Clever Geek Handbook
7 February 2026

Secrets of Power Negotiating for Salespeople

Recommendation

While the market is flooded with books on how to pitch, sell, wrangle and close a deal, this book rises well above most of them. Author Roger Dawson takes salespeople step by step through the economic and psychological aspects of successful negotiating. Expertly and conversationally written, and strategically structured, this book actually delivers what its title promises: plenty of secrets about power negotiating. View your job in sales as a chess game you can control because you know the rules, from the opening gambit to the power plays in the middle, to the all-important close. If you’ve read Dawson’s Secrets of Power Negotiating, you’ll find a good bit of repetition here, but even when he cites the same gambits, he discusses using them to make sales. You only need to read one of the two books, but BooksInShort says make it this one if you’re in sales. Learn these gambits, so you can say, "Checkmate."

Take-Aways

  • Buyers are becoming better negotiators.
  • Buyers are better informed than ever before. Sellers can’t rely on knowing more about the product than the buyer; today, the buyer often knows as much or more.
  • Negotiations should make both sides feel like they have reached a win-win solution, even if one side clearly has an advantage.
  • Power negotiate using a specific set of rules.
  • The other side will always respond in a predictable way to any move you make.
  • Negotiating entails "Beginning Gambits," "Middle Gambits" and "Ending Gambits."
  • The most important beginning gambit is to ask for more than you expect to get.
  • The most important middle gambit is to avoid confrontational negotiating.
  • The most important ending gambit is to avoid making patterns of concession obvious.

Summary

The Importance of Negotiating

No matter what you’re selling, times have changed. Current trends challenge the old, established ways of doing business. In a trend that will only continue, buyers are becoming better negotiators. Business buyers have more expertise, while consumer buyers are more educated about products and services. As buyers exercise more skill in negotiating, they save more money and get more for what they spend. As the seller or salesperson, this means less money for you and your company.

“Businesses don’t run well because there is a genius in the head office. They run well because a million salespeople meet for coffee every morning to talk about how they can do it better.”

Contemporary buyers are better informed and may know as much about industries that they deal with as those who work in those industries. You used to be able to assume that the seller always knew more about the product than the buyer. That is no longer true. Sellers don’t have the knowledge-is-power advantage any more and they never will again, because information is easily and instantly available to every customer.

“Objections are buying signals. We knew in real estate that if we were showing property and the people were ’oohing and aahing’ all over the place, if they loved everything about the property, they weren’t going to buy. Indifference is your problem, not objections. Objections are buying signals.”

Any negotiation aims to create a win-win solution for the buyer and seller, but there isn’t any magical win-win. There is only perception. With power negotiating, you win at the negotiating table, but the buyers think that they have won. It’s all about how the participants perceive the negotiation. Unskilled negotiators leave buyers feeling that they have lost.

“Withdrawing an offer is a gamble, so only use it on a buyer who is grinding away at you.”

Conduct power negotiations using a set of rules that the other side doesn’t know. They will always respond in a predictable manner to any move you make. In chess, players call their strategic moves gambits, a word that also signifies that some risk is attached to the move. In power negotiating, "Beginning Gambits" get the game started, "Middle Gambits" keep it moving and "Ending Gambits" close the sale. In the language of chess, it’s "checkmate."

Beginning Negotiating Gambits for Sales

Ask the buyer for more than you expect to get - Henry Kissinger once said, "Effectiveness at the conference table depends upon overstating one’s demands." Even if buyers know that this is just a negotiating tactic, and that you don’t expect to get as much as you’re asking for, begin this way anyway because it gives you negotiating room. You can always come down on price, but you can never go up. Near the end of negotiations, you can "nibble for more," since some things are easier to get at the end of a negotiation than they are at the beginning.

“Don’t react to every problem by thinking that you have to lower your price. Price may not be the issue at all.”

Don’t ask for so much at the beginning that it looks implausible to the buyer. Ask for your "MPP" - your maximum plausible position. The less you know about the other side, the higher your initial position should be. The buyer may be willing to pay more than you think. If this is a new relationship, you’ll appear much more cooperative if you can make larger concessions to the buyer, so leave room to go lower. When you ask for more than you expect to get, you automatically raise the perceived value of your product or service. If you ask for the least you expect to get, you give the other side no room to negotiate. If you aren’t willing to settle eventually for far less than you expected to get, you could become deadlocked, since buyers are always going to offer less than your original opening position. Most importantly, asking for more than you expect to get is the only way that you can create a climate in which the buyers feel that they have won.

