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Export services to Europe | Europe – All in One

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Your Exports to Europe – All in One

If you are interested to develop exports to Europe, Axis Blueschild are the specialised export consultants for the European markets. We offer a new, unique service called “Exports Europe – All in one”. With this service package we support our clients in their export development in currently 17 important markets of West and South Europe through one partnership.

Complete service for your exports to Europe

With our innovative export service solution you dont´t have to search and to manage representatives in every European market. Your company will develop exports to European markets with one partnership with Axis Blueschild.
With our export service for the European markets you minimize development time, development costs and administration costs.
We operate in each European market with our local teams, securing market development from the inside. This means that we operate close to buyers and consider on local market characteristics. With our market development from inside we increase performance and prospects of success for your exports to European markets.

The challenges in developing exports in Europe

Europe remains to be fragmented. Each European market has its own language, habits and business culture. So a customised approach is rquired. We overcome this barrier by operating in each market with our local teams, who know their market and how to develop business there efficiently.
At the same time by coordinating all markets within one project, we are able to create important synergies in sales development and logistics. These synergies can make the difference when it comes to a profitable export operation in the European markets.

Seated in Germany the economic heart of Europe

Axis Blueschild started in 2010 from Düsseldorf in Germany. We provide our services for your exports to Europe from the heart of Europe as Germany remains to be the strategic hub for business in Europe. With vast experience in export development we take care of a professional approach of European buyers.
Moreover when you make in Germany, the development of the other European markets will become much more easier, as Germany is a strong reference for all other markets in Europe.

Making your brand known in Europe

We are neither mediators nor we act as agents. At Axis Blueschild we operate under your brand as your export department. By this model we create brand awareness for you and all business relationships are directly connected and owned by you. We don’t create a unprofessional dependance. Even if you decide at some point to proceed with a different market development model, all common achievements up to this point are controlled by you and can be developed further.

Axis Blueschild – key account project management

Cooperating with Axis Blueschild you have one partner to communicate with. With a personalised service you will monitor together with your Axis Blueschild project manager buyer feedback, lead generation and sales development in each European market. The coordination and monitoring of our local teams is managed by us. This minimises for you the day-by-day work for overlooking so many markets. All teams are executing works on the same standards and specifications.

Exports to Europe need persistence and patience

For sure you cannot expect quick shots in European markets. All markets are mature with high level of competition. For developing sustainable business it takes systematic, recurrent and persistent communication with prospects. In our projects the very first goals is to become connected with the right people in the prospect organisations, to put your company on their radar and to persistently work on getting the chance for starting a cooperation.

The key for your exports to Europe is your export pitch

The success is strongly depended on your export pitch and on efficiently communicating your Unique Selling Points. As stronger they are as better the chances. We support our customers to develop a strong, appealing export pitch. As you know buyers are receiving many cooperation proposals every day and they don’t open them. So the challenge is to find a way to open the door. We achieve that combining a strong export pitch with a personal, systematic and professional approach.

Minimising export development costs

Our innovative service allows to achieve important synergies in project operation. For you it means significantly reduced costs for developing your exports to Europe. You save a huge budget and time for developing cooperations in each European market.

Why Axis Blueschild for your exports to European markets

At Axis Blueschild we are specifically strong in the European markets. For more than 10 years we support customers from abroad in the development of their exports to Europe. Our expertise covers consumer goods and industrial products as well.  With Axis Blueschild you get export teams in the main European markets from day 1.

Contact us for further information!

Exports to Germany

1080 720 Bosnakis Ioannis

How to develop
exports to Germany?

Germany is the key market for exports to Europe. Having developed business in Germany the next step for extending exports to other European markets is much more easy.
At the same time Germany is a very mature and competitive market with very specific characteristics. Therefore there is no chance to develop exports to Germany by distance.

So how to develop business in Germany?
Axis Blueschild is a leading consulting company in export development and internationalisation of business. We support companies from abroad to develop business in Germany and the European markets.
Cooperating with us you become present in Germany and will develop business from inside. We know the market and we know its business culture. With our local expertise you can multiply your sales development performance.

