hi youtubers welcome to my youtube channel my name is Kiba Bam and I run a consultancy firm
that focuses on bringing supplies around the world into the export market in South Africa
my background stems from I used to be a merchandise buyer myself for some of the
biggest companies here in South Africa which include Woolworths EDCON Clicks
and the Foschini Group my primary job as a buyer was to always to find suppliers
who were not only compliant but who had the supply chain to meet our demands so how I then
found a gap in the market I always just realized there was a disconnect between
buyers and suppliers suppliers didn't know how to put their offering
to buyers and buyers didn't have the actual time to look for relevant suppliers
so what my business does is what we call linkages we will link suppliers to buyer to retailers
you know that match their product category so today I'd like to talk about
how to find an export market in South Africa so I'm going to share with you about three or four
tips to get you started how to get the attention of a buyer like what to say how to say it yeah
so my first when I looked down I'm just looking at my points i just didn't want to forget to share
all the amazing information that has helped me and my clients to get that first meeting we sit down
in front of the buyer we knock it out the park and we even get a second meeting to present or
offer them our samples and our castings so tip number one tip number one would be to choose
the right market okay so your supply let's say you're sitting in Ukraine or you're sitting
in America or you're sitting in Mozambique or wherever you are in the world the first thing
I'd always advise a supplier is or even a small business if you want to start a startup and you
want to you know play in the retail field first thing you do research the landscape
of that country what is their population economically how how is that country doing
uh demographics what is the spit between the active population and the non-active population
and then drill deeper what categories are thriving in that market and there's many platforms that you
can use on google that can help you with that you google and you check um what are the highest
bought products within that region or within South Africa okay we're talking about South Africa
specifically um then when you find that product category and let's say your product category is
within you know that list of say top 10 or 20 or 100 whatever it is then you know okay great
there's a demand for my product my product in South Africa tip number two my second tip would be
for you to double check that your certifications without certifications you cannot a buyer won't
even talk to you a retail merchandise buyer or an FMCG buyer if you have no
certifications they won't even entertain your um the first meeting or even your first email
it would be a waste of your time and a waste of their time for them even reading it so the first
thing you need to understand in that country what are the certifications that are needed for me to
trade in their retail stores a lot of the times if you're in the food industry you need an HACCP
certificate if you're a retail clothing and textiles for example if you want to be
a supplier for words I know for a fact that you need to be part of the bargaining council
if you're going to be supplying clothing towards so research what are the certifications needed in
that region some retailers will want you to have a factory audit some will need an ISO9000 but you
just need to find out what are the certifications that are needed that's tip number two
tip number three make your retailers list LinkedIn is my best friend
because buyers move around you know they move around from one company to the next
people change organizations all the time and majority of the time people are quite good in
updating their and updating their um you know their their details on LinkedIn i use LinkedIn to
find who's the CEO of every retail company i who's that who's the director for several departments
within that retailer so you want to know who's decision maker within that value chain and usually
the decision makers in the value chain are a buyer sourcing manager and a quality assurance manager
so you want to when you when you're googling or you you know you're going in LinkedIn you look
for those people you write their names down you google again what is this um the number for the
reception you call reception you ask for their email address um in a respectful manner obviously
that is tip number three so you make your your your target mark your target list or
your customers list um so my rule is always to if you aim to okay if you hope to be in maybe two or
three retailers do a comprehensive list of about maybe 15 or 20 or 30 opportunities and not only
limit yourself to retailers hey try and also look for distributors distributors are quite plugged
in into the supply chain of of the retail market and they'll also be able to um you know find you
those opportunities because firstly majority of the time you'll find distributors already listed
in these companies and if they're listed it's easier for you to get in through the with them
um than you doing on your own that's why professionals like us are there to help you
and that was my tip number three tip number four put together your sales email
your sales email your first point of contact your email is the most important
tool to opening the first door to that meeting even your subject line
needs to be catchy it needs to tell them exactly who you are what you have and the potential
that you bring to the table what do you bring to the table is what is important the body of
the email is even more important because now you're highlight you're shouting about
your organization you're telling them how amazing you are and you're showing them that you're well
researched within that email you well research you have the capacity you've got the capability
you know their product well you've been researching you know the laws of that land
you know you know the certifications that are needed so in that email you're showing off you're
screaming and shouting about who you are so yes those are my tips um for now if you want to get
in touch with us in the bottom description there will be my email address my website
and feel free to email me if you want further consultation cool guys i hope that helped
um yeah i hope that helps and if you want me to talk about anything else that speaks to what
i was talking about here then please feel free to drop in your comment and i will make a video
cool thank you I'll see you guys soon bye