So we have to think strategically and don't spend money unnecessarily.

James Harper: Now, another thing you can do to find the funding to attend an international trade show is to get the cost of your travel covered by somebody else. For example, we spoke to Alejandra Rodríguez from Puerto Rico, and she mentioned how the Puerto Rican coffee industry paid for them to have a booth at the trade show.

Alejandra Rodríguez: Mi viaje se costeó porque gané lo que es la Taza de Oro de Puerto Rico, y ellos me pagaron el viaje y la hospedería allá.

Lucia Solis: Definitely. And for example, I know that many governing bodies will pay for producers to attend trade shows. So Anacafé in Guatemala, where I live — if they select your coffee as something they'd like to showcase at their booth, they will also help pay part of your trip to attend.

Which trade shows to prioritise

James Harper: Okay, now, which trade shows should a producer prioritise? Because, Lucia, in the show notes I've linked a list of major international coffee trade shows. And from this one list alone, I count 144 major international trade shows.

Lucia Solis: 144? Oh, James, if I could whistle, I would. That already sounds exhausting.

James Harper: And that's not including all the local trade shows. If you add those — such as, in my city, Berlin Coffee Week — they're not even on that list. You have hundreds and hundreds of options.

Lucia Solis: So as producers, what should we prioritise?

James Harper: Okay, so my advice is that you want to find the trade show where the ratio is in your favour. Where there are many more buyers than producers. Ideally, you'd be the only producer in the room.

For example, when I visited the Brussels coffee show, which is a trade show specifically for the Belgian coffee market, the ratio was something like 20 to 1 — 20 roasters for every coffee producer. If you can get yourself into a room like that, you have an in to the entire Belgian market.

Lucia Solis: Wow, that's a great room to be in. And that's definitely the opposite of the experience I had at something like the Producer Roaster Forum in Guatemala, where the ratio was completely flipped. You might have 10 producers competing for every roaster's attention. In that case, yes, it's accessible, but it is definitely a harder environment to stand out in.

James Harper: The ratio is your compass. The more buyers and the fewer producers, the better your odds of landing a special relationship.

Okay, Lucia. So a producer has decided on a trade show. They've bought the tickets. They've found a way to crash on a friend's couch. I think it's important here to manage expectations, though.

Lucia Solis: Yes, exactly. I've heard from many producers who have had very negative experiences at trade shows. They went in hoping to land a sale and put in all this effort, and nothing came of it. And that was Cristian's experience.

Cristian Reyes: I think the first three events I went to, I never got a customer.

Lucia Solis: So what we hope to share are some tips to help you have the best time when you go there, and keep you grounded.

James Harper: And we really like Cristian's perspective here.

Cristian Reyes: So don't expect to go and make a lot of deals and come back full of deals, because it's not like that.

James Harper: He attended trade shows for years and never got a customer. But it was all valuable experience that accumulated over time, and has now led him to have a successful coffee business.

Cristian Reyes: And now, finally, after many years, I can feel, okay, now I'm getting back what I invested in the past. Because it's been years of my pocket paying for all the coffee fairs.

James Harper: And his other big tip is to go with other producers. Form friendships. Create networks. It'll all lead to sales, eventually, in its own time.

Cristian Reyes: So never, never think that you will do it alone. You need to invest in people and help each other, and then they will help you in the future again.

Lucia Solis: I think it's helpful to shift your perspective. If you go to your first show and you're only focused on sales, that's when the disappointment can feel overwhelming. But if you go with more of an open agenda, then you'll be open to more possibilities. And you really don't know what the future holds. A lot of times these relationships take a while to get started, but a seed you planted at a certain trade show can bear fruit much later on. These events can still be very valuable even if you don't walk away with an immediate sale from your first visit.

James Harper: Okay, so you're going to a trade show. Many producers told us that you do not need a stand. Sometimes even a small stand can run to many thousands of dollars. And beyond that considerable cost, the other issue with having your own stand is that you are stuck there.

Lucia Solis: So much of the value of these shows is just having casual conversations on the trade show floor, or over lunch, with completely new people. If you're stuck in your booth for most of the day, you can miss out on the value of those happenstance connections.

James Harper: And if you do want a booth, there are options. You don't need a full booth. Maybe there's a smaller booth in the Roasters Village you could get for half the price. Even better, partner with a friend, or share a booth for an hour with somebody you already know. If you need the booth time, you can get it very, very cheaply.

Lucia Solis: So remember, a trade show provides unique opportunities to talk to someone you might have a weak connection with online, and to meet them face to face and tell them your story. Even if you only talk for a few minutes, that brief connection in person can be worth 100 emails.

James Harper: And now, coming up: the final things you need to master a trade show. Language, experience, and knowing how to successfully navigate a sales conversation.

English

Lucia Solis: In the creation of this series, you and I spoke to so many coffee producers, and one thing that came up in almost every conversation we had, completely unprompted, was the importance of English. If you want a foreign buyer, most of them agree, it really helps to speak English.