DACH markets: 3 markets at once!

When considering to develop business in Germany, in practice it means to develop THREE markets at once. Germany, Austria and Switzerland, they so-called DACH markets, are not only german-speaking markets, but strongly connected. Most of the German companies have affiliated companies in Austria and Switzerland.

Selective buyer approach

German buyers are overwhelmed with hundreds of mailings and cooperation proposals every day. In consequence, they won’t even read them. So, if you try to develop business with generic mailings the chances for success are zero. What to do instead: research and select few, best fitting prospects.
Starting a new project we define together the best strategy for entering the German market. In a next step we research, evaluate and select carefully the best fitting prospects. By selective buyer approach we maximise the performance of lead generation and save time and costs.

We are not agents,
we develop your brand in Germany

We are not mediators. We develop business in Germany under your name acting as extension of your export department. All contacts and relationships are directly connected to your company and owned by you. When communicating with buyers in Germany, Austria or Switzerland we present ourselves with your brand.
This makes the development sustainable. You don’t risk to lose the developed business in case you would stop our cooperation.
We don’t want to force you cooperating with us, we rely on our performance!

We work exclusively for you
in the German market

As we approach buyers under your name, we never work for competitive products at the same time. It cannot work to communicate with the same buyer for more than one company. This means for your exports to Germany we will in your product category exclusively for you. This proves that we are fully committed to the success of our projects.

Don’t expect quick shot business,
a No is the start of communication

The German market is definitely not a case for quick shots (which markets are?). Nobody is waiting for your company and there are hundreds of competitors fighting to get into the market. The German buyers have stable relationships and for listing a new supplier it takes time and patience. Exports to Germany are not an one shot logic. A No from a buyer is not the end, but the beginning of the communication! In the first approach, 90% of buyers will say “Thank you, not now”. Though they will evaluate a persistent and consistent follow up and at the end you will get your chance to step in!

 

If you are interested to develop sales in Germany, contact us to learn more about our services!

Export outsourcing services – minimise your export development costs

1080 607 Bosnakis Ioannis

Axis Blueschild
export outsourcing services

Minimize
export development costs

Did you ever consider on export outsourcing services?
Success in exports can change your company and shift it to a new business level. Though the problem is that to operate a fully organised export department is a huge investment and takes time.

Axis Blueschild provides an innovative solution for outsourcing your export operation. This way you eliminate investment costs and you minimise the operation costs for developing exports.

What are the benefits?

1. Get rid of investment costs

A complete export department cannot become established in a day. For example, recruiting export professionals takes time and costs, which you save by outsourcing your export department to us. Especially companies which intend to start exports from scratch will save all the investment cost.

2. Reduce operation costs by more than 70%

You won’t achieve results in exports with a department of 1-2 people. Export development needs a mix of high expertise. Moreover, works of very different qualification levels have to be executed. In consequence a complete export department to perform requires high fix operation costs. The export outsourcing service of Axis Blueschild minimises these costs.

3. Export development expertise

At Axis Blueschild we support companies in their export development for more than ten years. We do this with teams of highly qualified professionals with vast experience in international business development.

4. Allow your export director do his job

Your export director should be focused on handling export customers. By outsourcing exports to us he gets rid of all lead generation works. This allows him to deal all day with developing sales with your current customers.

5. Speed up export development

We start in no time with working on new leads.

6. Branding

We are not agents, but we act as your department. When communicating with prospects we operate under your brand. Moreover all contacts are directly related to your company, which means you have the ownership at any time.

7. Become present in the markets abroad

We operate in more than 50 markets worldwide with local teams. This means that cooperating with us your company becomes present in the markets.

How to build a premium brand?

Bosnakis Ioannis

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How to build a premium brand?

For a premium brand everything is easy.
Business partners are eager to cooperate, customers buy your products at high prices and feel happy about it and competition is not an issue.
So the question is, how to become a premium brand? Is it about great marketing or to have the best products in the market? Can every business become a premium brand?

