Sales vs. Traditional Marketing vs. Digital Marketing : who wins ?

While Marketing is seen as a luxury accessory or even a cosmetic artifice by some companies, some others consider the field as being a “nice to have” rather than a “must have” and keep it in a remote department to work in silos.

Then starts a power game between the sales team and the marketing team who both think they are the most important in the company. Too many times I’ve seen each others ignoring their colleagues’ work or even value. 

Even among those who understood the need for a proper marketing & sales interaction, some are still skeptical when it comes to the digital side of marketing and here again almost consider it as a “UFO” both misunderstood and underestimated. 

Have you ever thought when was the last time digital marketing was used in your company, why and how it effectively enhanced sales ?

Let us remind that our time is about sharing, co-developing, brainstorming with some external input. It’s about teamworking, enhancing cohesion, moving forward.

In AXYNEO, we are convinced this can only be done by smartly integrating Sales – Marketing and Digital Marketing actions within the global company’s strategy in a cooperative team spirit. Behind mere “specialists’ fields” are human beings whose talents can spread and leverage on each others’ skills while communicating together. 

So the real winner is cooperation. 

5 mistakes to avoid when exporting

Many SMBs who started to export in 2019 failed to export in 2020. In 2018, less than 30% of companies who started to export 2 years earlier remained active internationally. (source : French Customs – DGDDI)
Let’s take this opportunity to remind a set of mistakes NOT to do when exporting. 

1.     Go by chance 

International sales is not a matter of chance or a hobby, it’s a matter of professionalism and should be planned within a global strategy. It takes time and dedicated, experienced human resources.

2.     Move without priorities

Shall you want to sell abroad, do not consider all markets at once. Even AirBnB, Uber and countless successful companies started step by step before becoming global. 

3.     Consider the world as unique

Many countries = many cultures = beauty of our world.  
Perception of colors, names, attitudes, prices, UX or CX can be very different according to cultures, hence markets. Localize and adapt.  

4.     Mismatch timing 

Many companies fall in the trap of expecting short time results in conservative markets. Many also « forget » to follow up closely. 

5.     Under-estimate the legal and competitive levels

Local competition and legal barriers, including norms can turn an export plan into a time consuming « adventure ». A market survey is a must.

3 preconceived ideas about doing Business in Japan

MOST JAPANESE PEOPLE SPEAK ENGLISH : FALSE.

It’s not because some Japanese brands are worldwide famous that most Japanese people “naturally” speak English. In fact it is estimated that only 2% of the working population has a decent business level in English. And since foreigners also represent less than 2% of the population, this doesn’t help to make Japan an English speaking land.

Conclusion : avoid being “lost in translation” and find a Japanese language speaker to seriously develop your business.

WE EXPORT ALL OVER THE WORLD, WE’LL ACHIEVE GOOD & FAST RESULTS IN JAPAN TOO  : FALSE.

Airbus has approximately 50 % market share worldwide. It took them decades to go beyond 30% % in Japan after a very long period at 5 %.
Sephora, Carrefour, Ikea and countless other examples show that perception of time and cultural differences can be deceiving.
However many foreign brands can be hugely successful shall they adapt efficiently.  

Conclusion : in Japan “meticulously and surely” is better than “fast and gone”.

JAPAN IS TOO DIFFERENT AND TOO SMALL A MARKET TO CARE ABOUT : TRUE & FALSE.

Japan is certainly very different in many aspects. Nevertheless very often this reveals weaknesses in the foreign offers : i.e. a not high enough product or service quality level.

Too small : 2/3rd of France in terms of land surface indeed. But 180 % of French GDP, 125 % of German GDP, the 3rd biggest economy in the world and one of the biggest importer of food and beverages to mention just one industry.
The Greater Tokyo Area alone (38 M people) has a similar GDP to Italy or Canada and is very much concentrated in an easily reachable area.  

Conclusion : if well understood, apparent difficulties are actually a steppingstone to increase your success chances. AXYNEO helps you reach this BIG REWARDING MARKET WITH LOYAL CUSTOMERS.

Why an SEO strategy matters for YOUR business development ?

Nowadays nobody denies that being visible online is important. 
Let me confirm and even add that it is actually crucial. And to do so, an SEO (Search Engine Optimization) strategy is definitely needed. 

1.     In many cases being visible on the 1st ranking page (SERP) of the main search engines – mostly Google as they have more than 90% of market share – makes the difference between attracting a customer or losing him/her. 
In fact less than 2% of people will click on your web site shall you appear on page 2 of Google search whereas CTR (Clickthrough Rate) could go up to 30% on page 1. 

2.     Being visible online is good but being visible for the good reason is far better. In order to avoid strong bias and poor correlation / causality it is mandatory to have a clear definition of ones’ vision and objectives. 

3.     Shall you make your shop, product, service or solution visible to the wrong target at the wrong timing with the wrong comments and key expressions, guess what ? Results won’t appear as convincing as they should or worse they could even have a damaging boomerang effect. On the other hand, dedicate the right resources within clear goals & timeline and bingo! : customers knocking at your door. 

Defining your goals, targeted segments, most appropriate backlinks, competitive advantages among other factors do matter to achieve good results and have to be part of your digital strategy, hence global strategy.

3 WAYs To GROW A FAMILY BUSINESS

Let us first precise that the term « family business » is not very well defined.

Indeed, among many others :

• a tiny but dynamic wife & husband garage startup is a family business,
• a small Mum & Pop 40 years old declining shop is a family business,
• a 15.000 employees conservative but steady company owned only by a few members of a family, not publicly traded on the market, is also a family business.

Except having several members of the same family controlling the company, they barely have anything in common in their way of conceiving and doing business. Nonetheless we can highlight the following steps to grow whatever the company size :

1.  PUT THINGS INTO PERSPECTIVE

Very often a family business has been developed with very well known people within the board of directors, for years if not decades. Being able to step back is one of the key to find new ways of growing.

It is definitely much easier to see the obvious direction from a bird’s view in a clear sky rather than on the road (not to say in the bush). 

2. HIRE & BUILD A MOTIVATED TEAM

3. SET THE DIRECTION

Being too involved in the same routine for years, within the same ecosystem, it is sometimes easy to forget to set, maintain or reset the direction to take. Without any clear objective and strategy, words can be repeated countless times, they would be gone in the wind within seconds.

AXYNEO helps you to get a bird’s view of your business while nurturing your team towards meaningful and clear objectives so as to maximize the growth.