We keep getting asked about selling to Africa. Many of the inquiries involve verifying a local business partner, his services, or local customs. We do our best, even if the issue isn’t our forte.
We get asked for help in terms of sales and introducing products in Africa in many of the calls we receive. Despite operating in the industry for a couple of years now, we still can’t understand the attitude of some companies treating this particular market as somewhat of a business perpetuum mobile. No costs, sheer profit.
Launching sales in a new market, or even expanding into another niche in your home environment is an investment that requires a budget. And since African markets rely heavily on relations, you need to be ready for some costs to be recurrent.
A commission model involving a success fee won’t work in many of the cases and will damage the relation, especially if we’re talking highly competitive goods, which are about 99% of the total goods available. No one’s going to invest his time and money in marketing, events, meetings, and other promotional activities for some 2, 3, 6 or maybe 9 months even with the perspective of a hefty commission. This is an investment that has to be made by the manufacturer.
Even if a manufacturer has the potential to create profit and become established in the market, he often fails because of his insufficient knowledge of the market and too high expectations.
Before you sign a contract, please make sure to evaluate your budget and consider the time of ROI.
Invest wisely,
Sulma & Sulma
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