Home > News
News
Your 2012 Resolution: Accelerate your sales through Trade Shows!
December 20, 2011As we meet SMEs on a regular basis, we often come across small business owners that are disappointed with the outcome of a Trade Show. The conclusion is always the same one: not enough preparation time.
Our sales focused organization is used to the Trade Show exercise and we regularly recommend our clients to launch their product range at major Trade Shows, but in a sales-efficient way.
Just having a booth at Trade Show does not mean you will be able to drive sales from it.
Over the years, the Exportia team has developed the “Perfect Trade Show recipe” and we are happy to share the main ingredients with you.
v Define your Objectives and Select the right trade show for your business
· Why do you want to attend a trade show?
· What is your objective?
· Can it be reached without going to a Trade Show?
· Should you attend as a visitor or as an exhibitor?
A trade show is a costly exercise. In some industries and/or countries, it is a must to enter the market, i.e.Germany.
Choose your Trade Show according to your target market of course! Make some research to make sure you have a good understanding of the Trade Show profile: Is it truly a European Trade Show or only local? Where do the visitors come from? Is it Business to Business or Business to Consumers oriented? See if the distributors your targeting are exhibiting.
If you decide to attend a tradeshow, you need to define what your goals are.:
- Do you want to launch a product in a new market?
- Do you wish to recruit new distributors or business partners?
- Do you want to support your distributors to increase sales?
Y You may also want to attend a trade show as a visitor only to gather some market information: who are the key players?...
v Prepare your participation in advance
Make sure you organize your meetings schedule 2-3 months in advance. This way you make sure the persons you want to meet have allocated some time to visit you.
In Germany particularly, allow at least 3 months for booking meeting at tradeshows..
Download the list of exhibitors from the Trade Show website, research about their core activity, size, and development strategy and prepare your pitch to them. If they are of interest, contact them early to introduce your company/product and arrange a meeting.
Contact any client established in the given country to announce your presence at the show and propose a meeting during or after the show.
v Be ready and creative!
To make the most of your tradeshow participation, make sure people visit you!
- Make your booth visible and attractive by organizing live product demonstrations, video
presentations, samples giveaway…
- Prepare some goodies, stickers… they will definitely attract the attention of your target market!
Talk to your clients in their own language:
- Think about gathering a selection of marketing collaterals that will support your product’s demonstration at the show: samples, brochures, banners… prepare them in advance as you may realize some tools need to be translated or adapted. Trust us it will make the difference if you can provide information in French to a French person!
Finally, don’t forget that you are there to gain some contacts:
- Gather information about everyone you have met or who have visited your stand.
- Collect business cards, organise a lucky draw, ask people to sign your visitor book or offer them to sign up to your newsletter…
- Some trade shows now offer tools to scan visitors details on the spot
v Follow-up to keep in touch with your leads
Now you are back home and happy to relax after an exhausting week at the Trade Show thinking you’ve done it all… Sorry to bring up the bad news but there is still a lot to be done!
Meeting prospective clients at a tradeshow is great but keeping in touch with them is even more important.
- Follow-up every enquiry one by one, this builds up your credibility. If you can’t do it straight away let the client know by sending a short note like “Thank you for the time at our booth, I will get back to you in the coming weeks about the requested information about our terms and conditions…”
- Keep in touch with those new contacts even if you haven’t signed any deal with them. Send them your newsletter or regular personalized emails just so that they remember you!
v Analyse the outcome of your Trade Show participation
Finally it is important that you measure your return on investment:
· What did you get out of your Trade Show participation?
· What are the positive outcomes (sales increase, number of leads…)?
· What could be improved? How?
· Did your participation meet your expectations?
This analysis will help you define your future strategy: should you attend other similar tradeshow or should you try some with a different target? Do you want to go back next year?
So who said organizing a Trade Show was as easy as ABC?
Exportia's new office in Sydney
December 07, 2011Due to continuous growth and increasing customer base in NSW, we have opened a new office in Sydney in addition to our existing one in Adelaide.
In order to always provide you with quality and tailored services, Christelle Damiens, Managing Director, has relocated to Sydney and Anaïs Berland, Project Manager, is based in Adelaide.
