CHARLOTTETOWN – Oct. 4, 2022 – Robert Maddix, now getting ready for his 12th sales mission to Quebec, is still extremely impressed with the wide range of products and services that French-speaking and bilingual Prince Edward Island businesses are ready to « export » to other provinces.

For the fall 2022 mission, he has assembled eight companies from across the Island that will try selling, in fairly large quantities, everything from skin care products to sweet potatoes, certified lumber to dog food, newspapers to masks to prevent the transmission of Covid-19, and vinyl records to online language training.

Participating businesses include Vital Health Supplies of Summerside, Chow Time Pet Foods of Charlottetown, Arsenault Family Lumber of St. Chrysostome, Kaneshii Vinyl Press of Charlottetown, Jaxon Naturals Healthy Living of Abram-Village, Westech Agriculture Ltd. of Alberton, La Voix Acadienne of Summerside and La Frenchouse of Charlottetown.

GREAT DISCOVERIES

Maddix, who coordinates these bi-annual missions for RDÉE Prince Edward Island, was pleased to discover these businesses and specially to see their passion as they prepare for the mission. Three of these companies have already participated in RDÉE missions and want to return to Quebec to revisit certain clients or explore other potential buyers while the other five are participating for a very first time. Six of the vendors will travel to the Montreal area in person during the first week of November while the other two prefer to participate virtually during the second week of November.

« In all, we anticipate a combined total of 120 meetings with potential buyers. All of these appointments were set up by Clientis, the consulting firm that we hire every year to do all the matchmaking work since they know their Quebec market very well, » explains the coordinator. « The consultants first met with each of our sellers to know specifically what they have to sell and offered them targeted training sessions to help them prepare their sales pitch. »

One of the meetings for each of the Island sellers going will be over supper at a local restaurant. Each seller will have a meal with a very high potential buyer; this approach aims at giving both parties the chance to know each other better and to build a relationship of trust, adds Maddix.

Moreover, Clientis will have meetings with the Island salesmen each morning of the mission to orient them on the schedule of the day and each evening to review their results and to adjust approaches if necessary.

« To date, our missions have helped generate millions of dollars in sales for our Island sellers. Some of our vendors have had to increase their production to meet this demand; many have had to hire additional employees and sometimes even expand their production space, » says Maddix. « We hope this great trend will continue with our fall mission. »

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PHOTO 1: Janine and Janelle Arsenault, co-owners of Arsenault Family Lumber in St. Chrysostome, will be participating in the Quebec sales mission in early November. (Photo: La Voie de l’emploi)

PHOTO 2: Nathaly Anisabelle of La Frenchouse Language Training Institute in Charlottetown will be trying to sell her training services online during the Quebec sales mission.

 

For more information, please contact:
Robert Maddix
Sales Mission Coordinator
RDÉE Prince Edward Island
(902) 314-1714
robert@rdeeipe.org