A good product is not enough for a premium brand

Let’s start with products or services.
It is simply impossible to create a strong brand on weak products. A strong brand evolves always from exceptional products. On the other hand, a good product is not guarantee for success. Thousands of companies have become bankrupt, although they had exceptional products. And by experience, a premium brand does not mean necessarily to have the best product in the market.

Value vs Desire

Customers and companies very often seem to follow a “good value for money” logic. But what does this mean? In the end, good value for money can be translated, products to be relatively cheap and a good catch.
A premium brand never will use the good value for money concept. Would you ever consider a Louis Vuitton bag to be good value for money?
The key in premium branding is not to be perceived as good value, but to create DESIRE.

Desire is a feeling, which has to be beat logic. Customers know very well that premium products are overpriced, but they feel great buying them. Premium products are not about characteristics and specifications, but about a story. A story which is able to create the right pictures in the head of the customers and to stimulate strong emotions.

How appealing is your story?

When companies are trying to build a premium brand the use to make the mistake of, either to focus on the product characteristics or on advertising. They are missing the story to tell.

Customers buy premium products only for the story! There is no exception in that. And there is no product or industry, where a strong story is not generating added-value.
Talking about premium brands people use to think of consumer products, but this is not true. You will find premium brands in medical services, leisure and entertainment, architecture and construction, even in industrial goods!

The thing about the story is that it has to be appealing and consistent. And the story has to be communicated in the right way and in the right place. And there is one more important thing: the story must be true! If you try to make up your story, customers sooner or later will find out.

Premium environment for premium brands

The environment is everything. Is is about where you advertise, where you sell your products, where you meet customers and business partners.
It is surprising how often companies are eager to sell their products to wholesalers and distributors , without to examine the points of sales. Wrong placement of your products can damage your brand in no time! And once this happened it is almost impossible to achieve a relaunch. Of course the placement has to be in correlation with the products and the promotion. To get this triangle into a good balance is a difficult act.

The storyteller

The crux is, most of the entrepreneurs are not good storytellers. They can talk for hours about their products and services, but no story there. No desire comes up. This is the explanation for why many companies with good products fail to become premium or even fail at all. To become premium you need to work on your story and then to communicate the story in the right way.

Communicate, communicate, communicate

If nobody knows about you, the good story is worthless. A premium brand generates high profit margins, but at the same time it needs to invest in premium, intensive communication.
All companies know exactly what money they have spent for their production equipment. If you ask them about the marketing budget, many of them have no clear answer. They consider production equipment as investment while marketing costs as expenses. This is not the right mindset to build a strong brand.

Premium branding requires exceptional products, a good story and most important, the company needs to be ready to invest sufficiently in marketing, generating awareness and communicating the story. This triangle needs to be in an optimal balance and to be operated persistently. To become a premium brand is never a one-night success. As in all aspects of business, you first have to be absolutely committed and to invest before you can harvest results.

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Export to European supermarkets – the challenge

Bosnakis Ioannis

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Export to European supermarkets
– the challenge

For many FMCG products the most important channel in the foreign markets is the retail channel, as in many markets the super market chains are controlling more than 80% of the total business volume.
Most of the companies which focus their export efforts on the retail business, underestimate completely the entrance barriers and at the end spend a lot of money without any final result.

What you should before starting to approach retail clients:

Time to agreement 

The process of achieving a cooperation agreement with a retail chain, even if everything goes well, takes time. You have to calculate at least 12-18 months before a cooperation agreement is signed.

Process Milestones

The process with a supermarket chain is quite standardized and predictable, with specific milestones. Don’t hope for shortcuts.

Timing

A supermarket chain is not ready to list new suppliers when you are! Depending on their current agreements, they may have specific time slots to consider on new suppliers. Though, they usually prepare shortlists with new candidates and when the time comes, they will start negotiations with these suppliers. So, you have to get your company on this shortlist first.

