Old school: the letter, the box of samples and the Gucci foulard

Trade fairs

We have cut down the number of fairs we take part in. The aim is to replace the physical presence of the fair with the physical presence of the showroom: when the trade fair starts, we invite clients to us, because for the cost of the fair I pay for a year of showroom and then sell all year round.

If you do take part, it is important to automate the collection of contacts: the details from the visitor's business card entered on a dedicated page, which triggers an instant thank-you email followed by an email sequence. Calls and visits after the fair become different, because these are warmed-up contacts.

Paper in B2B

When should printed material be used at the high end? In business-to-business, when I as a company sell to another company.

With prospects, this is what I do: when I go to the United States, after the first meeting with a client, as soon as I get back to Italy I send him a letter from my office by FedEx. A printed thank-you letter with my business card, nothing special. He is more likely to open a letter than an email.

With prospects and clients in negotiation: a physical box of samples on the buyer's desk. If we are negotiating with an important client, it makes sense for a box with my samples to reach him before the agreed visit.

The gift

With clients, a gift, whether for Christmas, a birthday or any other reason, always works. We give our important American clients Gucci, because it is an Italian brand: a wallet, a foulard for the ladies, a belt. It works because they don't expect it: they unwrap it, find Italian luxury, take a photo and send you a handwritten card.

An example. We had a problem with a client in New York during the shipping of her kitchen: some components were damaged while being moved from the container to the house, not through our fault, because the client hadn't wanted us to do the final delivery and installation. I still gave her a Gucci foulard for the trouble, and she was delighted. In a situation like that you don't make the client pay for the damaged parts: we remade them ourselves.

If she had woken up one morning, taken photos of the wrecked product and posted them saying “look, this is the RiFRA kitchen”, what would have happened? A disaster of epic proportions.

The American consumer pays you by credit card and trusts you, but if there is a problem he doesn't care whose fault it is: he wants the problem fixed even if you are in the right. In an ideal world installation by us would be compulsory, but I leave it optional so as not to lose the sale if the client digs his heels in. At that point it pays me to do what Rolex does: raise prices by 5% and put that 5% towards after-sales service. A client may buy the kitchen, everything is perfect and it costs me nothing. But there is always another one for whom I have to replace four cabinet doors in Salt Lake City, and shipping a pallet free by FedEx is not the height of efficiency. That is what the 5% is for.

Paper in B2C

Moving to business-to-consumer, I advise against giving printed material to customers who have never given the company money before. To a client who has already paid you, perhaps for an entry-level product, it is right to send the new catalogues in print. That is what Ferragamo does: if you are their client and spent €3,000 two years ago, every six months they send you the presentation of the new collection in a fine catalogue. BMW sends you its magazine too. But they do it because you are already a paying client.

In B2C the starting point is always online, because how do you reach new prospects with paper? You can't take every address in Milan and send a letter announcing the opening of a showroom. You advertise online, targeted and geolocated, then interaction and lead collection, marketing automation, free live events, remarketing, appointment, personalised project, follow-up, sale, testimonial.

The value ladder

The potential client approaches us for free, to start getting to know the brand, including in informal settings: open days, live cooking, a visit to the store. Then they move up to the design, which we do free at the second appointment in store. Free, but to get it you pay for the parking, the coffee, the journey: you are making an effort to come to me. The conversion rate for in-store design is 65%. And we don't let them take the project away: that way the client comes back for the second appointment. Some retailers in northern Europe even charge for the project; in Italy the time hasn't come yet, but we'll get there. The last rung of the ladder is delivery.

In B2B, on the other hand, you can start either online or offline. In some cases the trade fair works too, but the live event works better: we won a client who had us furnish two buildings in New York at an event in Phoenix, Arizona. The event cost us €4,000 in registration and brought us 25 appointments and, above all, one of the right kind of clients. To recap: the live event works, the trade fair can work if approached in the right way, and referral is the number one tool for acquiring new clients.

We did the events with the wood and furniture federation, twice in the United States: Miami and Phoenix. Miami went well, Phoenix better: the sales came from Arizona. Then the programme was stopped, and to take part you had to go through an English agency at prices that weren't worth it. Things that work, unfortunately, don't necessarily last. In the classroom I say it with a proverb that I soften here: the shy salesman stays at home. The live event is where you go to make yourself known in person, and in business-to-business people only buy from people they know.

From my book Direct from Milano and from my classroom courses. Figures and examples updated to September 2026.