The international markets continue to impact our local, regional, and national markets. Your local Chamber of Commerce is working tirelessly to bring new business to your area. Joining a business association or chamber of commerce will allow you to network with business colleagues, and at the same time, meet more and more international faces.
When you are at one of these upcoming business events, involved in networking all across the room, you most likely will meet a business owner who just recently moved here. You might learn immediately that their company is located in Japan, South Korea, Germany, or Brazil. You will have an opportunity to exchange business cards, start the typical small-talk, and then move on to the next networker.
A similar situation might happen at an international trade show or conference. Your team is in the booth, making eye contact with an attendee walking down the aisle, and is obviously from overseas. The million dollar question. Is your team (yes, including yourself) ready to step out of the booth and into the aisle to approaching this attendee? Is your team in a position to create enough interest (remembering the 30-second pitch?) to motivate the buyer to walk into your booth?
Trade shows in the U.S.A., Canada, and Mexico, often offer the convenience of a name badge. These badges are often color coded. They immediately tell exhibitors the classification of the buyer. Depending on your corporate briefing, your team might quickly approach this customer because he/she has “the color”. What is your team doing when the color is not on the “Go and get them Tiger” list? Seriously? Is your company really in a position to turn potential business down?
We have established the fact that trade shows in other parts of the world will not necessarily provide every exhibitor and buyer with a name badge. Therefore, you and your team need to be able to get deep into international networking. Your team needs to be culturally diversified enough to meet with global buyers.
Trade shows in Europe often have 4.0 million square feet, 10+ halls, 60,000+ global attendees, from 150+ countries. These are overwhelming numbers. Especially, when the trade show lasts up to six business days. The mentality and business culture at overseas trade shows is often very different from the one that U.S. companies are used to in their markets.
Here are some, hopefully, helpful comments:
- Make sure that everybody can present company and product information in less than 60 seconds.
- Hire local hostesses and translators if you feel that your company might run into some challenges with the language.
- Contact your local U.S. Department of Commerce office to learn more about the export initiative and state programs that will assist local companies (http://www.export.gov/).
- Sales and marketing literature has to be available in multiple languages. Use translators who speak the language as their “native language”. You need to avoid translation and “slang” mistakes.
- Make sure that your literature, corporate gifts, business cards, meet the requirements of the country and market.
- A vast number of global companies are very involved with social media marketing. Join them and connect.
- Introduce your participation in a trade show on social media.
- Industry associations are involved in global trade shows. Call your association and discuss the programs they are involved in.
- Ready for the global market entry? International trade show organizers are frequently offering turn-key packages in a U.S.A. Pavilion setting. Pavilions are a very efficient and reasonable business solution.
There is so much more to it. Contact a global trade show consultant, who will be able to prepare all of these steps for you. The consultant will have the global experience and expertise.
More about Global CIF, LLC
We will help your company to reach new domestic and global markets. Connect with our network to expand your business. We provide one-on-one consulting that reaches your markets. You can reach us by phone at (404) 735-5646 or email at info@globalcif.com. Our website is www.globalcif.com.
Global Trade Show Management & Business Consulting 