My world of export started with driving 10,000 km a month and through to doing a Paris/Frankfurt–Sydney flight once per month. That’s my export career in a snapshot. I started in this extraordinary industry 20 years ago and in that time, I’ve learnt a great deal. And that’s what I’m going to share in this article, but I also what I share in my books.
Often in Europe, you have a set of norms and standards that are defined at the European level that you have to comply with. This is something that is set and you have to comply with these standards if you want to sell. To lobby for a change in a standard is a long-term undertaking. We, small businesses, need to generate revenue right here, right now. We cannot wait for this to happen before we start selling.
I often get the question from Australian companies: how are we perceived by European customers as Australians. There is a bit of an Australian.
Several Australian customers of ours are now at a stage where they either have just reached the million Euros in sales or are beyond. At that stage in their development, we are looking for leverage of their current European customer base. That means growing our sales with these current customers.
Now is the time to explore opportunities in the European market! With over 500 million consumers, Europe hosts a large number of multinationals hungry for technology and Australian innovation (Airbus, Sanofi, Bayer, Danone, Remondis, Daimler, Fiat…).
