Our Integrated
Approach
We combine the expertise from 2 distinct disciplines:
v
Sales and Marketing
v
Intercultural
Communications
Any business must plan to be effective and most companies
recognise the need for a strategy. Some
are more advanced than others and have a structured approach to business
planning. Others have yet to adopt this
approach. What may be successful at
home is far more difficult in a new and foreign market. We adopt a structured approach to Sales and
Marketing strategy and where necessary will provide the assistance to equip
your company with a practical Sales and Marketing Strategy.
Route 2 can also
assist newcomers to the International market place to find their feet, or more
precisely help them identify business partners and ensure that they have the
correct support mechanisms in place to ensure that the business is
profitable. Understanding local terms
of trade, the need for credit control and insurance and the many aspects of
converting an order into revenue received.
However, because without customers there would be no business, whether
at home or abroad, our starting point in all our support activities is
understanding and relating to customers.
We start by
measuring your levels of understanding and the degree of satisfaction of your
international customers. This tells us
something about your strategy and how, in practice, you are attempting to
broadcast it and, in turn, receive customer responses. The Marketing Strategy may be perfect or in
need of an overhaul, but the way in which it is communicated will have a
significant impact on its effectiveness.
Starting with the customer we
look at and integrate your sales & marketing, communications and strategic
activities
The home market is complex and
competitive enough, but if your organisation is not geared up to the
international market place it can soon end in tears. What does it matter if you have carefully cultivated a
distributor in a new market, if someone elsewhere in the company takes an order
from his direct competitor and the first thing that he knows about it is when
he looses an order? Do you know who
speaks a second or even a third language in your business? Are you enlisting their help? Is your marketing plan brilliantly effective
at home yet in attempting to shoe-horn a new market into its parameters, you
fail to recognise or serve local needs.
Communication, or rather the lack of it, is
most often cited as the main cause in the breakdown of commercial
relationships. Yet on the international
stage the scope for misunderstanding is far greater. Your customer may speak English and even appear to understand
you, but can you be sure? Differences
in language and culture require that you take special care with cross-cultural
relationships. Otherwise if you cannot
communicate accurately with your customer, the best laid marketing plans are at
risk.
Communication is
not just about what you say, but also what you hear; it is about giving a
consistent message across the organisation and sharing common goals. It is also about really understanding what
your customer needs in his market, to satisfy the local needs by understanding
as much as you can about that market.
Our dual focus,
integrating strategy and communication, is the key to success, ensuring that
your marketing strategy is implemented, transmitted and managed in a coherent
manner.
Integration in practice
In constructing an integrated strategy,
we review with you a number of elements and expand upon the ones that are
critical to you business:
• Business Development
- Growth strategy, Lead generation, market
penetration,
- Customer Relations Management, logistics
and support
• Marketing
- Understanding international customers
needs, market research
- Promoting to them, arranging appropriate
sales channels
• Strategy & Vision
- International compatibility of mission and
values, corporate culture
- Formulation of International Business Plan
• Location
- Representation,
investment, relocation, alliances, joint ventures
- Policy alignment across the departments
& partners
• Culture
- Managing cross-cultural diversity,
understanding issues, compatibility
- Fostering cross-cultural problem-solving,
teamwork & synergy