LET'S CREATE OUR TRADE WORLD ALL TOGETHER !

In my previous posts, I have always emphasized on how important having large and effective network is. You know our mottoJ: “Trade is all about human relations”. Yes, these are easy-to-say words. In international trade there are a lot of issues and details, which can be problematic. Such as physical distance. All we know that face-to-face meetings are cornerstones of builing mutual trust, which is crucial for trade. But, physical distance is matter. We have a passion: To create an online trade world. For this purpose, we have created the first form of our platform, Salesupp.NET. This is just the beginnig. We will create our trade world all together.

I want to inform you about this new platform. Firstly, you will be able to create your sales and supply networks, which is really important in order to set up continuous relations. International trade is not one day work or not a few transactions. It is a progressing  process. To get expected return you should be close to your buyer/supplier companies. Continuous relation is the key and the only way to do that is networking. You will find the best way of it on Salesupp.NET.

Ok you have high number of companies in both of your sales and supply networks. What to do then?  Salesupp.NET presents you very effective tools for communication. You can create promotional or informative “posts” or trade lead “posts” and send them to companies in your networks. Also, you can send your posts to whole your sales or supply networks by just one click.

 Let’s assume that you need a product. You already have companies in your supply networks, which you are close with thank to networking. The only thing you should do is to create a “demand” for product you need  and send them to suppliers you will choose. Again, if you wish you can send this demand to whole your supply network with one click. Is demand tool on Salesupp.NET guarantee buyer companies exact return in the shortest time and suppliers to have trustable demands? That is for sure J

Besides, these three function, you can search for companies in any country, in any chapter number or by firm name. You can monitor their pages and assess if they are appropriate business partners for you. You can message with firms in your networks at any time and keep contacting. 

You will be able to use all these functions on a very user-friendly and stylish platform. No banners, no information overolad, no many links and nothing will make you confused. As I have mentioned at the beginning of my words, this is just the initial form of our trade world. There are many other tools, which will help you, are on the way. All we need is your feedbacks. Because, we want to create a trade world with you. If you want to see anything on the platform, just tell us.

We are waiting to see as many users as possible on our website. We want to have a effective and easily affordable trade platform for all of us. So, we want to see you as signed up member. Is it enough ? No J We kindly ask you to invite your friends to our platform as well. Because, international trade is all about networking and more valuable with more companies around. 

Let’s start to create our trade world all together !!!

 

Salesupp.NET – where sustainable trade is

www.salesupp.net

info@salesupp.net

THE LEAN TRADING

Probably most of you heard that there is a popular book in entrepreneurship field, which is written by Eric Ries and called as “The Lean Startup”. It is a really great book and I strongly recommend you to read to enlarge your business mind. In this book, one of the most important points the author emphsizes on is the learning in as the shortest time as possible and developing startups according to this learning process. This will help you enourmously to reduce the time and cost while starting a new business. While I was reading, I was thinking that starting export/import operations or entering a new market also can be seen as a startup. This is exactly what Ries asserts by saying that “Entrepreneurs are everywhere”. Also, a few days ago I have read an article of Meghan M. Biro and I really like one definition in it, which is “Learning and Development (L&D)”. Both of the book and the article explain how learning and getting first-hand information are important. This is exactly the secret of success in international trade and the base of our startup,Salesupp.NET.

I always emphasizes on the importance of having large and effective networks for success in export/import. Because, international trade has highly changeable dynamics and requires continuous efforts. Therefore, setting up close relations with potential partner firms is crucial in order to follow the market you are in or interested in and to incrase profit as well. Networking is a gradual process of learning. But, at this point we can use the appraoch, which is explained in the book, “The Lean Startup”. We can test validation of market for our porducts or services by launching our minimum viable product (MVP), as it is named in the book. Our MVP is creating a limited network in target market. We can get connection with small number of suppliers and/or buyers from target country and set up intesive continuous relationships with them. By doing so, we can learn from them and decide whether to enlarge the network or to move to another country. This is not difficult to do and can save time and cost for us. 