Please find below our updated contact details:
Exportia Australia - Sydney Office
Level 31, RBS Tower @ Aurora Place
88 Phillip Street
Sydney, NSW 2000
Australia
Phone: +61 2 8211 0471
Contact person: Christelle Damiens: +61 4 31 147 520
Exportia Australia– Adelaide Office
6 Todd Street
Port Adelaide, SA 5015
Australia
Phone: +61 432 086 535
Contact person: Anaïs Berland : +61 4 32 086 535
We look forward to continue helping your company succeed internationally!
Exportia Australia April 2011 Newsletter
April 21, 2011Read Exportia's April 2011 Newsletter click here
E-Commerce in France on the rise
March 17, 2011A recent report from French online journal ‘Journaldunet’ has identified the most recent trend in French e-commerce...
In 2010 E-Commerce in France has shown returned favourable growth after some decline in 2009. In 2010 FEVAD had counted 16,000 active e-commerce websites in France, which is a 29% percent increase of the previous year. The number of online payments has also grown by 31% to 12.7 million euros in the first half of 2010. The average online payment has grown by 4% to 93 euros, compared to 89 euros in 2009.
The growth rate of e-commerce for the first half of 2010 was the same rate as the first half of 2008 which was 2%, showing a return to positive growth compared to a 1.4% decrease in online trade in 2009. Research has also shown that there are 30% more buyers under 25 years of age and that 65% of internet users are now confident in buying online.
The total turnover of e-commerce in France has grown by 31% from 2009-2010 from a total of 73.5 million transactions. The French have spent 7.2 millions euros online in the first quarter of last year according to the ICE panel, an increase of 30% from the previous year.
Online technical good sales were expected to have reached 30 billion euros in 2009, a growth rate of 9.6% compared to 2008 sales according to GFK predictions. This is lower than the growth rate in 2008 which was 12.7%. Sales of electrical goods are estimated to represent 10% of the French market in 2008 according to GfK. Cultural and Leisure goods (books, CD, video-game software) are expected to reach close to a 12% increase, which is 600 million euros from the previous year. In 2006 and 2005 the top ten products purchased online were all cultural goods, with CDs/DVDs being the first, books the second and train tickets the third.
Data Source: http://www.journaldunet.com/cc/04_ecommerce/ecom_marche_fr.shtml
Selling High Tech Solutions to France
September 15, 2010
Is your expertise in the ICT, Medical, Biotech, Electronics, Cleantech and high-tech products or services?
Are you interested in exporting to Europe? Why not France?
The French-Australian Chamber of Commerce & Industry South Australia together with Exportia invite you to attend a free business breakfast on exporting to France.
Thursday 18 November 2010
7.30 am to 9 am
Business SA, 136 Greenhill Rd, Unley SA 5061
For more information about this event please contact Anais Berland on 08 8240 1688 (08) 8240 1688 begin_of_the_skype_highlighti end_of_the_skype_highlig or contact@facci-sa.com
Register today to discover how your business can advance in a huge international market!
What it means to be French
September 14, 2010French Connection
SALife invites seven French expats, including Christelle, who now call Australia home to talk about love, life and what it means to be French - Click Here to download this article.
In-Business Magazine catches up with Christelle Damiens
October 22, 2009In-Business Magazine catches up with Christelle Damiens, MD of Exportia, to talk about her passion for Exports, achievements and challenges in setting up and conducting a successful international business.
“Christelle is MD of Exportia, a specialist consulting firm she set up four years ago. With a focus on IT and high-tech companies, Christelle says many smaller Australian companies are surprised to find France is the fifth largest economy in the world, offering tremendous opportunities for the right company” – read more here.
Nomination French Foreign Trade Advisor
August 18, 2009In July 2009, Christelle Damiens, Director of Exportia, has been appointed by the Prime Minister of France to the position of French foreign trade advisor in Australia (Conseiller du Commerce Extérieur de la France).
French Foreign Trade advisors are appointed for a period of three years by decree of the Prime Minister following the submission from the Foreign Trade Minister.
For 110 years, their role has been to promote French overseas trade, to advise the French government in this matter, to share their expertise about foreign trade notably with Small and Medium Enterprises, and to encourage international careers among young professionals.
View more on CCEF's website.
