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Eliminating geographical distances – digital communication

 Bosnakis Ioannis
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People like to say „nothing beats a personal relationship!“ and of course this is true, but in globalized business the meaning of this term is significantly changing.

In the past, a personal meeting with a business partner abroad was synonymous with a huge waste of time and money. For a few-hours meeting people had to travel and to spend a significant amount for tickets, renting a car and accommodation expenses.
Obviously, these times are definitely over!

Today, modern tools allow for a close and personal communication, even at daily base, without losing time and money and more important, without any discount on quality and results.
It is the opposite: think of conference video calls with participants, which are sitting in different places and countries!

Though, many people still use to feel uncomfortable of applying digital communication in their daily work, claiming that “it is not the same” as a personal, face-to-face conversation.

In most cases, the reason for that is simple: digital communication, in order to be efficient and convenient respectively, requires a suitable setup and to become familiar with the tools and functions.
Basic use may appear to be very simple, but for professional communication there are some more requirements to consider on:

#1 Choose and install the right applications
There are plenty of applications, which support digital calls as whatsapp, viber, messenger, skype, zoom and many others. You have to choose the ones, fitting best to your needs and to the preferences of professionals you are talking to. There are differences in functionality and preferences depending on the country where your business partners are based. Most probably you will need to use different applications for the different business partners.

#2 Internal training
If you are not sufficiently experienced with these new communication tools, avoid to get trained on your business partners. Ask colleagues or family members instead to operate training calls with you and check all functions out until you feel confident about how to use them.

#3 Get the appropriate accessories 
Depending on how and where you communicate, accessories like headsets and digital pens can make a huge difference the call to be convenient.

#4 Environment
Digital communication can be carried out everywhere, even on your couch at home or sitting in a cafe. Though, it is an absolute no-go to stress your business partners with a high noise level or your kids shouting in the background. Of course, the same applies when you are in your company.
Secure that for the call you are sitting in a quiet place, which will help all participants to focus on the discussion.

#5 Appearance
What is in your business the expected dressing code for face-to-face meetings? The same dressing code applies to digital video calls! There is no space for any discount on that!

#6 Scheduling meetings 
Like any other call you can start video calls by simply pushing a button, but of course you shouldn’t do it. Video meetings have to be scheduled properly, the same way you would schedule a personal meeting. Days, or sometimes weeks before. Best practice is to share a calendar invitation or a mail invitation, which some of the communication applications generate automatically.

#7 Preparations
Most probably you would use in a face-to-face meeting a presentation, documents or even show a product. You can (and should) do all this in a video call too! Most of communication tools provide functions for sharing presentations and documents on the screen and allow to make even written notes on the common screen.

Following these few basic rules and after having operated some calls to become familiar, you will become excited about the efficiency of digital communication and more important you will save a lot of time and money!

In the end you will push your business as within the same time, which you had spent in the past, you will be able to multiply your communication with current and new business partners.

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Exports development – There has to be a plan!

 Bosnakis Ioannis
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When it comes to the development of exports enterprises often lose their business logic and start to hope.

For example, they hope that a buyer or an agent which they met in a trade fair will turn out to become a major client and proceed to significant sales.
Or they hope that a request received by mail will be the start of a strong cooperation.
You never know, but for sure this is not the right way to develop sustainable international sales!
There are some basics every company has to respect in order to develop business abroad.

1. Strategy – Which are my target markets and why?
2. Product positioning – Which of my products have the best chances? What are my specific strengths which makes me interesting for buyers?
3. Targets and budget – What are my export targets per year? What budget I need to develop the market?
4. Promotion tools – How can I present my products and my strengths?
5. Client identification – Which are the clients I am interested in?
6. Buyer communication – How and in which time I can approach these buyers efficient and in a professional way?
7. Controlling – What is the feedback from the target market? What adjustments we have to do in order to optimize the market development?

The development of foreign markets has the same requirements as the sales development in your home market. Follow a plan and results will come.

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Make the difference – How less becomes more

 Bosnakis Ioannis
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Buyers of major markets like Germany, France and UK, are constantly bombarded with propositions from all over the world.
A common mistake: dispatch as much information as possible in order to attract attention regarding the company and products. The result is that buyers get simply overwhelmed and these approaches end up in their waste bin.
The key for successful buyer attention is:
  1. To be “to the point” and to summarize in the first approach these characteristics, which are important for buyers and make them feel that it is worth to invest their time. This first impression should demonstrate that the company not only has interesting products, but is also capable to meet the specific requirements of the market.
  2. To communicate the information in the buyer language. Even in times of internationalization it makes a difference for buyers and their team.
  3. To show presence in the market. It gives a lot of credits when a company lets somebody see that it doesn’t try to develop business remotely, but that it has permanent presence in the market and local points of contact and associates the buyers can communicate with.