International trade is all about networking”. This is what I always say. When you have a large and effective network, you can learn from updated information, create a trust atmosphere between you and potential/existing trade partners and increase your level of adaptation. By launching Salesupp.NET, we aim exactly to present these benefits. I am finishing my words with a new statementJ:

“International trade is profit of networking”.

LET’S WRITE THIS POST TOGETHER!

On my posts I always emphasize on how having large and effective networks is important. So let’s make it real in this post and share our ideas, difficulties we face and issues we think are important. For initial guidance I wrote 10 general points of international trade. You can write comments about these issues or add other issues to discuss.

Here are the points I am adding:

1. Decision to go for export/import operations.

2.Difficulties of export/import terms (such as HS code, delivery terms, payment terms, tarifs etc.) and procedures

3. Doing market research and getting decision for which market to enter

4. Promotions and increasing awareness of company or/and product name

5. Finding customers from other countries and developing large and effective networks

6. Product adaptation for needs of customers

7. Cultural differences and different ways of businesses in different countries

8. Transportation in terms of finding right company, customs issues, cost etc.  

9. Insurance issues

10. Post-sale operations and customer loyalty

Which issues above are most problematic for you? What can be done? What kind of solutions would you want to have? Or in addtion to topics above, what other issues do you think are problematic?

So, let’s share our ideas and create a first-hand reliable post. After all, you are intelligent business people and others,including me, can learn from youJ

Please join our LinkedIn group: http://linkd.in/VlyLja

Salesupp.NET - where sustainable trade is

www.salesupp.net

A SIMPLE METHOD OF MARKET RESEARCH

When you get involved into export/import, you will find yourself in profitable and excited world of international trade. You will have challenges and take decisions on this way. The first move you have to take is to to decide which market to enter. This is a very important point in order to get return you expect in exchange of your time and effort as I have mentioned in my another post: “Road map of export/import for SMEs”, http://bit.ly/YkX2of. In this post, I will tell you how to make a simple desk market research without any cost. 

We will benefit of the website of international trade center: www.intracen.org. When we open the main page, firstly, we will click on “ITC FOR EXPORTERS” link.

On the opening page, we will click on the sub-link of “Trade statistics” under the “Market Data & Information” link.

We are looking for importer countries of our products. So, we will click on “Imports” according to product group and country.

When we click on “Imports” link, we will see a very important page where chapter numbers are on. Chapter number is the first two digits of custome code (HS code), which represents the same product category in every country. If you want to sell abroad, you have to know chapter number of your product. On our website, www.salesupp.net, you will choose your category according to chapter numbers of your products. On the opening page, we click on the first option, “01-Live animals”, just to show. If you want, you can open heading numbers (the first four digits of custom code) to go for more detail.

When you click on chapter number you will choose, you will a page like below. You will see which countries are top importers of your product type.

Now, you know which countries can be your potential markets. But, top importer countries cannot be your real target. What I recommend you is to make a list of 20 or 30 top countries and then to evaluate them according to issues you should consider such as physical distance, tariffs, free trade agreements, cultural similarities and so on. In this stage, you can pick up top 10 countries you think you can enter. Then, you can click on the countries you have choosen one by one on the page as above to see which countries they buy in order to understand countries, your competitor companies are coming from. When you click on your potential target market, you will see a page like below:

You should assess your competitiveness against companies from countries, where generally your target markets import from. Then, you better pick up top 5 countries to enter. Initially, beginning with less number of countries is better to focus more. Ok, you have choosen your target markets. So, are you done? The answer is no J Now, you should search for details about these countries. For this purpose, you can write me an email to your commercial counsellor in target markets. Or you can check websites of chambers of commerce.

This is a simple but effective way about how you can search for suitable markets for your product. Next step is finding buyers from choosen countries and starting to create trade networks. From my previous posts you already know how having a large and effective network is crucial.

To meet companies from different countries and to share your ideas please join our LinkedIn group: http://linkd.in/VlyLja

You can follow us from Facebook: http://on.fb.me/15pfjUw

Salesupp.NET – where sustainable trade is

www.salesupp.net

info@salesupp.net

SIX CORNERSTONES OF SUCCESS IN INTERNATIONAL TRADE

A few months ago I watched a video and Richard St. John was telling how to achieve to success. Success… The word all of us want to see beside our names. What Richard St. John was explaining was what leads to success in general meaning. But, as we know business has many different dynamics that can require different kind of mentality. Moreover, we are in B2B’s magical world J and this makes things different too. So, I was thinking “Ok, he is right about what he is telling us. But, what exactly leads to success in international trade?” Till that time, I have come up with 6 very essential factors to get more return from international trade in exchange of our efforts. 

