If ever there was a reason to visit FIT…

…it is to choose residential doors. So says Danny Williams, who wants visitors to come and slam his Gerda doors on stand P31.

The organisers of the FIT Show have coined a few natty catch phrases over the past decade, but one of the most compelling is ‘see it, touch it, try it’, a perfect example of ‘does exactly what it says on the tin’.

And one with which Danny Williams, MD of trade and commercial fabricator and installer, Pioneer Trading, distributor of Gerda residential doors, wholeheartedly agrees.

“I am a salesman by instinct and one of the ‘White Gold’ generation,” says Danny with a glint in his eye. “What that means is that I believe face-to-face selling is the most powerful form of the craft – but so too is face to face buying,” he asserts.

In the rapidly evolving digital world, buying has changed dramatically, and society is quite used to choosing and purchasing even highly priced items such as cars, via the internet. Danny finds that a stretch too far, but understands that for some, even the purchase of something that expensive, has been made incredibly convenient.

“I am a petrol head so the process of driving and testing and comparing motors before I buy one, is part of the thrill,” says Danny. “But not everyone feels the same: for many, they just want to buy the motor and get the job done, with no enthusiasm for cars whatsoever. It’s a commodity. And dealing with car salesman can be a pain too.”

But Danny believes that so many more people are invested in their homes. Choosing the various elements, especially the way something looks and functions, is for many, far more important than a £20,000 car.

He says: “The vast majority of homeowners are very particular about choosing improvements and changes to their homes and many, with the help of the internet, will research every element to death.

“Improvements such as kitchens, bathrooms and especially doors and windows, have always been something that they take particular interest in,” explains Danny. “Remember the old kitchen ads about the drawers silently sliding? Well I maintain that the feel of how a window and especially a sliding or residential door, opens and closes and locks…the touch of the surfaces and especially the weight, can win or lose a sale, without a word from any sales person.”

And that, insists Danny, is why anyone selling windows and doors needs to go to the FIT Show. “Before you sell windows and doors to anyone, you must be sold yourself,” says Danny. “You need to go around and literally see, touch and try everything, to experience what your customers will be doing when they are making their choice – when they come to you in fact. How can you possibly know that you are selling the best products, ones that tick every one of your customers’ boxes, if you haven’t made a worthwhile comparison yourself?”

That is why, adds Danny, he has put his money where his mouth is, with a stand at FIT Show where he will be showing the Gerda residential doors, for which he has an exclusive partnership to distribute.

“I have always believed that a good show is the perfect place to show something properly and FIT has always worked for me. With resi doors it is crucial that they are tried out, manhandled, pushed shoved, slammed – because most composite doors are actually very similar on paper.

“Gerda doors win this physical comparison hands down,” says Danny, now in his stride towards enforcing his point. “They are fully engineered, with steel or aluminium facings, aluminium sub-frames and with leaf thicknesses between 60mm and 88mm, they are – and importantly they feel – more robust than any conventional door possibly can feel. But for very little more than a conventional door. Your customers will not be able to resists them. Just like me, when I first tried them.”

Of course, visitors to the FIT Show will have a similar opportunity to see, touch and try every other door and product on show, from three halls full of exhibitors: “I’ll take my chances with that,” says Danny, with a smile.