tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-42582267393539243062024-02-19T23:45:28.447+00:00Strong & Herd LLP Blog - Import / Export ServicesStrong & Herd LLP Blog - Import / Export ServicesKick Interactivehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17561033339983044994noreply@blogger.comBlogger146125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4258226739353924306.post-70393824632760895892015-02-11T15:53:00.002+00:002015-02-11T15:53:38.350+00:00The Enquiry – Evaluating the Opportunity the Kipling Way<div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">However much we try to plan our
business, there are inevitably times when events take us in an unexpected
direction. This is especially true of international trade, and particularly
in an age of widely accessible digital communication.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Even the most modest business tends
to have a global shop window these days. It’s called a website, and it makes
the message that the company chooses to share accessible almost anywhere in
the world, presenting us with opportunities as well as potentially dangerous
diversions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Naturally, we all get hit by what
has become known as ‘spam’, consisting of a mixture of disguised advertising,
confidence tricksters and dangerous, malicious messages that either seek to
capture people’s personal details or plant a virus on the recipient’s
computer. We also need to avoid the ‘get rich quick’ messages about sharing
bank overpayments and similar tall stories. It’s quite frightening to read
about how many apparently intelligent business leaders are taken in each year
by such scams, with predictably unfortunate consequences.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">But it would be a mistake to dismiss
all unsolicited enquiries. Any business with aspirations to build
international trade needs to develop in a planned and controlled way, but
every plan needs to have sufficient flexibility to allow for surprises. In many cases, a business can be taken by
surprise by a genuine business opportunity in a market they were not
targeting, and it would be a mistake to dismiss such chances out of hand.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">It shouldn’t take too long to
evaluate most of these enquiries. The poet and writer Rudyard Kipling had a
simple rule that can be our watchword:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="top"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">I
have six honest serving men<br />
They taught me all I knew<br />
I call them What and Where and When<br />
And How and Why and Who<o:p></o:p></span></i></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Instead
of deleting unsolicited mail unread, it might be worth taking a moment to
apply Kipling’s method to see if there are any hidden pearls.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">What? <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">What
does the enquirer want? We are really looking for specifics here. The
enquiry is unlikely to be serious unless we can see straight away that the
enquirer knows about the products or services we offer, and demonstrates
some genuine knowledge about them and their application. If the enquiry
seems to demonstrate a genuine interest in what we have to sell, we can
move to the next question.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Where?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">It
should be easy to decipher the place where the enquiry has come from. Be
wary of anything where the sender’s email address doesn’t seem to originate
in the country they claim to come from. The address might also lead to a
website domain that can identify the enquirer’s business or organisation.
But don’t be too perturbed if the email address turns out to be owned by an
internet service provider such as Yahoo or Hotmail. In many countries,
smaller businesses still tend to favour such addresses and it doesn’t
necessarily mean that the enquiry is not from a bona fide business.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">If
we have a distributor or other representative in the enquiry’s country, our
work is probably done now. We can see if it looks genuine, so we can hand
it over to our contact in the market and let them take it from there.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">If
we have no representation in the enquirer’s country, we need to move to the
next stage, and at this point we digress a little from Kipling’s list…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Who?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">It
seems a genuine enough enquiry, it’s from a place where we don’t currently
have any distribution agreement, so the next thing we want to know is who
is asking? Most serious enquiries will carry an introduction, telling us
the individual’s name and the organisation they work for. They will be very
likely to have included their website address (possibly at the end of the
message) or it will be possible to find it from the email address. Check out
who they claim to be. There’s a good chance they already sell related
products to the sort of customers who would buy from us, or perhaps they
are a potential end user. Check their website to look for things that are
familiar, such as competitor’s products, or applications that are directly
relevant to what we sell. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Then
take a little time to see if they really are who they claim to be. If they
are a distributor for a supplier we know, check out the supplier’s website
and see if they are listed as a distributor. Search the web to see what we
can find out about them. Do they appear in any customer review websites?
Crucially, use a facility such as google earth to take a look at the
address they have given. Is it a business address, or are we dealing with
someone operating from their home? Is the given address genuine? It’s
possible to take this much further, by looking for financial information
about the company but at this stage we may consider we have enough
information to decide if the enquiry is a genuine opportunity.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><br /></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">What? (Part Two)<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Take
care to understand exactly what the enquirer is asking for, bearing in mind
the potential for confusion that language barriers may cause. Has the
enquirer understood what we do? Is it purely a request for information, do
they want to make a purchase or are they seeking to evaluate our products,
perhaps to compare with a current supplier? It’s important to come back to
this now, because experience tells me that in my efforts to ascertain who
they are, I may sometimes have lost sight of what they were actually asking
about.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">How?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Can
we feasibly meet the request? If it’s a purchase enquiry, are there any
barriers to trading with this country? Can we deliver? What Incoterms,
prices, payment and delivery terms would we be offering?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The
process should be quick and simple to complete. And we should not be
deterred if we have to tell the enquirer we cannot supply. Genuine
enquiries should receive a prompt and courteous reply, informing the
enquirer who we are, what we do and what our answer is. No genuine enquiry
should ever be ignored. Not only is it good manners to respond, but
particularly in the case of markets where we don’t yet have any business,
we can never tell where even a casual enquiry might eventually take us. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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S+H LLPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08820601488346441701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4258226739353924306.post-75222062295980260972014-02-07T14:12:00.000+00:002014-02-07T14:12:06.194+00:00TALES FROM THE ROAD 51 – GUT FEELING IS NOT A MYTH<div class="MsoNormal">
Few of us in our working lives will not have listened to sales
people banging on about their ‘gut feeling’, that feeling of certainty from
within, and we have all seen the results of the ‘gut feel ‘ both gone good and
gone bad. However, it isn’t a matter of luck, but an instinct can be very
strong and remarkably accurate, stronger and more reliable with years of
experience. <o:p></o:p></div>
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This account of the recent appointment of a Canadian
distributor for one of our clients is based on a very strong gut feeling I had,
and four months on I think that feeling is being borne out. My first contact
with the company followed an OMIS (Overseas Market Introduction Service) report
commissioned by my client with UK Trade & Investment, Toronto, during the
summer. The report provided a list of
about 20 potential contacts, with about half having expressed immediate
interest. Having seen large numbers of such reports over the years, and
commissioned several in my own working life from the days when they were called
Tailored Market Information Reports (remember the TMIR?), I generally work on
the rule of thumb that it is often the companies who are too busy to show
interest who are actually the ones you need to speak to.<o:p></o:p></div>
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My client’s new distributor was on the ‘Awaiting Response’ list,
and after several unsuccessful attempts by the Commercial Officer to engage
with them, I decided it was time for a direct approach and after a brief email
exchange arranged to speak with them by telephone. It’s often the best way, and
there were a couple of other pointers that led me to that decision: first they
already successfully represented another UK company who is known to me; second
they operated in a business area that was specific to my client’s requirement.
There is also the simple point that for a company who has never heard of you to
consider representing your products, they will want to know more about what the
product can do than can properly be explained by an intermediary. They are
likely to want to talk with someone with direct technical knowledge, experience
of selling to certain customer profiles, to learn about new opportunities
outside their normal business reach, and to have some knowledge of their
customers’ businesses. Talking the same language, if you like.<o:p></o:p></div>
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It is also very easy in this age of the Internet and Social
Media to communicate without actually talking, when a telephone conversation is
both the best, and often the preferred way, through which our customers like to
be approached. The warmth of a human voice, and the knowledge and experience
that can support its words, has far more powerful an impact than a series of
emails, chat messages, or social media postings. The OMIS did its job. It was
for me and my client to make the next moves, and we contacted each of the
companies on the list, speaking directly to a number of them via phone or video
link, before shortlisting those we needed to know more about. <o:p></o:p></div>
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But really, in my own mind the decision was almost made
after my first conversation with the distributor. Considering that they had
been playing ‘hard to get’, it would normally have seemed strange for them then
to ask for an exclusive deal for the whole of Canada. This sent the signal that
they were not only interested, but that they recognised the potential for the
new products in their market sector. After
I explained that exclusivity had to be earned through performance their
interest remained, and we eventually agreed a way forward. My client had no
representation at all in Canada up to that point, and after a positive
conversation it was agreed that we would ring fence the Province of Ontario for
the new distributor to show what they could achieve over the following 12
months. At no point during our discussions did I doubt my initial gut feeling,
and I was pleased that we had achieved an initial good result. <o:p></o:p></div>
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TORONTO AT DAWN APPROACHING CHRISTMAS - 2<sup>ND</sup>
DECEMBER 2013<o:p></o:p></div>
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Note the word ‘initial’! I had facilitated the appointment
of a distributor in an overseas country without actually having met them,
without having seen their offices, without having met their customers, and
without them having any kind of online presence other than email. Had my client
taken that route I would probably have told them off for being rash! However,
before I recommended the appointment I had spoken to their other UK principal
and that gave me the confidence to move forward. I had done something similar
with a company in Hong Kong for the same client some 18 months previously, and
that has proven to be a good decision.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The importance of all selling is in the follow-up, and it
was agreed that I should combine a visit to a major industry exhibition in
Toronto in December with a few days out and about with the new distributor.
They did not disappoint. In fact they car exceeded even the expectations that I
had, introducing me at a high level to some of the best architectural and
design practises in and around Toronto, with several agreeing to specify my
client’s products before I returned to the UK.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The distributor has since placed a stock order with my
client which was put on a ship during the Christmas holidays. The interest that
both their direct efforts in the market, and my support for them in meeting
their customers to talk about their needs, has generated a momentum on which we
now need to build. It is always pleasing when you get it right, and when a gut
feeling can turn out so well!<o:p></o:p></div>
S+H LLPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08820601488346441701noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4258226739353924306.post-13608055629732645612014-01-17T10:36:00.000+00:002014-01-17T10:36:11.436+00:00TALES FROM THE ROAD 50 – IT’S THE WAY I KLM!<div class="MsoNormal">
Every business has its bad days, so it’s only fair to start
by saying that Friday’s experience with KLM is my first bad experience of
flying with them. My flight from Manchester to Toronto took me via Amsterdam’s
Schiphol Airport, with the first leg of the journey having a flight time of
about an hour, much of which was spent talking to a couple whose interesting
lives took them into Iraq and Afghanistan, although on this occasion to the
comparative safety of the Rugby Sevens in Dubai. After a quick and pleasant
flight, I walked out into the main concourse of the airport to check my onward
flight, and saw that it was to leave from Gate F6 at 13:25. I looked away
momentarily for the usual paranoid double-check of my passport, driving
license, wallet and other important documents, and when I looked back at the
screen my flight to Toronto had been delayed until 16:00. As a seasoned
traveller I am always suspicious of round numbers. For example, 16:12 would have
made me feel that KLM/Delta was providing their passengers with up to date and
accurate information. It’s a funny thing the human mind!<o:p></o:p></div>
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Then ‘voucher available’ appeared against the revised flight
time and passengers were invited to go to the KLM desk to collect a €5.00
voucher to spend on food and drink. In the three minutes it took me to walk to
the KLM desk, the flight time had changed again. Another round number, but this
time two hours later than the first round number, with the flight now scheduled
to leave at 18:00. By then, it was obvious that the company probably had no
control over when the flight would finally leave, citing ‘technical reasons’ on
which their ground staff were unable to elaborate. And all this probably meant
that the ‘technical reasons’ were probably evident long before my first flight
took off from Manchester, so I started to feel a bit sore and made my way to a
food concession to spend my voucher, then to sit tweeting miserably about it
for Schipohl’s 30 minutes of free wireless access time. I watched as two
flights for Shanghai and Beijing respectively were boarded quickly and
efficiently and without fuss or misinformation. And I sat and drew a picture of
the scene before me, which included possibly the hairiest man I have ever seen
in my life!<o:p></o:p></div>
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With the likely boarding time now being just after 17:00 I
ambled down towards the gate for a change of scene at about 16:00, only to find
that…you guessed it…the flight had been delayed by a further two hours to
another rounded number, 20:00. Now eight hours stuck in an airport is nobody’s
idea of fun, but when it is followed by a flight of eight hours or more, every
ounce of humour leaves you. A firm but polite complaint achieved a further
€10.00 food voucher, and a €50.00 discount from my next KLM flight, but I
wanted to know what was the reason for the continuing delay, so made my way
back to the desk where nobody was able to elaborate why the aircraft that had
been umbilically connected to the air bridge at Gate F6 had by then been removed.
‘Technical reasons’ was all they could, or would, say.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Flight security and safety have to remain the paramount
responsibilities for all airlines, so none of the passengers would have
objected to a slice of honesty, such as ‘We are very sorry ladies &
gentleman but the original aircraft that was going to take you to Toronto is
experiencing serious technical problems therefore we are having to fly in a
replacement’. That is clearly what was happening, so why not say so? Instead,
we had the ‘technical reasons’ mantra, and progressively declining trust in
KLM’s ground staff, and a loss of faith that our flight would eventually be
allowed to leave that day. There were families with children, elderly people,
and disabled people, whose pleas for an explanation and accurate time of
departure were increasingly met with an eyes-down approach by weary KLM staff.
