Shipping your stuff to a trade show - there is not show if your stuff doesn’t get there. Clint Ard, an expert in show logistics talks to us

Welcome to the Global Sales Mentor Podcast for conversations that drive growth. When you are ready to grow your international sales, join the conversation with your host, Zach Selch. Welcome back to another episode of Conversations That Grow Global Sales. And I have here an old friend of mine, a good friend, a guy I've known for years. I've been working with him for just about 20 years, I guess, on trade shows. Clint Ard is a shipping specialist whose focus is on getting your goods to a trade show in time and the way they should be. Uh, Clint, welcome. I'm really happy to have you on my podcast.

It's great to be here, Zach. Appreciate the invite.

So I guess the first thing I'm going to jump in is tell us a little bit about yourself and what it is you do, please.

Yeah, from my side, I am a logistics specialist who is focused primarily on trade shows. I've been in the business since January of '99, so I've seen quite a bit of changes through the industry itself, as well as many of us have been around with technology growing along.

My kids would say, what did they use, mules back then? So yeah.

Well, some of us can still remember that a fax machine was useful. So from that time, you know, it's, uh, all of my exposure to the logistics industry has been specifically for helping trade show customers Providing that complete door-to-delivered booth service, regardless if their show's in the US or if it's international, and just being sure that they're able to focus on the other aspects of getting the show ready. And I take care of their baby to get everything at the show so they can be ready to promote their product.

No, that's great. And, you know, I know people will— like, I know people who are using their normal shipper for trade shows. I know people who are using like FedEx or whatever, the postal service, for trade shows. Why would somebody use— and I, and I'm not asking for myself because like I said, I've been, I've been using dedicated shipper for trade shows for 20 years— but why would somebody want to use a shipper like you to go to a trade show?

Well, what I'm able to bring in my background as a specialized shipper for trade shows is the knowledge that a normal freight forwarder, even companies like UPS or FedEx, know how to do. You know, a normal shipping company, they can be very good at trucking or air freight or ocean, and they're all about the focus of exporting the goods to wherever you want it to go. And then once it arrives to that destination, the buyer takes it over and then does everything from there. So they really don't have the knowledge for all the customs regulations that's involved, first and foremost. With bringing things in. And you know what, we're gonna—

we'll revisit— I want to put a pin in that and revisit the customs issue with trade shows because that's really important. Sorry, go on, Clint.

So, um, for the most part of what I'm able to do, uh, as a trade show forwarder, I have the knowledge and the contacts of the best people to work with from the time the freight leaves its origin, whether it's coming from the US or any destination worldwide. Origin and then bringing it all the way up to the exhibiting country, doing the customs clearances into that country, which is usually of most importance for temporary import.

Right.

Because most of the items will return after the show, but also to be able to work with customers if they have things that are sold during the show.

Right.

To help them take care of the customs aspects of it, because most people don't really think about a lot of their customs because they get their orders from their international customers.

Right.

They arrange it up to Porter Airport and then the buyer takes care of everything else. But when you're doing trade shows, it's very important that you have the entire process monitored so that all the customs clearances, not only for the export and return from the US, are taken care of, but also at the destination country. And then on top of that, and what a lot of people don't realize, is the local handling in the country itself. It may get to arrival port and airport, but once it gets there, it needs someone who navigates not only the custom side of it, but as well can be able to bring it into the show, do the proper warehousing and delivery.

And to your booth at the right time, right?

Correct. And that's, that's something that I'm able to pull into one package is that complete door-to-delivered booth service, so that whenever an exhibitor is going to a show and they want to bring their product or anything that they're wanting to display at the show, They don't need to coordinate anything other than my deadlines, my paperwork, and giving me delivery instructions. And I take care of everything because an exhibitor themselves, they have more on their table of things to do for a show than I do.

Right.

So for them to have to worry about, okay, well, who do I need to call for this part of my shipping? Who do I need to call for this part of my shipping? Well, what happens when I get there? Do I need to call them and do something else? They can remove all that worry by working with someone like myself who does everything. And then they have one point of contact, one company to work with, and then everything goes smoothly from the time it leaves until it delivers. Right.

