Three Canadian exporters were sharing their frustrations one evening:

“My new agent in Munich, southern Germany, can’t get along with his own countrymen in Hamburg in the north where the main potential for business is for us, so he isn’t making any sales!” blurted out a Canadian furniture exporter.

“That’s nothing!” replied another. “Last year we appointed a new agent in London to cover the European market—she had terrific qualifications: experienced in our line of business, speaks five languages,and our UK sales have gone up by 150 percent! But there’s nothing coming in from the rest of Europe!”

He then confessed that he had hired an independent firm to investigate the problem and found that the London-based agent had difficulty establishing credibility in France, Germany, Italy and Spain because she was seen as a ‘Brit’. The agent was fluent in several languages, but she spoke them with a noticeable British accent.

When delving further, potential clients and distributors in those countries eventually admitted to reacting negatively to her pitch, in spite of the fact that the Canadian products were competitively-priced.

The feedback was that the European buyers preferred to do business with unilingual North Americans, rather than with intermediaries who were difficult to pigeonhole.

In desperation, the Canadian exporter made direct contact with the same potential clients in the rest of Europe, and even without any linguistic or other cultural assets, was much more successful in making export sales than his ‘multilingual’ agent based in London.

The third exporter had learned to speak Spanish fluently from an Argentine teacher, and had felt sure that he would be able to make inroads by himself throughout Latin America.

Even though he introduced himself as a Canadian, he soon found out that potential customers in the other Spanish-speaking countries where anti-Argentine bias existed, had developed a subconscious negative feeling towards him and blocked him from making any sales.

He was eventually successful when he spoke Spanish with a fake foreign accent, which is what clients expected from a North American “gringo” anyway.

Humble chameleons get the global business

Today, the secret to excel in exports is to learn how to interact and be accepted by people who are not like us, who speak a different language, who think, act, feel and react differently to what we are used to. To do so, we need to learn from chameleons—a type of lizard that is distinguished by its ability to change skin color to match its surroundings.

In human terms, the ability to instinctively adjust and “fit-in” is vital to survival in the social jungle.

It has been said that the people who will succeed are those who “know how to interact with other people,” and that the ability to easily meet and converse with new people is the secret of personal and professional success anywhere in the world. The challenge is that many find this difficult to do in their own day-to-day circles, and even in their own language.

Perhaps the real secret is learning to be more humble, admitting to a desire to learn from others, or to an inability to speak or understand another’s language, and sincerely showing a desire to learn and adjust oneself to others.

Missing other export opportunities

Cambridge University Press says that English is spoken by over 2 billion people in 75 countries. Understandably, many unilingual Anglophones still only rely on their brand, pricing and product quality to overcome international markets’ cultural and linguistic barriers.

However, even greater opportunities become available by being able to communicate more effectively with others. Missed cultural cues, the use of impersonal interpreters and lacking the ability to easily blend into a foreign market often block commercial successes that many are unaware of having missed.

Hard tools and soft talents for breaking into global markets

Penetrating international markets requires several basic tools and a number of special talents. Most North Americans are good at using the ‘hard tools’: good research, a clear and logical business plan, sufficient money to stay the course, and entrepreneurial ability to try to meet a buyer’s needs and other proven attributes.

The ‘soft talents’ are more difficult to learn, and include an acceptance and understanding of the target country’s culture and society, the ability to appreciate and fit into that market’s ways of doing business, a sympathetic non-judgmental ear, the curiosity to learn and accept others’ unspoken social mores, the willingness to try to understand the body language messages of another culture, and a subconscious agreement that others’ ways of doing things are also okay.

Regardless of the many tools and talents that North Americans already have, the basic tools an exporter needs today are the chameleonic ability to fit-in, adjust and communicate in a way that will open new doors and a world of new opportunities!

Have you ever experienced setbacks like the frustrated exporters in this article? How did you overcome them?

The post Master your inner chameleon and excel in exports appeared first on Trade Ready.

No, he was not invited to give trading tips. In fact, the convict turned author and motivational speaker was there to talk about how Mongolian government officials and business representatives can help speed along the country’s success “by effectively telling its story”.

Ironically, Mongolia is far from lacking in qualities that make for a good story; the trouble might just be choosing which to share.

Embracing Tradition while Looking Ahead to a Bright Economic Future

Accented with lush and serene vegetation in the summer months, parts of Mongolia could easily be confused for Switzerland, according to Lonely Planet.

Known the world over for Genghis Khan (Chinggis Khaan) and the traditionally nomadic lifestyle that is still purportedly led by more than 30 percent of the population, Mongolia is looking to capitalize on its unique culture and attractive scenery in a bid to open the world’s eyes to many of its strengths as a place to visit and do business.

With more than 1.5 million square kilometres of land inhabited by just under 3 million people, Mongolia is the world’s most sparsely populated independent country in the world; although that would be difficult to believe for someone visiting the nation’s capital of Ulaanbaatar, which nearly half of the country’s citizens call home.