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Exports of small food producers – challenges and opportunities

 Bosnakis Ioannis
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emmanouel margaritis

What are the challenges and opportunities for small food producers to develop exports?

One main barrier of course is the money, as exports require a minimum budget, independently from the size of a company. Many costs are not elastic, which means that the financial burden for a small company is very high.

But, it is not just about the money. For a small company even offering great products it is very difficult to get attention of buyers and become listed.

What are the most common mistakes small producers make?

I would point out two main issues: persistence and patience. The development of new partnerships cannot be achieved with few tries and in short time. As I like to say, a “No” from a buyer very often is not the end, but the beginning of the communication.

Keep in mind that in all product categories there is huge competition and buyers are overwhelmed by product propositions every day. All producers claim to have great products, so this is not the pitch which will lead to success.

What is a realistic time horizon for getting results in exports?

It depends on lot of factors as which market you want to develop, the channel and the unique selling points of your products. Export development is a matter of systematic efforts for years. Companies never stop to invest in developing their business in their home market, but surprisingly they expect to achieve exports within few months. This is not realistic.

Emmanouel Margaritis, born 1965 in Dortmund, Germany, has studied at RWTH Aachen business administration and marketing and has worked for international companies in different industries. He is one of the founding partners of Axis Blueschild an international export consultancy, managing many export development projects at international level. Since 2019 he is CEO of Global Food World.

Are exhibitions a good investment for small food companies to develop their exports?

My answer is a clear No. Waiting in a small booth for buyers to step by is an illusion. No buyer will come. They are an opportunity for exhibitors to meet their business partners, not to search for new suppliers. They have not time for that during a trade fair. If you want to meet a potential buyer during a trade fair you have to attract him many months before and get on in his meeting agenda.

Trade fairs have an decreasing output and you see that in many industries major, international fairs are even closing.

Though many producers we are talking to still feel happy about spending a lot of money, returning with many business cards finding out after months that the final results have been marginal.

There are smarter, cheaper and more efficient ways to develop your exports.

What are the more efficient ways?

A personal approach and a strong pitch.

Generic campaigns are not producing any result. A producer has to do his homework, by researching buyers fitting to his products one by one, identifying in a next step the relevant contact person, starting a personal approach and be ready to make a short, strong pitch. In reality you have only few seconds when starting a communication to explain why a buyer should consider on your products. Many producers are not sufficiently prepared and present just another good product. Again, this claim is not enough!

If not a good product, what else?

You have to focus on the real unique selling points. People are looking for more healthy, authentic, story-telling products. A producer should be able to communicate how his products are meeting these trends. Another important point is that buyers are evaluating aspects beyond of product specifications like lead times and flexibility for customisation.

Are new trends in food & beverages an opportunity for small producers?

Only theoretically, as buyers still don’t want to deal with many small producers day by day. This means that for a small producer the chances to get listed remain limited. This market paradox was for us the reason to develop the Global Food World project.

What is the Global Food World concept about?

Global Food World is offering significant benefits to both, producers and buyers. Producers can develop exports with a small subscription instead of huge budgets and become part of a strong, selective and international portfolio. Buyers on the other hand, have access to a variety of selective products, dealing with one partner. So, Global Food World is not a promotion portal, but a innovative facilitator solving real operational barriers on both sides of the food business.

How do you select producers for your portfolio?

Of course we are looking for products, which are fitting to our concept of high quality, authentic and story-telling products. But even more important for us is the commitment of producers. We are not interested in producers, who are looking for quick-shot business, but for partners understanding the challenges and willing to improve themselves step by step meeting the requirements of our B2B customers. It takes months and years to open a door to a strong buyer, but only seconds to close it for good. So we are not in a wrong rush and we expect our producers to share our vision for sustainable cooperations.

We have talked about the barriers for small producers, what about their strengths?

For me the most important strength of our producers is the fact that they are not managers doing a job. All of them are family-owned businesses producing products they really love and care about. We have many producers in our portfolio which are new companies started with passion to create innovative and well-designed products. We don’t want to argue with buyers about a cent more or less, but to convince them with great, unique products. This is what Global Food World is about.