Your Brand vs. Private Label

For many product categories, supermarket chains are open to cooperate with new suppliers only for their private labels. Anyway, you have to be clear, which cooperation model you are targeting, as the approach and the proposition is very different for both categories. As more diffused your approach, as weaker your proposal.

Costs

Trying to do business with retail clients is very cost-intensive. Starting from sending of samples up to multiple presentation and negotiation meetings. If 2-3 people of a company have to attend meetings with different supermarkets, the budget for traveling can reach very serious amounts.

Margins

Cooperating with a supermarket is for sure a low margin business and profits will come only through the volume. So you will need to develop a very specific price catalog, if you want to have chances to close the deal.

Packaging and labeling

Supermarket chain are very strict when it comes to packaging and labeling. You will be asked to deliver your products with very detailed requirements.

The agreement is just a next milestone 

Reaching finally the point of a cooperation agreement, you probably think that you have made it. Don’t, this would be a mistake. Having listed a new supplier, the supermarkets start with small numbers in a limited number of their shops, in order to test the customer acceptance and/or your reliability. This means in practice that even at this point you probably won’t make profits yet!

All above entrance barriers should not stop a producer from trying to get into business with major retail clients. In contrary, as better prepared a company starts the approach, as higher the chances of success at the end.

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Benchmarking: the powerful tool for boosting sales

Bosnakis Ioannis

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Benchmarking:
the powerful tool for boosting sales

The key for a high sales performance are your Unique Selling Points in comparison to your competition. This means your sales pitch has to be based on having evaluated the products of your competitors first.

This may sound trivial, but the reality is that most of the companies waste huge sales potential by not applying a systematic and comprehensive benchmarking against the competition.

So, what are the 6 steps for implementing an efficient benchmarking system in sales?

Step #1 Define criteria

In a first step you should define criteria for your sales benchmarking. A huge mistake would be to do that by yourself, based on your estimations within the company. There is a simple and much better way: you only have to ask your customers! Select customers of which you know that they are purchasing products of your competitors and run a survey about on which product specs and sales terms they are choosing the products. Create a complete list of all criteria.

Step #2 Identify your direct competitors

Identify your direct competitors. Most likely you know the ones in your home market. If you intend to approach new markets you have to make your homework and check the competition there. Don’t get lost in including too many companies, but select the ones who have a similar product range and positioning. All the other are not really relevant.

Step #3 Comparison and evaluation

This is clearly the most difficult part in carrying out benchmarking as it requires absolute bluntness. Benchmarking is not about generating desired results, but real one. Walk through your list of criteria and evaluate all products for each of them separately, justifying each evaluation analytically and in written. Be as rigorous as you can, especially with your products!

For validating your results ask some selected clients to sit down with you and confirm your evaluation.

Step #4 Exploitation of results

Benchmarking is not carried out as an end it itself, but should become an important asset for your company. The first pay-off is to identify weaknesses and to think about ways to eliminate them. Generate a specific To Do list with concrete actions and deadlines.

Step #5 Adjusting marketing policy

Based on the outcome you should re-evaluate your positioning and your sales pitch. You want to emphasize on points where you are specifically strong and to minimize impact of your weaknesses.

So check your narrative at your website, presentation, advertisement and sales tools. Most likely you have to consider on your price policy and sales incentives.

Step #6 Sales team

Last, but not least: share all findings of your benchmarking with your sales team. The need to know strengths and weaknesses of your products and the ones of your competition. This will enable them to manage efficiently customer’s objections and to apply your sales pitch in the best way.

Implementing benchmarking in your sales organization will lead to a significant increase of sales in short time.

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Reinvent your business – Digital revolution

Bosnakis Ioannis

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Reinvent your business
– the digital revolution

For many decades, information technology was considered merely a supportive tool in business development. The main objective of IT departments was, accordingly, the automatization of processes and data management. IT was about improving process performance.