And if you haven't actually seen the lineup of trucks and forklifts and packages waiting to get into a hall at Medica the day before, 2 days before, you have no idea what's going on. But getting your pack— getting your stuff to your booth in time for you to do setup when you're waiting for 3 or 4 pallets of stuff. That, that's pretty— that can take time. And if you're— if you don't know the right people, you don't know the right people who run the hall and so on, you could, you know, you could be waiting 8 hours later than somebody else, right?

Absolutely. And that, that happens a lot of times. People will try to, you know, maybe they use their normal freight forwarder and then try to see if they can do things locally the way they would for their US shows.

Right.

And they don't have the clout. They're showing up as one exhibitor of thousands of exhibitors sometimes, especially for a show as big as Medica.

Yeah, like Medica, I want to say there are 15,000 distributors, uh, exhibitors, something like that, right?

Yeah. Yeah, it's, it's a huge volume. And, you know, they're just a needle in a haystack, whereas I'm showing up at most of these shows, or even if it's not for, for a specific, like a big show like Medica, um, there's the reputation behind what I'm doing so that the local partners there Um, are able to respond a lot quicker to my request versus the 50 direct exhibitors trying to get in touch with them, right? That is a benefit to my customers as well because I have the direct contacts over time with the local partners to be sure that they get immediate action whenever there's a need.

Exactly. And I remember years where you got me my stuff, you know, right when I needed it at the beginning so I could be set up, you know, a day in advance and be done with it by 6 PM. You know, make sure that my booth was all set up because I got the stuff first thing in the morning because you got it there. And then on the flip side, making sure that I get my boxes as soon as the show is over and then get picked up right afterwards. Really, it takes a lot of the worry and the concern off the exhibitor's head in terms of the logistics.

Well, and that's what a lot of people appreciate with hands-on services like yourself and where we built our relationship over the years is having a partner who takes away a lot of the worry and stress. Because once a lot of exhibitors, they show up at a show, you know, they— a lot of times they show up the day they arrived into the country, right? And the last thing they want is the drama of trying to figure out if their things are there. Oh yeah. And that's where, you know, you get your updates before you ever leave that your freight's in the warehouse, it'll be delivered at this time, here's your local contact if you need anything. And then that way, when you or your colleagues show up, you know, you already know everything's going to be taken care of the way you need it to. And then you can focus on doing the setup. And the same thing on the outbound is that everything goes as smooth as possible, because you're there as an exhibitor to focus on creating new business, building upon your relationships, and you want to work with vendors that are related to the show that can be sure that you can do that to your best ability.

Exactly. And I've never had a problem while working with you, but I haven't— you know, not every company I've worked with has worked with you. And I, I, I've been going to Medica for about 10 years before I knew you, and I've seen every possible screw-up on shipment. I've, I've gotten there and not had my booth. I've gotten there and not had my signs. I've gotten there and not have one component of a demo system. I mean, when, when you get us— when you're counting on 10 boxes getting there and only 9 get there, Uh, it, it's painful. There's, you know, there's always a, a whole lot of stress involved in that, right?

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, your, your success at the shows depending upon everything arriving there on time, and that's, uh, what we invest in on our side is to be sure everything goes the way you want it to. And there's always going to be hiccups, um, but it's also to the quality of your partners to how well they can react to those hiccups. And either fix the situation or offer you solutions to correct what's going on. And that's, I think, the biggest part of any partnership for any of us with our vendors is that, you know, you've got someone who you know that whether it's good, everything's going good, or whether it hits the fan, that they'll be there for you to offer you what solutions are available given the current situation.

That's right. And I always say, you know, if you're there for 4 days, And, uh, and this whole thing cost you, say, $25,000 to exhibit at Medica. You know, you can look at, at what, you know, you're, you're there essentially, you know, 4 days times, uh, 8, 8 hours. So that's, uh, what, 32 hours on, on the booth, right? It cost— you're dealing with about $800 an hour for the cost of being at that booth, right? So every hour that you're under stress, every hour that you're not functioning, because maybe you're running around looking to find a new sign or get something fixed, or because you don't have the right cables or anything like that, you're losing money that you invested in trying to have the best show you possibly can. So, you know, making sure that everything goes smoothly is really, really important, uh, for a show like Medica, right?