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Covid – The next day for businesses

 Bosnakis Ioannis
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The last weeks we all were concerned to stay healthy and to try to understand the Covid pandemic, which came into our life in so short time. The unprecedented lockdown provided us plenty of time to give many of thoughts.

Most of the companies had to manage in no time huge decline of turnover, but at the end of a short crash is always somehow manageable. The problem of covid is that initial hopes for a quick recovery are dispelling.
Not even the experts can foresee the development of the next weeks, but what we can be sure about is that even in best case scenarios the normalisation will take many months or even years.
Even worse, the overall financial impact is still to come.

So the big question is what we can do to secure the survival of business and to minimise the threats and losses?

Realism
The first step to make is a realistic assessment of the situation. Statements like “we will make it” are ok for private discussions with our family and friends, but not a roadmap for your company. Realism does not mean to be pessimistic, but you need to try for an accurate evaluation of things to come.

Immediate actions
We need to understand the importance of taking immediate, specific and decisively actions. In this unique situation it is no exaggeration to say that every day counts!

Disruption
Forget about how you were doing business until yesterday. The next day will be very different referring the what and the how.

Your action plan should consider on:

• Costs: Minimize immediately your fix costs. This is painful, but there is no alternative. There are many options to transform your fix costs into flexible costs without any discount on your operation and performance. In contrary, you will be probably surprised about how new ways of running your operation can optimise your overall efficiency.

• Digitalization: Implement and setup digital tools at all levels of your company. Forget about travelling and personal meetings for a long time. Take advantage of digital communication tools and think about digital promotion and sales of your products. What appeared to be impossible up to now, most likely has to become possible now!

• Demand: For most of the companies demand of current customers and current markets will drop significantly. Important is that this development won’t be a bad surprise. You should expect it. The good news are that there are still many customers and many markets you don’t sell yet. Now is the time!

• Innovation in products and services: never waste a crisis! Consider the crisis as an unique opportunity to think about evolving and innovating your products and services. Take advantage of the current setback and transform it into an opportunity.

Stay optimistic
Panic and anxiety are in the human nature, but in business they are the worst advisors and lead to bad results. Don’t spend time on never ending theories and discussions and proceed day by day. Each day of taking actions in the right direction will pay off sooner as you think.

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Understanding local mindsets in global business

 Chief editor
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This article is about the way we think and act in this globalised era of time by using the example of Czech market versus the Greek. After 10 years in the Greek market and almost two and a half years in the Czeck one, this article is about differences and similarities in the mindset of those 2 markets. Although it does not appear at first sight, those two countries may have enough things in common when it comes to their economic history. By understanding the past of a country we are able to understand the way it works today, realise how it approaches tomorrow and also comprehend the attitude of its people.

So when it comes to historical similarities we may notice that both countries have a past of “hurted” economies. The Communist past of Czech Republic in comparison with the Greek history (Turkish/German occupation of the country) provides us reasons to believe that it was not only the economy infected by the history but also even the most basic institutions. And this is the point where the similarities end.
​There are two words that signify the differences of the two current mindsets, “past” and “trust”.

Past

For the first one, by living in Czech Republic you may have the impression that the citizens of this country have accepted their past. This provides them of course the opportunity to focus on the present and the future of their country. New business ideas and innovation are all around. You may even hear some people complaining that “We do not innovate enough” or that “The state does not focus on our future as much as they should”.
On the other hand, when it comes to the current mindset in Greece, I am under the impression that people have not really overcome their past habits (something that surprisingly they were forced to, after the COVID-19 outbreak). Till recently words like home office or parental leave, were considered part of science fiction for the biggest part of the employed people in Greece. It appears that people have stayed committed to a past that it is not any longer available and most importantly it will not help them to move forward. By quoting the Ted speech “The two faces of Greece” by Alexis Papachelas, “Being focused only in the past is like driving a car, with your eyes at the back mirror the whole time, you are destined to crash”. It is out of question that practises and mindsets should be reconsidered.

Trust

​The second word is “Trust”. In Czech Republic, when it comes to business level, you may feel that there is a highly developed feeling of trust in between the employee and the employer, the customer and the company or even a sales person and the customer. There is not a doubt that, what has been agreed will take place, that any particular problems will not be mentioned or that one of the two sides will not be held responsible for any defect. That is exactly the reason and the base of trust.
In comparison with this, in Greece, you may feel that this feeling is not enhanced enough. After almost 10 years of economic crisis, business relationships are more destroyed than ever. Relationships in between vendors and companies, companies and employees have been seriously affected, both ways. We have to realise that trust is one of the basic pillars in an economic system. And in the Greek case, trust is something that has to be also developed and enhanced by the state.

