Latin American market development strategy

Due to the shrinking trend of orders from Europe and the United States, emerging markets in South America have become the focus of Chinese export and foreign trade companies in recent years. Carlos Trujillo, general manager of Hi Alliance C&C Limited, a trade development company dedicated to promoting exports from Asia and Latin America, is a Colombian. He was at the Xi'an Station of the "Outsmart the Future Export Forum". Entrepreneurs presented real South American business.

Thank you Global Sources for organizing such a great event, and thank you for listening to me here. When Global Sources chose China, he considered several places in China before I could figure out why it chose Xi'an for this meeting. The scenery here really impresses me, congratulations to everyone for having such a beautiful city.

In the next time, I would like to share with you how to do business with South America. I have lived in Xi'an for the past year and a half, but I have been doing business in Xi'an for the past six years, so I hope to introduce South Americans to everyone, so that everyone can see a hospitable South America.

The first question we want to talk about is what is developing in the world now. Let's first look at the evolution of the world's factories. Since the American Industrial Revolution in 1910, the United States used to be the center of the world's manufacturing industry. In the 1960s and 1970s, the manufacturing center Moved to Taiwan, which became the most important manufacturing location at the time. What I want to tell you is that since the 1980s, China has become the center of the world's manufacturing. At present, 40% of the products are produced in China. It brings us the information that China is now a A very important place, and secondly, there is a hidden message that we should pay attention to such an evolutionary process. Anything has an evolutionary cycle, so we don’t know which part of the world will become the manufacturing center next. Next, let's take a look at the global economic situation from the perspective of China. With the evolution of the economy, in recent years, orders in Europe have been decreasing, domestic consumption in the United States has also continued to decline, and the renminbi has continued to appreciate. What have these brought to China? When I first went to China to do business in 1997, I could exchange one dollar for 8.7 yuan in RMB, but now I can only exchange one dollar for 6 yuan in renminbi. In addition, China's labor costs are also rising. Of course, these are good things for the Chinese labor force, but for our business, the business model of the business will change. Therefore, in response to such an ever-changing situation, we should summarize how we should conduct business cooperation and what model should we use to do business better and faster. But at the same time, it also tells us that emerging markets will contain huge vitality, and I will talk about this next.

First of all, let's take a look at the basic situation of the BRIC countries. Brazil, Russia, India, and China together account for 25% of the world's land area and 40% of the world's population. These countries have abundant labor resources and huge consumption power. , will these countries become the leaders of the global economy in 2050, that is, in the next 20 or 30 years? Next, let's take a look at the Latin American market. We also know that the Eastern European market, the Asia-Pacific market, and the South African market are very important. I will only talk about the situation in Latin America here. Many people say that South Africa is actually wrong. It should be called Latin America. The most important countries are Argentina and Mexico. Latin America's population totals 600 million. I am here to do Colombia. Colombia is the third largest country in Latin America in terms of population. It has 46.9 million inhabitants. Now Colombia's economic growth is very stable. Security issues and so on, but now these issues are resolved, the investment climate here is very good, the business environment is very suitable, and it is in the middle of Latin America, so the location is excellent. Maybe most of the companies here have already started some business dealings with Latin American countries, or with my home country. Maybe some potential companies want to ask such questions, how to do business with Latin Americans, especially Colombians Business, because we are not the same as Europeans, and we are not the same as Americans.

Then the first thing to do is to recognize the positioning of ourselves. If a customer contacts us, we need to find out what kind of company they are, and at the same time, we need to understand what kind of company we are. Company, or some manufacturer? At the same time, the second point to understand is what our business really needs, whether we need a one-time marketable order, or we need to establish a long-term cooperative relationship, and we also need to figure out what the other party really needs. The third question is that we need to find out whether we are willing to listen to other people's opinions, because when doing business, we are all willing to express our views, but not very willing to listen to others, when you and Latin American potential When customers do business, they must listen to each other and what each other wants to know. I often tell a Chinese friend of mine that my body is Colombian and my heart is Chinese. Because based on my experience in sales for so many years, I firmly believe that personal connections and relationships are the most important. Just like in China, the first is the relationship, and the second is the business. Secondly, I found out after I came to China that this may be good news for everyone. Latin American people, especially Colombian people are very similar to Chinese people. When I first came to China, I thought I was a foreigner. , but then I found that there are many similarities in the way of thinking and doing things, which makes me very happy. When it comes to marketing strategy, of course we can cooperate with government departments, this is a very important part, just like Colombia, the government is very, very necessary. Secondly, you can also conduct research through the website, and then go to the factory to conduct on-the-spot investigation, because some products are produced here, and part of the process is produced in other places, so on-site inspection of the factory is required. You can make full use of the database, you can also use some trade magazines, etc. to get some information, you can participate in some exhibitions, very famous exhibitions to meet customers, potential buyers, you can also use trading companies to promote channels, but you are in While doing all this, you are building your own connections and making your own friends.

So in a nutshell, you can use an intermediary, or you can use foreign trade direct sales, which is also what Latin Americans do. Therefore, sales strategy thinking is very, very important. Before you carry out a promotion, you must have a clear promotion structure, rather than going directly to an exhibition or participating in an activity, you must do it well in advance. , all mental preparations. Before participating in the exhibition, you can do a lot of research to find out what you need, and understand the process in your mind, and then go to the exhibition, and the purpose of the exhibition is not to collect business cards or anything. At the same time, it is a waste of time and money to directly participate in the exhibition, so be sure to be fully prepared. The second point is that we must have a very strong and clear marketing strategy, and at the same time, we must pay enough attention to the construction of the enterprise portal website. Often I find that Chinese merchants only use Chinese and English, why not Spanish?