·    Network. International trade is all about having a large and effective network. Then, you will be able to understand what actually you have to constitute or reshape by setting up continuous relationships with companies in your networks. In this way, you will reduce your learning time and have first-hand information which will help you a lot.

·       Well-preparation for procedures. International trade operations have many procedures and paper works. To be well-prepared for these jobs in order to speed up the process is very important. Yes, I know they are not that interesting to doJ but still have to be done.

·       Being persistent. Due to many different factors, export/import operations are time-takers and will force you to work a little bit harder. But, as it is case in every situation, hard-working brings a lot. You will face many things you haven’t encountered before but you shouldn’t give up. After handling first export/import transactions with any new partner, further operations will be easier and more profitable.

·    Welcome differences. Two parts involve any international trade operations bring differences with them. What you should do is to welcome any kind of differences. They can be cultural, operational, strategic, bureaucratic etc. Don’t judge any of them. Don’t ask why. Just accept them and go on for further steps.

·     Engagement into conversations. The most important factor in trade is human relations. Setting up trust between you and your business partner is very essential. That is why you need to be effective in your networks. But, don’t treat other side only with business mind. After all, people like warm conversations. Sometimes calling your buyers or suppliers just to ask how they are doing can be very beneficial. Another important issue is replying questions or requests coming from partners as quick as possible. You will always have time to do that.

·      High adaptation level. Features of any product can be different from country to country. Also, the way of business doing is not same in every region. Therefore, being flexible and having high level of adaptation can provide you many advantages. This will help you to keep your target market circle larger and correspondingly your company reputation much better.

There are six important factors to achieve sustainable success in international trade. Of course, export/import operations include many details within but, getting these six as your cornerstones will present you new paths to go and new visions to capture.

To share your ideas and see what is happening in international trade, please join our LinkedIn group, “Network in international trade”: http://linkd.in/VlyLja

Salesupp.NET - where sustainable trade is

www.salesupp.net

HOW TO USE SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING IN EXPORT/IMPORT?

As a result of incredibly increasing internet usage all around the world, many business transactions have moved towards online platforms and this migration can been seen enormously in marketing. After integration of the internet into marketing process, we had a new cool path, “Social media marketing”. Since social networking sites provides very large audience to transmit messages and are relatively cheaper, they have been considered as an important marketing tool. You have internet and there are a lot of people online, so go and contact with them and tell yourself. But, is everything such as easy? No! You have to pay attentions on many details and besides, reaching target audience is not that easy as it seems. When it comes to social media marketing in export/import, you will have to differentiate your approaches. Because this B2B, which we loveJ So, let me tell you how to use social media tools effectively to improve your businesses.

There are plenty of social network websites to benefit however, in order to save time, determining the most useful ones is very essential. As I have mentioned, we are in B2B world and we should consider this when selecting which tools to use. You can see most popular ones on the picture, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, RSS, YouTube and many others. But, at that point I will strongly recommend you two of them: blogging and LinkedIn. I don’t mean that you should stop to use others and just concentrate on these two. What I mention is that, put your blog and LinkedIn at the core your social media marketing strategy and reinforce them with others. 

Why LinkedIn and blog? Because, we are seeking for companies and LinkedIn is specialized for that. You can find many representatives of firms from many different countries. Moreover, what I likes and certainly recommend you to use is groups. There are a lot of industry and/or country specific group pages which you can find exactly your target audience in. You can post there, leave trade leaads and comments and contact with peoples in these groups. Even, if you need or want, you can create your own group. Your blog is another important tool because of that you can show your competence by publishing interesting and informative posts. Blogging will increase willingness of people about your company and to take advantage of this, you can leave follow us buttons on your blog to encourage visitors to see your other social media pages.  