“Unless your salespeople know how to negotiate well, you can lose profitability, even if sales volume continues to climb.”

Never say yes to the first offer - If you do, you will immediately trigger two thoughts in the buyers’ minds: "We could’ve done better" and "Something must be wrong, if they’re willing to accept an offer that we didn’t think they would take." If your son said, "Can I borrow the car tonight" and you said, "Sure, take it. Have a great time," he’d automatically think, "I could’ve done better. I could’ve gotten $10 for a movie, too." He’s also thinking, "What’s going on here? Why do they want me out of the house? Why didn’t they give me a hard time about wanting the car?"

“Buyers are better negotiators than they were 10 or 20 years ago. That trend is going to continue.”

Always flinch - React with shock and surprise at the buyers’ proposals. When the buyers make an offer, they watch for your reaction. They aren’t necessarily thinking that you’ll agree to their price or proposition, they’ve just "thrown it out to see what your reaction will be." If you don’t flinch, buyers automatically think, "Maybe I can get them to go along with that, even though I didn’t think they would." Flinching is very important, because most people believe more of what they see than what they hear, so they will react to your flinch. In negotiating, this isn’t theatrical or childish; it’s very effective. If you’re not face to face with the buyer, still gasp in shock and surprise because telephone flinches can be effective, too.

“The companies to whom you sell have figured out that the best and quickest way for them to put money on their bottom-line is to take it right off yours!”

Play reluctant seller - This will help you get the best price, because you aren’t showing how eager you are to get the sale. If you seem very eager, the buyers will believe you would accept any price, just to make the sale. The buyers may act reluctant to get you to give them a low price.

Concentrate on the issues - During the critical beginning stages of the negotiation, keep your focus so you don’t get thrown by any of the buyers’ tactics or actions.

“Power sales negotiators know the value of asking for more than you expect to get. It’s one of the key ways that you can create a climate where buyers feel that they won.”

Use the "vise" grip - You can say, "I’m sorry you’ll have to do better than that." Then don’t say another word. The buyers may make a concession to you. If this gambit is used on you, respond by saying, "Exactly how much better than that do I have to do?" This will pin the other person down to something specific.

Middle Negotiating Gambits for Sales

The "higher authority" tactic - This will buy some time and make the buyers sweat it out, as you wait for a "higher authority" to announce if their proposal can be accepted. Sellers and buyers use this gambit all the time when they say they must, "take the offer to my manager." Whether that is true or not. So that you do not put yourself at the bargaining disadvantage of being seen as the decision-maker, tell the buyer that you must check with a "higher authority"- the boss, the committee, whoever it is in your particular case - before you can make any decisions. "Put your ego on the back burner" so you can sincerely portray someone unable to make this decision alone.

“If the buyer takes a position with which you totally disagree, don’t argue! Arguing always intensifies the buyer’s desire to prove himself or herself right. It’s better to agree with the buyer initially and then to turn it around.”

If the buyers know that you have the final authority, they also know that they only have to convince you, but no one else. They don’t have to work as hard to give you the benefits of the proposal, because once you’ve given your approval, the deal will be done. If you tell them that you have to answer to a "higher authority," buyers know they must make a proposal that you can use to go get approval. The buyers will also realize that they must completely win you over, so you’ll want to persuade your higher authority to approve the deal. Make sure that this higher authority is something vague, such as a committee or other group of people. If the authority is just one person, such as a sales manager, then the buyer will think, "Why am I wasting my time here when I really should be dealing directly with the manager?" With a vague, collective authority that’s not directly approachable, the buyer won’t even think of making the pitch to them, since they don’t deal with outside people on a regular basis. The higher authority also works when you own your own company - the so-called higher authority can be people on your staff who are responsible for that particular area of the business.

“Buyers use ”good guy/bad guy” on you much more than you might believe. Look out for it whenever you’re negotiating with two or more people.”

Avoid confrontational negotiating - Confrontations only show the buyer that you’re not working for a win-win situation. Instead, a confrontation conveys the message that you’re just intent on getting everything you can. Attorneys are, by definition, confrontational negotiators, so don’t have attorneys do your negotiating. Have them check out all the legalities and do the paperwork involved but don’t let them do the actual negotiations. They can give you legal parameters before you begin and advise you in private during a negotiating period. Just don’t let them negotiate.

“In this age of computer-generated contracts, you should read the contract all the way through every time it comes across your desk for signature.”