For my part the delay would cause me to arrive at my hotel near Toronto Airport
at around 23:00 instead of 16:00. I had a long drive to Owen Sound planned for early
the next morning. Others had onward connections to flights to more distant
parts of Canada. <o:p></o:p></div>
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So imagine a different scenario. An airline that on
recognising they were going to have to fly in a different craft to fulfil a
scheduled flight, provided an honest departure time and brief explanation of
why, with maybe the option of a shuttle bus to more comfortable hotel
surroundings, or maybe into the city for a few hours with rapid checking out
and back in again. Far better than a few euros to spend on average, not very
nutritious, and largely lukewarm airport concession food don’t you think?
Hopefully by the time enough passengers put in claims for the ‘up to €600.00’
compensation that can be offered for such a day of disruption, airlines will
begin to take a more pastoral and honest approach to the demands of their
increasingly knowledgeable, well-travelled, and sophisticated customers. Then
again, pigs might fly! <o:p></o:p></div>
S+H LLPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08820601488346441701noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4258226739353924306.post-71142802099262678332013-12-20T14:54:00.002+00:002013-12-20T14:54:43.340+00:00Merry Christmas!<h2 style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">Strong & Herd LLP would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year!</span></h2>
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S+H LLPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08820601488346441701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4258226739353924306.post-72366428565975980012013-12-13T14:54:00.000+00:002013-12-13T14:54:43.400+00:00Dear Santa, all I want for Christmas is a working website.....<div class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<u style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">By Liz Ward of Virtuoso Legal</span></u><span style="color: #505050; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 150%;"><br />I took a phone call recently from Jenny (not her real name of
course!) an old client. We’d first advised Jenny 3 years ago when her luxury
goods business had <strong>problems
with credit card fraud</strong>. We <strong>re-drafted her terms and conditions</strong> and
included new payment terms in accordance with the <strong>Distance Selling Directives.</strong>
Her merchant services provider had insisted that she had<strong> professionally drafted terms</strong>,
and the new systems for delivery and taking payment seemed to almost eliminate
the problems. Job done!</span><span style="color: #505050; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 150%;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #505050; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 150%;">Well not quite.</span><span style="color: #505050; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 150%;"><br />
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<h4 style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<strong><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A
new website....</span></strong><o:p></o:p></h4>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #505050; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 150%;">In summer Jenny decided she would have <strong>a new, re-freshed website ready for
the Christmas rush</strong>. She’d contacted a number of website
suppliers and chose a new developer. She is based in London. By August all was
ready for transfer to the new website. <strong>In
September, the website was beta tested, appeared to work ok and then went live
on 1 October. </strong>Immediately Jenny saw problems. <strong>Orders dropped off a cliff edge and
the new website was nowhere to be seen on Google – even when key words were
used. </strong>Jenny’s old website was quite well optimised for certain
key products.</span><span style="color: #505050; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #505050; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 150%;">It didn’t take long to get to the bottom of the problem of orders
not going through. <strong>Customers
simply couldn’t check out on the website.</strong> So once they’d put
items in the basket, payment was either delayed or couldn’t be taken at all,
with the customers left with a page that just froze. <strong>Angry calls and emails to the developer
ended up with no clear result;</strong> although some features were
improved. She refused to pay him the final payment. He couldn’t make the site
work properly and refused to take her calls. <strong>A complete impasse resulted.</strong></span><span style="color: #505050; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 150%;"><br />
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<h4 style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<strong><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A
business disappearing down the pan.....</span></strong><o:p></o:p></h4>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #505050; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 150%;">By mid November, things had deteriorated to the point where he <strong>wanted more money to resolve matters</strong>
and she was watching her business disappear down the pan. <strong>He threatened to sue for money owed
and take her complete site down</strong>. She threatened to counter-claim
for business losses.</span><span style="color: #505050; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #505050; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 150%;">Now there are all kinds of technical reasons for the faults –
which it transpired arose mainly because a key member of staff had left at a
critical time in creating the website. <strong>Jenny
had chosen her web developer because he had provided the lowest quote</strong>
– and she simply signed his badly drafted terms of business. We’ve all done
it. However, <b>as Red Adair famously said.....</b></span><span style="color: #505050; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<h4 style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“if you think
going to an expert is expensive, wait until you’ve used an amateur.”</span><o:p></o:p></h4>
<br />
<div class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<b><span style="color: #505050; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 150%;">A good website is akin to having the best shop on the High
Street. With a proper contract, specification planning and sign off schedules
incorporated into the terms, a lot of this headache could have been avoided. So
if you are planning a new website in 2014 just email <a href="mailto:Dan@virtuosolegal.com?subject=Website%20Checklist" target="_self"><span style="color: #0db297; font-weight: normal;">Dan</span></a> for a full checklist
that should help you agree proper terms and avoid problems arising between
developer and client. </span></b><span style="color: #505050; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
S+H LLPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08820601488346441701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4258226739353924306.post-52138793875685666342013-12-06T11:30:00.000+00:002013-12-10T14:08:01.328+00:009 Top Tips for Trading on the Internet<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<u><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">By Kim
Highley of Virtuoso Legal</span></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<ol start="1" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Ensure
that your Terms and Conditions of Website use, Terms and Conditions of
Trade (Goods/Services), Privacy Policy and Cookies Policy are brought to
the attention of your website users on your landing page. <o:p></o:p></span></li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<ol start="2" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Customers
should be required to click on a button to confirm acceptance of all Terms
and Conditions of Trade before they can place orders.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<ol start="3" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Always
include a Copyright Notice on your website.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<ol start="4" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Consider registering
any company name / business name and any logos or devices used for
marketing as trade marks so that no one can copy them. <o:p></o:p></span></li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ol start="5" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Consider
registering domain names you may wish to use in the future for your online
trading.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<ol start="6" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Web
Transactions must comply with the Distance Selling Regulations therefore
you must provide as a minimum –</span></li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 72pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;">
<br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; text-indent: -18pt;">Information
about the supplier and the goods/services should be supplied to the Customer in
good time before contract is concluded.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;">Notification
of right to cancel goods/services within 7 working days with full refund.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Symbol; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; text-indent: -18pt;">Check
that your returns policy complies with the regulations.</span></li>
</ul>
<!--[if !supportLists]--></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<ol start="7" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">If
you are trading using a website with restricted access to password users
then consider how you will handle this data to avoid any data protection
and liability issues. <o:p></o:p></span></li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 60.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 60.0pt; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -30.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> </span></div>
<ol start="8" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">If
you are trading wider than the UK, consider whether your website complies
with foreign regulations e.g. advertising, financial services regulation,
purchases of goods/services.
Consult with lawyers in any relevant countries. <o:p></o:p></span></li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoListParagraph">
<br /></div>
<br />
<ol start="9" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">If
you are taking payment using merchant services (i.e. credit card and other
payments on line) then you should consider fraud and fraud protection. The
banks and merchant service providers will want to see professionally
drafted terms of trade BEFORE providing you with merchant services
facilities account.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
</ol>
S+H LLPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08820601488346441701noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4258226739353924306.post-5939877855915338932013-11-29T17:04:00.000+00:002013-11-29T17:04:09.601+00:00RUNNING AN EFFECTIVE TRADE SHOW STAND A Case Study <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">During my international experience I
have exhibited at trade shows in the USA, Europe</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">, Middle East and Far East.
Whilst the cultures and the business environment may differ, I have found the
fundamentals of mounting a good display stand remain the same whatever the
local situation. In this short article I will literally concentrate on the
stand itself and the people who man it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; tab-stops: 92.15pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">I
believe the main purpose of your stand is to differentiate your company from
competitors and attract attention quickly. Regardless of the stand’s size and
location, visitors should be able to immediately recognise your company’s name
and logo; your company’s products and/or services; how the company can solve
their problems.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; tab-stops: 49.65pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; tab-stops: 49.65pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">These
are brief messages in appropriate languages. The more product ranges you have
the greater the temptation to display all. This will only confuse – concentrate
on the main seller or new offering.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; tab-stops: 92.15pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; tab-stops: 92.15pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Additionally
the stand should be information driven through having the right combination of
lighting, open space and graphic presentation. The ‘look’ should reflect your
key communication message in all promotional & support material. The name
of the game is to attract casual passerby’s to your stand. Remember at most
international events there are hundreds of exhibitors all trying to attract
visitors, many of whom only come for the day.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; tab-stops: 92.15pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; tab-stops: 92.15pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">However
before designing and setting up a stand, the most critical element is its
location. Every expert will say ‘location, location, location’ You can have
designed the best stand but if it is in the wrong site then arguably it will
not be worth exhibiting. Technically there are many considerations such as <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: 35.45pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Most
visitors walk to the right on entering an exhibition hall and miss the front
exhibits<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: 35.45pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Corner
locations draw traffic from two directions<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: 35.45pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Visitors
miss dead-end aisles<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: 35.45pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Spaces
near exits, toilets and food areas are high traffic but not necessarily good
selling positions<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: 35.45pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Spaces
by freight/lift doors are usually congested<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: 35.45pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Structures
such as columns can obstruct the visibility<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: 35.45pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Locating near competition is not generally beneficial
as they can view who visits your stand<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: 35.45pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Locating
close to complementary products can encourage cross-selling opportunities<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 18.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; tab-stops: 35.45pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">As a
newcomer to any show, prime positions will already have been booked so I always
invested time to continually consult with the show organisers to seek upgrading
my location. For some international shows the requirement was to demonstrate a
commitment by contributing to ancillary activities such as the show catalogue, on-site
display features or social events. I always made sure that before I left a show
at its conclusion I would meet in person with the organisers to negotiate next
year’s site.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Having
established the best location available, I considered whether to rent or build
a stand. As a first time exhibitor, I rented to gain practical experience of
both the show, the type of stand and the dynamics of working with visitors.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">If, at later stage, I
decided to create a custom-built stand I could be more objective in its design.
Critical features to consider will be the adaptability, versatility and
suitability of the bespoke stand to different trade environments and its
ability to be transported & shipped. You will need to consider the stand’s
comfort in terms of working space, storage & display of materials and floor
coverings ensuring it is carpeted. Any demonstration area must be able to
handle at least two visitors at a time<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Most
important of all, the stand must appeal to the target audience by having
appropriate displays i.e. for a target of computer technicians they will expect
computers running interactive programmes<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">As
appropriate, attention getting techniques should be employed such as revolving
pictures or running signs. I have found that as a general rule 60% of the stand
border should be open so allowing easy access<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">In the early stages of
my exhibiting experience we could only afford a comparatively small stand so
exposure was limited even in reasonably good locations. I had to make the best
of what I had so employed a number of techniques to raise visibility to the
passer-by such as:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Using
lighting appropriately as it can increase awareness by up to 40%<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Keeping
the displays simple, feature only one to two products<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Using
bold colours<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Using
fewer but larger graphics<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Using
flowchart graphics and designs to depict product solutions<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Being
proportionate, reception counters and other non-productive sales items will
clutter space<o:p></o:p></span></li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; tab-stops: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">A
sometimes overlooked matter id the staffing of the stand – selection of the right
personnel and in the right numbers. I recall once visiting a company stand (not
my responsibility!) at a European show where it seemed to me the world and his
wife was attending. It appeared traditionally all of the company’s country
sales employees would attend plus any associated company personnel. It was a
mini United Nations, highly chaotic, disorganised and expensive,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; tab-stops: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -36.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">It
is recognised that staff will account for 85% of the show’s success, however
not all staff are suitable as they will be working a different environment. Key
characteristics are for people who are open, warm and friendly; who can talk
comfortably to strangers and be good listeners. You certainly need to ensure
you include some decision takers. If you know the show will attract buying
teams, rather than individuals, ensure your team is staffed with a mix of
expertise. A general guide for staffing levels is one per 50 square feet of
public exhibit area. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Then finally one of the
most overlooked elements of good exhibiting, You may the best stand and
location but nobody knows you are there. I spent a good deal of time ensuring
existing customers and other interested parties were aware of our presence well
in advance of the event. The full list could include existing customers, potential
customer, new leads, suppliers, current or potential agents or distributors, media
and trade and industry personnel.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">There is much planning
and thought to be applied if one is to maximise the investment in exhibiting.