Absolutely. I mean, it's, uh, like you said, there's enough stress Of all the other things to manage for the show, let alone have to worry about the missing pieces of the puzzle that you weren't expecting before you got there.

Right. I know, I know very well where there are hardware stores and electronic component stores all over Düsseldorf, because over the years I've had to buy a piece of cable, or I've had to buy, you know, a sign, or I've had to buy a piece of wood or a few screws or something, because typically because we forgot to pack something or something didn't get there correctly, or we packed the wrong component or piece or something. But if you're missing something big, you're gonna end up running around town trying to find a replacement, or find, you know, a printer, or find something to deal with to make your booth perfect. And you really don't need that stress. So it really is a great idea to be working with a professional on this.

Yeah, absolutely. And that's Part of what we try to present to our customers is that we're there for them for whatever need they may have. I know specifically within our side of the industry, a lot of exhibitors, they rely really heavy on all of the recommendations from the organizers, you know.

Right.

Who's your recommended stand builder? Who's your recommended, you know, graphics printer? Whatever, anything related to the show furniture. It also ties into freight for that.

Right.

And, you know, a lot of times that gives the exhibitors the peace of mind of knowing they're working with someone that, that's recognized by the organizer. And while usually it is the fact that you have a good partner, that's not always the case because for one thing, not every freight company in my position has the ability to have a relationship with every show organizer around the world. It's not that way. It's, it's a people business and we're all limited in resources. And even though we do a really strong job on the shows where we are recommended by the organizer, we also do shipments to shows where we're also not the recommended organizer.

Oh yeah.

So I know a lot of times exhibitors feel like they're forced to work with the recommended one, but when you're doing international shows, it's not like a domestic show. In the US, you're forced to work with the Freemans, the GDSs, whoever is at that show location. You don't have a choice. They will make you work with them. regardless. Well, you can completely forget about that once you leave Canada and the US, because on the world market you have a free choice to work with whoever you want to, to anyone, and they're allowed to bring your freight to the show.

Right.

And that's something as well for exhibitors to understand, is when you've had a relationship with someone that you say, okay, I worked with this company for, for this show, or like you did with me for Medica, this is the service I want Well, you can get that service to every other show.

Right.

And if they continue to give you the service you want, you don't have to look in your exhibitor manual to find out who the recommended person is because you're already working with a professional who can help you worldwide. And those are the kind of bonds and relationships that I think are even most important because we look in our business lives and we're always looking to have strong relationships with partners that we work with over time so we can build the trust. And the situations to work together in all different kinds of environments. But I see sometimes, not always, but sometimes with exhibitors, they will switch from one freight forwarder to the next freight forwarder to the next freight forwarder to the next freight forwarder.

Yeah.

Because they've got it in their head they have to work with the show-recommended forwarder, and they're not really building a strong relationship with any one of those companies because they're just a one-off customer for them. And we all know the bonds that we have with customers. The more you work with someone, you start with an email, then you go to a phone call, then you maybe do a video call, then you might meet them in person on the show. That builds a different kind of relationship for you with a partner who's responsible for your most time-sensitive part of your show. So invest in it. Don't be worried that, that they're not recommended by this organizer, so I really shouldn't use them. If they've proven themselves that they can do what you want them to do to the level of service and attention and pricing that you want, keep in touch with them.

Right.

Give them the chance to work with you, and then you'll be doing the same. You have the same contact for all your shows. You'll get used to their type of documentation. You'll get used to the nuances of the different personalities, and then it becomes like one of your customers or one of your vendors. You know, you've got that bond because the show itself is gonna be different. You're working with a different organizer. You're working with a different stand builder maybe. But you've got one constant. You've got your freight person who you know is bringing your most important part of the booth, because it doesn't matter how pretty your booth is, doesn't matter how good your furniture is, doesn't matter how good your catering is.

