The best reason to export a product or service is to globalize your company and prosper in the millennium. It can happen to you, but you’ll probably need to develop a whole new set of business attitudes and assumptions. If you want to achieve success with your export sales efforts, check if you are currently making the following ten mistakes for global sales failure:
1. “I have all kinds of products to offer.”
All I need to hear is what my customer wants.” A businessman interested in exporting auto parts to the Orient told me that he had the resources to provide literally any car product a customer wanted. I said, “That kind of Thought doesn’t work.” He backed off, but insisted, “You don’t understand. My company works with hundreds of providers. If your customer wants bearings, we can get them for you.” I replied, “You don’t get it. Customers are not supposed to guide us. We’re supposed to lead the customers!” This clearly came as a big surprise to him, and maybe to you too, but this is the kind of thinking that succeeds.
Focus and guide your customer like never before. Ask them to beg for your package of clear product or service ideas. Take them where they didn’t even know they could go in terms of satisfaction, increased sales and profitability.
2. “The price of my product is really very competitive.”
Customers from the Middle East and other South African countries pay attention to packaging first, then quality, and price last. Set your priorities accordingly. Create a package design or service concept that speaks for itself and a quality that leaves no room for comparison with the competition. From there, it’s just a matter of details to close a sale.
3. “Looks like a good foreign track. Let’s answer!”
I knew of a small company that occasionally received international inquiries. They determined the importance of inquiries by the style of their corporate letterhead. Bright four-color graphics received the most attention. Simple designed stationery was literally thrown out. You can imagine the professional consequences of this willingness to be impressed by snappy presentations at the expense of substance. Little did they know that most large, sophisticated and extremely busy companies usually communicate on whatever piece of paper they have at the time, usually using no more than about ten words. Flash is out, making things happen is in.
4. “Let’s try to export our product/service to various foreign markets.”
Wrong! Choose a product/service and choose a market. So stick to that. You need to put on your mental blinders and ignore distractions, channel your energies and define the territory you are going to play on. It takes a lot of discipline to resist the scattershot approach to doing business and stay focused, but after a while the discipline becomes automatic. Focus, focus, focus. Persist, persist, persist.
5. “I am very interested in exporting my products but I am not going to make any changes to it”.
You must adapt your product to meet customer needs. Forcing a customer to buy what he has available with little or no willingness on his part to make improvements is not only insensitive but downright hostile. Marketing has come a long way since the days of Henry Ford who said, “The customer can have a car painted any color he wants, as long as it’s black.”
6. “Let’s respond to customer interest and then wait a couple of weeks to follow up.”
Put yourself in the customer’s shoes. Would you like to be treated that way? Service brings satisfaction, and satisfaction brings trial orders followed by repeat orders. Anything less than prompt and consistent service will only waste your time and your prospect’s!
7. “I know my product/service works well here in India, so I’m sure it will find its way abroad.”
The fact that your product/service is needed here in India does not in any way indicate that it will be welcomed in a foreign country. You should always check with your prospective client (let them review it free of charge) or a local foreign consulate to see if they can help you determine if their service makes sense for your host country.
8. “I can’t afford a trip to visit my clients. Also, I don’t know how to get around.”
You can’t afford not to meet potential clients because without face-to-face contact, there will be no business. Of course, there is no need to travel to foreign countries until you partner with at least one importer/buyer in the respective country. Once you are associated with the client, ask if you can visit them and if they would be so kind as to help you on your first visit. You will be surprised how friendly the people are and how enthusiastically they welcome the opportunity to show you around their homeland! Customers matter, I can’t say that enough. The personal meeting commitment is the best way to demonstrate your professionalism.
9. “We appointed an exclusive agent, but we did not get any sales.”
When exporting a product, it is wise practice to ask a distributor what they expect to sell in the first year. Then, request that their first order be 20% of that advance volume, prepaid, allowing them the opportunity for exclusivity. You should expect the balance of projected sales to be ordered throughout the rest of the year (preferably in quarterly periods), with each subsequent order at least the size of the first. This allows you to monitor and exercise good control over the distributor’s sales.
10. “When our domestic sales go down, that’s when we have to work hard to get foreign sales.”
Being global is a commitment, not something you work on one day and forget about the next. It’s an investment in your company’s future that deserves your continued attention, no matter how well it’s doing nationally. If you have patience and perseverance, your chances of success will be excellent.
If you’re open to changing the way you think about global marketing, you’re off to a good start. Now you are ready to find success in export markets.