Presence on social media is not enough. You should be effective and efficient as well. Let me give you FIVE tips to get return in exchange of your efforts:

·         One company or product advertisement per day. Introduce your company or product once a day on your pages and in groups. Don’t make it more than one otherwise you will lose attention on you.

·         Share interesting and informative links. Don’t be just business focused. Get into conversation with people. You can share a few links a day and ask people what they think about. Links you share don’t have to be related with business. They can be about daily life, latest trends, quotations and so on.

·         Welcome any comments and messages. Thank people to join you and to make contributions to your shares.

·         Share pre-event, event-time and post-event posts. Let’s say you are about to publish a post on your blog. Before publishing, tell people that your new post is on the way. When you publish your post, let people know that your post is online. Then after a few days, remind people if they have checked your post. This approach can be done for any event you are about to launch.

·         Write different things in separate lines. In your posts or messages, write different points in different lines. This is a good strategy not to make people minds overloaded and confused. But, don’t make posts or messages so long otherwise, people will not read them.

You can use social media very effectively by considering these issues. But, I would like to remind you that don’t spend so much time on social media by doing nothing but watching what is happening. At the end of the day, social media marketing is just a part of your strategy but important one!

To catch the latest trends, please join our LinkedIn groups: http://linkd.in/VlyLja

Also, you can follow us on our twitter page: https://twitter.com/SalesuppNET

Our Facebook page is also getting warm with new discussion. Don’t miss them: http://on.fb.me/15pfjUw

ROAD MAP OF EXPORT/IMPORT FOR SMEs

A considerable part of total import and export volume arise from operations of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). These type of firms are limited in terms accumulated trade specific information, finacial sources and time, perhaps the most important one. Besides, there are some other small but time taker problems as well. So, under the light of these issues, what kind of way can SMEs follow in order to get the most effective trade ? Let’s begin with the theories (first boring parts J).

There are two mostly known trade theories for firms: The U-model (The Uppsala Theory) and the network approach. The U-model says that companies firstly operate in domestic market and then, when they reach to sufficient capacity, they can go for international operations. On the other side, network approach explains the pattern of export/import by claiming that companies can run international operations at the same time with local operations or even in some cases before local ones. I accept the second option. So, I will explain road map of export/import by considering the network approach. 

International operations seem more complicated than domestic ones and indeed, they are. First moves SMEs should do is getting required permissions and registering to institutional offices. Then, market research gets started. Determining right market to enter is very important in order to save time and cost. After maket selection, finding suppliers/buyers, the most difficult part, comes and in this post, I will explain how you can do it effectively. There various ways for this purpose such as contacting with chambers of commerce in target markets, emailing, phone calls, commercial visits and so on. However, I am a big fan of B2B portals and strongly recommend them. Because, on these portals you will find companies, which have same aims as you. So, you will not have to convince them for export/import and it will save you a lot of time. Although B2B platforms are beneficial, still there are some considerable problems such as expired or fake leads, fake companies, swindlers and low efficiency. Let’s see how to solve them.

To overcome these obstacles, what I recommend you is getting as many connections as you can via B2B portals and by the time, eleminating weak ones. By doing so, you will create your networks and then, you can divide your networks into sub-networks to make them more effective (I have explained why and how to do it in my first blog with details, “How to start to export/import” - http://bit.ly/15m2JFI ). By embracing such as approach, you can solve problems mentioned above but, of course by staying in contact with firms in your network. In this way, you will have many trustable companies in your networks and correspondingly, you will be able to reach real and updated trade leads. Even, with continuous relationships with firms in your network, you can generate new ones.

Yes I know, still there are some problems with existing B2B portals. Non of them allows you to create your supply and sales networks online. Besides they can be time taker and can be expensive. But don’t worry. Solution of these problems are on the way J  Salesupp.NET will be online on the 20^th of March. With Salesupp.NET, you will be able to create your sales and supply networks and to get sustainable trade by having continuous relationships with firms in your networks. And the best news is it will be really cheaperJ So, follow us and catch the trend: www.salesupp.net

Twitter: twitter.com/SalesuppNET

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To be informed more, please leave your emails to our sign up page: http://salesuppnet.kickoffpages.com/