Frank Stampa, FoxBase sales manager at NordBau 2023: "Digitizing everything is a clear mistake"

LECTURA is currently at the NordBau 2023 trade fair reporting on news from the world of construction machinery. Listen to our live report from the Start up Stage 2023, this time with Frank Stampa from FoxBase about the show, industry trends and the company itself.

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Aleksandra Jastrzab: Mr. Stampa, as a start-up company, what do you think about trade fairs, do you prefer to meet your customers in person or virtually?

Frank Stampa: We like to be on site at trade fairs when we are exhibiting or going to trade fairs. The follow ups from the leads that we make at a trade show, of course we do those virtually first. But personally, I'm also always a fan of the personal level, so that we can have a cool drink together after successful contract negotiations. I don't think purely virtual, purely digital is good, but it saves an incredible amount of time and money.

AJ: What significance can the use of AI have in the construction industry?

FS: Yes, AI is a big word. So, we ourselves with our software solution also have an AI approach that goes over an expert knowledge to the machines. The first point is always increasing efficiency because you save a lot of time. Consulting, for example, as we do with Knauf, which is now in 35 countries, they don't use our software just because they like it, but because we really have the AI approach, which brings about a lot of efficiencies and frees up resources. So, AI, as I said, big word - I think it's good up to a certain point. I also think that not everything that can be digitized should be.

AJ: What are the main benefits of digitizing B2B sales?

FS: The first thing that always comes to mind is increasing efficiency. Digitization can have a broad range, we usually have the aspect of digitization in procurement, in consulting/product consulting, the way we do it, it is of course a big cost block that can be eliminated there, because we free up time. We hand over 100% qualified leads to our customers, that is, to our customers' sales team, which means the initial consultation, the initial markup can be handled by our software. That's where digitization makes sense, but as I just said, in my opinion, people are going a bit crazy right now and trying to digitize everything, which to me is a very clear mistake. Optimizing processes is always good, conserving resources - always great. But digitizing your entire life is not the right thing to do, not even in B2B sales. Human contact is and remains the most important selling point, emotions sell. The products are usually good - it's the people who sell them. But it also helps us.

AJ: What would you like to achieve at NordBau 2023?

FS: My goal for NordBau when we drove up was to acquire around 50 leads, in other words, to have conversations with new customers. My personal goal is to also pull about two new customers out of NordBau. Let's see, today was a quiet day, I hope tomorrow will be better. 

AJ: Thank you very much for talking to us today.

FS: You're welcome.