If it doesn't arrive—

If it doesn't show up with your exhibition materials, with your product and what you're wanting to show, your show's a failure.

Oh yeah.

That's an extra point I wanna bring up as well. You know, a lot of times I think corona has really woken the world up to how important logistics is. Because before Corona, I would tell people what I did or that I even worked in a— as a part of the shipping industry, and you could just see the disinterest in their mind because logistics was always something that, like, the hidden, uh, the hidden master behind everything. Logistics is what makes the world work, but people don't realize they need it until something goes wrong.

Right.

And for trade shows specifically, where every show's a deadline and everything has to be there perfect, It's important that the logistics gets as much attention as your stand builder or anyone else you're working with.

That's exactly right. I was actually at a conference yesterday and everybody was talking about supply chain, everybody was talking about logistics. And just like you said, everybody— 2 years ago nobody knew that term supply chain, nobody talked about logistics. Now, now it's a big thing. You, you talk about people And here's an interesting thing about people. Now, I think about the hall. I've been in Hall 16 for a while at Medica. I think for years I was in 12, and now I'm in 16. I've been in 16 for a while. And there's a hall master. And there are assistant hall masters, and there are the different people. And now there's also the people who run the logistic area. Right? The people, the place where the, where the boxes come in. So if, if my, my shipment comes in, you know, let's say it comes via air, it gets to the Düsseldorf airport, then it goes to the, to the Messe. It's gonna get entered into a section where it's then gonna be sorted and then sent to the hall and then got to my booth. Now there are a half dozen or a dozen people in that chain. all of whom, for the most part, have been doing their jobs for years. Like the hallmeister of Hall 16 at Medica has been in that position for at least 10 years, I think, right? So all these people are individuals that you, you know, you end up having a relationship. Now, me as an exhibitor, I don't necessarily have a relationship with these people, but my forwarder does, right? And that helps me get everything smoothly running through. And again, it's not like because somebody doesn't know me I'm not going to get my box, but I might get my box 12 hours earlier, right? That, that's sort of, you know, something people should take into mind, into consideration, right?

Well, that, that kind of goes back to, uh, to a point I made a little bit earlier, is the familiarity of working with people over and over again. Um, is when I show up at a show, I'm not just there for the first time. Sometimes I am, but a lot of times I'm there for repeat business, especially for a show like Medica. I've been doing that show for 23 years now.

Right, right.

And there's not a single person in the US except for an exhibitor maybe who has had that much attention, uh, during freight to the Medica show.

Right.

And when you put that much involvement with your local contacts and you're showing up every show and you're building those relationships, it's like you said, you can get Better cooperation than just an exhibitor by themselves who goes up to these people and says, I need help with XYZ, because these people already have their relationships with me or my colleagues. And that helps each of our customers tremendously, whether it's at Medeco or other shows, because of that familiarity and the constant interaction that we have with the people. So that's something— That's what takes the work off the shoulders of the— of each of the exhibitors.

That, that's, that's exactly right.

That's great.

Let's, let's switch back to, to customs for a second, because I don't think people think about this. Um, I'm— let's say I'm bringing into Germany $50,000 worth of monitors as demo equipment, right? And I just send it through FedEx. What happens?

Well, when— if you send it by a courier shipment, by FedEx, um, they will get it up to arrival journey.

Yeah.

But then they can't do the import because they need an active consignee for their shipment. And if you're sending it to the show, that's not an active consignee because the show is just there for a couple of days. You're just there at your booth. You're not an actual entity. who's there.

Right.

So what ends up having to happen is— I've had this happen many times over the years because people think that FedEx and UPS option is so much cheaper because they don't realize all the work that's involved once it gets to Germany.

Right.

Is they come in scrambling and going crazy because their shipment's been stuck for weeks and they can't get it out of customs. And then that's where I get involved and say, okay, these are the steps you need to take to— this is what the instructions you need to give to FedEx are so that they can get in touch with my partner locally. We'll take over the handling, we'll do the customs clearance, we'll bring it from the FedEx location to the fair site and bring it to the booth. And until that happens, FedEx will keep— or UPS, they'll keep going in circles because they're looking for someone in Germany who can help them with their customs clearance procedures, and that's not going to happen.

