Interview of Lewis Wiggins from Smitma BV

The Smitma story begins back in the 60’s, where former owner Wim Smits’ passion for trading and repairing heavy machinery started ...

Lewis, could you tell us the history of Smitma BV?

The Smitma story begins back in the 60’s, where former owner Wim Smits’ passion for trading and repairing heavy machinery started in the back of a barn in Lierop, the Netherlands.

Wim’s unparalleled passion for heavy equipment helped the business flourish throughout the years.

60 years later, with Wim’s two sons John and Mark Smits running the company and international presence in more than 30 countries, Smitma b.v. is now one of the leading suppliers of earthmoving machinery, road equipment and attachments.

What is your role in the organization?

My focus within the organization is online marketing. I think our key challenges for the upcoming years in terms of marketing are to localize our marketing efforts, expand our company’s reach, engage more with our followers and subscribers and deliver a tailored experience. This is where I come into play. 

What is your company’s specialty and what is your added-value?

Smitma specializes in high quality, premium brand heavy machines and attachments. We have a carefully selected range of brands and machinery types which we know everything about.

From arrival to departure, every machine is carefully inspected from A - Z. We add value throughout the entire process by restoring and offering our equipment in the best possible condition with a dedicated team of experts. No one likes unpleasant surprises and that’s why we make sure that what you see is what you really get.

What do you bring to the market and how can you help customers?

We have about 60 years of experience in offering durable, high-quality heavy equipment to the market. We know all the ins and outs of our equipment, but believe that it is very important to understand what drives a customer to search for a specific type of machine. Is it really the best solution to their business needs?

This is where our team can help. By engaging with the customers and understanding the question behind the question our team will be able to give the best recommendations, even when we are not able to fulfill the needs.

We believe that our honesty is one of the reasons customers buy equipment at Smitma.

Dealing with international clients, how important is it to give them a safe buying experience today?

Trust and honesty are key in our business. Especially when you sell valuable equipment overseas. By being fully transparent in your business, providing as much details as possible and being open to work with a trusted third party are in our opinion important factors that affect the buyer’s experience positively.

We’ve been an established brand in the market since the ‘60’s and I’m certain that it plays a vital role in a customer’s decision making process. 

How do you build trusting relationships between your company and buyers?

Customers, especially overseas, are not always in a position to visit our location in Venlo. Customers that engage with our company for the first time often desire much more detailed information than returning customers, which we of course understand. This is why we believe that providing the best (digital) customer experience is so important.

Additionally, by being fully transparent along the way and delivering to promise are key in building a valuable relationship with the customer. 

Due to the current Covid situation that we are all facing, business transactions were and still are a bit slow and trade shows have been mostly cancelled. How did you handle the situation?

When the dynamics of the market change the organization has to be able to adapt.

Last year when it all started we were a bit worried which impact Covid would have on the market and our business. This is why we decided to wait with purchasing new equipment. We’ve had a few difficult months but luckily we were able to recover quickly.

For us, it turned out to be critical to focus on optimizing the online customer experience. People were not allowed to travel, so it was important for us to be able to convince our clients from a distance. As a result, this helped us to build better and more sustainable relationships with our customers.