What is all this past and trust thing about? Does is has anything to do with business? Yes it has!
Two, quite small countries, both located in the same economic region of Europe and yet with significant differences in terms of mindset, attitude, communication and cooperation.

To successfully penetrate a market, a company has to make its homework and to learn about the history, culture and situation of each market and its people.
In order to take cultural particularities into account, cooperating with local partners always leads to much better results in comparison to a generic approach by distance.

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The 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 Asian giants are shaking

 Bosnakis Ioannis
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For many decades know, high-volume producers from Asia seemed to have a clear competitive advantage in “big business” due to their production capacity and their ability for low prices.
Recently, this law seems to become questioned. Big producers see their sales stagnating or even dropping, especially in the European markets.
The winners of this development are much smaller companies with incomparable smaller production capacity.
So the question is, what exactly is happening in the markets?
The answer is that the business model in Europe is changing. Even high volume customers in many European industries, especially in consumer goods, are not willing anymore to place big orders and to receive them after 3-4 months.
What they ask today for, is to work with smaller quantities, renewing more frequently their product assortment.
And even more important, they expect from their suppliers, a proactive consultancy in product optimization and product innovation.
Sometimes a small technical product adjustment can lead to significantly lower production costs or an improvement of the end – product.
High – volume producers have all assets in their hand to meet the new market requirements.
Cooperating with strong customers all over the world, they have a good knowledge for international market trends and a tremendous number of product designs in their database.
Though, turning these assets into innovative consulting services for their customers and to leave their comfort zone of large-scale production batches is another issue.
It requires a completely different way of doing business and affects the interaction with the customers, the production and the logistics models.
In the textile industry for example, Asian producers are used to work with an “upon order” production logic. What they have to do, is to take the risk of creating, based on their specific know how, own assortments and offer them with the option for smaller quantities and short delivery times. To do that, they would need to establish European warehouses with repackaging facilities, a model which would enable them to deliver the products within few days.
With such a new approach, they even could unlock significant new business potential, cooperating with medium-sized customers and entering in online business, which they cannot serve today.
This is a new, disruptive business logic and many large-scale producers still refuse to accept it, as their practices are turned upside down!
The reality is, that adaptating the new market requirements is extremely difficult, but at the same time a matter of survival.
We all know many cases, where big, international market leaders, giants in their industry, have disappeared within very few years, due to a wrong evaluation of the market changes.
Fall or opportunity, this is something which depends on the ability of Asian producers to transform themselves from pure manufacturers to product developers.

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Digital tools in export business

 Bosnakis Ioannis
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The product range and the characteristics of your products can be a strong competitive advantage for your success in exports.
Is this the case?
So, how do you present your products to your potential customers in foreign markets? Sending probably powerpoint presentations with an unlimited number of pages? Or do you wait for a chance to present them later on?
You minimize your chances from the very beginning if you are not able to exploit your strengths. Even worse, you may turn your competitive advantage in a disadvantage!
As bigger your product assortment, as more difficult it is, to present it in a professional way to customers.
At this point we come to the point of digital transformation, a phrase often used, but even more often completely misunderstood. Digital transformation is the integration of new technologies in all aspects of business operations. It has specific importance in export development, where a company has to manage a physical distance to its clients.
One of the most important and efficient digital tools refers to the presentation of your products.
A digital product catalog can help you to
  1. Present all your products in a clear and structured way
  2. Provide even detailed technical information for all products
  3. Include user-friendly tools which will allow your customers to identify quickly products of special interest
  4. Let your customers mark their specific preferences
  5. Prepare specific and customized propositions to them
  6. Get much better prepared for personal presentation meetings, which usually have high costs for you and should be as successful as possible
A digital catalog is not an e-shop, but a innovative B2B tool.
In relation to the overall budget of export development, the costs for a strong, digital presentation tool are limited, but it will dramatically increase the performance of your export efforts and positively surprise the potential clients from the very beginning!
At the end it is a strong service to your customers. With a good navigation logic, they can in seconds select products or get the information they need.
In a second step the digital catalog can be extended and include order functionalities, making it for your customers very easy to order your products. This can save for you and your customers time and costs.
Product availability, delivery times, transportation costs, all these are information, which can be communicated through a digital system, without back and forth with unlimited mails.
Digital presentation and sales tools are the future, not only for B2C business and consumer goods. Every producer with a wide product assortment, should take advantage of new technologies and increase his sales performance, especially in exports.

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