"This went better than I expected," "I guess I didn't realize what we had here," and "Next year we're going to bring more people" were a few of the comments heard from the larger local business/industry/organizations at the “Owensboro Buys It!” expo held October 15th at the Hines Center.
Nearly 80 small business Chamber members and 30 larger local business/industry/organizations took part in the event, which had a goal of connecting local sellers and buyers of products and services. The program was a new initiative of the Chamber’s six-year-old “Owensboro Has It!” buy-local campaign.
“It went very well,” said Greg Garrard of Great Harvest Bread Co. “I met with two large companies that didn’t know about our box lunches and hopefully they’ll be ordering from us.”
“The process of developing my sales pitch and practicing it at Chamber events while getting to know other members was very positive,” said Paul Haire of Roark, Oldham, Haire & Augenstein Wealth Management Group. “The expo itself was ‘icing on the cake’ and I’ll be back next year.”
All Chamber members were invited to participate in “Owensboro Buys It!” First, however, they had to qualify by learning their own two-minute “elevator pitch” at a Chamber Lunch/Learn and then attending at least two Chamber Make a Business Connections to practice.
“We wanted sellers to take the event seriously and learn a sales tool they can use in many situations,” explained Chamber President Jody Wassmer. “Plus, we wanted the larger business representatives to know they would be hearing professional pitches.”
“I did well making new contacts and one of the larger firms is coming to visit my shop to see if we can do business,” said Ray Middleton of On Time Fab. “The important thing for me is to get names and phone numbers of the specific person I need to talk with and that’s what happened at the expo.”
According to Wassmer, the Chamber is surveying both the buyers and sellers at the expo to determine what they liked and would like to see improved for next year’s event. The Chamber also hopes to quantify the sales results that resulted from the event.
Nearly 80 small business Chamber members and 30 larger local business/industry/organizations took part in the event, which had a goal of connecting local sellers and buyers of products and services. The program was a new initiative of the Chamber’s six-year-old “Owensboro Has It!” buy-local campaign.
“The process of developing my sales pitch and practicing it at Chamber events while getting to know other members was very positive,” said Paul Haire of Roark, Oldham, Haire & Augenstein Wealth Management Group. “The expo itself was ‘icing on the cake’ and I’ll be back next year.”
“I did well making new contacts and one of the larger firms is coming to visit my shop to see if we can do business,” said Ray Middleton of On Time Fab. “The important thing for me is to get names and phone numbers of the specific person I need to talk with and that’s what happened at the expo.”