Remember the declining value of services - Any concession you make to buyers will quickly lose its value. While the value of a material object you buy might increase over time, the value of services always appears to decline very quickly after you’ve performed those services. Any time you make a concession to the buyer in a negotiation, ask for a concession from the buyer right away, because the favor that you did for the buyer loses value extremely quickly. Agree on the price before you start the work. Also agree on a formula to use if circumstances change and you have to increase your price. Get paid in advance if possible. If you can’t, then arrange to be paid in installments, as the work is being done or as quickly as possible after the work is done.

Never offer to split the difference - Our natural sense of fair play in Western culture leads us to feel that if both sides give equally, the deal is fair. Maybe it’s fair, but maybe it isn’t, depending on the opening negotiating positions each side took. Splitting the difference could mean a really lousy deal for one of you. Don’t offer to split the difference, however, always encourage the other person to do so if it brings you closer to the price you believe is fair. Once the other side has made this offer, don’t say yes. Pull the "higher authority" routine when you return to the negotiations, and tell the buyer that the higher authorities wouldn’t go for it. Then lament about how close you are to making a deal and how you’d hate to see it fall apart now.

The hot potato - This is when buyers want to give you their problems and make them your problems. Don’t catch the hot potato. Find out right away if the hot potato is really a deal killer or just something they tossed at you to see your reaction.

Ending Gambits

Good guy/bad guy - This is one of the best known negotiating gambits. You’ve seen it used in police movies and TV dramas. The bad guy plays rough, the good guy (who appears to be on your side, but he’s not), comes in and smoothes everything over, gains trust of the person in question and then closes the deal.

Nibbling - This important deal closer enables you to "sweeten the deal" you’ve made with the buyers and enables you to get the buyers to agree to things they wouldn’t have agreed to earlier in the negotiations. Introduce "nibbling" issues one at a time once you see that you’ve got the buyer hooked into the overall deal.

Patterns of concessions should not be obvious - Don’t set up a pattern that the buyer can recognize. Don’t make equal-sized concessions, don’t make the final concession a big one and don’t "give it all away" up front. Also, don’t give a small concession up front "to test the waters." The next thing you know, the buyer will be getting another and another little concession, until you end up giving everything away.

Withdrawing an offer - When the buyers are negotiating in good faith, don’t use this. Employ it only when you feel that the buyer is simply "grinding away to get the last penny off your price."

Position the deal for easy acceptance - You can make the buyers feel good by making a small concession at the very last moment.

About the Author

Roger Dawson is one of the country’s top experts on negotiating. He founded the Power Negotiating Institute, which has trained executives, managers and salespeople throughout the U.S., Canada and Australia for 20 years. His Nightingale-Conant cassette program, Secrets of Power Negotiating , is the largest-selling business cassette program ever published.

Read summary...
Secrets of Power Negotiating for Salespeople

Book Secrets of Power Negotiating for Salespeople

Inside Secrets from a Master Negotiator

Career Press,
 


7 February 2026

10 Simple Solutions to Worry

Recommendation

You can indeed be free of worry, even if achieving that goal is not quite as simple as the advice in Bobby McFerrin’s 1988 chart-topping song, “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.” Anxiety experts Kevin L. Gyoerkoe and Pamela S. Wiegartz explain their well-grounded approach to understanding worry and its impact on your life, including your health, relationships and productivity. Their upbeat little book packs a powerful one-two punch that illuminates and clarifies the basic elements of “productive” and “unproductive” worry, and then gives you specific directions for managing and even eliminating useless fretting from your life. Using “cognitive behavioral therapy” principles, exercises and techniques, you’ll be able to identify and change the negative thoughts that cause worry and begin to lead a more stress-free, balanced life. BooksInShort recommends this small gem as a fine resource for working through your worries.

Take-Aways

  • “Worry affects how you think, behave, feel and relate to others.”
  • The three basic elements of worrying are panicking about today’s impact on the future, foreseeing a worst-case scenario and picturing the future using words without images.
  • “Productive worry” focuses on a dilemma and lists steps toward a solution.
  • “Unproductive worry” centers on an improbable event and does not lead to a plan.
  • “Cognitive behavioral therapy” strategies can reduce anxiety and worry.
  • To alleviate your symptoms, practice these techniques: muscle relaxation, deep breathing, meditation or “guided imagery.”
  • Use better time management and communication skills.
  • Learn to change your thoughts, to react to new ways and to confront your worries.
  • Consider taking prescription anti-anxiety medications, if only as a temporary aid.
  • Monitor your headway by recording your worries and your progress in dismissing them. Commit to learning new tools and skills by signing a contract with yourself.

