I recently had a booth at the Santa Barbara Home and Garden Show. I did my homework before I went and had a sheet that compared ECOsmarte Water to the 4 other water companies that were attending the show. This was a successful technique, as potential customers basically had a cheat sheet of sorts to question the other water companies. ECOsmarte had pretty much no competition in the environmentally friendly category, which is a great thing in this area, as many people are very environmentally conscious. The show was a good one and I did well.
That show was just a month ago, and now we are coming up to Earth Day, which is a very big deal in California, even more so in the areas I concentrate on - Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties. I will have a booth at 3 events - Earth Day at Oak Grove School in Ojai, Earth Day event in Ventura and Earth Day in Santa Barbara as well. The coordinator of the Ventura event called me yesterday to confirm he received my registration. He then described to me a phone call he had received that morning.
A man called the coordinator and asked if there were any water companies that were going to have a booth at the event. He was a bit "cagey" when questioned and was not clear whether he was an individual who wanted to attend the event or a vendor wanting a booth. The coordinator said yes, ECOsmarte Water was going to be there, he had just received the registration. The coordinator said that as soon as he mentioned the name of my business, the phone call ended very quickly after that - the caller basically saying okay thanks and bye. The call felt strange and odd to him.
I told the coordinator that I suspected the man who called was from one of the other water companies (likely at the Santa Barbara show) and knew he could not compete with ECOsmarte in the environmental arena, so was checking out the competition before committing to a booth to see if I was going to be there.
I wouldn't miss it for the World.