Since its democratic government toppled the communist regime in 1990, the country has been reinventing itself as a unique place where old traditions meet modern life.

As a country rich with natural resources and a well-established mining industry, Mongolia has been actively promoting itself to investors and business owners around the globe, including in Canada through its newly established Canada Mongolia Chamber of Commerce, located in Toronto. I had the opportunity to speak with the Chamber’s Executive Director, Bolor Sambuu.

“After 70 years of Russian influence ending in 1990, the new generation in Mongolia is not ignoring its past steeped with Tibetan tradition,” he said. “It is also in search of new opportunities to share the talents and hard work of Mongolians with the world.

These days, Mongolian cashmere and sea-buckthorn berries have been two of the latest Mongolian exports to gain popularity on the world stage.

And likewise, as a country that has seen regular double-digit growth, its emerging middle-class enjoys travelling to other countries and imported goods.”

Opportunities for Canadian Businesses in Mongolia

Canada is the second largest investor in Mongolia, and Export Development Canada (EDC) is actively pursuing business there, having assisted 28 Canadian firms from its regional offices in Moscow, Russia.

Canadian businesses already export nearly $72 million to Mongolia, and according to EDC, the business environment ranks quite favorably compared to similarly rated markets as denoted by the World Bank Ease of Doing Business or World Economic Forum competitiveness indicators.

Furthermore, the Canadian government has taken an important step to offer additional support to Canadian businesses by opening up a Canadian Embassy in Ulaanbaator.

Learn about government funding programs for export development and find out more about doing business in Mongolia and making it part of your international business strategy by visiting www.canadamongolia.ca or by contacting Bolor Sambuu.

Have you ever done business in Mongolia? What was your experience? Share your insights below!

The post Is Mongolia the next emerging market for your international business strategy? appeared first on Trade Ready.

Seventeen local professionals completed the International Trade Finance course that Bill held at the end of June, and he has since begun preparing course materials and recruiting for his next group of participants. Having started as part of USAID‘s work to develop the Iraqi economy, Legal Aspects of International Trade will be the second course he’ll be teaching at the Central Bank of Iraq’s Banking Studies Center in Baghdad.

In addition to offering FITT’s international business courses, USAID’s Financial Development Project is working to set up a retail payment infrastructure in Iraq. This includes interconnecting ATMs, enabling credit cards and mobile banking, and establishing a credit bureau – modern banking services that do not exist in the country.

Creating a credit culture
The borrowing culture that exists in North America and many other parts of the world doesn’t exist in Iraq. As a result, the citizens have no real concept of it. So during the International Trade Finance course, Bill along with Phil Corper, a senior banking consultant working on the retail payment system infrastructure of USAID’s financial development project, explained credit in the context of business, as well as other new concepts such as cash-flow planning, and technology and trade finance.

Up until now, if Iraqis wanted to purchase big ticket items, such as a vehicle or a home, they would either borrow from family or wait until they had the capital to do so.

In contrast to the home-building process in North America, whereby houses are slapped together in 12 to 14 weeks and then buyers take on a mortgage, in Iraq you would save until you could afford to buy a plot of land. When you had the money, you might build a wall around that plot, and then put in the foundation. You’d buy a load of bricks, you’d buy a load of dirt, and in time you’d put in the first floor and a roof. And after that was all done, you’d wait until you could afford to purchase windows. All said, it might take you 8 to 10 years to build a home, but you wouldn’t owe on it.

While there have been nay-sayers in Iraq who aren’t comfortable with where the banking sector is headed, the majority of people understand that the changes will help their country to become a more accessible market for foreign buyers, sellers and investors. These changes will also simplify a lot of previously complex banking processes and bring banking to the village level.

FITTskills set to expand
The two-week long Legal Aspects of International Trade course is set to start mid-September, followed by Global Supply Chain Management and then International Trade Management.

The positive feedback from participants has garnered interest for the courses from individuals in northern Iraq as well. Bill recently taught a pilot course in International Trade Finance in the northern city of Erbil at the Banking and Finance Academy located at the University of Kurdistan-Hewlêr and has noted a great demand for international trade training in the “other Iraq,” as the Kurdistan Region likes to call itself.

We’re excited to hear about the how the next courses go!

The next big emerging market?
Iraq’s population of over 31 million people—more than 90 percent of which are under the age of 55—is working to rebuild the post-war country. In 2012, Bank of America Merrill Lynch touted Iraq as the world’s fastest growing economy, driven largely by rising oil production. Furthermore, UK-based bank Standard Chartered plans to open branches in Iraq by the end of the year, and U.S. banks Citibank and JPMorgan Chase both recently announced investments in the country.

With improvements being made in terms of security, and the country’s young population having a drive to learn and develop, the possibilities for economic growth and foreign trade are looking more positive.

With new financial processes and infrastructure being constructed in Iraq, do you think it could soon become the next big emerging market?

The post Could Iraq be the next big emerging market? appeared first on Trade Ready.