PCA Magazine Show Issue 2021

32 PCA The Magazine | SHOW 2021 PREMIUMCIGARS.ORG She’ll have a general idea for a budget, but she also has a built-in system that seems to be foolproof. “Well, my husband comes with me to the show, and Mr. Owens has a mustache, and Chief, we call himChief because he’s a fire chief in Atlanta, when I see his mustache start twitching, I know he’s getting nervous that Mrs. Owens is spending too much,” she says. “We have a budget, but once you get there and start trying cigars and building relationships, especially with the boutiques, if they’re flexible with pricing, we’ll always consider it even if the mustache is twitching.” For Silverman, however, who works on a larger scale, analyzing and maximizing the deals is essential to his business operation. So while he doesn’t necessarily approach a show with a specific number in mind, he’s willing to spend more if the overall savings benefit his bottom line. He says: “I normally buy about three months’ worth of projected sales. So my goal is to try to maximize the deals with that in mind. So when somebody offers different levels, different tiers, my goal is to analyze what I feel I’m capable of selling. So say the maximum deal from a vendor was 25 percent off if you buy $20,000 of product. Well, if it would take me six months to sell $20,000 of products, I’m not going to take advantage of it because it’s too much for me to have on hand.” To organize this strategy, Silverman creates a spreadsheet listing all his vendors, largest to smallest in sales. He then begins booking appointments for the show, starting with the largest and working his way down so that he’s visiting the largest vendors first. This way, working with his biggest supplies first allows him to take advantage of their biggest sale offers. Hutson also works on a tiered system, analyzing her main lines first and working down from there. “We’ll run through our go-to list and ask, ‘If a rep came in tomorrow, what would we order?’ We have all of that on the books first and then when the deals come in, we increase from there. So if they have something that might, say, double or triple our normal order, or if they have a new cigar coming in that we don’t have yet we work up to those points. “On the other hand, if the deal is that you have to spend eight times what we would spend on any other company, then we don’t do it. We’ll go in and we make our regular order and we’re fine. But for a lot of them, it’s a great chance for us, especially the ones who will do the deals on either their new lines, or if you try this you can have a discount on your regular cigars. That’s how we’ve brought in a number of new lines from established places. “Then on the next tier, if it’s a completely new line or a new cigar company, we have a standard order of at least three facings but no more than nine, and we’re always looking for the right deals there as well.” SERENDIPITY & NOTE TAKING Time is always a factor at trade shows. To do two things at once is to do neither, wrote an Ancient Roman writer, and often times the pace and pressure of the show can create paralysis of where to begin—one feels pulled in too many directions. Appointments, of course, are key to managing your time, but remembering all that was said, everyone you met, and what your impressions were can often become jumbled and lost after you return home. Many years ago, Hutson found this to be frustrating as she tried to distinguish what one vendor said or promised over another. A big proponent of talking to as many people as possible during “We have a budget, but once you get there and start trying cigars and building relationships, especially with the boutiques, if they’re flexible with pricing, we’ll always consider it even if the mustache is twitching.” N A V I G A T I N G T H E S H O W PCA 2 0 2 1