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    Dec. 21, 2004

    Although Simon C. Bensimon, a founding partner of the Avico Group, a Potomac, Md., consulting firm that helps small and midsized U.S. companies enter export markets, likes to look at the specifics of individual business situations, he does suggest four business principles that promise to increase the chances of success beyond U.S. borders. 1. U.S. first. Because the U.S. market is markedly different from foreign markets, manufacturing for a foreign market from day one "is seldom advisable." It's better to launch a product in the U.S. while "keeping in mind that eventually you do want to launch it overseas." 2. Enter wisely. A foreign foray can take any of several forms: direct export, a licensing agreement, a distributorship, a joint venture, a partnership, or a strategic alliance. Consider how much control of marketing you want, how much cost you're willing to bear, how much risk you're willing to take, and what local regulations will allow. For instance, some countries, eager for American technology, will insist on a licensing agreement. Other nations will designate a local distributor. 3. Focus on the customer's needs. In business-to-business marketing each customer must be treated individually. In so-called transactional sales -- such as the selling of desk lamps -- price and ease of acquisition are more important than a continuing, personal relationship. In contrast, when a customer is buying a product to solve a problem -- a so-called consultative sale -- being close and identifying the customer's unique needs are essential. 4. Don't abandon traditional market channels. While the Internet provides an intriguing, low-cost, new way to enter foreign markets, small and midsized companies should not abandon distributorships and other traditional market channels. Generally, Bensimon advises, a customer who's buying a solution to a specific problem and needs individual attention isn't best served on the 'Net.

    About the Author

    John McClenahen | Former Senior Editor, IndustryWeek

     John S. McClenahen, is an occasional essayist on the Web site of IndustryWeek, the executive management publication from which he retired in 2006. He began his journalism career as a broadcast journalist at Westinghouse Broadcasting’s KYW in Cleveland, Ohio. In May 1967, he joined Penton Media Inc. in Cleveland and in September 1967 was transferred to Washington, DC, the base from which for nearly 40 years he wrote primarily about national and international economics and politics, and corporate social responsibility.
          
          McClenahen, a native of Ohio now residing in Maryland, is an award-winning writer and photographer. He is the author of three books of poetry, most recently An Unexpected Poet (2013), and several books of photographs, including Black, White, and Shades of Grey (2014). He also is the author of a children’s book, Henry at His Beach (2014).
          
          His photograph “Provincetown: Fog Rising 2004” was selected for the Smithsonian Institution’s 2011 juried exhibition Artists at Work and displayed in the S. Dillon Ripley Center at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., from June until October 2011. Five of his photographs are in the collection of St. Lawrence University and displayed on campus in Canton, New York.
          
          John McClenahen’s essay “Incorporating America: Whitman in Context” was designated one of the five best works published in The Journal of Graduate Liberal Studies during the twelve-year editorship of R. Barry Leavis of Rollins College. John McClenahen’s several journalism prizes include the coveted Jesse H. Neal Award. He also is the author of the commemorative poem “Upon 50 Years,” celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of Wolfson College Cambridge, and appearing in “The Wolfson Review.”
          
          John McClenahen received a B.A. (English with a minor in government) from St. Lawrence University, an M.A., (English) from Western Reserve University, and a Master of Arts in Liberal Studies from Georgetown University, where he also pursued doctoral studies. At St. Lawrence University, he was elected to academic honor societies in English and government and to Omicron Delta Kappa, the University’s highest undergraduate honor. John McClenahen was a participant in the 32nd Annual Wharton Seminars for Journalists at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. During the Easter Term of the 1986 academic year, John McClenahen was the first American to hold a prestigious Press Fellowship at Wolfson College, Cambridge, in the United Kingdom.
          
          John McClenahen has served on the Editorial Board of Confluence: The Journal of Graduate Liberal Studies and was co-founder and first editor of Liberal Studies at Georgetown. He has been a volunteer researcher on the William Steinway Diary Project at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., and has been an assistant professorial lecturer at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C.
          

     

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