Yearly Archives: 2020

Over the years, I have seen small businesses being blurred by the expression “it’s all about the contacts!”. And so they would think that they really needed to find the person who had all these contacts and by magic it would give them a lead way into a new country or a market. To be honest, it always rings alarm bells, when a customer comes to me and tells me if he/she is about to recruit a senior person based in Europe that has all the required contacts.

2020 is a funny year as we all know. And when it comes to successfully exporting for small businesses, I can confidently say that Europe should still be on your radar. The last six months have been extraordinary for some of our Australian customers. And some of them have encountered incredible success, mostly because they are reaping the benefits of their consistent hard work in the European market, making them a reliable supplier for European customers, even during unpredictable times. 

2020 is a funny year as we all know. And when it comes to successfully exporting for small businesses, I can confidently say that Europe should still be on your radar. The last six months have been extraordinary for some of our Australian customers. And some of them have encountered incredible success, mostly because they are reaping the benefits of their consistent hard work in the European market, making them a reliable supplier for European customers, even during unpredictable times. 

There has not been a better time to sell smarter! This is my conclusion from the last months of being grounded in Australia and having my European team in lock-down for a couple of months, instead of visiting key European customers and partners throughout Europe.

There are two different levels of success in an overseas market, there’s a superficial level of success, initial leads, a few sales, a distributor has started selling in a given country for 50K$ of products. And on the other side of the scope, there is being truly successful in a market.

One of the reasons I love what I do at Exportia, is that I get to work on a daily basis with brilliant minds. Founders and CEOs of small companies (they are often both) are amazing to work with, they are passionate about their business. They inspire their team and they create a vision and direction for the business. This is why they often are the best person to articulate the sales pitch. They know precisely what problem their business is solving and they know what makes a person buy their product or solution.

Price is an element of the mix that is quite important when introducing a product into the European market. It will determine the level of profitability of this line of product for the years to come. I often have this debate with one of my customers, who is quite anxious to get early sales, but at the same time, his CFO and I keep telling him we don't want to discount. The CFO thinks of long term profitability and I just don't like to discount too soon and without a good reason. Here is why.

My world of export started with driving 10,000 km a month and through to doing a Paris/Frankfurt–Sydney flight once per month. That’s my export career in a snapshot. I started in this extraordinary industry 20 years ago and in that time, I’ve learnt a great deal. And that’s what I’m going to share in this article, but I also what I share in my books.