Summary

“10 Simple Solutions to Worry”

Do you suffer from chronic apprehension? Do you agonize over the smallest of molehills, creating large inhibiting mountains in your head? Don’t sweat it. Here are 10 solutions how to manage your worry:

1. “Understand Worry”

Worry has three basic elements: The first is “future orientation.” Most people worry more about what might happen in the future as a result of today’s events than they do about the reality of the event at hand. For example, having a flat tire is trivial compared with worrying about what the repair might cost, missing a crucial meeting or having to cancel a dinner date. The second element of worry, “catastrophizing,” accelerates your fretful future orientation into a doomsday scenario, where you see the future in a “highly negative light.” Worry’s third element is “language-based thoughts.” Healthy, positive thinking includes both words and images, but when you worry, you switch to thinking in words alone. Your mind shuts out images – which may be scary – and lets your “inner voice” repeat drearily monotonous portents of future disaster.

“Worry affects how you think, behave, feel, and relate to others.”

Yet not all worry is bad. “Productive worry” spurs you to take positive action in matters crucial to your survival. Health concerns might spur you to quit smoking. Distress about paying your bills might prompt you to seek a raise or a better job. Productive worry involves a specific problem and a solution. In contrast, “unproductive worry” is fretting about a highly improbable event and produces no solution. Normal anxiety – the fight-or-flight response – helps you address problems, but unproductive worry can paralyze you.

“Some worry is a reality of life.”

Worry affects four aspects of your life:

  1. “Cognitive” – Worrying leads to disastrous thinking about what could happen.
  2. “Behavioral” – Anxiety precipitates “avoidance” and “compulsive behaviors.”
  3. “Physiological” – Worry provokes stress, sleeplessness, tiredness and distractedness.
  4. “Interpersonal” – Fretful folks shun intimacy. They’re querulous and self-absorbed.
“One of the fascinating things about self-monitoring is how it changes your behavior. When self-monitoring is applied to chronic worry, the result is often less worry.”

Starting today, you can understand, control and reduce unproductive worrying. Monitor yourself by recording what you worry about in a small notebook. Jot down the dates and times you find yourself stewing. Rank the bothersome subject on a scale of 1 to 10. Within a week, you should start to see patterns of your “core worries.” Most people fret primarily about “family, health, finances, relationships, work or school,” and “safety.”

2. “Make a Commitment”

Consistent practice can make managing your fretfulness second nature. To experience fewer and less-dramatic bouts of anxiety, commit to learning new tools and skills. Set realistic expectations, and write out reasonable goals. List the benefits of worrying, such as distracting yourself from unpleasant situations, feeding your superstitions, earning attention, controlling others or solving problems. Does thinking through niggling concerns help or hurt you? Then list the pros and cons of controlling anxious thoughts, so you can decide if learning to stop worrying is worth the effort. If you’re willing to commit the time and energy to quit worrying, sign a contract with yourself.

3. “Learn to Relax”

Uncontrolled worry can produce a range of physical troubles. Chronic worry throws your nervous system into a “constant state of arousal.” Achieving a state of deep relaxation – an effective antidote to anxiety – is a learned skill that takes practice and offers proven benefits for your physical, cognitive, emotional and behavioral health. To derive the greatest benefit, practice one of the following four relaxation techniques for at least 20 to 30 minutes every day. Experiment to see which one works best for you. Don’t intentionally try to relax, or you’ll defeat your purpose.

  1. “Progressive muscle relaxation” – For physical symptoms like tight muscles, headaches or sleeplessness, learn how to tense and release your muscles to make yourself relax.
  2. “Diaphragmatic breathing” – For respiratory symptoms like a tight chest or a “lightheaded” feeling, learn to use deep breathing techniques.
  3. “Meditation” – For cognitive symptoms like “racing thoughts, what-if scenarios” or “difficulty concentrating,” learn methods for sitting still and clearing your mind.
  4. “Guided imagery” – Learn ways how to muster new and positive images to replace troubling mental depictions of negative scenarios like making a bad speech or crashing your car.