If one can spare the time walk around the show with a critical eye and rate
each exhibit in terms of location, attractiveness and accessibility. You will
be no doubt surprised as to how many fail the test.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
S+H LLPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08820601488346441701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4258226739353924306.post-77896396253018356642013-11-22T17:07:00.000+00:002013-11-22T17:07:00.371+00:00TALES FROM THE ROAD 49 – JUST A BED FOR THE NIGHT<div class="MsoNormal">
In a previous Tale I described a three week business trip to
the US where I had been booked in to Holiday Inn Hotels for every night of my
stay. That experience is what put me off chain hotels. There was nothing
fundamentally wrong with the hotels, or the quality of service, or the
cleanliness, but those places are a bit formulaic. Since 1993 I have tended to
book my own accommodation. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I remember thinking ‘corporate is best’ when I was booked
into a New York hotel between a flight from the UK and an onward flight to
Vancouver back in 1992. The room door security was ridiculous and I felt like a
multi-padlock was the only thing missing, other than maybe a doorlock-activated
sub-machine gun! For the most part I have felt safe in the places I have
stayed, but there have just been a few instances in the USA where I have felt
less than comfortable. A second was in Charlotte, North Carolina when the pizza
delivery man refused to bring the pizza into my room as normal. Apparently only
a few days beforehand another pizza delivery man had been badly beaten after
entering a hotel room, all for the sake of a few dollars. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
My quest to book into local, family run establishments led
me to some interesting and memorable places. In 1997 I flew with a colleague to
Salzburg en route to Villach in Austria, arriving at about 9:30pm to find the
place pretty well locked up. After poking our heads around various creaking
doors, we were eventually confronted by a formally dressed middle aged man who
organised our keys and then told us that the restaurant had closed for the
night and that we would not find anywhere open nearby where we could grab a
bite to eat. So we ate almost the entire breakfast buffet the following
morning! The beds were comfortable although the rooms were stark, and at the
time it was a little alien to stay in a place without a television, but that’s
something I have become used to, and now prefer. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I stopped in a similar, much friendlier hotel near Kiel in
northern Germany in 1999. Our distributor Thomas Siewert had kindly booked me
into a ‘local family run hotel’ where I was to stay for three nights, again
without a television. In reality, when I have travelled the only times I have
watched TV is to catch up on a few minutes of news. Hotel rooms provide just a
bed for the night, and I generally fall into them after a late night with
clients, and fall out again for breakfast or to get on the road. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Thomas was an incredibly likeable and hardworking fellow,
and became a good friend but he lived, breathed, and dreamed about his work,
and days out with Thomas were a nightmare: at least 14 hours including travel,
multiple meetings, and then a restaurant meal to talk more about work in the
evening. I told his partner Petra that Thomas would drive himself into the
ground if he was not careful, and she agreed but said ‘what can I do?’ So one
night near Frankfurt I decided to challenge him. Barcelona were playing
Manchester United that night in the Champions League, so when the clock struck
exactly 9pm I told Thomas that I had had enough of work for the day and that I
was going to watch the football. He was incredulous: “But we have not finished
our work!” he shrieked. The following morning I explained to Thomas that in
order for me to think clearly about my work I needed to have some time away
from work that didn’t involve sleeping! I also explained that I felt Petra was
becoming concerned for his health, and that perhaps he should have some more
quality time with her. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Back to the local family run hotel near Kiel. On the final
night of my stay Thomas joined me for an evening meal and to discuss our plans
for the German market. At exactly 9pm, he proudly stated “and now, I have had
enough of my work John so I will show you my photographs from my holiday in the
Seychelles.” I have never seen so many photographs of a man holding a fish in all
my life!! <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Throughout my travelling years I have stayed in places for
the sake of convenience, either to be close to highways for an onward journey,
or to be within a short drive of my first meeting the following day. So I have
stayed in Campaniles and Toucans and Shoney’s and all kinds of places that
would not normally be my first choice, but which are perfectly adequate if a
bed for the night is all you need. However, when you stop in a hotel for several
nights running, you don’t want shower heads falling off, chair legs collapsing,
damp carpets and the other horrors that can occasionally conspire against you.
And when that happened to a group of us in Hannover one year during a five
night stay, I swore it would never be allowed to happen again!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
The net result was that we stayed for seven consecutive
years in a fabulous little artisan hotel in the middle of Hannover and within a
five minute walk of the Hauptbahnhof. And each year Mr. Reed stayed there, his
room was upgraded until in the fifth year he was in the Presidential suite! In
what other hotel would you be greeted by a free shot of schnaps? These hotels
are out there and very often you don’t have to look too hard. They allow you
interact with real people from the city, who can genuinely tell you the best
places to go to eat and drink and be entertained. So live the places you stay,
even if you do only need a bed for the night.<o:p></o:p></div>
S+H LLPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08820601488346441701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4258226739353924306.post-20777665845529046012013-11-15T15:41:00.002+00:002013-11-15T15:41:44.604+00:00TALES FROM THE ROAD 48 – SETTING THE EXPORT BALL ROLLING<div class="MsoNormal">
Those of us who have been in international trade for many
years know the feeling well. We have all walked into a new challenge with a new
company and asked ourselves ‘where on earth do I start?’ And after those brief
moments of panic subside, we have realised that the answer is incredibly
simple: ‘start with what you have got!’ That rule of thumb applies whatever the
size of the organisation, but crucially there are still too many companies who
have traditionally seen their exporting activity as an ‘add-on’ to their
business, rather than an integral part of long term sustainable growth, vital
to the company and not to be treated as a business backwater. ‘If it works it
works’ is simply not good enough.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is only by starting with what you have got that you know
where the gaps are, where the challenges are, and where the good news is. I can
remember walking into one company where they didn’t even have a filing cabinet
(remember them?) for exports, just a pile of folders on a desk. But that is
what I had to start with, and I found by rummaging through every bit of paper
therein that there was some good potential in our selling partners but a lot of
dead wood. My first job was to fly to Hamburg to stop our distributor in Kiel
from sueing us. My predecessor had failed to keep his promises about the level
of marketing support provided to this fabulously hard-working and dedicated
distributor, who after 18 months had lost all patience. There was no contract
in place, and the threat to sue was more out of frustration than serious
intent, but the fact that I had made the effort to visit him and draw up a new
plan paid dividends.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
My second job was to fly to see our ‘best performing’
distributor, who were based in Dublin and referred to in an earlier Tale. Sure,
they had the largest turnover of any of our distributors, but they did not pay
their bills and they had exceeded the credit limit we had agreed with our
insurers. They also had severe cash flow problems, and I had absolutely no
desire to find out why. I just wanted a decent distributor who paid their
bills. In the end, I stopped their shipments, and in hindsight that was
probably not the greatest idea because the company eventually went bust and I
failed to replace them with anything better. On the flip side, we had stopped
pretending and it allowed us to move on and locate significantly more valuable
and reliable business elsewhere. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
You guessed it. My third job was a problem too. Well partly
a problem anyway. Our French distributor was a very nice guy and he had won
some interesting and prestigious projects for our company, but he too had been unilaterally
stretching his payment terms which were supposed to be 60 days. There were some
significant bills that had reached the 180 day point and nobody had challenged
them. When I did, the distributor did not immediately have the funds to pay. So
we had to put together a plan that would bring him back in synch. It was a
struggle but he was worth the effort, he carried on bringing in new business
and the plan worked. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Much of the rest of the portfolio I inherited were one-off
or sporadic orders and enquiries that had come our way in the previous year or
two, where little or no further contact had been made. The guy who gave me the
job said at interview that ‘to be better than the last guy you just have to
turn up!’ I spent the rest of my first couple of days following up outstanding
opportunities, and I can remember being surprised that almost all the people I
contacted were grateful to have received my call, and most of the projects were
still ‘live’. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So I had started the ball rolling, and now needed to devise
a plan to build export turnover from £400,000 to £1 million within two years.
It transpired that some of our exports had been achieved via distributors that
were common to our sister company, and who had been given the distinct
impression that they also had exclusive rights to sell our products. So I had
an internal and external battle to bring that to order on the grounds that my
sales commissions would then be based wholly on my own efforts. I needed direct
relationships with all of the people who were selling our products. It is the
only way.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I had started in my new role in mid-August 1997 and by
Christmas that year I had visited all of our important selling partners, to
learn about their businesses and to put action plans into place. In early November
I had spent a week exhibiting at Batimat in Paris where we shared stand costs
with our (now compliant) French distributor and generated some good business
together. And it’s the word ‘together’ that best explains the way in which our
export business was driven forward from that point. We worked closely with our
selling partners, agents, distributors, and not just in reacting to their
needs. The plans we put into place covered a number of areas: project analysis
and timetabling, so that I could forecast sales better; a programme of visits,
both to provide product training and to support them with key customer
meetings; UK factory visits so that our selling partners saw more of the
company than just me; and a marketing programme which included brochure and
sample book translations, attendance at exhibitions or a commitment to exhibit.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
So the ball had very much started to roll, and in a later
Tale, I will summarise some of the strategies that led us to £1 million of
export sales by Christmas 1999. The plan worked, so always have a plan!<o:p></o:p></div>
S+H LLPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08820601488346441701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4258226739353924306.post-72536142217296249522013-11-08T16:49:00.001+00:002013-11-08T16:49:58.426+00:00MARKETING CONSUMER PRODUCTS OVERSEAS A Case Study <div>
<table align="left" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" hspace="0" vspace="0">
<tbody>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: margin; mso-element-anchor-vertical: page; mso-element-frame-hspace: 9.0pt; mso-element-top: 108.55pt; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">During the many years that I was practically involved in marketing and
selling consumer products overseas I realised there were a number of
fundamental issues that always need to be addressed. For my company the core
task was to maintain a consistent programme that enhanced brand image and
product performance in differing markets throughout the world,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: margin; mso-element-anchor-vertical: page; mso-element-frame-hspace: 9.0pt; mso-element-top: 108.55pt; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: margin; mso-element-anchor-vertical: page; mso-element-frame-hspace: 9.0pt; mso-element-top: 108.55pt; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Each of our branded products possessed a value in the mind of the
consumer which we wanted to preserve and enhance. We offered a wide range of
international products which would be categorised according to the brand
profile. Our range would be segmented into International brands – generally
high value and imagery and standardised, where possible, across all markets;
Regional brands developed to target local consumer preferences and Tactical
brands created market by market to satisfy a specific need such as flavour,
style or price<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: margin; mso-element-anchor-vertical: page; mso-element-frame-hspace: 9.0pt; mso-element-top: 108.55pt; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: margin; mso-element-anchor-vertical: page; mso-element-frame-hspace: 9.0pt; mso-element-top: 108.55pt; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Being a consumer product, most were sold to the end purchaser through a
retail outlet. .There are, therefore, two distinct forms of planning and
activity to be considered.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: margin; mso-element-anchor-vertical: page; mso-element-frame-hspace: 9.0pt; mso-element-top: 108.55pt; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
</td>
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</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">First the traditional consumer marketing directed at the end user
through sales, advertising and promotion. The second and as important, is trade
marketing which ensures the right parties in the local supply chain, including
the retailers themselves, are handled and directed in the right way. </span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> The key to successful trade marketing is
grouping customers into trade channels so as to focus marketing efforts on the
special needs and characteristics of each channel.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div>
<table align="left" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" hspace="0" vspace="0">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td align="left" style="padding-bottom: 0cm; padding-left: 9.0pt; padding-right: 9.0pt; padding-top: 0cm;" valign="top">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: margin; mso-element-anchor-vertical: page; mso-element-frame-hspace: 9.0pt; mso-element-top: 108.55pt; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">There is much evidence that trade marketing is either ignored or not
followed through by many exporters.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: margin; mso-element-anchor-vertical: page; mso-element-frame-hspace: 9.0pt; mso-element-top: 108.55pt; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: margin; mso-element-anchor-vertical: page; mso-element-frame-hspace: 9.0pt; mso-element-top: 108.55pt; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Some of the key elements of trade marketing are channel mapping – how
many of each trade type are selling what and where; decisions on channel
priorities; assessment of trade pricing and promotional policies; agreement
with local partner, agent or distributor, on how best to handle the trade.
All of which are carried out to ensure every potential consumer will be able
to purchase your products at the right place, at the right time, at the right
price, in the right manner in the right quality and in the right manner.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: margin; mso-element-anchor-vertical: page; mso-element-frame-hspace: 9.0pt; mso-element-top: 108.55pt; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: margin; mso-element-anchor-vertical: page; mso-element-frame-hspace: 9.0pt; mso-element-top: 108.55pt; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Space prohibits a detailed examination of these activities but to
endorse my message let me pose some rhetorical questions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: margin; mso-element-anchor-vertical: page; mso-element-frame-hspace: 9.0pt; mso-element-top: 108.55pt; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: margin; mso-element-anchor-vertical: page; mso-element-frame-hspace: 9.0pt; mso-element-top: 108.55pt; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Select a key market to which you have exported for a number of years.
