Let's recall we are working with a tool, a tactic and an attitude (MOQ FOB the tool, smallest order not largest the tactic, the attitude the artful thing.) All of this is within the sales process of Approach, Qualification, Agreement on need, Sell the company, Fill the need, Closing.
In exporting there is a difference between a principal and an agent. Hops, for example.
Say your hops source were exporting themselves, then they would be a principal. They would use the MOQ FOB to constantly test overseas markets in comparison to domestic sales. If they received little or no export business, then it would not matter, it would just mean their domestic business is superior to any export business, in their estimation. Their business continues. For the principal, it is at the point of reorders that they begin to get interested in any particular customer. For mere initial orders are only market tests, and probably 90% of the time will never yield a reorder. No point in spending too much time on those.
The agent on the other hand, must make sales overseas. As an agent for hops, you have to work the customers more assiduously, and the attitude of "take it or leave it" of the principal is not so easy to do. Your attitude must necessarily be more aggressive. The agent trades in information and communication, as opposed to the actual product. You need to know going in a lot about any given potential customer.
If there are to be samples in an agency sales process, they must be in the context of a sales process. Reject the unilateral imposition by the buyers that the sales process stop at the approach level, and thereafter it be a one-way street. Make clear the sales process will be transparent and between equals. If not, end of conversation.
So the task, as an agent, is to require that the process be the natural two-way street. Trade that sample for at least what is natural to any legitimate sales process. You get something for the sample, something far more valuable than that cost of the sample you are giving away.
No matter what the sales event: trade show, some sort of matching service, cold call, organize the activities as though you expected an order on the spot. Sometimes "buyers" will put you off by claiming they need to consult with the home office, or "the team." Know who you are meeting before the meet.
Beforehand, I would get full info on each member of each inbound mission and the role in the company. I would pre-send info to the people coming, with questions as to their qualifications to buy:
Beforehand, I would get full info on each member of each inbound mission and the role in the company. I would pre-send info to the people coming, with questions as to their qualifications to buy:
1. Do they have a hops market? What is their budget to test hops in their market?
2. Why do they want to test hops in their market? How would they test hops in their market?
3. Here are the prices ranges in USA, what are their views of those price points?
4. Do they have any questions for which you might prepare?
5. Who is the decision maker when it comes to placing orders?
I would preface all this with the trade data analysis figures. Let them know you are serious.
In essence, I would be done with the "exchange of views" before we met.
The point of samples is to test. The MOQ FOB is a test. If you are giving a sample, it is because they have ordered. If not, if you give a sample, the expectation is there will be an order, or why did they bother asking for a sample?
If they tell you the "team" makes the decision, then you want to know the name and rank of everyone on the team. You want to know the name of the team leader. If not forthcoming, why not? By these answers you can more easily assess if you want to give anyone samples. You came to sell hops, why did they come?
The goal is to get to the name of a decision maker and work a decision maker. Get past the approach step in the sales process. Require that a decision maker confirm a request for the samples, and you'll wait while the clerk does so. You refuse to give a sample to a delivery boy and hope for the best. You will give samples to some one who needs it to place an order (test ingredients in compliance with insurance requirements, take pictures and add their copy, or some other legitimate use as a precursor to placing an order.) Absolutely reject any sample dispatched into obscurity.
One way or another, you do not hand over a sample until you have received far more in value to you than the cost of the sample. Not after you hand over the sample, before you hand over the sample.
Now two things about this attitude as expressed. Human interaction is a dynamic process, so who knows how things will actually proceed. Second, I am exaggerating to make my point. Although I am coming across harsh, it is possible to accomplish the above with a velvet glove. You have a role to play and a value to provide making excellent delicacies available to buyers worldwide, and the process of your connection to legitimate buyers is open and mutually respectful. Don't settle for anything less.
By exercising this professional toughness, when you do run into a real buyer, you will be practiced at working up to speed. No-nonsense matches no-nonsense. You save time for working with real buyers by insisting anyone who claims to be a buyer in fact buys. If not, why not?
The world needs the benefit of the hops, and the sellers want your help. There are markets for everything, the challenge is to find them. Sales meetings may or may not produce sales, but it is up to you to drive the opportunity to the point.
Update: If you are in the SF Bay Area late February, I'll be Foothill DeAnza College is hosting an all-day import-export startup course.
You may enroll here....
Update: If you are in the SF Bay Area late February, I'll be Foothill DeAnza College is hosting an all-day import-export startup course.
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You may enroll here....
Feel free to forward this by email to three of your friends.
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