James Harper: I could play you an hour of tape of just producers talking about the importance of English. Here's one clip, though, from a producer in Peru, César Marín Acre, who I think summed it up really well.

César Marín Acre: Yo creo que son dos aspectos, no solo el inglés. Es el inglés y ser vocero.

James Harper: César says what really matters isn't just the fact that it's English, but the fact that speaking English allows you to be your own spokesperson, in your own words. He mentions that he knows many older producers, perhaps cooperative managers or presidents, who travel with a translator. And from what he's seen, maybe only 10% of the message actually gets through.

César Marín Acre: No se transmite ni el 10% del mensaje de lo que quieres transmitir. Es muy difícil.

James Harper: And English really is the fundamental language. Even in Japan, where César expected they'd maybe stick to Japanese. No. Everyone sits down to dinner and they talk about coffee in English.

César Marín Acre: En todos los países del mundo el inglés es fundamental para poder hablar.

Lucia Solis: The ability to tell your own story in your own voice is something that's really hard to replicate and communicate through someone else. So we know it sounds daunting, but learning English is a long-term investment, and for many producers it's one of the most impactful ones they can make.

You know, James, a lot of times when I work with producers and they want to do a 500-hour fermentation when they're really only doing a 24-hour one now, my advice is often: let's keep the fermentation short and spend that extra time invested in something else. You might get more from spending that time learning English than you will from having a very extended, complicated fermentation.

Preparing for the show

James Harper: Yeah, absolutely. All right, let's say you've got some basic English skills under your belt. You've booked your travel. You've found some affordable accommodation. It's now the first day of the trade show. Even though so much of a trade show is just serendipity, chance and offhand conversations, to make the most of it it really helps to have some meetings planned in advance.

Lucia Solis: You want to maximise your chances of actually making a sale, and to do this, preparation is everything. And Hamsini, who we heard from earlier, doesn't just show up and hope for the best. Before every trade show she does her homework. She researches the roasters in advance and works out which ones are going to be a good fit for her coffee.

Hamsini Appadurai: So when I'm going to a particular country, what I do is, one, I fix my meetings ahead. I write emails to people, tell them what my company is, what coffees I have, and I ask them and I fix a meeting ahead myself.

And the second is, if I do already have an existing buyer there, then I talk to them about — let's say, do you want to do a producer event for an hour? Do you want to cup coffees? Do you want to show the coffees, where you would like me to be there? Because I am the producer. If you would like to do a marketing event, keeping me there as well, I'm happy and I'm available for you. And that's something that has worked at all trade shows, because then they also have something to talk about. So these are the two things that I always do whenever I go to a trade show.

Lucia Solis: So that is another great piece of advice that we can take away: have a list of at least 10 buyers that you've researched, whose values fit yours, that you can actually communicate with, and try to have a meeting already scheduled before you land. You can send a very quick message, something like, I'll be at World of Coffee on Tuesday, are you free for five minutes?

The sales conversation

James Harper: All right, Lucia. So now let's say everything is going really, really well. We are at the trade show. You are face to face with a potential buyer. And we're now having the sales conversation. How should a producer navigate that?

Lucia Solis: For that, we go back to Diego, who has a very specific approach. He starts by asking questions rather than talking about his coffee.

Diego Robelo: Hay que entender a la persona, tal vez haciendo algunas preguntas claves.

James Harper: Diego asks these questions to understand what kind of buyer they are. The more he understands who they are, the more he's able to select the things about Aquiares that are going to resonate with them. For example: have they travelled to coffee producing countries? If they've only been to Brazil, he highlights things that Costa Rica has that Brazil doesn't. Do they care about environmental or social issues? If so, he'll talk about Aquiares' social and environmental projects. Because, as he says, at the end of the day you only have five minutes to make an impression, so you want those five minutes to really resonate with that person.

Diego Robelo: Un par de preguntas que te ayuden a guiar lo que vas a enfocarte, porque a veces solo tenés, no sé, cinco minutos para causar una impresión.

Lucia Solis: And of course, in five minutes you will not be able to cover everything you want to say. But one thing that's really important is that the buyer walks away feeling how passionate you are about your coffee. Diego says that if you manage to achieve that, you're doing well, because buyers want to work with people who love what they do.

Diego Robelo: Soy muy apasionado de Aquiares, tengo un amor enorme de Aquiares, y creo que eso es importante, expresarlo inmediatamente, ¿verdad? Porque yo creo que un buen vendedor, o alguien que quiere verdaderamente expresar el valor del producto — un buen vendedor te hace sentir algo.

Rejection

James Harper: So now we have to cover one of the worst things about having your own business and trying to sell coffee from your own farm: people are going to reject you. You're going to offer your coffee and they're going to say no. It'll be a buyer you were really, really hoping to sell to, and after that five minutes with them, they say, sorry, we're not interested.

Lucia Solis: Yeah, James, that feeling is awful. And I am also familiar with this feeling. It's even harder when you've invested so much just to be in the room, to be told no.