Right.

I mean, you can— you could send things FedEx or UPS, but it needs to be under the supervision of someone like myself who can tell you how to correctly do that. But again, that's still with my involvement because I'm the one that's going to be acting as the active consignee. And for FedEx and UPS shipments or anything courier-related, those are usually relegated to shipments that are almost to the size of where you could possibly hand carry them, but they're a little bit too much burden to hand carry.

Right.

Or as well with the lower value shipments, because once you get into the higher value items and things like that, Then it's usually a lot better to start researching your options for an air freight option, option, right, moving it over to the show. Because anything with high values or the weights start getting up pretty high, then it makes much more sense to just forget about the FedEx, UPS option and just focus directly on, okay, how can I organize this on a pallet and send it air freight over to the show?

Exactly. And then let's take that a little more complicated. Let's say I have $50,000 worth of demo units. I bring them to a show. And if the last day somebody offers to buy them from me and I sell them for cash, now what happens from a customs— from the German government's perspective? What's going on?

Well, it's not only the German customs perspective. It's pretty much any customs around the world. Some of them are a bit stricter than others. The way it's technically supposed to be done everywhere is if there's items that are brought in on temporary import, The shipper is ultimately responsible for the duty and VAT.

Right.

If that freight is not exported out of the country. So if there are any items that are sold during the show, whether it's cash, wire transfer, doesn't matter how it happens, whatever is sold is technically not allowed to leave the MESA or the trade fair until customs has been taken care of, because there's certain countries where They need to issue export documentation for the customs to transfer the goods to whatever country it's going to. That way the temporary import customs is closed for that exhibitor. And if it's where the exhibitor says, well, we'll do the permanent import here in this country, we'll pay the duty and VAT, or the buyer pays the duty and VAT, that can be done as well. But a lot of times if it's really high-value items, The freight is not allowed to leave the trade show until the duty and VAT is paid for locally or the correct customs documents are taken care of, which have to go with the cargo to whatever country it's going to. Because you can get into a lot of problems as an exhibitor if you do things that customs doesn't want to do. And that's why I say it's on a country-by-country basis.

Right.

Some countries are super strict and you have to bring the sold product back to the warehouse, do the customs work, and then release it. Some company— and some countries are a little different. If it's lower value, you might just say, yeah, this was worth $1,000, we sold it for cash, and they're like, okay, well, we'll bill you back the duty and VAT because customs isn't so strict. But on those instances—

Yeah.

As soon as you're even thinking about selling it and you've got a potential buyer, get in touch with your freight forwarder and say, okay, this is what we're thinking about doing. And you'll get your walking instructions from them for what you need to tell your buyer, whether or not the freight needs to go back to the warehouse or whatever steps need to be taken, because that needs to be communicated clearly to the buyer before any money is changed. That way they're okay with what needs to be done before the show's finished. Right.

And, and you don't necessarily want to annoy the German police now, do you?

You don't want to mess with customs. With, with anything within the supply chain, uh, uh, model, the only part of it that none of us can control is customs. We can switch our vendors any day we want to. We can go work with new truckers, new airlines, new ocean. But the one people you cannot switch is customs. And like you said, you never want to make them angry because they're like elephants and they will remember you the next show you come.

They will.

If you've got product. They will make you— they could make your life a little bit challenging.

Yep. Yeah. And I've, I've never had trouble with the German customs, but I once had a bunch of stuff stuck in Peru and they kept it for 6 months because our paperwork wasn't, wasn't right. So I missed everything I needed to do with it. I was there for training and it got stuck in customs for 6 months and there was nothing I could do. I couldn't hold my training. It was a disaster over bad paperwork.