4. “Change Your Thinking”

Two “revolutionary” findings in the 1960s form the basis of modern-day “cognitive behavioral therapy” (CBT). First, researchers discovered that conscious (rather than unconscious) thoughts control how people feel. Then, they established that “those who suffer emotional distress often also engage in distorted thinking.” Some “common cognitive distortions” include seeing a small threat as overwhelming, viewing possible outcomes only in black and white, anticipating disaster, and engaging in “what-if thinking, mental filtering” and “overgeneralization.” Identify which distortions misshape your thoughts, and record them in your notebook. Counteract these mental distortions by assembling the facts about a possible event, anchoring yourself in the here and now, and conducting a “cost-benefit analysis” about specific worries. Continued practice will reduce your anxiety level.

5. “React Differently”

“Worry behaviors” are not real problem-solving devices. They don’t mitigate a dilemma. Their function as coping mechanisms is to make you feel better about being concerned. Compulsively repeating a worrisome idea is just a temporary fix. An overanxious person might believe that worrying behavior prevents a disaster, but it does not. The act of routinely checking on a sleeping baby doesn’t keep the infant safe, but the behavior becomes an automatic response to parental fretting. Repetitive checking is a common anxious behavior, along with “excessive conscientiousness, reassurance-seeking and avoidance.” Eliminate fretful behaviors by listing them and analyzing whether they benefit you or not. See if you can stop cold turkey. Redirect negative thoughts and try to fill your extra time with fun.

6. “Accept Uncertainty”

Researchers cite “intolerance of uncertainty” as a prime component of worry. Uncertainty filters into all the small occurrences of everyday life, yet most people want certainty in at least a few areas, notably work, health and relationships. Worriers view uncertainty as bad and try to avoid it, though it is intrinsic to the human experience. If you fret about life’s uncertainties, try to flip your viewpoint and to see it as responsible for all the excitement, joy and wonder that makes living interesting. Without uncertainty, life would be boring. List uncertainties you find uncomfortable, the ways you justify anxiety and any action you can take to develop a more positive approach.

7. “Manage Your Time”

Most people have periods when they have too much to do in too little time. Don’t confront a time crunch by giving in to inefficiency, which can result in delays, anxiety and lost work. To feel more accomplished and less worried, improve your time management:

  1. Develop greater awareness – In your notebook, create a detailed log of how you spend each 15-minute segment of every day for an entire week.
  2. Analyze how you spend your time – Categorize your activities into logical groups such as eating, sleeping, housework, personal hygiene, childcare, commuting, working, recreation, and so on. Then add the amount of time you spent engaged in each category, making sure the total is 168 hours. Reflect on any changes you could make by consolidating, eliminating, delegating or even increasing certain activities.
  3. Make a time schedule – Make another full week schedule, filling in each 15-minute segment with how you would like to spend the coming week. First, enter set appointments and commitments. Then allocate high-, medium- and low-priority tasks into the blank spaces, leaving room for contingencies.
  4. Assess how you did – For at least one or two weeks use an extra column to monitor how closely you followed your plan. Pay close attention to whether you accomplished your high-priority tasks or fell into procrastination.
“Poor use of time leads to increased frustration, anxiety and worry. Time management training has been shown to reduce these negative feelings.”

Problems with procrastination often stem from trying to do something too perfectly, being scared to do it wrong, spending more time stewing over it than actually working on it and feeling too responsible for its outcome. Overcome procrastination by diving in and taking action: Divide a job into smaller parts, examine your negative beliefs about failure, envision the completed job and share your goals with others while asking for their support.

8. “Communicate Assertively”

Suppressing your needs and desires can fuel increased anxiety and stress. Worriers may learn early in life that they have to subjugate their needs to others’ priorities, to accept the dictate of someone in authority without question and to avoid making waves. Pay attention to how different styles of personal communication – “aggressive, passive” and “assertive” – can affect your levels of worry. Assertive communication engenders less anxiety. Assertiveness requires that you first define the situation, express your feelings about it, propose a solution, and outline both the positive and the negative consequences of compliance.

9. “Confront Your Worries”

If you fret all the time, people probably tell you to stop panicking. They say, “things will work out,” or they urge you to “think positive thoughts.” You know all too well that such suggestions are futile. In fact, the harder you try to stifle your troublesome thinking, the more those ideations intrude. Furthermore, attempts to push away unpleasant mental urges can be more harmful in the long run. Surprisingly, the best way to handle unpleasant fears and worries is to confront them by thinking intensely and purposely about them. This process uses “the magic of habituation” to desensitize your reactions to specific concerns. Directly confronting your apprehensions stops the negative cycle created by having an additional anxious response to the initial worry. Confront your worries by listing them and ranking them hierarchically. Choose the least anxiety-producing worry to focus on at length. Practice imagery and anxiety-management skills on that worry until it dissipates. Then tackle the next least-bothersome worry, and then the next.

