Once you’ve decided on a destination, Scott recommends travelling there several times to get an eyewitness account of potential customers. “Without this it’s very hard for the exporter to visualise market conditions, product usage, personality types or cultural obstacles,” he says. “The intending exporter is really on a journey of discovery, and visiting the country is part of that knowledge acquisition. You’re trying to figure out the trigger for why people buy your product. If you’ve never been to India and you’ve never been to Indian shops or eaten Indian food, it’s very difficult to visualise market conditions.”
And when you travel you need to get out there. “It is often beneficial to spend time outside of hotels and visit local areas to eat and socialise,” says Rhonda McSweeney, Flight Centre’s executive general manager of corporate sales. She recommends exporters spend the maximum amount of time possible meeting with local organisations. “This may range from potential partners, suppliers, banks and professional firms such as lawyers and accountants.”
Business travellers should also try and maximise opportunities in other ways, such as combining reasons for travel. “Instead of having a lengthy and expensive itinerary, you can use events as the main feature to draw people in. Conducting business meetings off the back of trade shows is a primary example of optimising travel,” she explains.
Take advantage of the professional resources and research your travel management company offers, she adds. “It’s important to find someone who knows the area and is used to sending people off to those destinations. When conducting a feasibility study, we gather a large amount of external data about the market. Key areas include the size of the market, key competitors, key suppliers and the underlying economics of the travel industry in that location.”
In addition to the Austrade network and industry associations, McSweeney notes that exporters should think about tapping into pre-existing international relationships. “We use professional and financial institutions to help identify a shortlist of potential partners in a location,” she says, referring to Flight Centre’s own international expansion.
Visiting a country will also give exporters a firsthand view of the destination’s culture on both a business and social level. Prior to travelling, McSweeney suggests exporters inquire about business customs. “Business travellers should have an in-depth understanding of basic business customs and etiquette of the country they are travelling to. When travelling to a foreign destination, people should be aware of and respect cultural and religious differences and have an understanding of social customs and local law,” she notes. “It’s also a good idea to have a basic grasp of commonly used phrases such as ‘please’, ‘thank you’, directions, and terms surrounding currency.”
However, unless you’re fluent in the destination’s language, McSweeney says to invest in a translator. “Miscommunication in any type of business interaction can kill the deal before you get started. It's best to not go there unless it's a true second language.”
Language is often the reason why many Australian exporters start selling to English-speaking markets. It is this ‘psychic distance’—a measure of closeness based on historical ties, cultural similarities, a common language or physical proximity—that makes certain export destinations comfortable, which taps into the instinctive understanding a business has of a market.
Australia’s multiculturalism should also provide some leverage, says Scott. “Sometimes internationalisation is assisted by the ethnic background of the company’s owner or management. Either way, new exporters commonly start with countries for which they have a greater affinity, and building on their experience then expand to more remote markets.”
Once an exporter experiences success in a market, the easier it is to make small adjustments to sell into a similar market, which means research should take less and less effort. “Most exporters would go into complementary countries. Countries that exist next to each other, particularly if they’re relatively small, generally have a lot of commonalities in culture and preferences,” remarks Scott. “If you start out with a French importer, why would you go to enormous expense and effort and reinvent the wheel by then choosing Cambodia as your next country? Why wouldn’t you choose Switzerland or Belgium? Your product probably won’t need any adaptation and there’ll be a lot of cost savings from doing that.”
Researching a destination is not just about hitting the books, but part of a greater understanding of similarities and differences in markets around the world. Whether you export to a country because someone approached you, or whether you’ve initiated contact yourself, research is the key to a sound sales strategy and subsequent longevity in an export market.
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