Business is taken over by new players

However, today, we find ourselves in a new era, with digitalization disrupting essentially businesses in its traditional form.
Some striking examples are:
• Travel portals which almost have replaced the classic tour operators/travel agencies
• Online shopping which gradually overtakes local retail shops
• Fintech companies which replace traditional banks
• Technology companies which become leaders in the car sector

Ultimately, there is no industry which is not being affected by digital disruption in one way or the other. Even more challenging is the speed with which this is happening.
And yet, most of the companies struggle badly to assess the threat or rather to recognize the tremendous new opportunities of digitalization. Why is that?

Transform yourself or die!

The answer is obvious: for a start, management has to acknowledge that business might become obsolete very soon. They have to operate in a doomsday scenario. Who in his or her right mind is able to do that?

Steve Jobs for example was. You remember that about 15 years ago Apple had, thanks to the iPod, reinvented itself from a struggling computer company to an innovative leader in consumer electronics. Even better, by repositioning, Apple started to be again successful also in its classic computer business. And what happened next? Apple killed the ipod! They cannibalized their main income source and replaced it with the even more successful iPhone! They did this not when iPods were declining in sales, but at the very peak of their success.

Cannibalize yourself

As Steve Jobs said, if they had not done this, most probably a competitor would have.
Nowadays Apple is taking the next step: from chasing sales of devices to increasing revenues through innovative services on devices.
This is the key of Apple’s success: a continuous transformation and innovation, without any hesitation, to question achievements of the past.

Another obstacle to face disruption by digitalization is that companies in order to identify opportunities of new technologies often rely on their in-house IT department.  Though their role and mindset is a completely different one. Exploring new business models by digitalization and managing IT systems are two completely different things.

Understanding new business models

Digital transformation is a field, which requires a completely new approach and new combination of skills. Deep understanding of business modelling and digital tools have to be combined.
Digital companies lack satisfactory knowledge in business modelling. While they clearly know “how to do” things, they would not necessarily know “what to do”.  They heavily rely on worked-out concepts and precise specifications.

What is the next big thing?

Another big threat of digitalization is that companies have difficulties to predict future requirements. They often get stunned by developments they have “not seen coming”.
Think of Tesla: a newcomer has turned the car-industry upside down. The company’s huge advantage is how it approached driving mobility in a completely new way. By underestimating new technologies and new trends, the established car producers gave Tesla enough time to achieve a significant technology lead. Even if the company in terms of produced cars is still small in comparison to the established players, Tesla today is worth more than Mercedes, Volkswagen and Audi combined. Their last hope was that Tesla would fail to enter mass production. High volumes as barriers for newcomers, but, once again, they were proven wrong .

Disruption is by definition radical

Disruption questions everything you were relying on and proud of.
In order to innovate business, companies need external support for two main reasons:

  • input has to come from experts, who are not captured in established corporate culture. You need people who are not limited by internal power balances or entrenched in false pride of the past
  • new skills are asked, especially in terms of new business models

Steve Jobs brought Apple back to success, after a decade of absence. This gave him the resolve to break-up in no time with bad management culture. He stopped a disoriented product philosophy and initiated a radical u-turn in Apple.

Companies have to transform their business in time as long as they are still on the wave of success with their current business. Understand that digitalization will threaten your business much sooner than you think.
Digitalization at the same time can be a big opportunity for reinventing your business and for achieving a new, high dynamic.

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How strong is your export pitch?

Bosnakis Ioannis

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How strong is your export pitch?

In the last years, the distinction between major, mature and emerging markets has vanished. In all markets there is a hard competition with hundreds of strong competitors.
Buyers on the other hand show limited interest in listing new producers as they have their established, well-selected pool of suppliers.
They have to manage their day to day operation and  listing a new supplier is for them a time-consuming process.
An overwhelming competition and low interest for new listings minimize the chances of your export efforts.
Your only chance to get buyer’s attention is to offer an unique value, something your competitors don’t have.

