Meeting with a Potential Customer

PART 1

DIALOGUE 1

Jack Evans is Sales Manager of Textafabrik, a firm which manu­factures textile machinery. He is talking to an American businessman, Mr. Johnston, who is visiting the factory.

JOHNSTON It was kind of you to show me round your factory, Mr. Evans. I enjoyed talking to your Production Manager, and to the shop-floor workers.

EVANS Good. Glad it was useful. I hope you found the demon­strations interesting. We wanted to give you an idea of our product range, and to show you the models in operation.

JOHNSTON I’m pleased you did that. I must say, I was impressed by the speed and quietness of your machines.

EVANS Speed's very important these days. If you’re going to sell in overseas markets, you've got to offer a product with high performance. No one can match us on that — or on quality and price for that matter.

JOHNSTONYes, it’s true, fast machines are important in our busi­ness. They give you an edge over the competition. Now, could you give me some information about your models? Those spool-winding and stitching machines interest me a lot.

EVANS Certainly.

JOHNSTON By the way, how fast was that high-speed stitcher — the last machine we saw?

EVANS That's our рх5 model. It's our latest product. We put it on the market about six months ago. It can stitch sixty metres of fabric per minute.

JOHNSTON No kidding!

EVANS Mm, it's fast all right. You know, the PX5 took a long time to develop. We ran up against a lot of technical prob­lems, so there were several design modifications. We got it right in the end, though.

JOHNSTON I'll say! Can you give me details of these machines? As soon as possible.

EVANS Right. I'll give you our brochures for the stitching and winding machines, if you like. They give the speci­fications of the models. You'll also need our price lists. They've been revised recently.

JOHNSTON Tell me, are the prices quoted firm to the end of the year?

EVANS Yes, I guarantee that.

JOHNSTON OK, let me have all the sales literature, and any other pub­licity material. I like to keep that sort of thing on file in my office. You never know when it'll come in useful

EVANS I'll do that. I'd also like to see some of your sales cata­logues, if I may. When we have a potential customer, we like to know a bit about his company, if possible.

JOHNSTON Right then, I’ll supply you with our sales documentation. And anything else you require. I hope we'll do a lot of business together in the future.

EVANS So do I. Maybe this could be the start of a long asso­ciation between our firms.

Answer the questions:

1. Who is taking part in this conversation?

2. Who did Mr. Johnston talk to?

3. What did he see at the factory?

4. What was his impression?

5. What gives firms the edge over the competition?

6. How can you characterise PX5 model?

7. What documentation did Mr. Evans promise to give?

8. What can you say about their price lists?

9. Why was Mr. Evans interested in Mr. Johnston’s sales catalogues?

10. Do you think it could be the start of a long association between their firms?

PART 2