USA EXPORT BLOG

For those in charge of USA Export products and who travel to Europe there are a few tips that may help you.  It is easier for the traveler to stay in a particular city, but for the neophyte international road warrior, check out some of these helpful hints.  Many of the small European airlines, have 1 Euro specials.  Check out www.brusselsairlines.com, www.easyjet.com, www.airberlin.com, www.jetairfly.com or www.vueling.com

For American carriers connecting onto flights in Europe, allow plenty of time for any delays.  Many times a 2 hour layover is not enough.  Any disconnect may cost you the price of the second flight.  My favorite airport to land into is Paris Charles de Gaulle because of the TGV (High Speed Train) station that is right in Terminal 2.  It allows for high speed connection to other parts of Europe or normal train service to Gare du Nord.  There you can connect onto more High Speed Trains (www.tgv-europe.com/), the regional train system or the metro.  Milano’s airports have the worst connections to the city or the rest of the country. 

For the USA Export Manager, car rentals in Spain are much cheaper with www.pepecar.com, but you need to reserve the car at least 2 days before the start of the rental period. The inconvenience of not having their office inside the airport itself is well worth the price difference.  You also need to have an International Driver’s License.  This can be obtained from your local AAA office for a small fee.  It is recommended that you carry this International Driver’s License with you in every country.  If you do not have a GPS, use www.viamichelin.com to guide you on the road.  If you will take a taxi, print out the route to give to the cabdriver, so that he won’t “tour” the city for you.

Most IBIS hotels (www.ibishotel.com) are very convenient and correctly priced for the business traveler.  A small restaurant with local food offers breakfast and dinner for the USA Export Manager who leaves early or arrives late and has no time to look for a restaurant in the neighborhood.

USA export products are poised for good times!  The governments all over the world want us to believe that the recession is over.  The manufacturing indices of most countries have been steadily increasing this year, month after month.   According to the Institute for Supply Management, the US manufacturing index is leapfrogging to 52.9% in August.  That’s more than 8 percentage points better than it was in June. 

Now that the lethargic summer months are gone, it’s back to work as before.  Eleven of the twelve regional offices of the Fed suggested an encouraging sign: the economic activity has begun to stabilize.  If the US economy really starts growing in the second half of 2009, then the longest recession in 65 years will have ended.

How about some more good news: the US Dollar is losing strength and that’s good for USA export products.  Yesterday and today one USD bought Euro 0.68.  Year after year, the USD stays stronger during the summer and as soon as September comes around it’s value decreases (see: http://www.xl-group.us/files/Currency_Exchange_Matrix_Table5.pdf).  This means that a manufacturer who wants to expand needs to look at export markets.  USA export sales may become easier than domestic sales.  Because the USD is so cheap, Europeans would pay only 68% for an American product compared to a similar European product.  Although, the Europeans may suffer as much as the Americans, they get a better deal buying American products when they do buy.

That is likely to get even better for exporters.  The stimulus package the government promised earlier this year has caused the US Dollar Index to lose more than 10%.  International investors believe that the USD is not as good an investment any more and therefore place their money in other assets.  Although Timothy Geitner continues to assure domestic and foreign investors that their investments in the US are safe, he is unable to prevent them (in the case of the Asian countries) to sell off big chunks of debt they bought from the US.  And that’s very good for the USA export.

If you’re involved in USA export, you know it’s easier to obtain new business from your existing distributors than to develop new customers.

Once your opportunities with existing customers have been exhausted, you should focus your expansion on creating new customers in the geographical market where your company is physically located.  You can make the task of creating new business easier, and limit your travel expenses by starting close to your home office and gradually expanding the radius of your prospecting.  It’s not too difficult to manage this process  in your domestic market.  But, everything changes when you start looking at taking USA export products into international markets.

Continue Reading »