Can you describe the trade through which you sell? How many wholesalers and
retailers? Of the wholesalers how many are traditional and how many are of
the cash and carry style? What are the main retailer types that should be
selling your products and how many are there in each trade sector? The
questions could go such as who are they – by name and where are they and how
often do they purchase and in what quantities?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
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</tbody></table>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Let me briefly describe two examples from my experience – the Middle East
and West Africa.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Working with my local distributors I would analyse the breakdown of local
trade – remember this is for the sale of consumer products. In the Middle East
main sectors would be Wholesalers, Supermarkets, Specialist shops, small shops
in the Souk, Horeca outlets and so on. In West Africa there would be a similar
breakdown of sectors but with the addition of street side Hawkers who,
incidentally, in certain countries accounted for over 60% of the sale of our
products.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">We would then total or estimate the numbers in each sector and set
trade promotional strategies accordingly. For the key sectors we would
develop specific advertising and promotional activities including special
discounts or rebates. For the literally thousands of souk and hawker outlets
we would rely upon the salesman’s word of mouth and giveaway items.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Let’s return to the all important consumer marketing element. Frankly
it would take a book to cover most aspects but I will raise a number of
issues that we always had to consider. With regard to the product itself
there are two broad areas to manage – changes that have to be made to the
product and changes that are required to suit the local consumer.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Most exporters are aware of the various factors that could enforce
product changes such as legal, governmental, and logistical. Other common
issues can include transportation and climate. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Let me provide one example affected by the latter. We marketed
semi-perishable products around the world with a six-month sell-by date and
normally used a series of protective packings enclosed in a plastic display
tub for each individual product. For some of our South American markets we
found that these protections were not sufficient. We had analysed the period
from manufacture to point of sale and taking into account the shipping time,
period from landing to delivery to a retail outlet, the ambient temperatures
in local outlets and the time for a consumer to purchase, sell dates were
exceeded. The whole package was redesigned and enhanced to ensure the
freshest product available to local consumers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">The second critical area is adaptations required to suit the culture
and buying habits of the local consumer.
This raises a vast number of considerations including pricing, style,
colours and language of product packaging, appropriateness to local
lifestyles and so on. One factor that was critical to us was the
affordability of the unit of sale.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Our standard unit of sale for our European products was 6 items to one
retail pack. However in certain markets both the size and the affordability
were too high. This factor had nothing to do with the basic price; it was
that consumers locally just did not buy products this way. We therefore
provided a four-pack for these markets.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">We normally marketed branded products with high perceived value.
However in some markets the predominant preference was for local products at
a lower price point. To gain both a trade presence for all of our products
and provide the local consumer with a choice, we provided a generic product
in addition to the premium brands. Tactically we were able to ‘buy’ shelf
presence through the value product and gain listings for the higher value brands.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">There is, of course, much more that can be discussed by space does not
permit it. The main lesson of my international experience is to spend a good
proportion of effort marketing to the local trade as well as the end-consumer
to ensure a better chance of long term success.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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S+H LLPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08820601488346441701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4258226739353924306.post-12784799878968201932013-11-01T15:39:00.002+00:002013-11-01T15:39:17.695+00:00TALES FROM THE ROAD 47 – SELLING DOESN’T HAVE TO BE A LONG PROCESS<div class="MsoNormal">
Sounds glib doesn’t it, but it’s true. If you do your
preparation well then the act of selling actually becomes the end game in a
process, the knot that secures the package. Of course there are many different
types of selling and you would use different methods to sell FMCG items than if
you were selling construction materials into the specification market, or maybe
medical equipment where certification and safety are paramount. However the
principle behind the sale remains the same, and the relationships you build
long term are the key. You locate your customers, learn what it is they want or
provide them with something new and innovative that they need, achieve the
necessary standards, market the product or service effectively, create the
customer relationship, and then close the sale. And don’t forget you need a
reason to go back, the opportunity to win repeat business, and the key to
achieving that is the relationships that you build.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Then there is the small matter of getting your selling
partners, agents or distributors, to sell your products just as well as you
would sell them yourself, and that is where a number of challenges can arise. They
may be selling a basket of products from different companies, so you need to do
what you can to ensure that yours is at the top of the pile. They need a reason
to prioritise your products in their basket, and that may either be because your
product provides something unique that others don’t, it may be that it provides
more profitability, or it may be that it is easier to sell because you have
provided them with product training, technical know-how and above all the
confidence to sell the product to its best advantage.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I may have related in a previous Tale a part of the story
that follows. I had been collected from Moscow Airport by our excellent
distributor to go straight to an important meeting with BP/TNK to whom we were
to present our carpet tiles. It was just after the difficult merger between the
companies and they were looking to re-fit their offices throughout Russia. En
route I learned that my props for this meeting were a single, medium blue,
tufted loop pile carpet tile, and whatever presentation material happened to be in my luggage! This was not my
first visit to the distributor, and because I had already delivered a certain
amount of product training, I had wrongly assumed that they would collect me armed to the teeth with a
whole range of folders and sample options to present at the meeting. Furthermore
there had been no information sent prior to our meeting, so I really was going
in blind.<o:p></o:p></div>
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So there we sat, patiently in the lobby with our single blue
tile as our competitors seemed to wheel in trolleys full of different options.
And of course we were last to be seen, and because I was being introduced as
‘Mr. Carpet Tile Guru’, I simply had to busk it as best I could. It was
therefore heartening to hear a Scottish voice from within the room as the
previous presenters left after their pitch, and my short presentation achieved
three things: first, it presented the qualities of our single blue tile; second
the technical sheets and brochures that were in my briefcase helped both to
reinforce the technical message and the illustrate colour options; and finally,
realising that I had created interest and knowing that there was a second
chance to meet the buyers at Sony’s offices and fabulous showroom the following
day, I seized the chance to reserve a further five minutes to demonstrate how
our various products could worked together cost-effectively and well within
budget. Although we did not win the job on that occasion, our modest
presentation came second to the pitch made by the sales team of our biggest
competitor. I was left feeling that a better presentation would have swung the
business our way, and the total amount of time I was exposed to the buyers over
the two days was about 20 minutes.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Closer to home, I had a similar experience in the Irish city
of Cork where a fifteen minute presentation won 2,000m2 of carpet tile business
with RTE. We had sold to RTE in Dublin previously so we already had a track
record of supply. The product had worn well and continued to look good. Our distributor
therefore set up with glee an appointment for us jointly to visit the RTE
specifiers in Cork, and I made my arrangements to fly into Dublin for our
onward 3+hour journey by car. However, on arrival at Dublin Airport I found
that the glee and enthusiasm which the distributor had expressed in setting up
the meeting had turned into a bed-ridden flu bug. <o:p></o:p></div>
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So I hired a car and did the job myself, arriving in good
time with my short presentation that provided a range of options and a few
photographs of how the Dublin installation had turned out. It was a
presentation template I had used for years, adapted to this particular
customer. It took fifteen minutes to make the presentation after my long drive,
and the architect was pleasantly surprised when I didn’t take up a whole load
more of his time! I arrived back at my hotel in Dublin at around 8pm, by which
time the 2,000m2 order had been placed. Buoyed at this success, I dropped into
Grafton Street to sample a few local pubs, whereupon I bumped into my formerly
bed-ridden distributor having a great time with his mates and demonstrating a
complete and full recovery from the hideous flu bug that had laid him out that
very morning. He didn’t last much longer after that!<o:p></o:p></div>
S+H LLPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08820601488346441701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4258226739353924306.post-30977854887908578772013-10-25T16:16:00.000+01:002013-10-25T16:16:00.186+01:009 Top Tips for Trading on the Internet<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /> </span></span></div>
<ol start="1" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ensure
that your Terms and Conditions of Website use, Terms and Conditions of
Trade (Goods/Services), Privacy Policy and Cookies Policy are brought to
the attention of your website users on your landing page. <o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<ol start="2" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Customers
should be required to click on a button to confirm acceptance of all Terms
and Conditions of Trade before they can place orders.<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
</ol>
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<br /></div>
<ol start="3" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Always
include a Copyright Notice on your website.<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
</ol>
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<br /></div>
<ol start="4" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Consider registering
any company name / business name and any logos or devices used for
marketing as trade marks so that no one can copy them. <o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
</ol>
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<ol start="5" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Consider
registering domain names you may wish to use in the future for your online
trading.<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
</ol>
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<br /></div>
<ol start="6" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Web
Transactions must comply with the Distance Selling Regulations therefore
you must provide as a minimum – <o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
</ol>
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</div>
<ul>
<li><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;">Information
about the supplier and the goods/services should be supplied to the Customer in
good time before contract is concluded.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;">Notification
of right to cancel goods/services within 7 working days with full refund.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;">Check
that your returns policy complies with the regulations.</span></li>
</ul>
<br />
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<br /></div>
<ol start="7" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If
you are trading using a website with restricted access to password users
then consider how you will handle this data to avoid any data protection
and liability issues. <o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 60.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 60.0pt; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -30.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt;"> <span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US"> </span></span></div>
<ol start="8" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If
you are trading wider than the UK, consider whether your website complies
with foreign regulations e.g. advertising, financial services regulation,
purchases of goods/services.
Consult with lawyers in any relevant countries. <o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
</ol>
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<br /></div>
<br />
<ol start="9" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If
you are taking payment using merchant services (i.e. credit card and other
payments on line) then you should consider fraud and fraud protection. The
banks and merchant service providers will want to see professionally
drafted terms of trade BEFORE providing you with merchant services
facilities account.<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
</ol>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b><u><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">By Kim Highley of Virtuoso Legal</span></span></u></b></div>
S+H LLPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08820601488346441701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4258226739353924306.post-14641275333083741092013-10-18T15:32:00.003+01:002013-10-18T15:32:14.533+01:00TALES FROM THE ROAD 46 – STEFANO, SMOKES, & GRIGNOLINO<div class="MsoNormal">
I suppose I ought to start with an explanation for those of
you who have had the misfortune not to try Grignolino red wine. I was first
introduced to it during a trip to see a distributor in Milan, and on a return
trip some months later had left it to them to book a conveniently located hotel
. So what did they do? Well as our main contact, Stefano, lived in the hills
around the historic town of Como, they booked me into a wonderful hotel on the
lakeside. Grignolino is a wine from the Lombardy region of Italy which is
served young, generally after only a year or so in the bottle, and just as the
Italians seem to always get their food right, they get the wine to go with the
food right too! <o:p></o:p></div>
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I flew into Linate Airport on that first occasion, and
Stefano collected me in his tiny Fiat Cinquecento and drove me to his offices
on the outskirts of Milan, about a mile from the San Siro. There I had an
initial meeting with Stefano to discuss new products, pending orders, marketing
and sample stocks, and was then shown into a windowless room with orange fabric
walls to wait for the business owner who wanted to meet the new kind on the
block. I had been forewarned that it could be a long wait. An hour passed, then
two, then three, by which time I had run out of reports to tap into my laptop,
Italian newspapers to try and decipher with my limited knowledge of the
language, and their well-thumbed collection of interior design magazines, and
spent a further half hour twiddling my own thumbs waiting for the great man to
appear.<o:p></o:p></div>
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You always know an important Italian by the fact that they
don’t put their arms in their jacket sleeves, and when Mr. L. finally arrived
he was just so. He did not sit, but stood throughout this first encounter,
probably to give his fist greater impact when he thumped the table, and he
spoke only in Italian leaving Stefano to interpret and transmit the harsh words
that were about to pass between us. Poor Stefano. At one point he said to me ‘I cannot say that’
as I explained to Mr. L. that as his payment record was so appalling I would
not release any more goods at that time. I never did find out what Stefano said
by way of my reply! And Mr. L. demanded 120 day payment terms for his orders,
and demanded rafts of samples that I wasn’t prepared to give. And to be honest
after a near four hour wait, I was a bit hacked off and my tummy was rumbling.
Yet after our lively encounter we parted friends with Mr. L. uttering his first
words of English.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Anyway after that Stefano and I both needed a drink, and he
drove me the half hour back to my lakeside hotel for a five minute wash and
brush up before taking me to a restaurant a few miles around the lake. It was
dark by that time, and for an Italian Stefano was not a great driver, weaving
his way at high speed along roads that would only pass as back alleys in most
other locations. But we arrived in one piece and shared a fabulous meal and a
couple of bottles – yes bottles – of Grignolino before the white-knuckle ride
back to the hotel. Actually I think his driving was better on the way back! <o:p></o:p></div>
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The restaurant location was idyllic, and Stefano always a
perfect gentleman, was full of lively conversation, warmth and good humour.
