Selling
in international market is never simple where
language, geographical distance, cultural difference
and lack of market knowledge can pose formidable
challenge to any manufacturer/exporter. This is
more so when buyer and seller interact through
as anonymous a medium as Internet.
A good understanding of what works and what does
not in e-commerce is a key success-factor today.
Though business through Internet is a comparatively
new phenomenon, it is growing at extremely fast
pace and is set to become the dominant mode of
conducting business in near future. Ignore it
today at the cost of your own peril tomorrow.
In this series, we shall look at factors that
can effectively help in winning overseas business
as also moves that can chase away potential customers.
The First Step - Building Trust
At the heart of any commercial transaction, there
is a belief or understanding that the purchased
product/service will help in
- Reducing overheads/cost of existing product/process
- Ensure more business/profit
- Bring greater convenience
We buy a product or service after satisfying
ourselves about one or more of above primary conditions.
The next step in buying process is to identify
a supplier who can deliver the required product.
However, mere ability to supply a product is
not enough to win a buyer. The seller must be
able to convince buyer about quality, reliability,
price and many other factors. To put it in one
sentence - the seller must win buyer's trust.
Building trust is a complex and often long process,
specially when buyer seller do not interact face
to face. Your communication, style of working,
behaviour of staff and many such factors may assume
much greater role in building trust than they
are in conventional business.
How to Build Trust
Unfortunately, there is no simple, sure-fire
solution. If your product is saleable, you are
trustworthy and follow established business principles
there is no reason why you can not win buyer's
trust. Important thing here is that buyer must
perceive you as trustworthy not what you think
of yourself or your actual standing in domestic
market. So, it is extremely important that you
project a positive image about yourself through
your communications. Do not take for granted buyer's
perception - he/she may not know about your reputation
in domestic market. The buyer is more likely to
form an opinion about you based on inputs received
from you. That is why communication is so very
important in e-commerce.
In this age of virtual reality and business
through cyberspace, it is not enough to be reliable
and trustworthy but perceived to be so by your
customer. In next few articles, we shall discuss
how to project positive image about your company.
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