The Enquiry – Evaluating the Opportunity the Kipling Way

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. 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. 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. 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. 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: I have six honest serving men They taught me all I knew I call them What and Where and When And How and Why and Who 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. What? 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. Where? 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. 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. 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… Who? 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. 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. What? (Part Two) 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. How? 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? 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.

TALES FROM THE ROAD 51 – GUT FEELING IS NOT A MYTH

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. 

TORONTO AT DAWN APPROACHING CHRISTMAS - 2^ND DECEMBER 2013

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.

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.

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!

TALES FROM THE ROAD 50 – IT’S THE WAY I KLM!

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!

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!

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.

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.

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! 

Merry Christmas!

Strong  & Herd LLP would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year!

Dear Santa, all I want for Christmas is a working website.....

By Liz Ward of Virtuoso Legal
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 problems with credit card fraud. We re-drafted her terms and conditions and included new payment terms in accordance with the Distance Selling Directives. Her merchant services provider had insisted that she had professionally drafted terms, and the new systems for delivery and taking payment seemed to almost eliminate the problems. Job done! 

Well not quite.
 

A new website....

In summer Jenny decided she would have a new, re-freshed website ready for the Christmas rush. 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. In September, the website was beta tested, appeared to work ok and then went live on 1 October. Immediately Jenny saw problems. Orders dropped off a cliff edge and the new website was nowhere to be seen on Google – even when key words were used. Jenny’s old website was quite well optimised for certain key products.

It didn’t take long to get to the bottom of the problem of orders not going through. Customers simply couldn’t check out on the website. 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. Angry calls and emails to the developer ended up with no clear result; 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. A complete impasse resulted.
 

A business disappearing down the pan.....

By mid November, things had deteriorated to the point where he wanted more money to resolve matters and she was watching her business disappear down the pan. He threatened to sue for money owed and take her complete site down. She threatened to counter-claim for business losses.

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. Jenny had chosen her web developer because he had provided the lowest quote – and she simply signed his badly drafted terms of business. We’ve all done it.  However, as Red Adair famously said.....

“if you think going to an expert is expensive, wait until you’ve used an amateur.”

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 Dan for a full checklist that should help you agree proper terms and avoid problems arising between developer and client. 

9 Top Tips for Trading on the Internet

By Kim Highley of Virtuoso Legal

1. 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. 

2. Customers should be required to click on a button to confirm acceptance of all Terms and Conditions of Trade before they can place orders.

3. Always include a Copyright Notice on your website.

4. 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.

5. Consider registering domain names you may wish to use in the future for your online trading.

6. Web Transactions must comply with the Distance Selling Regulations therefore you must provide as a minimum –

• Information about the supplier and the goods/services should be supplied to the Customer in good time before contract is concluded.
• Notification of right to cancel goods/services within 7 working days with full refund.
•   Check that your returns policy complies with the regulations.

7. 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.

                 

8. 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.

9. 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.

RUNNING AN EFFECTIVE TRADE SHOW STAND A Case Study

During my international experience I have exhibited at trade shows in the USA, Europe, 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.

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.

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.

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.

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

·       Most visitors walk to the right on entering an exhibition hall and miss the front exhibits

·       Corner locations draw traffic from two directions

·       Visitors miss dead-end aisles

·       Spaces near exits, toilets and food areas are high traffic but not necessarily good selling positions

·       Spaces by freight/lift doors are usually congested

·       Structures such as columns can obstruct the visibility

·       Locating  near competition is not generally beneficial as they can view who visits your stand

·       Locating close to complementary products can encourage cross-selling opportunities

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.

·        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.

·         

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

·        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

·        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

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:

• Using lighting appropriately as it can increase awareness by up to 40%
• Keeping the displays simple, feature only one to two products
• Using bold colours
• Using fewer but larger graphics
• Using flowchart graphics and designs to depict product solutions
• Being proportionate, reception counters and other non-productive sales items will clutter space

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,

·                  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.

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.

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.

TALES FROM THE ROAD 49 – JUST A BED FOR THE NIGHT

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.

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.

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.  

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.

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.

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!!

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!

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.

TALES FROM THE ROAD 48 – SETTING THE EXPORT BALL ROLLING

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.

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.

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.  

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.

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’.

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.

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.

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!

MARKETING CONSUMER PRODUCTS OVERSEAS A Case Study

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, 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 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.

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.  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.

There is much evidence that trade marketing is either ignored or not followed through by many exporters. 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. Space prohibits a detailed examination of these activities but to endorse my message let me pose some rhetorical questions. 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?

.

Let me briefly describe two examples from my experience – the Middle East and West Africa.

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.

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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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.

TALES FROM THE ROAD 47 – SELLING DOESN’T HAVE TO BE A LONG PROCESS

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

9 Top Tips for Trading on the Internet

 

1. 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. 

2. Customers should be required to click on a button to confirm acceptance of all Terms and Conditions of Trade before they can place orders.

3. Always include a Copyright Notice on your website.

4. 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.

5. Consider registering domain names you may wish to use in the future for your online trading.

6. Web Transactions must comply with the Distance Selling Regulations therefore you must provide as a minimum –

•  Information about the supplier and the goods/services should be supplied to the Customer in good time before contract is concluded.
• Notification of right to cancel goods/services within 7 working days with full refund.
• Check that your returns policy complies with the regulations.

7. 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.

                 

8. 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.

9. 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.

By Kim Highley of Virtuoso Legal

TALES FROM THE ROAD 46 – STEFANO, SMOKES, & GRIGNOLINO

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!

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.

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.

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!

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.

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!