Neither of us smoked. I had recently given up and he had a bronchial condition,
which presumably explains why the pair of us then shared a packet of twenty as
we stood on the balcony over the lake watching the fish circle around in the
calm waters below. I had done exactly the same at a different restaurant on my
first visit to Como, but it was a welcome feeling of déjà vu.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Months went by, and lo and behold payment performance
improved and the demands for rafts of samples eased. It was an ongoing battle
to keep Mr.L. within our agreed terms of payment and his credit insurance
limit, and I found that the secret to achieving that was regular communication
and occasional threats to not release stock, but eventually we settled on a
reasonable balance between the two. Every time I went to visit his offices in
Milan I was made to wait the customary few hours, Stefano became piggy in the
middle for a fraught half hour argument, and then the three of us – yes the
three of us and sometimes four and five – would be driven to Mr. L’s favourite
restaurant in an industrial part of Milan, a restaurant I doubt I would ever be
able to find under my own steam. There he was happy to converse entirely in
English and help Stefano and I with the Grignolino!<o:p></o:p></div>
S+H LLPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08820601488346441701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4258226739353924306.post-975534378444460932013-10-11T12:00:00.000+01:002013-10-11T12:00:03.362+01:00TALES FROM THE ROAD 45 – MEMORIES OF INDIA 1996 – PART 2<div class="MsoNormal">
The Connaught Hotel in Bombay was a government run
establishment, and it had an institutional feel about it, not so much in the
lobby and reception area, but in the long, curving corridors that led
eventually to my rather tatty room. I was tired after a long journey, but
exhilarated by my arrival in this fascinating country and a little
disorientated. I had finished the bottle of water that I had bought for my
journey from Zurich, so I opened the minibar for refreshment. There was the
usual array of extortionately priced beer, wine, whisky, crisp packets and
chocolate bars, and two litre bottles of water. Picking one up I realised that
that what I thought in the dim light was condensation on the outside of the
bottle was actually cloudy water on the inside! So I checked the bottle top, and
sure enough it was not sealed. Furious, I called reception and insisted that
they replaced their refilled water bottles with new, properly sealed ones,
which they did somewhat begrudgingly.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
It took a while to wind down after that but in the end the
safest place to be was under the bed covers because my room was already
occupied, by a family of mosquitos. Their intimidating, high pitched whine
seemed to penetrate my ears so I put the covers over my head and attempted to
sleep. Trouble is, the room was suffocatingly hot and the inadequate air
conditioning unit hummed with such resonance that the bed seemed to shake, so I
was certainly not destined to have a good night’s sleep. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I think adrenalin took over the following day, because when
my guide arrived the collect me I felt fresh and ready to go. Shanti Mansabdar
had travelled to the UK a few months previously and saw an opportunity to sell
our range of reconditioned woodworking machines into the Indian market. The
purpose of my trip to Bombay was to follow up his interest and for him to
introduce me to potential customers around the city. So we took a cab to an
‘industrial estate’ to meet a young, stylish man called Mr. Jain. The
‘industrial estate’ was more like a converted four story block of flats, and
each of its rooms were occupied by businesses involved in a variety of
activities from textiles to metalwork to furniture manufacture, which was Mr.
Jain’s business. The cab could only take us so far and we walked the final few
hundred yards through a crowded and vibrant market place, with telephone wires
hanging loosely across the narrow street, connected between stalls in all kinds
of ingenious, and largely unsafe ways!<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It was clear from the meeting with Mr. Jain that selling our
machines to him would be quite a task. Shanti was extremely deferential and
clearly of little influence. Mr. Jain was polite, professional, but already
used machinery that had kept his business going for many years, albeit in Heath
Robinson fashion. Investing in better equipment is something that was not in
the forefront of his mind. So we had tea and Shanti walked me back through the
market to a railway platform. We boarded a train for just a few stops, and as
we stood in the crowded carriage my fellow passengers decided they should
practise their English on me and so a very enjoyable half hour passed, until we
reached the grandeur of Bombay’s main railway station. I had asked Shanti if we
could pick up some more bottled water as my supplies were disappearing fast in
the 35 degree heat, and he seemed very happy then to take me into the ‘best
supermarket in the city’, which was actually a mid-sized corner shop on three
levels with narrow aisles, congested with others who seemed equally overawed at
its splendour! <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Our next appointment was with a company who made laminated
furniture, and who had expressed interest in reconditioned presses,
finger-jointers, and stitching machines. We arrived in that part of town an
hour early so it was nice to get away from the fast pace of the city’s life for
a while to have a real conversation over lunch under a big fan. Shanti was
taking seeds out of a bowl on the table, as we would eat Bombay mix and I
assumed it was something similar so went to try some. He stopped me and pointed
out that it would not be good for me, and as I looked more closely I noticed
that there were insects moving within the seeds. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It was clear after our second meeting that the price
expectation of Shanti’s customers was significantly below what I was prepared
to sell them for. Therefore I quickly came to regard the Bombay leg of my trip
as an educational opportunity, and for making connections for the future. As we
left that meeting for others in an industrial area a little farther out of
town, I noticed that the streets were stained with red blotches, just as the
staircase had been at Mr. Jain’s industrial estate so I asked why, and it was
because the locals chewed on a form of rice leaf that made their spittle red,
and which they habitually disgorged as they went about their daily
business. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As with part 1 of this Tale, I was struck at every corner by
the gulf between the haves and the have-nots, between the men and women who
owned the businesses, factories and shops, and the poor scraping a living from
waste, or by begging on behalf of the street mafia whose exploitative trade
will feature in part 3. <o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
S+H LLPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08820601488346441701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4258226739353924306.post-14613108511324921252013-10-08T13:55:00.002+01:002013-10-08T13:55:27.163+01:00Around the world in...219 days pt 3 - Train adventures around the Black Sea countries<h3 style="background: white; margin-top: 9.0pt;">
<div align="center" class="Standard" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;">
<br clear="ALL" /><br /><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="Standard">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">My official arrival into Bulgaria
was marked by being rudely awakened and questioned by border security in what
seemed like a fairly intense encounter at 4am! I think most likely, it was more
the shock of being woken for the 6<sup>th</sup> time on a fairly horrendous
train journey across the Turkish border, than any kind of malice from the
border guards but it definitely made me think again about the country I had
just arrived in. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Standard">
<br /></div>
<div class="Standard">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">The city of Plovdiv was my first
experience of a country that had grown up behind the iron curtain and despite
the fall of the Berlin wall, I found the atmosphere veered from cold and
suspicious to incredibly warm. A chance encounter in one bar led to a full
night out... Bulgarian style! It was great to see this side of Bulgarian life,
especially as the couple we met, brought some friends along to make sure we
stayed safe in a notorious (but fun) part of town. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Standard">
<br /></div>
<div class="Standard">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">The first major difference that
struck me was the use of Cyrillic script. In most countries I had visited
previously, despite any language barrier, there was a degree of understanding
from the familiar lettering and as we were relying on trains for this section,
I had a feeling of foreboding about the days ahead! Another shock to the system
was to see the use of horse and carts in everyday life, including one
entrepreneur who was giving city tours on a settee strapped to the back of his
cart! It is clearly a country that is developing fast however, and the capital
Sofia was as good a city as I have visited in Europe with its own unique style
of architecture leaning more towards the Ottoman empire than to that of the
Russian communist which were often based more on scale and functionality than
design.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Standard">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEQ7SEVtKKzjC9EQb27Iw7XSAh7y5Hrlv39te8se3L-IIYkuIGXk6_4thbYI_ZBtBGqMy1kVnwgcCPSW84C0VKabibM0CyihlijY4Y0wE1xsJoxm-sQAcVcuP1M6WwP_-eOPjNgODR6ps/s1600/JR+sons+blog+pic+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEQ7SEVtKKzjC9EQb27Iw7XSAh7y5Hrlv39te8se3L-IIYkuIGXk6_4thbYI_ZBtBGqMy1kVnwgcCPSW84C0VKabibM0CyihlijY4Y0wE1xsJoxm-sQAcVcuP1M6WwP_-eOPjNgODR6ps/s400/JR+sons+blog+pic+2.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">Typical
architecture in Sofia with a heavy Ottoman influence but showing Cyrillic
script</span></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="Standard">
<br /></div>
<div class="Standard">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">Travelling around Europe with an
Interrail ticket made things easier, as I only needed one ticket for the whole
trip. However, the challenge is in reserving a seat, which is vital for sleeper
trains in areas where there may be only one train per day! To add to the
confusion, we were told that it is not possible to reserve train tickets directly
from the station. Instead, you have to find the offices of the train
reservation company and book with them instead. Booking was in itself a
challenge due to the lack of common oral or written language, so a combination
of mimes, drawings and extreme patience on both sides were required to
accomplish our goal. On the whole, we were quite relaxed about time with the
only constraint being that I had to be in Stuttgart in 18 days for my next
flight and thankfully, our second long train journey passed in far more comfort
than the first!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Standard">
<br /></div>
<div class="Standard">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">One of the issues with long
distance trains however, is that you tend to arrive late at night or very early
in the morning. We concluded that arriving places at night is far more fun than
early in the morning when there is nothing open and nobody on the streets to
ask for directions. Also the trains tend to get really cold towards the end of
the night, so it can be a miserable experience trying to find your way around a
new city! However, there are downsides of arriving late at night. For example,
our arrival in Bucharest was one of the more hairy moments on the trip, as the
walk from the train station was on unlit roads, half of which seemed to be
under construction. It is one of the few times that I have felt unsafe whilst
travelling and I was relieved to get to the hostel.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Standard">
<br /></div>
<div class="Standard">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">Romania was fantastic to see from a
train and I wished that I had more time to explore the smaller cities and
especially the countryside. I was disappointed with Bucharest which seemed to
me to be undergoing a lot of construction, and the number of stories of people
being ripped off was a little concerning to say the least. One recurring story
was of unlicensed taxis driving unsuspecting tourists to remote locations and
forcing them to withdraw vast sums of money. In the worst case I heard, one
German tourist had 200 euros taken (in the local currency, the leu). It’s a
shame as the majority of Romanians go out of their way to help you but I always
felt a little exposed as a tourist there. I would like to return to Bucharest
when the current phase of building is complete.<br />
<br />
The last few days also saw the start of train delays that we hadn’t suffered up
to that point. For example, the train from Ruse on the Bulgarian border to
Bucharest which should normally take about 2 hours was delayed by an extra hour
and a half! During the wait we were offered a variety of lifts to Bucharest,
some by taxi drivers and some by locals, all of which we gladly declined. It is
possible that we were misjudging the intentions of the locals in Ruse, but from
the stories passed on from other travellers, we both felt it would be better to
be safe (and late) than sorry.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Standard">
<br /></div>
<div class="Standard">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">Overall, I definitely enjoyed my
time around the Black Sea countries and feel privileged to have witnessed both
Bulgaria and Romania at a time when they are still adjusting following their
accession to the EU in 2007. They were both countries with a real edge and
although the majority of people were friendly, crime rates are still quite
high. As they both develop within the European Union, I look forward to seeing
how these countries adapt and more importantly, how they keep their own unique
identities as they progress.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Standard">
<br /></div>
</h3>
S+H LLPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08820601488346441701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4258226739353924306.post-76962605671812172762013-10-04T14:30:00.002+01:002013-10-04T14:30:51.349+01:00TALES FROM THE ROAD 44 – DINING WITH THE DON<div class="MsoNormal">
I love the atmosphere of New York, and I love New Yorkers.
They are straight and direct, and also incredibly hospitable and fun to be
with. Back in the day, probably around 1993, I was visiting a machinery dealership
whose offices were a stone’s throw from Shay Stadium. My journey to their
office was a little fraught because the Yugoslavian yellow cab driver seemed
not to have a clue where he was going, and had an insufficient command of
English to be able to put right the wrong turnings I knew he was making, and he
seemed happy that the bill was mounting up . I had driven before along those self-same,
tyre-pitted roads that had been worn in grooves by countless articulated
trucks, and my limited knowledge of how to get to my destination from there
just about carried me through. No gratuity. He wasn’t very happy but that’s tough!
In the end, with a little help from the people I was meeting, the cab driver
was sent packing.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
After a quick calm-down coffee (if there is such a thing), their
President, Richard Bass, promptly took me to their ‘warehouse’, a ramshackled
but large building somewhere on the New York dockside, ostensibly to look at
their vast stock of second hand woodworking machines. None of them were in
especially saleable condition and many were probably beyond any form of
economic repair. However, there were some useful component parts and Richard
was interested in selling our reconditioned British machinery because of their
reputation for durability. Fascinatingly, in one corner of this huge space were
43 British phone boxes that he had acquired over the years for their antique
and curiosity value. Even at that time he was making a very good living from
them, and had sold them to customers across the USA to decorate their back
yards, some converted to working order and others just there as a conversation
piece around the barbecue grill.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We got on famously, both in business and on a personal level
and spent a good number of hours together between warehouse and office putting
together whatever deals we could. I met his father who had many years of
experience in the woodworking machinery sector and there was little or nothing
he did not know about the machines, their tooling, and their many applications.
After my Yugoslavian cab driver experience, Richard kindly offered to drive me
to Newark Airport via a late afternoon / early evening meal in ‘a special part
of town’. “You’ll love it” he said, and how right he was. We talked more as we
drove through horrendous traffic, eventually parking up on a smart street of
large terraced houses with their entrances raised several steps above street
level, from which I assumed he was taking me for dinner at his house, to meet
his family, his friends, and maybe family pets. But no, not his family. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This was Little Italy and we walked into what felt like the
front door of someone’s home into a most fabulously intimate, family run, New
York Italian restaurant. It felt just like being on a film set. We were guided
to our table by a young man in his late teens, who took our drinks orders. Then
a thiry-something man took our starter order, and following that a man in his
late fifties took our main course order. Finally we were joined for a brandy by
the grandfather figure, a man who must have been in his eighties who smoked
like a chimney and entertained us with his gravelly but wholly assured voice
for a good half hour. Four generations of one family had attended to our table
in one way or another. So there was family, good food, warmth and respect, but
being where it was I could not help wondering how legitimately they had
developed their restaurant business! “You don’t ask” was Richard’s view. And
after that once-in-a-lifetime experience, Richard drove me to Newark Airport.
Except that when I arrived and looked at my tickets, I was supposed to fly to
Philadelphia from La Guardia! <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
I had a meeting in Philadelphia scheduled for 7am, so I
simply had to get there but by the time I could have arrived at La Guardia by
cab (with my cab experience earlier in
the day having not left a good taste), the Philly flights would all have left.