James Harper: And look, the rejection is going to happen. It's part and parcel of running your own business. You will get rejected. And the thing is, early on it's going to feel really personal, because you've put so much of your farm, your story, your coffee in front of someone. You're saying, here, validate all my work, validate my farm by buying this. And they say no. Or, even worse, they just ignore you.

Lucia Solis: I do know that fear, and this just happened to me. I was reaching out to an acquaintance, and I saw that they were buying a similar type of coffee to the coffee that I sell, and they hadn't bought from me before. So I reached out and I said, I saw that you're buying so-and-so's coffee, our coffees are pretty similar, how come you didn't want to buy my coffee? I said it directly like that. How come you don't want to buy my coffee if you're buying my neighbour's coffee?

And he said very, very directly: your coffee's not good enough. He's looking for 90-plus coffees. And I was like, oh, okay. And that's all I could say. I just said okay. And it was a sting. But when I looked back at the customer, I realised it made sense, because it wasn't a good fit. He was really focused on scores and 90-plus coffees, and I specifically don't make anything over an 86, because I'm all about efficiency. For me to get into that 87, 88, it's so much more effort. So I'm looking for buyers that are looking for consistency and volume, and he was a buyer that was really looking for scores. So that rejection, while it hurt, was inevitable, because we're just not a good fit for each other.

James Harper: Yeah, I think the takeaway from your story, Lucia, is that the buyer not wanting your coffee actually has nothing to do with you. It was written in the stars that this was not going to work out, no matter what you did or said to them. You don't produce the coffee they're looking for. That's what rejection often is. It's not personal.

And I can talk from a lot of experience myself, because to make podcasts I also do sales. Getting rejected at the beginning hurt so much. It was devastating. But these days, it's not nice, but you move on.

As you know, Lucia, you and I went on a long process to find the partner sponsors for this series. We got rejected a lot.

Lucia Solis: Yeah, James, I'm glad you brought this up. You are way ahead of me in this process, because my podcast, Making Coffee, doesn't have any sponsors. So this process was completely new for me. And you're right, it was a lot of rejection, a lot of being ignored, and lots of emails following up.

James Harper: But we try not to take it personally. We take it all as a learning experience. We are here today talking to you because we did not give up. And just like Diego and Cristian and Karla, you are guaranteed to get better and better at it, because they just kept on trying.

Lucia Solis: We both really believed in this project. We both really wanted to make it happen. And because of that, we just kept asking and kept sending follow-ups and kept talking to people until we got to this point. So we're really happy you're hearing these episodes, and I hope that everybody listening is enjoying them as well.

Recap

Lucia Solis: All right, James, let's quickly recap.

James Harper: Number one: never rely on just one buyer.

Lucia Solis: Two: sales is a skill, and nobody is born with it. You learn by doing and practising.

James Harper: Three: you don't need to plant rare coffee varieties or invent a new process to be interesting. Your story is already there. Your farm's history, the nature around it — these are things that nobody can copy.

Lucia Solis: Four: how you present information really matters. Every weakness can be reframed as a positive.

James Harper: Five: know what kind of buyer is right for you before you engage anybody.

Lucia Solis: Six: put yourself out there, on social media and in person. When reaching out, look for the personal connection.

James Harper: Seven: trade shows. Choose trade shows where there are more buyers than producers. But do manage your expectations. You will not land a deal immediately.

Lucia Solis: Eight: English. Speaking English lets you be your own spokesperson. This is possibly the best investment you can make for your farm.

James Harper: And finally, nine: you will be rejected, often. But don't take it personally. Every rejection is a learning opportunity. Keep going. You're going to get there.

Outro

James Harper: In the next episode in this series, we cover how to get the right price for your coffee.

Lucia Solis: Thanks for hanging out with us on this episode of the Coffee Producer Toolkit. If you found it helpful, we would love it if you shared it.

James Harper: The show notes are full of very helpful information. For example, the CVA extrinsic criteria, a list of over 100 international trade shows, and links to every producer we heard from today. Go and take a look at those producers and see how they present themselves on social media.

Lucia Solis: And if you want to dive deeper, on my podcast, Making Coffee, episode 54 is about what really happens when a buyer visits your farm, and whether "we work with this producer" means what buyers think it means. In episode 56, Pranoy, a coffee producer from India, talks about how he found new export markets and what he's learned over the years.

James Harper: And on my podcast, Filter Stories, I've made a documentary about a coffee farm in Brazil and the different ways they have tried to find buyers — from setting up their own cafe, roasting their own coffee, selling to local roasters in Rio de Janeiro, exporting their own container, visiting trade shows, and so much more. It's got the details of what worked for them and what didn't, and a lot of learnings.

Lucia Solis: You can find us both on Instagram. James is at Filter Stories Podcast, and I'm at Lucia Solis. But the better way to keep up with us is our newsletters, linked in the show notes.

James Harper: This series of the Coffee Producer Toolkit was produced by Lucia Solis, Nick Hafner and myself, James Harper. I also wrote and played the piano music.

Lucia Solis: Thank you for your time, and we'll see you next time.

James Harper: Thank you for listening. See you next time.