Axyneo

It's official, AXYNEO’s HQ moved to Nice

After spending 2 years in Provence, AXYNEO the sales development agency, has moved to a more environment and installed its Headquarter in the very center of Nice.
Walking among its beautiful architecture, hearing many different languages, being always filled with enthusiasm when looking at the nearby fantastic sea colors, always connected with its 2nd international airport in France, made us chose this world known destination.
Together and from this beautiful dynamic smartcity, we’ll rock your business and boost your sales.

HOW DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION CAN BOOST YOUR TURNOVER ?

1. Automation

Some of the process automation tools such as chatbots become widely used and can help increase prospects’ retention as well as transformation into loyal customers. A myriad of other tools can multiply your employees efficiency while enabling them to focus on what really matters.

2. Digitization

Digitization is a specific and powerful tool. For example IoT (Internet of Things) and associated big data analytics is a fantastic mean to both increase user-friendliness and competitiveness, saving time and money while sharply developing users’ satisfaction.

3. Digital Marketing

Beyond your web page, SEO, SMO, SEA, SMA and many other acronyms related tactics, are very effective ways to enhance your brand image, vastly increase your potential market coverage, capture a wider attention, transform prospects into customers and keep loyalty level on the very high side.

4. New business model generator

Going further into the digitalization could even activate new successful business models that you were not conscious of.

5. Strategic value creation

Actually the number of easily accessible means is stacking everyday and using them properly can’t be done by chance. They have to be deployed smartly through a well thought and planned strategy so as to significantly leverage on their synergies and generate true value.

If you want to know how this can be applied to your own business activity, drop me a line (PM), I’ll be more than happy to hear from you and share some tips.

Why an SEO strategy matters for YOUR business development ?

Nowadays nobody denies that being visible online is important.
Let me confirm and even add that it is actually crucial. And to do so, an SEO (Search Engine Optimization) strategy is definitely needed.

1. In many cases being visible on the 1st ranking page (SERP) of the main search engines - mostly Google as they have more than 90% of market share - makes the difference between attracting a customer or losing him/her.
In fact less than 2% of people will click on your web site shall you appear on page 2 of Google search whereas CTR (Clickthrough Rate) could go up to 30% on page 1.

2. Being visible online is good but being visible for the good reason is far better. In order to avoid strong bias and poor correlation / causality it is mandatory to have a clear definition of ones vision and objectives.

3. Shall you make your shop, product, service or solution visible to the wrong target at the wrong timing with the wrong comments and key expressions, guess what ? Results won’t appear as convincing as they should or worse they could even have a damaging boomerang effect. On the other hand, dedicate the right resources within a clear goals & timeline and bingo! : customers knocking at your door.

Defining your goals, targeted segments, most appropriate backlinks, competitive advantages among other factors do matter to achieve good results and have to be part of your digital strategy, hence global strategy.

3 preconceived ideas about doing Business in Japan

· MOST JAPANESE PEOPLE SPEAK ENGLISH : FALSE.

It’s not because some Japanese brands are worldwide famous that most Japanese people “naturally” speak English. In fact it is estimated that only 2% of the working population has a decent business level in English. And since foreigners also represent less than 2% of the population, this doesn’t help to make Japan an English speaking land.

Conclusion : avoid being “lost in translation” and find a Japanese language speaker to seriously develop your business.

· WE EXPORT ALL OVER THE WORLD, WE’LL ACHIEVE GOOD & FAST RESULTS IN JAPAN TOO : FALSE.

Airbus has approximately 50 % market share worldwide. It took them decades to go beyond 30% % in Japan after a very long period at 5 %.
Sephora, Carrefour, Ikea and countless other examples show that perception of time and cultural differences can be deceiving.
However many foreign brands can be hugely successful shall they adapt efficiently.

Conclusion : in Japan “meticulously and surely” is better than “fast and gone”.

· JAPAN IS TOO DIFFERENT AND TOO SMALL A MARKET TO CARE ABOUT : TRUE & FALSE.

Japan is certainly very different in many aspects. Nevertheless very often this reveals weaknesses in the foreign offers : i.e. a not high enough product or service quality level.