The next step is the sales strategy. When you participate in the exhibition, be sure to train the people you participate in the exhibition, let them know how Latin Americans deal with people, let them know how to get along with people, if there is With enough sincerity, Latin Americans are very friendly, which can bring the relationship closer and lay the foundation for future cooperation. Of course, we have many other channels, such as the database, the Internet, some other magazines, and so on, to obtain business opportunities, but what we want to say is, you must make sure that your marketing strategy Focus on the people who really want to do business with you and find out what they really want, not by sending emails or whatever, because we turn on our computers every day and get a lot of emails that tend to tire us out To cope, maybe they are not the partners we want to work with. When doing business with Latin Americans, you must understand that Latin Americans are not trustworthy at first sight, so the company must show a very professional side, and the company's website must be very complete and beautiful. At the same time, you should use Chinese, English, Spanish, and it would be better if you can use Portuguese, so that we can better understand the image of your company. If everything about the company is very clear, then maybe it will go to the next step, such as quoting, and finding suitable customers. But after this stage, the next step is to enter a very important link, which is to start to establish a cooperative relationship. Once both of us have established trust and established a certain relationship, the business will be very, very smooth. The next step is to provide them with enough services. This service is also very simple. I need What kind of standard, what kind of specification, what kind of product, what kind of series, you can do it according to the requirements. In this way, the business can be done very smoothly. In this way, it can quickly achieve the goal of cooperation, very simple.

For example, let's think about it now, change your seat, if you are Colombian, you live in a country that is 13 hours later than China, you have never been to China, you come here to participate in an exhibition, you If you want to buy something with money, you need what kind of impression these sellers make on you, and how you need them to approach you. So if you, a buyer from Colombia, see that the image displayed by the company is very healthy, very powerful, and meets the standards you want, you will trust him very much. At this time, you may They are willing to place orders to this company, so for Chinese companies, corporate image is very, very important. So the corporate image is very important. The corporate image is not just sending one or two emails, it means that you need a very clear corporate identity, your LOGO, and your website construction are also very important. One thing to keep in mind is that most people in Latin America do not speak English, unlike in Europe, where everyone speaks English and can understand English, so for Chinese companies, the most important point is Build confidence and trust in your business in the minds of buyers in Latin America. If you can, your website can be built in Spanish, preferably in Portuguese, Latin American buyers will say I have a hard time finding a business that speaks my native language website, so later Cooperation will be very smooth. Another very important point is to increase investment in product catalogs and promotional color pages. Some companies often say when they meet our customers, this is my product catalog from last year, and customers may ask why there is no latest update. Table of contents. There are also advertisements on the promotional color pages. Be sure to clarify that your advertisement is for potential customers, not for yourself.

I also said just now that the world is constantly changing. Of course, many companies here have done well, but all of them are very professional and professional companies, but everyone is completely Can do better. Therefore, we must increase investment and train our employees so that they can understand what customers really need. We must train our personnel so that they know how to deal with customers in Latin America, so that they can have more customers. information and habitual information of customers.

Next, we will talk about the procurement strategy. After the long-term cooperation is established, everyone must remember that the long-term cooperation must be based on trust, mutual trust and mutual respect. In addition, Chinese companies should also conduct product research and development, design and cost control, but they must pay attention not to be too stingy when controlling costs, these are not good. Secondly, in the process of quoting, it must be very fair. The price must be appropriate. Of course, everyone wants to make as much profit as possible, but the quotation must also have a certain profit margin, so the fairness of the quotation is very important. Secondly, when doing business with Latin Americans, I hope you will give a certain amount of payment terms, such as reducing the strength of some margins. I often tell my friends that although Latin America is an emerging market, Latin America is not after all. It is so rich, and its cash is not as large as that of Europeans and Americans, so it can give certain flexibility in terms of payment terms and terms, so that business will be better.

One last point, before I talk about this PPT, I would like to add another comment about the habit of doing business with Latin Americans. Latin Americans must relax, which means that they tend to spend more money on doing one thing. It takes a lot of time. This is similar to the Chinese people used to. It does not mean that we are slow or sloppy by nature, but we want to do this for a longer process. So when you do business with Latin Americans, you can keep talking to them, explaining what the problem is, what is the problem with my suppliers, so what should I do, when I want to work with them, Latin American People like to dance, and Chinese people like to sing. In doing so, the business will have a better grasp of the rhythm, and everyone will cooperate more smoothly. Moreover, Latin Americans are very warm and open, and we are not like a piece of ice. We are a very hospitable and open nation. I hope everyone can grasp this. In this way, when Chinese companies and Latin American partners do business, It might be easier to communicate.

Before I wrap up, I want to share a quote, a quote from a Brazilian author, "Wake up one day and find that you don't have time to do what you've always wanted to do. Act now. Bar". The message brought to us by this famous quote is that no matter whether we have been with Latin American countries or Colombia before, we hope that everyone will act quickly and seize the opportunity. In this case, we will establish a better friendship. Thank you.