What are the challenges of international trade?
1- Human relations
You will deal with foreigners with cultural differences. In any interaction, there are contacts. Who says contact says human interaction, therefore for export, multicultural interaction. Plurality leads to ambiguity and ambiguity to doubt. Does doubt make it easier to close deals? No. You must therefore master the plurality of human diversity.
2- Preparation
First, you must pay particular attention to the purpose of your visits. Then plan and prepare accordingly. Identifying success criteria will help you decide which strategy to employ. The choice of your strategic positioning is important. There are techniques to learn for international negotiation. So be prepared.
3- My distributors that I like
Even if direct selling is possible, it implies the absence of your physical presence. So often you have to use intermediaries who ensure your presence in the local language and provide commercial and technical support. Also be aware that some markets have complex local management procedures and unfamiliar legal environments. Discover and learn method of distributors/agents selection.
4- The art of Showing up and story-telling
The challenge for a Disc Jockey is to heat up the room and never let it go. It’s the same for you. Recruit a good development manager for your target areas by focusing their efforts on supporting and motivating distributors or key account customers. Organizing training is an effective tool.
5- Cook with the right ingredients
Legal environment, contracts, customs, product delivery, satisfaction of end consumers, means of payment,
sales performance, marketing indicators, after-sales service, stock of parts…
You cannot know everything and control everything. Nobody can. Leave that to those who know. Recruit the right people. Like the best, you must master the art of knowing how to surround yourself.
6- Play it by ear
Internationally, the dream goal is to standardise. Each market will bring you its share of special requests in terms of products, services, options, prices… Be aware that standardization does not exist internationally, even if there is a trend towards it. So avoid standard agreements, because there is no standardized economic model.
7- Tutoring by an expert
Call an expert to support you, coach you, train you. Experience pays. The experts will help from time to time the process to succeed and look at the problems with a different angle.
8- Do iou spique angliche ?
Fun to listen to and try to catch accents and pronunciation everywhere. Do you speak english? This is a question that can be asked of all company employees. Understanding all “Brits” and else accents is the engine of the corporate communication capacity. Then you can recruit multilingual people. English is not the only language on this planet. it is estimated that there are almost 7000 living languages spoken on Earth.
9- The mind
Are you motivated and able to motivate others to take the road to unknown lands ? Take the leap!
“Sometimes you just have to take the leap and build your wings on the way down.”
Kobi Yamada
Happy CEO 