10. “Know Your Medications”

Anti-anxiety prescription medicines offer benefits and drawbacks. Many people learn to manage their levels of trepidation without medication, simply by learning and practicing cognitive behavioral strategies. Others may feel too overwhelmed by worry and fear to practice these techniques effectively or simply may not have the time for formal relaxation exercises. The disadvantages of anti-anxiety drugs include possible negative interactions with other prescription medications. Discuss your situation in detail with your doctor, examine all your options, consider possible consequences and make an informed decision.

“Worriers tend to chain several worries together, leading to escalating anxiety.”

Any knowledgeable, licensed medical doctor (not necessarily a CBT specialist) can prescribe useful treatments from a range of medication for generalized anxiety. Many patients turn to alternative or herbal remedies, but less is known about their efficacy, side effects and possible interactions with other drugs. Discuss all aspects of such a decision with your doctor.

Sustaining Your Momentum

Consistent, regular practice of these CBT strategies should reduce the frequency and intensity of your anxiety, but expect both victories and setbacks in your battle against this challenging foe. Patience and persistence will help you manage your anxiety and ultimately gain the upper hand. To maintain your progress, try to practice your skills, look for early signs of new problems, decide whether these new concerns are productive or unproductive, and turn to the strategies that worked for you previously.

“Most people are skeptical when they hear that a good way to have fewer worries is to actually worry more on purpose.”

With deliberate action, it’s entirely possible to live a worry-free life.

About the Authors

Kevin L. Gyoerkoe, PsyD, is co-director of the Anxiety and Agoraphobia Treatment Center. Pamela S. Wiegartz, PhD, is assistant professor of clinical psychology at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

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10 Simple Solutions to Worry

Book 10 Simple Solutions to Worry

How to Calm Your Mind, Relax Your Body & Reclaim Your Life

New Harbinger,
 


7 February 2026

A Short Course in International Marketing

Recommendation

Trade professional Jeffrey Edmund Curry provides a solid introduction to the principles of worldwide marketing. This book, with its simple definitions of basic marketing terms, will be most appreciated by lower-level employees at companies with newly expanded, global horizons. Newcomers to international business will find information on a wide range of key topics: understanding the role of governments, developing products for the foreign market, doing market research, preparing for market entry, developing distribution, advertising and promotion, making your initial contacts, staffing the new market, evaluating performance and creating a marketing plan and market audit. BooksInShort recommends that executives of companies with global ambitions read this book and pass it along to the people who’ll execute new cross-border strategies.

Take-Aways

  • Most companies start domestically and then establish a presence internationally.
  • When marketing in another country, consider market planning, regulation, licensing, distribution, financing, exchange risk and legal status.
  • The tourism industry is the world’s largest employer.
  • The biggest single market, in actual value, is currency trading. More than one trillion U.S. dollars change hands daily worldwide.
  • Enter a market only when you have an advantage over locals.
  • The countries with the strongest economies are most open to trade.
  • Governments may erect numerous trade roadblocks, including tariffs, inspections, import licensing, environmental controls and customs delays.
  • Learn the cultural differences of the market you are targeting.
  • On your first trip, investigate a product’s potential.
  • Public relations are especially critical, since image is everything.
  • The biggest single market, in actual value, is currency trading. More than one trillion U.S. dollars change hands daily worldwide.

Summary

Stepping Across the Border

Marketing and sales are often confused. Sales is the end result of the process of marketing – the point at which the goods or services are given to a customer in exchange for money or other valuable consideration. Marketing is the entire commercial process that leads to this point.

“Hospitality and tourism as an overall industry is now the world’s largest employer, with one of every ten people on the planet involved in its operations… Tourism is so important to most nations that it’s a primary focus of antigovernment groups: Kill tourism, kill the economy.”

In moving beyond your country’s borders, you will need a marketing plan that estimates your potential in an international market. This action budget, which is subject to change over time, should have short, medium, and long-term components. Traditionally, marketing includes:

  • Making contact.
  • Merchandising
  • Pricing
  • Promotion
  • Distribution
  • Human resources.
“Currency trading represents the biggest single market in actual value in the world. The equivalent of more than one trillion U.S. dollars changes hands daily worldwide, with the market open twenty-four hours a day.”

Begin with product awareness, whether you are marketing to a single consumer or large corporation. You need to develop product affinity, preference, confidence and, finally, product purchase.