So I decided to drink a lot of coffee for a few hours, hire a car and drive the
three hour journey, finally arriving at my hotel there around 1am. It wasn’t
the greatest preparation for an important meeting with someone I had never met
before, but the Little Italy experience will live long in my memory. And the
Philadelphia meeting went well.<o:p></o:p></div>
S+H LLPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08820601488346441701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4258226739353924306.post-36132504204775065682013-09-27T10:05:00.002+01:002013-09-27T10:05:28.224+01:00TALES FROM THE ROAD 43 – SELECTING YOUR LOGISTICS PARTNERS<div class="MsoNormal">
Back in the late 1990’s I attended a series of Export Club Breakfasts
hosted by East Lancashire Chamber of Commerce (great bacon butties!), whose
offices were conveniently located opposite where I worked. A key northwest
freight forwarder attended almost every event, and I had used their freight
forwarding services in a previous life shipping machines to North America.
Although this time around their business profile did not match what I was then
looking for, I remember thinking that some logistics companies are good at some
things, experienced in shipping to specific regions of the world, but none of
them can do everything. And so it set in motion a train of thought and action
to find the right companies to ship our floorcovering products across the
length and breadth of Europe. And I have since recommended that particular
forwarder to a number of my clients. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
During the process, I contacted nearly 50 freight
forwarders, all of whom offered a range of services into Ireland and mainland
Europe, which was my key focus. I was very clear about what I wanted to
achieve: competitive rates both DDP and FCA, based on an up to date weights and
dimensions chart and quantity breaks; genuine quick service, both in terms of
collection and delivery times and in response times to our frequent needs;
minimal transhipment between the forwarders and their overseas partners; and a
list of where they offered direct services and where they relied on partner
companies. I received 23 replies, and shortlisted 12 to go and visit so that I
could fully understand the services they could provide for us.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It was an enlightening and productive exercise that resulted
in the selection of five freight forwarders: a prime forwarder to carry product
throughout Germanic Europe, to transport goods to Turkey via Trieste, and
specifically to ship to the growing
number of EU outlets of a global car rental company; a second to handle all
shipments to France; a third for Spain; a fourth to service the market in the
Republic of Ireland; and finally a specialist forwarder based in the east of
Germany whose experience was critical to for shipping goods efficiently into
Russia. In learning about the strengths and weaknesses of each company, we were
able to achieve almost all of our objectives, and to be sure of the cost of the
transport element to each shipment. Our forwarders became longstanding partners,
and everybody won from the arrangement.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The company that we worked with to ship goods to Turkey
partnered a Turkish freight forwarder who owned a share in the Trieste to
Istanbul ferry. This mean that our goods were shipped straight to Italy to meet
the sailings to Istanbul, which at the time cut the journey time by three days
from the standard ten day overland journey time via Romania. Both parties were
very active in trying to ensure that they handled our shipments efficiently and
two of their key Manchester staff had long experience in dealing with shipments
to and from Turkey. We met in Manchester and Istanbul for annual reviews, and
we rarely had any issues in shipping goods to what was then our most important
export market.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The arrangement between us, and the price points that we
agreed, enabled us to provide to the global car hire company with an annually
reviewed fixed euro price for the supply and shipment of our products to their
multiple sites across Germany, into France, and Switzerland, and also provided
a platform on which we could help them to expand their business around Europe.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The company in eastern Germany had deep experience of the
various border issues, and at that time this was vital in ensuring the swift
and safe shipment of goods into Russia, and they also had a regular presence
here in the UK. The delays that could occur at the Russian border for companies
whose documents were not up to standard, with the correct certifications, and
in the right format could be quite lengthy, so it was important to work with a ‘known’
forwarder who would cut through all that. The French, Spanish, and Irish
forwarders were by comparison a breeze!<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Looking back now, I realise that the whole selection process
was probably too laborious and long-winded. However it was worth it and had a
number of positive knock-on effects: our warehouse staff got to know schedules
of the truck drivers, and orders were invariably ready for immediate loading;
the documentary process was seamless, even when we were dealing with orders
against Letters of Credit; transit times were as good as we could hope to
achieve; information on local delivery conditions was advised to the drivers so
that the right size of truck was used when access was difficult or restricted;
we got a good deal, our shippers got a good deal and regular business, and our
prices remained sharply competitive. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
So why not include as part of your market entry plan an
appraisal of the costs and efficiencies of freight forwarders who service your
selected markets? <o:p></o:p></div>
S+H LLPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08820601488346441701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4258226739353924306.post-58441444353711285192013-09-20T16:19:00.005+01:002013-09-20T16:19:57.799+01:00TALES FROM THE ROAD 42 – CHECK YOUR DOCUMENTS - YOU KNOW IT MAKES SENSE<div class="MsoNormal">
As an exporter there is only so much that you can do to try
and ensure that your goods and services are being distributed by your overseas
selling partners in a correct way. We British are mainly very good at following
the rules, where we know they exist! We are fortunate to have long-established
procedures, with English law being the bedrock on which most countries’ laws
are built, with London still regarded as one of the world’s key financial
centres, and with UK Customs being one of the most efficient customs
authorities. We have a good understanding of procedure and documentation, and
the importance of doing things “the right way”. In the time I have been running
my own business, and for sixteen years before that when I worked in export
roles in different market sectors, my worst payers and most troublesome
projects have not been in distant or difficult overseas markets, they have been
here in the UK! I believe that is mainly because our regulatory framework and
our attitude to compliance is generally good when it comes to trading outside
of our own country.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I recall a container load of second hand and reconditioned
woodworking machinery being prepared for shipment to Ghana back in the
mid-1990s. As the consignment was being inspected in the works yard by SGS, the
Ghanaian customer’s British based friend arrived with a Ford Transit engine and
four double mattresses that he had been instructed to load into the container.
No paperwork, no goods value. Just stuff to add to the load. Well tough! Our
documents had already been prepared and it would have frankly been a pain to
alter them all at such short notice for this ‘afterthought’, so we declined to
load, and it was left for me to explain to the customer’s representative why. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That might seem a bit harsh, but as an exporter it is vital
to maintain the integrity of any shipment. It is the exporter’s responsibility
to ensure that what is shipped complies absolutely with the documents it is
shipped against. Our inspections services, HM Customs, and overseas Customs
offices are going to spot significant discrepancy between the two. Then you are
likely to experience delays to your consignment, possible demurrage charges or
fines. It is probably simpler to comply than to default. And be in no doubt
that it is not possible to pass on the responsibility to a third party, such as
your freight forwarders, because the responsibility is yours.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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There was another instance where a competitive European
company shipped a large machine to the USA, where its value had been
under-declared on the invoice. It probably would have passed through the system
un-noticed but for the fact that the container in which the machine was carried
was dropped as it was unloaded from the arriving vessel. And that led to a
scrutiny of the load, delays to its onward shipment, and eventually significant
fines being levied against the manufacturer that pretty well finished their
business. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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I recall two other examples where goods had arrived at their
ports of destination in Saudi Arabia where the load was found to be discrepant
with the documents. The first is funny, largely because it happened to a
competitor of mine in the carpet industry who I didn’t especially like! They
supplied a container load of bitumen backed carpet tiles for collection by
their distributor in the Kingdom. The container was on the high seas for nearly
three weeks, and then at the port for a couple of days before it was
inspected…in the height of summer! If it was 40+ degrees outside the container,
it boggles the mind to wonder what the internal temperature must have reached.
And when the doors were finally opened, the top layers were a mash of melted
bitumen and carpet fibres. Try checkcing that against documents!<o:p></o:p></div>
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The second example could have happened to me, so I will
recount it less flippantly. I was due to ship six pallets of carpet tiles to
Saudi Arabia for a one-off project – we rarely had any significant business
there. Our distributor was a very tall German guy called Manfred, who I
collected from the airport early in the morning after a late night out with our
somewhat suspect Irish distributors. Manfred explained exactly how he wanted
the pallets and boxes labelled to ensure that any delays due to inspection at
the port in Saudi Arabia were kept to a minimum. I followed his advice to the
letter, and the consignment smoothed its way through to its final destination.
And what it taught me is that clarity both in your documents, and in whatever
identifies your physical goods on the outside of the boxes or pallets, will
minimise delays and maintain the profitability of your international orders.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<br />
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Since then, we have had both Lockerbie, 9/11, and a range of
other terrorist-based scares and incidents, resulting in increasing and largely
necessary pressures on businesses to secure their supply chains. The EU’s Authorised
Economic Operator (AEO) and the equivalent CTPAT in the USA have been
introduced to create an international trading community of ‘trusted operators’,
where every link in an AEO’s supply chain is examined and regularly reviewed to
ensure that they merit their trusted operator accreditation. That is the way
the world is going, with most Customs authorities already complying to the
principles of AEO even if they do not yet have a formal system in operation. If
you would like to know more about AEO and how it might benefit your business,
either as an exporter or an importer, please do not hesitate to call Strong
& Herd LLP. Meanwhile, taking just a little care to get your documents
right for every shipment will ensure that you don’t incur unnecessary delays
and charges. <o:p></o:p></div>
S+H LLPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08820601488346441701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4258226739353924306.post-51790124688528421472013-09-17T09:37:00.002+01:002013-09-17T09:37:42.439+01:00Around the world in...219 days pt 2 - A different Turkey than seen in recent news<div align="center" class="Standard" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
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<o:p> </o:p>My first reaction to the
international news headlines about the unrest in Turkey is one of shock. I think
back to the very start of my journey in September where I traveled through the
south and west of a country that is occupied by some of the nicest and most
hospitable people in the world.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Arriving at Antalya airport, I met
a school friend with whom I would travel for the next month, and attempted to
negotiate the route to our first hostel in the old town area. The first thing
that struck me on leaving the surprisingly ornate airport was the heat. It was
already dark but the air was hot and humid as we got on our bus. With little
English spoken, it was difficult to find the old town and our own vague
directions didn't help. Fortunately, everyone we met genuinely wanted to help
and pointed in a vague direction if they weren't sure, and with the old town
streets resembling a maze and the main point of reference being a broken
minaret, it was hardly surprising when they didn't know!<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>First look at a new world: Old Town Antalya</i><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="Standard">
<br /></div>
<div class="Standard">
It was my first time in Asia and
also the first time that I have visited a predominantly Muslim country, so it
was initially strange to hear the calls to prayer from minarets across the
city. I quickly felt it was a pleasant sound and nothing else would seem
fitting here. We traveled on a bus trip around various sights in the area and
saw rich and perfectly preserved heritage left behind by the Romans but also
possibly the worst town in the world. Side was built by slavers with a
reputation for extreme cruelty and described as 'the worst people in the
world'... maybe not much has changed! From the lack of anything uniquely
Turkish to the hordes of European tourists, it was an overpriced, generic
coastal town that could have been anywhere in the world.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="Standard">
Travelling north on one of the many
excellent public buses, I realised we were the only foreigners, and definitely
the only English speakers, on the bus. This was surprising to me as it was such
a good service and remarkably cheap, especially considering that petrol prices
are the highest in Europe. As the only foreigners, the conductor made special
efforts to make sure we had everything that we needed and generally made us
feel very welcome, which seems to be the Turkish way.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="Standard">
I was amazed at how laid back the
country is. Everyone is relaxed and helpful even in the absence of a common language,
nobody rushes and I was quite content to sit by the street in the old town with
tea and a shisha! It was nice to get away from the tourist coast and see some
of real Turkey, and I found it difficult to get excited about going to the
other places on my trip because I really just want to continue exploring the
less known parts of Turkey. The only real issue that we was due to a delayed
dolmus (minibus) that was to take us to the bus station, although after some
fairly robust driving we made our connection with about 30 seconds to spare!<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="Standard">
<br /></div>
<div class="Standard">
We finally made it to Istanbul
after a 9 hour bus ride from Izmir and an encounter with the only unhelpful
person in Turkey (another dolmus driver). Istanbul is utterly amazing. I knew
it was a big city but it is difficult not to be in awe at how massive it really
is. We were there for 3 days and I think we would have needed months to fully
explore and understand it. It seems fitting that a city so vital throughout
history remains so important now, and as the only city that spans two
continents it seems to go on forever. It is easy to think of Istanbul as the
capital of Turkey as it is the city we hear the most about in the media and it
is far more accessible to Europe. However, the much revered Ataturk moved the
capital to Ankara in 1923 where the headquarters of his resistance movement was
based.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="Standard">
<br /></div>
<div class="Standard">
I found the city to be as lively as
I had read. Everything seemed to be on sale in the bustling bazaars which were
alive with the sound of haggling, a skill that as an Englishman I had to
develop rapidly! I also found that the only way to walk on Turkish streets is
to just keep walking and someone else will probably get out of your way. This
is what the locals do so no matter how hair raising, I felt it was worth a try.
