1 SELLING ABROAD SELLING ABROAD O PEN S OURCE M ANAGEMENT

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«At HSBC we believe in the future even the smallest business will be multinational» 6

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«People don’t buy from Bulgarian Companies» 8

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Bulgaria actually sells abroad! 10

11 TEN STEPS TEN STEPS O PEN S OURCE M ANAGEMENT

0. Hire an export manager? 12

1) Do some basic research on the country Identify local contacts: –Local Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce –Bulgarian Consulate –Any Bulgarian business nearby –Any potential local business partner Write to potential partners/business contacts in the local country Trade shows you can attend 13

RESOURCES many opportunities and contacts to deal abroadWww.bcci.bg North American Bulgarian Chamber of Commercehttp:// Bulgaria China chamber of commercehttp:// German-Bulgarian chamber of commercehttp://bulgarien.ahk.de/ 14

2) Visit (and try to understand) the country where you would like to start doing business 15

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Meet local Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and any local Bulgarian businessman who has been working in the country. 17

3) Find local resources Partners (local Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce, consultants, part time employee’s, salespeople, local shareholders). Local Bulgarian companies or companies in your industry or in similar industries. If you could start by selling to local Bulgarian companies, it would be a great start. 18

4) Be Committed 19

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5) CREATE A BUDGET THAT MAKES SENSE 21 If you go to a foreign country because you are running out of money, you will end up losing even the few funds you’ve now

Commission only salespeople exist only in fairy tales 22

«Mr. Ruggeri, this company you’re hiring for, doesn’t even have a US website… How can we trust them?» 23

Costs to maintain a local branch No employee’s: 500 to 1,000 $ a month (space, accountant, basic costs) Employee: add 2,500 $ a month If no budget, use web marketing to promote 24

«I have no money…» «I have no project…» 25

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6) Be prepared to go there often (even once a month) 27

7) Build a company in Bulgaria that could function without you (delegate) 28

ARE YOU “BETTING” ON THE RIGHT PEOPLE?

5 characteristics of people that should work with you 30

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I-Profile Bulgaria

8) PROMOTE, PROMOTE AND THEN PROMOTE SOME MORE… Website Events Mailings (build a data base with business cards) Free service/sample Never give up, keep coming up with low cost systems to promote 33

Basic foreign website: Local domain Local address and telephone number Local language Facebook advertisement 34

9) Hire (also) local people (or try to understand them) 35

«Even if they may talk similar languages, people from abroad are very different from us» 36

Every culture is different Americans  Need very convinced style. You have to be commanding Brazilians  They tend to always say Yes Italians  Personal rapport very important British  They are very reliable Spanish  Very touchy. They have the idea of being better than you 37

Hire smart!!! (or move a very good employee from your company) 38

The World is based on 2

10) Be willing to accomodate the product to local needs 40

Excellence sells everywhere! 41 Do something excellent and have a sound business plan!

11) Never give up! 42

Internationalizing your company makes it stronger even in Bulgaria 43

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My story OSM Italiy K2USA LLC 2013 I-Profile franchises all over the world New RD products France, Australia, England, Brazil, Spain… 45

Internationalization is exponential. Hard to get it started but then you cannot stop it 46

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OUT OF THE COMFORT ZONE

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Find the killer! 50

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If you are not really set in pursuing a goal, your brain will not show you all the opportunities that exist to make real progress