Common mistakes in marketing include universality and personalization (thinking other groups will like your product because one group or one individual does), price blindness, quality default, cultural myopia, poor timing and packaging ploys (where you think the product will speak for itself).

“Countries at the top of the economic heap tend to flaunt openness as a challenge to would-be opponents. Lesser economies seek to protect every possible area of vulnerability by keeping foreign traders at bay.”

Few companies move directly into international marketing. Most start marketing domestically, and then move into exports, finally trying to establish a full-scale international presence. Today, you can get a global presence immediately with the Internet, but it is still a good idea to test your product or service locally before you expand, since you can apply the lessons you learn at home elsewhere.

“When an established product is introduced or adapted for a new foreign market, care should be taken to understand how it will be perceived there. The perceived newness of the product line, rather than its actual age or applicability, will determine its success.”

Locally or internationally, the marketing planning process includes market assessment and orientation to set your objectives and develop your strategy, segmentation to target specific groups, penetration to gain consumer access and positioning to place your product relative to others. Use implementation, control and strategy analysis to assess how well you have done. Besides these usual procedures, also consider the following elements when you export:

  • Regulation – Fully investigate the regulations imposed on imports.
  • Licensing – Learn what licenses may be required for exports and imports.
  • Distribution – Typically you will work through local distributors, rather than setting up your own network, which is very costly and often discouraged by local governments.
  • Financing – Commonly, you will need to use letters of credit (L/C) and correspondent banks to handle credit arrangements, until you develop an ongoing trust relationship.
  • Exchange risk – Usually, there is a lag time between when you enter a contract for a trade and when you get your money. This can result in changes in currency values. It is best to specify the currency of payment using the hardest currency available.
  • Legal status – Research the prevailing legal environment and your status in the country where you are exporting before finalizing a contract, so you are aware of tariffs and any legal requirements. Often you will be at a legal disadvantage in another country.
"Technology: The United States and Japan are the undisputed leaders in this marketplace. Manufacturing may be done worldwide, but the ideas flow primarily from the two big players, with the United States dominating both the hardware and software.”

To decide whether to enter a particular foreign market, ask yourself if you have sufficiently researched the nature and size of the target market, whether the government will permit the import of your product, whether you can get your price and if you can trust local distributors.

The Backbone of International Trade

The international marketing arena includes a number of players, which range from small to very large companies. Sellers – exporters – are the backbone of international trade, since they have the "burden of proving value," while importers may be either end users or, more commonly, part of the distribution network in getting the goods to foreign buyers. You also must rely upon freight forwarders and shippers, who move the physical goods. Other players include members of the tourism industry (the world’s largest employer) and those involved in telecommunications, advertising, entertainment and technology, as well as financial players, including currency traders, bankers, credit card companies and business consultants.

“Absolute and comparative advantage will get you into a market, but staying competitive is the only way to survive long-term.”

The international market has grown tremendously in the last decade from a $3.7 billion market in 1989 to $6.7 billion in 1997 and even more today. Still, you may find business people and politicians who regard foreign companies as predatory and conniving compared to domestic firms who have the country’s best interests at heart. Consider this national pride factor when you enter a market, so you can counter any resistance to your product.

“Most developing markets insist on technology transfers if a product is to be sold within their national boundaries.”

Enter a market when you have a comparative advantage due to your ability to produce a better product at a lower price than a local concern. You may have an absolute advantage if a country can’t produce a reasonably priced product at all. In general, most international efforts are based on a comparative marketing advantage due to quality, quantity, price, delivery, warranty or service. Stay alert; you need to stay competitive for long-term survival.

Governments and Cultural Forces

Different countries have different approaches to trade. Generally, countries with stronger economies are more open to trade, while countries with weaker economies seek more protections for their economy. Various factors influence a country’s response, including its concern for border sovereignty and a sense of its own prestige.

“It’s not unusual for a government to require the use of a local partner to represent your product or to ’invest’ in your business… By mandating that a local receive a piece of the action, the government maintains local control of the business and hopes to gain a management education for its population as a form of technology transfer.”

The trade roadblocks a government may erect include tariffs, inspections, import licensing, distribution restrictions, environmental controls and customs delays. A developing country’s government may also seek a technology transfer to permit you to sell inside the country. But, these countries also provide the least patent and copyright protection, so you have to decide if you want to risk losing a trade secret or other protected information. Additional government restrictions may require you to hire local suppliers, engage in local partnerships and comply with regulations involving quarantines, quotas and anti-dumping laws. Determine which restrictions are relevant in the countries where you are interested. Be aware of any trading blocs that affect your target area, such as major trade organizations:

  • OPEC
  • NAFTA
  • The EU
  • ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations)
  • FTAA (Free Trade Areas of the Americas)
  • SAPTA (South Asian Pacific Trade Association)
“Marketers must be aware of the political environment they work in and be prepared to calculate, as well as manage, risk.”