Too small : 2/3rd of France in terms of land surface indeed. But 180 % of French GDP, 125 % of German GDP, the 3rd biggest economy in the world and one of the biggest importer of food and beverages to mention just one industry.
The Greater Tokyo Area alone (38 M people) has a similar GDP to Italy or Canada and is very much concentrated in an easily reachable area.

Conclusion : if well understood, apparent difficulties are actually a steppingstone to increase your success chances. AXYNEO helps you reach this BIG REWARDING MARKET WITH LOYAL CUSTOMERS.

What if my business was disrupted ?

How many companies react instead of being proactive ? How many disappear, swallowed by the new trend or faster competitors instead of taking some time to objectivity analyze the situation early enough, giving themselves some perspective ?

There are countless examples : Uber taking significant market shares to taxis, AirBnB taking huge market shares to hotels, Expedia sharply lowering down the value of many travel agencies to mention a few. The world is moving fast and so is the business environment.

Digitalization is becoming predominant and will continue it’s way, modifying the business landscape as we know it. This is true for products, services, solutions, ideas, communication.
It can nevertheless be a real strength when considered and implemented seriously within a global strategy.

Do not let yourself surrounded by competition without any action simply because you think you have plenty of time before being disrupted or just because you do not fully understand the whole ins and outs of your environment trends. Take some advices, external professional points of views. Stop turning into circles. Brainstorm and already ask yourself : what if my business was disrupted ?

5 mistakes to avoid when exporting

Many SMBs who started to export in 2019 failed to export in 2020. In 2018, less than 30% of companies who started to export 2 years earlier remained active internationally. (source : French Customs – DGDDI)
Let’s take this opportunity to remind a set of mistakes NOT to do when exporting.

1. Go by chance

International sales is not a matter of chance or a hobby, it’s a matter of professionalism and should be planned within a global strategy. It takes time and dedicated, experienced human resources.

2. Move without priorities

Shall you want to sell abroad, do not consider all markets at once. Even AirBnB, Uber and countless successful companies started step by step before becoming global.

3. Consider the world as unique

Many countries = many cultures = beauty of our world.
Perception of colors, names, attitudes, prices, UX or CX can be very different according to cultures, hence markets. Localize and adapt.

4. Mismatch timing

Many companies fall in the trap of expecting short time results in conservative markets. Many also « forget » to follow up closely.

5. Under-estimate the legal and competitive levels

Local competition and legal barriers, including norms can turn an export plan into a time consuming « adventure ». A market survey is a must.

Sales vs. Traditional Marketing vs. Digital Marketing : who wins ?

While Marketing is seen as a luxury accessory or even a cosmetic artifice by some companies, some others consider the field as being a “nice to have” rather than a “must have” and keep it in a remote department to work in silos. Then starts a power game between the sales team and the marketing team who both think they are the most important in the company. Too many times I’ve seen each others ignoring their colleagues’ work or even value.

Even among those who understood the need for a proper marketing & sales interaction, some are still skeptical when it comes to the digital side of marketing and here again almost consider it as a “UFO” both misunderstood and underestimated.
Have you ever thought when was the last time digital marketing was used in your company, why and how it effectively enhanced sales ?

Let us remind that our time is about sharing, co-developing, brainstorming with some external input. It’s about teamworking, enhancing cohesion, moving forward. In AXYNEO, we are convinced this can only be done by smartly integrating Sales – Marketing and Digital Marketing actions within the global company’s strategy in a cooperative team spirit. Behind mere “specialists’ fields” are human beings whose talents can spread and leverage on each others skills while communicating together.
So the real winner is cooperation.

-development

Strategy – a question of perspective

Very often while on the road visiting customers & partners in so many countries, I met many very nice top management people with a lot of common sense, be it in startups, SMBs or MNCs. Many nevertheless couldn’t lift their head up from the track and didn’t take the necessary distance and time to think or rethink about their strategy.
It is nonetheless mandatory so as to achieve better goals and reduce the risk of fading away while losing competitiveness.

In AXYNEO, as a partner of yours, we give you the opportunity to see your activity from above, from different view points within its environment and beyond. We translate this into concrete actions leveraging on true assets to expand even further.