海外市场开拓的成功关键（英文）
发布时间：2004-04-30 08:54:23 热度：2229
Avoid the costly mistakes
Success keys in the international market place
In the past few years, I have seen an increasing number of Chinese vendors, especially component vendors, make their presence in the North America market by participating in trade shows, advertising in magazines and some had already set up their North American office. Although the presence is here, the expected return on investment might not—products are not selling or are selling at such low prices that there is no profit. In this series of articles, I will try to share my observations from a professional marketing point of view to help our vendors understand the issues and hopefully find solutions to help their companies generate more business and profits.
To enter the North American market or any foreign market, we first need to verify that there is a market for the product. This can be achieved by performing a complete market analysis, from market size and segmentations to competitive landscapes, etc. Many of the Chinese companies that I saw had performed such a market analysis; however, the unsuccessful ones acted mostly on intuition and some did not complete a systematic analysis. This led to fatal errors in market information.
In addition to erroneous market information, many Chinese companies struggled or failed because they simply cut prices and used these low prices as their sole strategy to enter the North American market. Although this strategy sometimes works (usually only in consumer market), it generally does not work for technology/industrial markets. In technology/industrial markets low prices are only one component of a successful market strategy; service level, financial strength of the company, compatibility etc. are equally important if not more important components. Unfortunately, many Chinese vendors have yet to understand how these important factors function in the North American market place.
example, regarding service level, most of the struggling/unsuccessful Chinese component vendors need to improve their sales force. I have seen many cases that our vendors spend time and money to set up a booth in trade shows, but then staff the booth with personnel who present themselves in such an unprofessional or uniformed manner that potential buyers will not even try to get close to them.
In future articles as part of this series, I will address the following topics separately. In the meantime, interested companies are encouraged to contact me directly to discuss and develop customized marketing and sales strategies for their businesses( peter.chen@apaclinks.com).
Marketing
What is strategic and what is tactical marketing
Using intuition vs. using data
Competitive landscape analysis
Market positioning
Market driven or technology driven
Sales
Building a professional sales force
Direct vs. channel
OEM vs. own brand OEM
Professional Sales management
Motive the sales team
Professional Sales skills
§_Handshake
§_Image
§_Presentation skills
§_Reading a buying signal
§_Professional sales development and training
Relationships between marketing and sales
Relationships between sales and operation
Legal aspects in global market places
Suggestions to our vendors
the author: Peter Chen, a business consultant specialized in the optical industry has an extensive experience in business development, marketing, sales and strategic planning. Peter has worked with Deutsche telecom, Sun Microsystems, Newport Corporation, as well as numerous start up companies and venture capital cases. Peter was Sr. Manager/Sr. Analyst at RHK covering optical components and was also Asia Pacific Rim Sales manager at Newport Corporation prior to pursuing his own consulting career.
Success keys in the international market place
In the past few years, I have seen an increasing number of Chinese vendors, especially component vendors, make their presence in the North America market by participating in trade shows, advertising in magazines and some had already set up their North American office. Although the presence is here, the expected return on investment might not—products are not selling or are selling at such low prices that there is no profit. In this series of articles, I will try to share my observations from a professional marketing point of view to help our vendors understand the issues and hopefully find solutions to help their companies generate more business and profits.
To enter the North American market or any foreign market, we first need to verify that there is a market for the product. This can be achieved by performing a complete market analysis, from market size and segmentations to competitive landscapes, etc. Many of the Chinese companies that I saw had performed such a market analysis; however, the unsuccessful ones acted mostly on intuition and some did not complete a systematic analysis. This led to fatal errors in market information.
In addition to erroneous market information, many Chinese companies struggled or failed because they simply cut prices and used these low prices as their sole strategy to enter the North American market. Although this strategy sometimes works (usually only in consumer market), it generally does not work for technology/industrial markets. In technology/industrial markets low prices are only one component of a successful market strategy; service level, financial strength of the company, compatibility etc. are equally important if not more important components. Unfortunately, many Chinese vendors have yet to understand how these important factors function in the North American market place.
example, regarding service level, most of the struggling/unsuccessful Chinese component vendors need to improve their sales force. I have seen many cases that our vendors spend time and money to set up a booth in trade shows, but then staff the booth with personnel who present themselves in such an unprofessional or uniformed manner that potential buyers will not even try to get close to them.
In future articles as part of this series, I will address the following topics separately. In the meantime, interested companies are encouraged to contact me directly to discuss and develop customized marketing and sales strategies for their businesses( peter.chen@apaclinks.com).
Marketing
What is strategic and what is tactical marketing
Using intuition vs. using data
Competitive landscape analysis
Market positioning
Market driven or technology driven
Sales
Building a professional sales force
Direct vs. channel
OEM vs. own brand OEM
Professional Sales management
Motive the sales team
Professional Sales skills
§_Handshake
§_Image
§_Presentation skills
§_Reading a buying signal
§_Professional sales development and training
Relationships between marketing and sales
Relationships between sales and operation
Legal aspects in global market places
Suggestions to our vendors
the author: Peter Chen, a business consultant specialized in the optical industry has an extensive experience in business development, marketing, sales and strategic planning. Peter has worked with Deutsche telecom, Sun Microsystems, Newport Corporation, as well as numerous start up companies and venture capital cases. Peter was Sr. Manager/Sr. Analyst at RHK covering optical components and was also Asia Pacific Rim Sales manager at Newport Corporation prior to pursuing his own consulting career.
