"Mount Faulkner Trading Company?" Shane said, looking around as he glanced at his associates to check if anyone had ever heard of this firm, however, it seemed that just like him everyone else in the room were clueless as well.
Being a top trading company, the White Tiger Group kept tabs on every promising competitor and often ruthlessly stole their top products to drive them out of business.
Shane himself spent a lot of his day studying the business models of many small enterprises to learn and expand his knowledge which was why he knew every small and medium player in the industry, however, he had never heard of the Mount Faulkner Trading Company before today, which secretly frustrated him ever so slightly.
This anonymity added a layer of mystery around Leo, as without any background for Shane to dig up, he had no idea what he should expect when dealing with Leo or what his bottom line could be, which made structuring a favorable deal difficult.
"Alright, Gentlemen, please clear the desk so that Mr.Leo here can start displaying his amazing products" Shane said, as his underlings immediately began clearing the table off unnecessary paperwork and small products that they were in the middle of discussing, as they provided Leo with ample space to display his products.
With all eyes being towards him, Leo felt slightly nervous while displaying the first product, as he took out a vial of poison from his inventory and placed it on the table.
"Let me introduce the first of my products, The Green Poison" Leo said, as he pointed towards the Green Vial.
Almost immediately, he could see the faces of many executives dropping to a frown, as it seemed like they were not interested in buying a new poison formula.
"This is not a poison for humans. It's a poison for insects that eat crops" Leo began, as his words caused Shane's eyes to brighten with interest.
In the world of Terra Nova, the concept of insecticides wasn't as well adopted in farming as on Earth and while Leo and Ben were brainstorming about possible uses of herbal poisons, Leo realized that the weakest poison in their poison list could double up as an insecticide when diluted enough, which was why he decided to market it as a poison for insects.
"The ingredients of this poison are completely herbal with no animal extracts present.
It is high in nitrogen content and can double up as a fertilizer when sprayed on plants, however, when ingested by insects it will work as a lethal poison which will protect the crops from being destroyed by pests.
It can not only improve total yield, but also improve yield quality and since it's a water soluble poison, a single vial can be mixed with about 200 liters of water, which is enough to spray 20 acres of farmland.
One bottle costs only 50 silver coins to produce and can be sold for 1 gold coin.
An average farmer will need 3-4 of these vials for every crop cycle, as they will need to spray their crops with this poison every 7-14 days.
In my understanding this product solves a very important problem in the farming industry and will sell nicely, but I guess you guys are the experts on this one" Leo said, as he felt the gazes towards him soften after his first product pitch.
Picking up the vial, Shane saw the poison inside against the reflection of light and then passed it around to his colleagues.
For a while the executives in the room talked softly amongst each other and then made notes, before passing their notes to Shane who read it all and began scratching his chin.
For a good ten minutes, Leo was made to sit in crushing silence as nobody interacted with him even slightly, until Shane finally spoke up.
"This product is good, of course we will need to verify its effectiveness first. But if it works as you say it does then we are willing to launch it in our stores.
If you want to sell the formula of the product outright, I will be more than happy to pay a fair price for it.
If not, we can act as your distributors and sell the product for you, but of course we will need a very large batch and a regular supply chain" Shane said, as he tried to probe whether or not Leo had the capital to foot the inventory of making this product in bulk, however, Leo simply nodded to his words and did not pick up the hidden test behind his wordings.
"Alright, let me show the second product then" Leo said, as he pulled out a second vial of poison from his inventory, causing Shane to frown internally.
Up till now, Shane couldn't figure out whether Leo was a really smart merchant or a really dumb one, as he kept dodging Shane's questions very smoothly as if he did not pick up on them at all.
This time as Leo brought out a vial of poison, the other executive's did not frown immediately as learning from their past experience they decided to let Leo speak about the benefits of his poison first before judging whether or not it was useless.
"Behold… my second product, the purple poison" Leo said, as he pointed towards the purple poison vial that he placed on the table.
In terms of naming his products, Leo had a very simple taste as he did not complicate the naming process at all.
Just naming the poisons by the color of the vial, he kept things as simple as possible.
"This poison is in my opinion a better alternative to your product, the 'Wolf Slayer Poison'.
Not only is it ten times as effective, which will be a big boost to adventurers and mercenaries who regularly buy that product, it's also 30% cheaper to produce and has ingredients that are easily available to purchase in bulk.
Because it's cheaper to produce, better in quality and faster to manufacture. I think this product can replace the 'Wolf Slayer Poison' in your stores as a superior alternative" Leo said, as listening to his words many executives now began to sweat.
While Leo wasn't aware about the basics of business, the others present in this room were.
The number one reason behind why adventurers and mercenaries frequented their stores was because they needed to buy the 'Wolf Slayer Poison' on a regular basis.
However, while they were inside the store they often ended up buying additional items on display which drove up sales.
If Leo went with this product to a competitor and news about a cheaper and superior alternative to the 'Wolf Slayer Poison' floated in the market, the loss incurred by the White Tiger Group would be huge.
"It's not that I'm questioning your claims, young man, but please understand that I can't trust your words until it has been independently verified by my team.
If whatever you say is true, then your product is without a doubt a better mouse trap and I'm willing to buy it.
However, I won't discuss price until everything is verified" Shane said calmly, as he did not let Leo feel that he had been startled by his proposal at all.