We Took Part in the International Business Development and Export Consultancy Services in the World Newspaper's 'EXPORT 2022' Catalog

In the 'EXPORT 2022' magazine, published once a year by the World Newspaper and one of the most important resources in the field of export, we addressed significant points related to export by participating with our International Business Development and Export services.
ODS Consulting Group CEO Onur Seçkin emphasized the importance we attach to our service, stating, 'What our industrialists in Turkey need is not just an analysis or report, but real results-producing works. We are doing this.'

Export Consultancy of $120 Million for Over 300 Companies from ODS Consulting Group
Founded to meet the professional perspective that companies need, ODS Consulting Group, which has become Turkey's largest domestic consulting firm today, has facilitated $120 million in exports for its clients within four years through its International Business Development Consultancy service. Leveraging the driving force of the eight countries where it has offices, it brought together over 12,500 online B2B meetings between industrial companies in Turkey and firms around the world. ODS Consulting Group CEO Onur Seçkin shared, 'What our industrialists in Turkey need is not just an analysis or report, but real results-producing works. We are doing this.'

You are working for the export in the Turkish industry. What are you doing in this area?
At ODS Consulting Group, we have a unit specifically aimed at increasing Turkey's exports. In this unit alone, we have over 100 full-time employees who are graduates of the best schools in Turkey. We offer a service that provides direct support for finding new markets and customers for companies exporting from Turkey. We reached this level by the end of our fourth year. We are a company that has been operating in the consulting sector for 15 years. We have observed that as the share of exports in the revenues of firms that export in Turkey increases, they lag very much in the process of finding new customers. To solve this problem, we designed a service that is completely data-driven and based on direct customer contact.

Isn't it a contradiction that a firm regresses in finding new customers as it exports more? Shouldn't it be the opposite?
Yes, it doesn't seem likely at first. But the problem arises from a planning issue related to human resources. A limited number of people work in the export units of industrial firms. When these firms' export rates start to exceed a certain ratio, the existing employees can only focus on managing the orders of existing customers, repeat orders, and operations like customs and logistics. They stop marketing actively and focus only on their current customers. At this point, the issue of finding new customers is pushed to the background. The industrialist firm remains a supplier to a limited number of international customers.
We see that many companies participate in international trade fairs. What is the reason for your expression that they are putting active marketing on the back burner?
Fairs can happen once a year or once every few years. Of course, fairs have significant contributions. However, as we all know, the world we live in today is evolving very rapidly. For instance, in Poland, you don't have to wait for a fair to identify your target customer, have an online meeting with them, and prepare a price for a quote request. You can do this much more effectively through proper analysis and systematic work.

How do you work in finding new customers and markets, can you explain?
Of course, it's very difficult for me to explain this topic in such a short space. However, I would like to mention our fundamental approach. For us, finding a new customer & market is a planning process from start to finish or in other words, it is a project execution process. Each of our projects has its own specialized team.
Everything starts with statistics for us. Which countries is your product sold in, who are your competitors in that country, what are your sales channels, etc. There are many questions that need to be analyzed. As a result of these analyses, our international business development strategy emerges. Afterwards, the team assigned to the project goes directly into application. Our teams engage in international business development based on this strategy; they produce quote requests, organize online meetings (B2B) or face-to-face meetings (F2F), and follow the clients until they achieve results. We believe that what companies in Turkey need is not just an analysis or report, but real results-producing works. Therefore, we work this way. In summary, we compile data from around the world, pinpoint customers, and make direct contact.

Important Points in Export

• Our companies are well aware of the difficulties of gaining customers domestically. In fact, the situation is no different abroad; it requires patience, there is no shortcut to this business. Building trust requires systematic work and discipline.

•  We have specific sets of questions when introducing ourselves with our companies in the field. Do you have a CRM software, if so,
  are you using it effectively? Or are your customer data sitting in Excel files? Which target country are you working for? Do you follow up on the business cards you collect from fairs for business development? Or are they sitting on a shelf in your factory? We believe these are questions that our companies, wishing to make sustainable exports, need to ask.

• We have great faith in Generation Z. The average age of our company is 30. When you communicate correctly with Generation Z, you cannot help but admire how well they know the world and their confidence.
  I am sure you will be surprised by their abilities when you treat them fairly, give them responsibility, and show them respect.

•  Engineering and R&D firms located in technopolises have great opportunities in the field of export. However, these firms that are very skilled in production may lag behind in international sales and marketing. We have done wonderful things together with these customers who produce value-added products. Alongside our traditional industrial production,
  we also recommend these firms to engage in more active marketing internationally.