That goes exactly to the reason it's important to work with a professional who knows about trade shows, because it's outside of UPS and FedEx shipments getting stuck. The situation like you just described in Peru, that happens all the time. I think if I remember correctly, um, and that your Peru situation I think got me involved with helping you at a former employer, uh, doing some of your demos because we used to work for trade shows. And then you're like, Clint, can you do demos as well? And I'm like, Zach, that is the exact same thing. It's just your private demo versus a public show. That's exactly right. For South American countries, for, for Spain, for example, if you don't have your paperwork approved and correct before it leaves the United States, you will have a situation like you just described where your freight won't get there on time. And that is another reason why it's so important to work with someone who understands trade shows and the entire process so that you leave nothing to risk for the investment that you have on the show.

That's exactly it. And as a sales manager, the person responsible for the sales process, you don't want to be wasting time arguing with customs. You don't want to be dealing with this. You want to be able to say, Clint, this is what I need. I need this, this box in this city at a certain time, and then we're going to take it out at a certain time. Tell me what to do, right? And then I, I can focus on the sales training, I can focus on the selling, I can focus on the management part, but I don't have to worry about talking to people from customs. I don't have to— you know, I, I never want to see the inside of a customs office again because it's just not my job to run around and talk to customs people. I'd rather have Clint or somebody like Clint be doing it for me, right?

Absolutely.

Great. Well, thanks a lot. I bet— I know I have lots of funny stories about people who didn't get their stuff in time at Medica. I'm sure, I'm sure you do too. Any, any funny stories you can share here?

Well, usually the exhibit— the, the situations I'm in is, uh, is exhibitors that are in frustration versus anything I could humor myself at.

Um, okay, well, you're very kind. You're very kind. I've Sometimes I find those frustrating situations humorous when it's happening to somebody else, because I'll see people and they'll, they'll be like, oh yeah, I have everything under control and I spent a tenth of what you spent because I found a cheaper system. And then 2 days later they're like, oh my God, nothing got here. I don't know what's gonna happen. I'm so screwed, you know? Yeah.

And for me, it's, it's not to that exact point. I don't say, um, that it's— that they're funny situations. And I never say I told you so, but when I see people who try to find situations because they think my pricing is not to what they want to invest, and then I see it go wrong, you know, inside, like we all do, if you're trying to help someone and they don't want to take your advice or use your services, it's like, well, if you would have worked with me, this wouldn't have happened.

This wouldn't have happened.

That's exactly it. In German, they have a word called Schadenfroh. Right, basically you're amused by other people having bad things happen to them. And I don't wish bad things on anyone, but I'm also extremely passionate in the service that I provide because I don't sell a product, I sell a service. And that service is what's in my head and what I provide to my customers. And it's decades— someone refuses that, I take that personally. Right.

And it's decades of getting to know the people and the, and the situation of The trade shows, you know, all of that, right? That's, that's your investment, decades of learning that stuff, building those relationships. That's what you sell, right?

Absolutely. It's the, it's the, the whole package, you know, giving people the peace of mind that they want whenever they're going to a show, that they've got someone who knows the right people to talk to, pull the strings when they need to be pulled, and they can focus on the show and let me do all the background. Great.

Well, thanks a lot, Clint. It's always a pleasure to talk to you, and I'm looking forward to seeing you in Düsseldorf in a couple of weeks. And, um, if anybody needs to get a hold of you, can you walk through how to contact you, please?

Sure, they can do, uh, one of two ways. I'm always available by phone. Um, that's my Las Vegas number at 702- 691-9062, or they can also reach me by email, which I have a pretty easy email thanks to my name. Um, it's my first initial and my last name, which would be card, which is card@twigroup.com.

Great.

Either one of those, I'm very available, and thanks to technology, it sits in my pocket to go with me wherever I am, so Great.

Thank you very much, Clint. Everybody, thank you very much for joining us for another episode of Conversations That Grow Global Sales. This month we are talking about getting ready for Medica. Uh, I know not everybody who listens is in the medical business, but this is my big show of the year, and you can take stuff we talk about this show and use it to relate to all other shows and different international business. Thanks a lot. Please, uh, keep joining us for our future episodes. Thanks a lot, Clint.

Thanks again, Zach.