The system of traffic and pedestrians seems to work although I have absolutely
no idea how.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="Standard">
<br /></div>
<div class="Standard">
The Turks are a lively and
emotional people, most clearly evident when it comes to football! During my
stay in Istanbul, it happened that Galatasaray were playing my team, Manchester
United, and despite this being an away match the streets around the Galata
tower were packed full of fans singing and shouting as if they were at the
game. Any event in the game was greeted with excited cheers or howls of
derision, especially when it came to refereeing decisions, and as United scored
I decided that I definitely would not admit to being English.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="Standard">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="Standard">
So I have been particularly
saddened by the recent unrest in the country as I found the Turkish people to
be so welcoming, laid back and friendly. A walk through Taksim square, which
has been the centre of the problems in Istanbul was a peaceful, pleasant
experience only 6 months ago and I hope that the problems can be resolved as
soon as possible.<o:p></o:p></div>
S+H LLPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08820601488346441701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4258226739353924306.post-11928317471775422432013-09-13T16:06:00.000+01:002013-09-13T16:06:00.594+01:00TALES FROM THE ROAD 41 – A QUEEN, A BAT, AND SOME ANGRY DUTCH SEPTUAGENARIAN BOWLERS:<div class="MsoNormal">
I got all the good jobs. When I was selling carpet tiles
internationally my focus was occasionally taken away to help out some of my UK
colleagues whose product specialisms occasionally took them into foreign lands.
And at times I had a great time doing it as a distraction from square things
and office interiors. But sorting out problems that others had either not
wanted, or not been able to resolve, soon became a large part of the
distraction!<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Our sister company manufactured sports surfaces, and one of
their main product lines was fibre-bonded textile surfaces for indoor bowls,
with their main customers being bowls clubs in the Netherlands who we sold to
via a very capable distributor. Our Special Products Manager, a good friend and
first class sales person took me to meet the distributor and some of the bowls
surface customers, and on that visit it became evident that there was a
possible technical problem with one of the recently delivered ‘mats’ (a ‘mat’
being about 4 metres wide and the length of a sports hall!). It was ‘pilling’,
meaning that some of the fibres were coming away from the backing, so we agreed
that we would look into the production for that batch and if necessary replace
the affected mat.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
To cut a long and boring story necessarily short, a
replacement mat was despatched some weeks later after the Technical Manager and
his team had investigated the problem in-house and checked previous production
parameters. Shortly after that there were a number of calls from different
Dutch bowling clubs to report both a similar, and a different problem with the
new surfaces. As ‘Muggins’ here travelled regularly through the Netherlands, I
was sent to assess their complaints. There were three main complaints: pilling,
dimensional instability, and the deposit of a glue-like substance on the
bowling woods and shoes of the club members. And I don’t know if you have ever
been confronted with a squad of septuagenarian and octogenarian bowling club
members whose days and weeks are completely dedicated to bowling perfection,
cups of tea, and little else, but I can tell you it is neither a pretty, nor a
quick experience!<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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My first ‘solo’ return visit seemed to go quite well. It was
obvious to me (and to everyone apart from our Technical Manager) that there was
too much latex holding the fibres into the backing, hence the glue-like deposit
(“…and are you going to replace my shoes Mr. Reed?”said one lady in a hat
brandishing a stick), and that the latex was not of sufficient consistency to
hold all of the fibres in place on the mat. However, I had no explanation to
offer for the dimensional instability. Surrounded by then by a group of
increasingly happy if intimidating amateur sports boffins, I was pleased and
relieved to be offered a cup of tea and a tour of the trophy room. Bizarrely, above
the exit door to the club room was an autographed cricket bat, signed by the
Nottinghamshire cricket team. They didn’t play cricket at the bowling club and
none of them had ever seen a game, but they were nevertheless very proud of
their bat!<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Following my visit two further batches of bowls mats were
despatched, both with similar and different problems! And as someone who likes
to live up to my promises I took it upon myself to stand at the end of the
production line when the further replacements were being manufactured, checking
the job sheets and weighing and measuring the rolls after they had been off the
machines for a period of time. But even that sterling effort failed to prevent
a recurrence, and the bowlers were rightly beginning to demand their money
back.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I was due a further sales visit into France and Belgium so I
asked the Technical Manager to fly into Schiphol Airport where I would collect
him and take him to some of the complaint sites. Time for him to take some flak
for a change. He finally admitted that with the old production machinery we
used it was impossible to achieve the level of consistency that was required by
the bowling clubs, and eventually the product ceased to be. I left it for him
to resolve outstanding matters with the Dutch bowling community. So on a Friday
in the middle of a hot, late Spring afternoon, we started our journey (or
escape) towards the Channel Tunnel, only then to find that every route we tried
out of the Netherlands was gridlocked. It turned out that the following day was
Queens Day and that the good people of Holland were all aiming for the places
where they normally celebrate this public holiday.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Even though Queen Beatrix was born in January, the official
Queen’s birthday had remained on 30<sup>th</sup> April which her Mother Juliana
had established even though her birthday is in September. And now that Queen
Beatrix has abdicated in favour of her son Willem-Alexander, it may be the
Queens Day has had its day or maybe needs to be renamed! That aside, it took us
four and a half hours to find our way out of the country en route to the
Channel Tunnel and a long drive back to Accrington. So as well as learning that
putting right a complaint from an international customer can be a time
consuming and costly process, I also learned that travelling on public holidays
can be both frustrating and unproductive. <o:p></o:p></div>
S+H LLPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08820601488346441701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4258226739353924306.post-70576788570823565482013-09-06T15:52:00.002+01:002013-09-06T15:52:30.593+01:00TALES FROM THE ROAD 40 – A DIFFERENCE IN APPROACH<div class="MsoNormal">
One of the defining moments of my international selling
career came during a five day woodworking machinery exhibition in Hannover in
May 1995. I remember the month, the hotel we stayed in, the Chinese restaurant
we went to, and a whole lot of other irrelevant detail that has frequently
reminded me of the importance of those few days. It wasn’t my first LIGNA Show,
nor would it be my last, and I went on to exhibit in the city many more times for
different companies over the years.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The company I worked for at that time was a distributor
and/or occasional re-seller for a number of woodworking machinery
manufacturers, with our main business being in the reconditioning of machinery
rather than selling new, and this Tale focuses on two of the manufacturers
whose products we frequently sold, Wadkin from the UK and Weinig from Germany.
It is a story of a different manufacturing approach that fostered a different
sales outlook both for their direct staff and for their selling partnerships.
It also goes some way to support my long held belief that the British are first
class innovators and engineers, excellent marketeers, but not such great sales
people - I love sweeping generalisations! <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Wadkin carried many of the hallmarks of British
manufacturing excellence, producing superbly engineered, rock-solid, durable,
and stable machinery, and had built its international reputation for machines
that rarely failed and always performed. Founded in 1887, they became the
biggest name in British woodworking machinery and certainly held that position
into the 1990’s. Their main product range was moulders, for making door and
window frames, skirting boards, picture and dado rails etc, but they also
manufactured table saws, drills, finger-jointers, and a wide range of workshop
machinery. While they made a number of products for stock, many of their main
moulding machines were tailor made to their customers’ specific requirements.
So in the main, they sold a machine and then made it.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Weinig was founded in 1905, and in the 1990s performed more
like an automotive manufacturer, and it is fair to say that by then they had
long overtaken Wadkin in terms of the international popularity of their
machines and service. They made similar machines of a similar quality to
Wadkin, engineered to German precision standards, but as they rolled off their
production lines it was the responsibility of their sales representatives and
global selling partners to just sell what they had made. So in the main, they
made a machine and then sold it! <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Throughout the LIGNA ‘95 exhibition, our stand was populated
by a mix of our own sales staff, representatives from our principal suppliers,
our customers, and a couple of crates of the taste of Manchester – Boddingtons
draught beer in a can (to quote one of our Australian customers “Jeez! They
even have instructions here on how to open the can!”). We were joined by a
group of Weinig’s US sales team , who
were warm, outgoing, and fun, but highly professional, and occasional
representatives from Wadkin, who were no less professional but reticent to join
in the camaraderie of the stand, and much less confident in the presence of
their competitors. The Weinig people were happy to share a drink with us where
the Wadkin people barely touched a drop and drifted on an off stand during the
show. There was not enough beer to get drunk on, just a gesture and an
alternative to orange juice. There was a confidence and warmth about the US
Weinig team that was lacking from Wadkin, and that is what influenced me the
most. Weinig’s confidence was not over-confidence bordering on arrogance. It
was confidence borne out of excellent training, product knowledge, and the
freedom of their sales people to make decisions. The Wadkin people were equally
knowledgeable and well-trained, and it struck me then that the best sales
people are those who are empowered to make those decisions and just get on with
the job of selling.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Back at the Queen’s Hotel on an evening where Wales versus
South Africa was televised in the Rugby World Cup, we were surrounded by Welsh
people, South Africans, the Australian still effusing the virtues of a can of
beer with the opening instructions on the can, and the Weinig US sales team who
were there to socialise with their international customers and selling
partners. Only one of Wadkin’s direct sales team had joined in the fun, and he
left early. The Weinig guys were continuing to get on with the job, getting to
know the people who both used and sold their machinery, building long standing
international business relationships, putting themselves forward as good people
to do business with, and engendering trust. The contrast in approach between
the two companies could not have been greater, yet their products were very
similar, and their customers pretty much the same.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So what did the experience teach me? Mainly that the process
of selling has essential operational and emotional ingredients. Our customers
need two things: the right product at the right price, and trust in the person
and company selling to them. So if your customer relationship is not right, you
may still achieve occasional sales when the product is right, but you will
struggle to sell to them on a regular basis.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is interesting to note that since 1995, Weinig has
continued to expand globally, growing both through the acquisition of other
European and US woodworking machinery brands, and by establishing overseas
offices in Australia , China and Japan, and by setting up a manufacturing
operation in China. Conversely, after
twenty years of struggle Wadkin finally went into liquidation in 2010 and their
intellectual property rights were purchased by a long established UK
distributor A.L.Dalton Ltd. of Nottingham. Which camp would you rather be in?<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
S+H LLPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08820601488346441701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4258226739353924306.post-4294021663629527532013-08-30T16:43:00.004+01:002013-08-30T16:43:27.253+01:00TALES FROM THE ROAD 39 – MEMORIES OF INDIA 1996 – PART 1<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It’s funny how one memory can spark a multitude of others. I
was looking back at a previous Tale and also at my writings from a ten day trip
to India back in 1996 (long before it was regarded as a BRIC!) when the cranial
sluice gates opened. So I thought I would share some of the memories that came from
that. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Bombay Airport was hilarious. It was after 1am when my
flight touched down, warm, humid, and well…crowded! When you travel a lot you
tend to do so in automatic much of the time. You know your passport will be
checked multiple times, your hand luggage scanned and sometimes inspected, and
that sometimes there will be gate changes (and in one case a flight crew that
failed to show up!) and surly officials. So my first memory as I came through
that process was of noise, and of hundreds of taxi drivers clamouring for your
business.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Then I was whisked to one side by a Sikh in a security
uniform and a big stick, who directed me to a taxi booth. He politely but
firmly explained this as being a measure to ensure that foreign visitors were
transported to their hotels by reputable taxi firms and that may have been
true, but there was also a suspicion that he may have been on commission. And
while I found all this rather fun, the Swedish guy I had left the plane with
was ashen faced, and clearly well out of his comfort zone. We were beckoned to
our respective taxis, with one man claiming temporary ownership of our luggage
in order to earn a tip, and another arguing furiously with a third who seemed
to think that I was his fare too! So I let them slug it out while the poor
Swedish guy was ushered towards another cab, looking like he thought he might
be being taken hostage.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The slugging carried on as I took my place in the rear of
the Ambassador cab, a little hunched with my head resting against the roof and
my legs stretched across both footwells, and eventually the third man lost his
battle and my driver calmly took the wheel and asked for my destination. “The Connaught
Hotel please” I replied, and horn beeping, we meandered through the hordes of
people and other traffic into the comparative silence of the exit road. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What followed next is an image that has never left me, for
two reasons: the image itself; and the fact that you cannot always entirely trust
your first impressions. The exit road was lined with poorly crafted shelters
and tents, and silhouetted in front of a fire was a lady sat in rags, with her
white teeth and eyes standing out against the darkness. It reminded me vividly
of a similar image from Michael Buerk’s BBC report from Qorum in Ethiopia as
the famine of the mid-1980’s struck so hard. And there it seemed to appear
again right before my eyes. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Poverty is a dreadful scourge, and as we drove on to my
hotel I could not help feeling shocked at what I had seen. Fast-forwarding to
my return to the Airport in daylight a few days later, those same shelters and
tents had transformed into shops and market stalls, where traders eeked out a
living. There is no doubting the poverty that remained, but it was somehow
reassuring to see that those same shelters had a commercial purpose as well as
being where their owners ate, drank, and slept. As we left the airport behind
that night the driver asked if I minded if he picked up a friend on the way to
my hotel. Accepting that the Swedish man might have considered this a murderous
kidnap plot I said that would be fine, but confess to a moment of relief when,
after about ten minutes in the pitch dark in front of what looked like a disused
factory, the friend appeared all smiley faced to enable us to continue our
journey.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I arrived at the doors of the Connaught Hotel to find a
doorman in full traditional dress, complete with Alibaba shoes and handlebar
moustache, beckoning me in his direction. After leaving yet another tip for yet
another chap who wanted to carry my luggage, and a tip for the taxi driver, the
doorman ushered me towards reception, and duly received a tip too. The check in
procedure was short and sweet, and I was soon in my room. Having seemingly
scattered tips around like confetti since I left the plane, I thought I’d
better check on my rupees situation, and found that I had given away in tips
the grand British Pounds Sterling equivalent of 12 pence. That will have made
me popular!<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
I had a short walk around the hotel and went for a drink in
one of the bars adjacent to which there was an Indian wedding in full swing,
and to my astonishment I was invited in to join the party. Well it would have
been churlish not to. The food was a fabulous mix of fresh fruit and
vegetables, and a whole menu of the most fantastically colourful, traditional hot
and cold dishes, and while the party went on until morning I took my leave
after an hour or so. That such opulence and wealth should live side by side
with extremes of poverty was a shock to the system, but one that I became
accustomed to, though never hardened to, as I travelled around the country. <o:p></o:p></div>
S+H LLPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08820601488346441701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4258226739353924306.post-74980624462732956722013-08-23T12:30:00.000+01:002013-08-23T12:30:04.832+01:00TALES FROM THE ROAD 38 – IT’S JUST NOT CRICKET <div class="MsoNormal">
At the risk of giving a second mention in these Tales to the
English Pub in Charlotte, North Carolina, thus inviting the impression that it
became a regular haunt during my travels there, this Tale starts with a much
needed beer after a very long day of training sessions and customer meetings.