The World Trade Organization, which developed out of GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade), is another major influence. It works to remove import and export tariffs. The World Court, which rules on international trade disputes, is its enforcement arm.

To succeed, you must understand the culture you are targeting. Consider language, which includes both words and physical forms of expression, and local customs. You will increase your chances of success if you spend your first trip to a market investigating its potential rather than selling right away. You can improve your product’s suitability if you understand the market. For example, pay attention to traditional holidays, vacation periods, work schedules, use of color, gender roles, family structure and buying patterns. Consider religious influences in a culture, too, since some religious groups are influential even if they are a minority in a nation. For instance, religious beliefs or holidays can affect the proper timing for entering a market, especially in the developing world, where numerology can influence which prices or days are viewed as favorable.

“The proper timing for entering a market may also be dictated by religious beliefs or holidays.”

Other key cultural considerations include family hierarchies and decision makers, since some countries are more patriarchal, matriarchal or influenced by extended families. You need to adapt to the other culture’s rules to be successful internationally, not only in shaping your product or service to a culture, but also in guiding your employees’ behavior.

Global Cost-Benefit Analysis

Reasons for entering a foreign market include saturation or declining interest in your domestic market, a desire to enlarge your market, better pricing – sometimes due to favorable exchange value – or even a government request. Whatever the reason, ask yourself a series of questions to assess the long-term positive and negative potential. Could the new product cause brand-name confusion in either market? Will expansion adversely affect your domestic market? Based on consumer perceptions, what is your product’s life cycle in the foreign market? For instance, a telecommunications product will seem very new in the developing world, since most developing countries don’t have a telecommunications infrastructure, but it may seem late in the product cycle in a more developed country.

“Members of the (distribution) chain should have the widest network available, one that includes not only those resources needed directly for actual distribution but also the political, diplomatic and public-relations connections necessary to a smooth operation.”

You can finance your product entry various ways. Often a joint venture is a good way for small companies or entrepreneurs to get capital and management assistance. Alternatives include going to venture capitalists or investment or commercial banks. If your product helps with a country’s infrastructure, services or educational or humanitarian needs, you might get financing through agencies that promote international economic development, such as the International Monetary Fund, also called the World Bank.

Do your market research. Start by establishing objectives and research questions. Then, plan your research methods. Possible information sources include governmental agencies, trade organizations, local partners and agents, consultants, contractors, databases, the Internet and the media. You might also get information from the commercial attaché in a government’s diplomatic office, or you can hire local staffers to do direct research in your target market.

Market Entry and Development

Use market research to help you make decisions about segmentation, product differentiation and positioning. Public relations are especially critical, since image is everything. Besides developing good relations with the local media, foreign companies can help create smooth relationships through goodwill gestures, such as becoming an arts patron, sponsoring a sports team, or contributing to local education.

Carefully price and package your goods to appeal to the local market. Base pricing on cost, demand, competition, and product life cycle. Show that you recognize customer needs by setting up warranty and service programs.

Consider the costs of setting up your distribution channel, your own capital resources and the types of distributors available for your product. Often total control of distribution channels won’t be possible, but such control may not be necessary. Try to get your product into previously established distribution channels. Set up an efficient logistics-management system, based on the best means of transportation, inventory control, ordering and storage. Choose your distribution and logistics teammates carefully. Ideally, they should have sound political, cultural, legal contacts and commercial contacts. Seek teammates who are financially sound, service oriented, professional, flexible and stable.

Once your product is distributed, you need to advertise and promote it, based on a solid understanding of the customer, including culture and language. Your advertising may fall under government guidelines, so you may want to hire a local agency where the staffers understand the culture and the legal climate. Other promotional techniques include personal selling, industrial sales, sponsorships and direct marketing. Finally, if want to you move beyond exporting, the next step is managing the marketplace by building a staff in that country.

About the Author

Jeffrey Edmund Curry, M.B.A., Ph.D., has taught management development, international finance and economics in both the U.S. and Asia. He is the author of Passport Vietnam and Passport Taiwan, books on international economics and negotiating.

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A Short Course in International Marketing

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Approaching and Penetrating the International Marketplace

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