Summer had arrived and I was waiting to announce my arrival as well.
Straight from a fortune 500 name, I joined a 2 crore plus MSME as an Export Manager in early 2007. It was a decision that could have impacted me either ways but I went with my gut.
After getting hang of proceedings one day I humbly asked our CEO (who had offered and hand-picked me from a seminar where I was talking on Risk and export opportunities for Indian MSMEs) that why are we exporting to just third world countries and why not the developed and at least developing!? We were exporting to Nigeria, Uganda, Lebanon, Kenya etc. as I studied.
He smiled and answered:
- Less of capital to execute bigger orders
- Not sure if those buyers will prefer us
- Bank isn't ready to do enhancement.
In the evening he gave me a hand book from a global exhibition called Plastivision.
With his inputs, I zeroed in on a dozen of names, who could buy from us. I dared to pick few from Europe, a couple from Australia and few names from Russia.
Before the rain settled we had exported to Australia, Russia and, few European buyers were in discussion.
Receiving the Australians prospects from Aurangabad airport and exchanging pleasantries, I posed a straight question softly, "What made you cross over Mumbai when there are dozens of manufacturers of Rotational Moulding Machines there itself", he smiled and said we wanted to meet the person who knew so much about my company, about New South Wales and Australia. Jokes apart, I knew the nail was hit right at the top.
One line that we had written in the mail was about the water scarcity and frequent drought like situations in NSW.
Within next ten minutes I texted our CEO, "Sir, these guys are here to buy, we should not negotiate much".
They stayed for two days and after they left, we distributed sweets to all 60-70 odd employees. Afterall we had to take over afresh from there.
My (re)learnings were simple.
Don't just
✓Know your customer,
Do slog to know
✓Your prospects
Besides
✓The Market
Along with
✓The USP linked pain points of your prospects.
Last but not the least, the ability to ask questions is needed as much as the know-how to answer.
They said it was the biggest order in the history of the organisation, that MSME.
#weekender #sales #msme #exports #conversationalmarketing #stories #marketdevelopment #usp
Agro Turco şirketinde Founder
1moIf you would like to introduce Gulf market with turkish hub we will be pleased to walk together..