One of the things I did regularly for our machinery distributors was to keep
them up to date with the latest features and innovations on our complex range
of high performance woodturning machinery, and that’s how we spent our
afternoon after an early morning driving into the Blue Ridge Mountains to visit
a massive saw mill complex. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The bar was relatively empty, and quiet. So we spent a while
reviewing our day and talking through what had to be done the next day. As we
prepared to leave, a BBC camera crew came in, straight off their flight and
with all their gear. So we got talking, and it transpired that they were there
to film a celebrity cricket match two days later, on the Saturday. And as
another Englishman abroad, I was given two tickets to join in the fun. The crew
only stayed for one beer, but in that short time I learned that celebrities
such as Tim Rice and Faroukh Engineer would be playing a big part in the day.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What I found astonishing was that the very English game of
cricket should show up in the middle of a country that knows precious little
about it, in a bar where my co-drinkers had largely never heard of the game! By
the time the crew took their leave, the bar had filled up with people dropping
in for a beer or two on their way home from work, many of whom were curious
about this charity event. As I was the only Englishman in an English pub run by
a Scotsman called Iain, I suddenly became the focus of their curiosity, and
those who planned to attend the match began to quiz me about this very English
sport.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I love the sound of cork against willow as the English game
is played out on village greens across the land, spectating from the safety of
a nearby country pub, but I’m afraid that is as close as I have ever really
been to the game of cricket. It was the enforced summer sport at school, but I
was either sent out to field in the boundaries where nothing ever happened, or
I found a way of skiving off for the afternoon! I also find that watching test
cricket can be therapeutic, although again my viewing has only ever been from a
distance, and mainly through a television screen.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
However, in the eyes of just about everyone in the bar that
evening, I was English therefore I would know everything about our national
game. So I got asked. The first question was from a rather bombastic,
opinionated man in a bright coloured checked shirt and a baseball cap, which
was simply “So how long does a game of cricket last?” My reply “it depends, but
anything up to five days” was greeted with booming derision “Jeez, five days?
You could die out there!” Not wishing to disappoint further, and with my tongue
loosening somewhat as more beer seemed to arrive gratis on the bar in front of
me, I decided the only thing to do was to blag it, and just tell them whatever
came into my head. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And so it went on, with cricketing terms like ‘googly’ and
‘bouncer’ being given definitions that had never before seen the light of day.
By the time I left the bar, my audience had grown confident with their new
found knowledge, and had started to really look forward to the rather eccentric
spectacle that was about to take place in their city. And eccentric it was!
Barrels of Bass Charrington beer had been shipped across from Blighty
especially for the event, where it was served at the traditional temperature and
described variously as ‘dish water’ and ‘something you would normally find for
free in a swamp’. For my part, I became a target for all those one-night
drinking buddies whose heads I had filled with erroneous cricketing definitions
in the English Pub. My contribution to their lives was to have introduced irony
and English humour which, after a few hairy moments, seemed to enhance their
experience!<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The day went off incredibly well: the sun was shining all
day; the marquees were filled with people dressed in blazers and boaters,
getting into the English spirit; and there were times in the late afternoon
when it really felt and sounded like a corner of England. You don’t forget days
like that.<o:p></o:p></div>
S+H LLPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08820601488346441701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4258226739353924306.post-29627661698325456722013-08-16T10:09:00.001+01:002013-08-16T10:09:22.072+01:00TALES FROM THE ROAD 37 – International Trade & Changing Technology<div class="MsoNormal">
Where would we be without them? The Internet, mobile phones,
laptops, Skype…the list is endless. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When I was selling machinery into the USA from 1992, I was
provided with a company AT&T card, whose 16 digit number I had to punch into
a payphone before then punching in a further 14 digits for the international
telephone number. At that time, I was still using Telex for some markets, and
fax machines were really coming into their own. Now I never fax. All this
started me thinking, so here’s a chronology of how new technologies have
changed the way I work. I’m sure at least some of it will sound familiar!<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>1992:</b> The
alternative to the AT&T card was the grossly expensive hotel landline. Most
of my calls back to the UK were on a reverse charge basis. At that time there
were still paper messages too – the message slipped under the door of your
hotel room or there to collect from reception. There is still something nice
about receiving a handwritten note.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>1994:</b> I had my
first car phone installed, but was warned that it was only for domestic
outgoing calls. The company Chairman was the one exception to this rule which
meant that he could service his overseas accounts in South East Asia more
easily than I could service mine in North America, West and Southern Africa,
and the Indian subcontinent. Unfair! At the time I was working with our
designers and a South African customer to design a door production line by fax,
and the detail of our respective sketches and drawings needed regular
explanation. This was also the age of the combined communication device,
providing phone, fax, copier and scanner in the same unit.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>1995</b>: In spite of
continuing painfully slow dial up connections, the Internet became a more
regular feature of my working life, when I realised its potential as a research
tool. CDs replaced floppy disks for storing data and computer backing up. I
could now send technical and marketing files on CD to my USA customers, so that
they could print our promotional leaflets locally. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>1997:</b> My first ever
mobile phone. I had started my job as Export Sales Manager for a carpet tile
company, where they were the norm, and it made me realise I had been working
back in the Ark for too long! It was also my first exposure to mass email. This
more forward thinking company had a web presence too and was already planning
further versions of its website. I was in my office one day shortly after
starting there, when I was bombarded with a barrage of simultaneous communication
from a number of different devices: several emails came through as a fax began
to transmit, and I had calls on my mobile phone and landline as one of my
colleagues dropped in for a chat. Welcome to the Internet age! <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>1999:</b> The
installation of my first genuine hands-free phone was invaluable for those long
car journeys around Europe, and I finally got the point of texting! My company laptop
was always with me, and I was able to write up visit reports on planes, trains
and automobiles without having to send them to the typing pool. Empowering
salespeople to tap out their own reports caused the loss of secretarial jobs.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>2004:</b> My first
introduction Skype was one of those ‘why on earth haven’t I used this before?’
moments. It has saved a huge amount in communications cost over the years, and
my first regular free calls were to Brazil, India, and the USA. Skype didn’t
replace more conventional communication methods, but it has added an extra
dimension for international business. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>2005:</b> Skype video
demonstrated how technology can be used to retain and strengthen international
customer relationships. Video can never replace a face to face meeting but even
with the limitations of 2-D, it adds value in that you can see facial
expressions, distractions and some body language during a call. I also learned
the real value of Skype chat in confirming key points of a conversation, and in
copying & pasting chat into Word documents for later reference.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>2006:</b> The year I
was finally persuaded by friends to use social media! I did not see then what I
now realise about the importance of social media in international
communication. I was regularly using Linkedin by this time, but the Twitter
light bulb took a few more years to turn itself on. It was also the year where
I realised the implications of phone cameras for international exhibitors<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>2008:</b> I extended
the use of Skype in arranging a 2+ hour conference call with 18 associates from
12 different countries. Barring the occasional signal failure, causing the loss
of connection for one of the delegates half way through, it was a highly
cost-effective exchange of views and action points.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>2010:</b> Although I
think that multi-user video conferencing still has a way to go, mainly due to inconsistent
or insufficient signal, my first foray into this area helped to develop the
relationship between one of my customers and a newly appointed distributor in
Australia.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>2011:</b> I had a new
car phone fitted that included a number of new features including the talking
text! It’s a great innovation to be able to hear texts as you drive, but
preferably not in a Japanese-English voice, and I won’t go into the arguments I
now regularly have with my hands free voice dialling system about who I had in
fact intended to call - the car always seems to win anyway!<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
So whether you are a Luddite or a Geek, you need to be
prepared for what is next. It isn’t so much about using the latest
technological tool, more about optimising the mix of tools that is there. Technology
has had a staggering impact on the way we conduct international business. <o:p></o:p></div>
S+H LLPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08820601488346441701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4258226739353924306.post-35111687272401806992013-08-09T14:07:00.003+01:002013-08-09T14:07:56.545+01:00 TALES FROM THE ROAD 36 – THE IMPACT OF NATIONAL ELECTIONS ON INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS<div class="MsoNormal">
The timing of international sales visits can be affected by
so many things, and with most businesses doing most of their business between
February and early July and again between September and early December, they
naturally take into account the traditional holiday periods in the summer and festivals
such as Eidh and Christmas. It is important to be aware of the multiple
religious and cultural festivals that take place around the world, because if
you arrive in a country on a public or religious holiday you are likely to find
it very difficult to find people to do business with, often for several days as
people take additional holiday days to be with their families.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A mix of knowledge of the market that you travelling to and
good planning will help you to keep your business travel days to times when
your customers are most likely to give you their best attention. And that is an
easy thing to do. However, there are some events that can have a deeper and
longer lasting impact on our ability to do business internationally, and this
Tale focuses on a couple of incidences where my own business and those of a
client were affected by national elections. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The most recent of these occurred when I was helping one of
my clients to achieve the right technical certification for their products to
enter the US market. The company manufacture hygienic wall cladding and they are
relatively new to international business. They had received a number of good
enquiries from distributors and installers in both the USA and Canada, keen to
represent their unique products. However,
their ability to do so was significantly held back by the fact that the company
had not yet achieved the ASTM fire retardance standard. They had all the
necessary EU certification, for which the tests are probably more rigorous than
the ASTM tests, and therefore assumed that achieving ASTM would something be a
formality.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Their application was immediately rejected, and when they
asked me why I thought that was, I said ‘it will be the Presidential Election’,
which I don’t think they quite believed. However there was good reason for me
saying that The world had just come through the most serious economic crash
since the Great Depression of the 1930’s, and President Obama was seeking
re-election in its aftermath. A large part of his campaign focused on helping
manufacturers in the USA and in helping US citizens back into employment,
therefore anything that might get in the way of that, specifically competitive
imported products, was not going to be encouraged. Quite simply, it was
protectionism.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
My point was proven absolutely just weeks after President
Obama’s re-election, when my customer resubmitted their application and it was
immediately accepted. The trouble is, that by that time their potential
distributors had lost in the region of $70,000 of business because their wall
cladding had not achieved ASTM where competitive products did, and because they
had expended a lot of time and resource in trying to win that business they
were less than enthusiastic when my client approached them again with the
appropriate certificates in hand. The moral of that particular sub- story is
that you should not enter a new market until your certification is in place.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Back in the late 1990’s I was selling carpet tiles
throughout Europe, and at the time I was working with our distributor on a
project to supply new government offices in Budapest. The timing of
specification selling relies initially on the tendering process, and later on a
whole range of issues such as the progress of construction programme and the
continuing availability of funds. Everything appeared to be going well. Our distributor
had made several excellent sales presentations between late 1997 and early 1998,
and while we were almost certainly not in pole position to supply to this
prestigious project we were still in with a sporting chance. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A parliamentary election in May 1998 caused the whole
process to grind to a halt. For at least six months before the election, it
seemed that all budgetary decisions were put on hold, causing delays to the
progress of the project. We had to wait for several more months while the new
administration formulated its spending plans. In the end we failed to win that
business, although we believe we came a close second! However, we had expended
a huge amount of time and effort and cost in the process, and our distributor
had done at least twice the work that we had done. Accepting that even with
projects like this there are winners and losers, the prolonged process will
have sapped the resource of every one of the suppliers. That election created
uncertainty for the best part of a year.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So when you are formulating your five year plan for exports,
look carefully at each of the markets you are targeting and at the potential
impact of elections, and for that matter any other significant political
activities. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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S+H LLPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08820601488346441701noreply@blogger.com0