In this next feature, we talk to Lynn Shepherd, Group Director of Communications at Oxford Instruments.
In this case...
...we talk about how to develop business relationships and partnerships in international markets.
My name is Lynn Shepherd, I am the Group Director of Communications at Oxford Instruments...
...Oxford Instruments PLC.
Oxford Instruments was the first commercial spin-out from Oxford University back in 1959...
...and their core technology then was the superconductivity and...
...and basically I think we were the pioneers of the human MRI scanner...
That was our beginning and we've built up then to become one of the world's leading suppliers of...
...high technology, scientific tools and instrumentation for research and industry.
We operate in many diverse markets...
...it's one of the strengths of Oxford Instruments and probably...
...what's seen us through some of those macroeconomic problems that we've faced over the last few years.
We have diverse products, we have diverse customers and we have diverse markets around the world...
...so we can have...
...customers at the high end of fundamental research in universities...
Or we're selling to the sole trader, who's a scrap-yard dealer in the middle of China.
So whenever I'm asked what sort of characteristics our customers have...
...they're very, very varied and we have to tailor then, how we approach them, obviously.
All of our customers, we approach them all the same in that we try to build a relationship with them...
...it's, it's all based around trust and transfer of knowledge and...
But you know, if I think about the customer in...
It can take up to five years to secure a sale...
...you're looking at government funding maybe, you're looking at getting the technology right...
...and you're custom-building a piece of equipment for them...
...so it's much more then about relationship building, face to face...
...transfer of knowledge etc.
Down at the other end as I said, you might be in a steel plant or a cement plant...
The sale is a little bit different, it's probably faster...
...you're not talking about so much money, it's less technical...
...but you're still wanting to build a relationship with the customer as well...
...so there's some basic rules that apply.
Obviously the world is getting smaller and we're having to look for new markets all the time.
We have a programme of looking for what we call either emerging markets or rapidly growing markets...
...and very often it'll start by the sales people or some of the business development people saying...
..."you know, we're getting a lot of enquiries from this country", or...
..."research is saying, general research is saying that Russia's opening up", or Korea's the place to be...
...but you know you can't go into a market without some substantial research behind it.
We employ a technique called PPH...
...it gives us our - I'll explain in a little minute about it - but it...
...it gives us an idea on some facts on which to base our strategic planning.
So P, the first P is product coverage...
...so we do research to establish...
...what fraction of our products are covering or being addressed by the market.
The second P is presence, so how much of that market are we penetrating?
You know, how many customers in that market are we actually reaching...
...and the H is the hit rate, which is...
...the, basically the number of customers who are actually buying our equipment...
...as opposed to the competitor's equipment...
...and so the product of those three factors gives us our market presence...
...yes our market presence really...
...and from that on, we will base a strategic plan coming through.
What's of interest to me as, as a marketer and as the custodian of our brand...
...is the presence, you know...
And what can I do to improve that number?
So that's always my target, what do I need to do to improve that number?
We've very recently opened up India.
For years, we had very low presence there, using distributors...
...for small number of our products...
...and we decided as a business, that we would invest a little bit more...
...open up our own office up there and put some people in and build it up.
The chief executive said to me, "Lynn, I need a brand strategy to get us into India -
...develop one for me, will you?"...
...and I said, I looked at him and said "well I can't really 'cause I don't know India at all."
I could apply what I know of ... our brand in Europe and in the US...
...into India...
...so I thought, "well I'll go, I'll go to India, I'll meet as many people as I can...
...I'll ask the questions: what part of our brand resonates in India?
What channels do you use to get information about products?
What messages from that will resonate?" - you know, all those sort of questions...
...which I did, I went off to Mumbai and Bangalore and ... had a great week!
And you know, all my preconceptions were wrong.
Had I not gone, we'd have pitched...
...our entry into that market wrong- at the wrong level.
My preconception was that our British heritage would resonate profoundly...
...people would latch onto that British heritage -
...the fact that we were the pioneers of MRI would be a very strong message...
...and people would want to hear it.
No.
...the British Raj so to speak.
The customers are looking forward.
They want to hear about our innovation, our cutting edge technology.
The biggest message I found out was that by investing in India...
...by showing that we had opened up our own office, a wholly owned office in India...
...employing in India, a whole Indian staff...
...we were giving out the message that we were committed to long term growth in India.
So we've recently opened three more satellite offices and...
...you can imagine then, the, the marketing programme behind this is all about...
...growing in India, embracing the culture etc. etc., gave us a much more solid base.
Doing the same now in Russia - I'm off to Russia in a few weeks, hopefully before it gets too cold - and Korea.
The messages we're finding are changing slightly...
...you know, we did it retrospectively in China because we've been in China for quite a long time.
There again, they wanted the British connection...
...but they also wanted to know that we were a financially secure, stable company, investing in R&D.
We have to, we have to identify the [a] the decision maker...
...if there is one single decision maker...
...or it might be the process that you're going through.
So it might start with maybe the head of a lab saying...
..."I used Oxford Instruments products when I was a student and I know we should approach them"...
...or it might be a recommendation, might just be a web search or something.
But they're not going to be the decision maker.
It might be the head of that department, it might be the chair, or it might be purchasing.
It might even be a government agency that's funding them, we don't know.
So part of that sales process is to identify the decision maker...
...and build the relationship with that person but then find out who influences that decision maker as well.
I don't know about you but if I was the purchasing...
...head of purchasing and I was buying a machine that...
...let's think of one of the complicated ones, the atomic force microscopy spectrometers that we provide...
...you probably don't know anything about it, it would have gone straight over your head...
...and you need advice...
...so there's usually more than one person that you're having to influence at one time.
Because we have so many product ranges, different technologies...
...our business is divided into nine business groups, discrete business groups...
...all with a different focus.
We have what we call the nanotechnology tool sector, which is that very high end...
...research-focused, a little bit blue sky maybe.
And we have the industrial products sector which is the higher volume...
...lower cost, quality control, quality analysis tools that we do.
...is in the nanotechnology tool sector, so the sale is more direct.
We have a direct sales force in most of our territories...
...because building that technical knowledge takes a long time.
Where we can, and especially in the industrial sector, we use distributors and agents.
So...
So there is a distance when you're using the distributor and agents...
...we have to work harder to maintain our brand...
...in those territories because there is a third party in between.
But it's still the same; we're still building a relationship with the distributor...
...to make sure they're projecting our brand and our values out to the customer...