What is your sales strategy?
Potential agents or distributors will ask how you want to position your brand and approach the market. The better your plan, and the better your support, the more they will do for you. So you need to define your strategy in advance. And if you don’t have an export department yet, we can take this role upon us for you.
You sell fast moving consumer goods or basic products
The quickest way to sell is to get you on the shelves of major retail chains. These are not difficult to identify. The hard part is to get a meeting with the right purchasing manager and to convince him or her, or to find the right distributor who can do this. This requires a good presentation of your products, shipping options, pricing structure, brand positioning and support in marketing. For supermarkets and pharmacies you may have to pay slotting fees, which is a compensation for the retail chain for the risk they take in granting you shelf space. Your distributor mostly passes these costs on to you.We help you optimise your product presentation, we arrange the meetings with the right people and accompany you to overcome cultural differences. You only have one chance of presenting yourself.
you sell services or customised product
If you sell customised products or services, then you need an agent, who will sell on your behalf, in return for a commission. Agents can be individuals, as long as they have a good network in the relevant industry. But working with a company can bring you in touch with larger prospects. Working with an agent who provides complementary services may be a good option, but will often limit you to the agent’s customers. And in many cases he will promote his offering first, and only then your service.Even with online services it may be wise to appoint a local sales agent, especially if the sales process is relatively complex. The agent can provide implementation services or additional services. Be careful with granting exclusivity for a country or customer segment and also discuss what to do with the sales that you generate directly.
We will act as your local sales manager
Our business development specialist will be responsible for growing your business in the local area, just as one of your own people would do. Our advantage is that we don’t have to travel and know the market from within. You can hire us part-time, and for any commercial activity that you need.If the plan includes finding distributors or sales agents, we will arrange it. If your product needs to be visible online on local platforms in the local language, we will do so. If free publicity or visiting trade shows will help you sell, we will work on it. We report to the people in your organisation and we work strictly within the budget that we agreed upon. For major decisions, as the choice for a distributor, we may ask you to come over.