A good product is not enough

Hopefully you don’t answer “a good product”, because this is the weakest claim you can make. All your competitors say the same.
To develop a compelling value proposition you should follow a structured process:

Step 1 Website

The corporate website is your business card. It is not what will bring you into business, but it can push you out from the very beginning. Your website should have a decent, state-of-the-art design and communicate the main characteristics of your company in a clear and user-friendly way. Though, over-sophisticated, over-loaded websites are not helpful, less is more!

Step 2 Qualifying your prospects

You don’t need a big list of prospects. A very generic market approach cannot lead to results. It is important to work over your prospect data, to evaluate them one by one and finally to select few prospects, who are fitting best to your products and services. The selection should be carried out based on specific, pre-defined criteria. Keep in mind that for example targeting at big retail customers is very challenging!

Step 3 Competition analysis

A strong value proposition starts from knowing your competitors. Before you approach a prospect you should know their current suppliers, analyse their products and identify points where you feel yourself superior.
Important criteria are:

  • product characteristics / product innovation
  • product advisory
  • flexibility in customization
  • marketing tools
  • lead times
  • minimum order quantity
  • price

Step 4 Competitive advantages / unique selling points

Don’t expect the buyer to explore and to recognise your competitive advantages. This is something you have to do, communicating them from the very beginning and to the point.
Focus on characteristics where you have a real advantage, instead of numerating many points, just because it is filling space.
Probably this is the hardest part in creating your value proposition. You need to be confident about your specific strengths!
In reality most of the times, companies make a huge list hoping that one of the points could be the right one for the prospect.
Probably not all of your products in your assortment are equally strong. Instead of presenting all your assortment, prioritise the products of specific interest for the specific

Step 5 Teaser presentation

The information is one thing, to communicate efficiently the information another! Your first goal in approaching a prospect is not provide all the information you have, but to get his attention and to awaken interest. This means that you have to create a teaser with limited, but selective information. Keep in mind you have seconds to convince a prospect to deal with you further. Once you have his attention, he will ask for all further information, which is needed to get into business.
As more customised your teaser, as more convincing it is. Invest time to adjust your teaser template to the profile of each prospect. This investment will pay off.

Step 6 Call script

Due to GDPR regulations you most probably will need to have a call first, before you can send your pitch to a prospect. This first call will last only few minutes and it is important to take your chance for presenting your company and your pitch in a professional and efficient way. There is no space for small talk. Prepare a detailed call script and prepare yourself before starting your calls.

Step 7 Taking advantage of prospects feedback

A common mistake is considering only positive responses as success. The very first goal in export development is the feedback of prospects especially if the decide that they won’t cooperate with you. Talking to them they can provide within seconds important inside information and valuable input regarding your value propositions. The feedback should be documented in a structured way and used within your company for evaluating and improving your proposition.
The value proposition is not a generic company presentation it is a process.
Ask yourself about how strong your current proposition is and make the required improvements.
You will see a significant increase in your export development performance.

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The 4 major trends in export business

Bosnakis Ioannis

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The 4 major trends in export business

Added-value services & innovation

In the last years the role of suppliers is significantly changing. It is not anymore about just delivering products. The key for profitable export business are added-value services and product innovation. Both can put you out the low-margin mainstream business and lead to higher margins and stronger loyalty from your customers. Buyers are expecting new, proactive support and advisory from their suppliers. Don’t wait your customers to ask for new products, provide them!

New business models

Standardised, high volume sales are outdated. Even big-volume customers expect nowadays flexibility and new supply models. In consequence, your business is threatened not from the known competitors but from unknown newcomers. Very often innovating start–ups outpace in no time the established market leaders. Size and economies of scale are no longer a guarantee for a strong market position. Just think of Tesla.

Selective lead generation

Generic mail campaigns or even expensive presence in fairs are not longer generating new business but are huge waste of financial resources. Customers will hardly pay attention to you! What is required are carefully evaluated short-lists of prospects, to which you can bring customised propositions, which are worth of reading!

Digital marketing & communication

Business is going digital! Digitalization is turning marketing, communication and even products upside down. This can be a serious threat, but in reality it is a huge opportunity to boost business.

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