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Growing Alabama’s Economy, One Small Business at a Time NAITA Trade Talks September 3rd, 2020 Don’t Socially Distance Your Foreign Customers!... Alabama SBDC: Statewide Presence10 Full-T

Growing Alabama’s Economy, One Small Business at a Time

NAITA Trade Talks

September 3rd, 2020

Don’t Socially Distance Your Foreign Customers!

Alabama SBDC: Statewide Presence

10 Full-Time

Service Centers,

40 Outreach

Locations

Alabama SBDC: Core Services

• No-Cost, Confidential,

One-on-One Counseling and Training

– Start Your Business

• Alabama’s Answers: Small Business Guide for Alabama

– Grow Your Business

– Finance Your Business

• Workshops

– Free or low-cost

– Management, Marketing, Finance

Specialty Programs: PTAC & CAP

• Procurement Technical Assistance Center

– Statewide coverage with 7 locations – Certified Contracting Specialists

– Set-Aside Program for Small Businesses, Minorities

– Free Bid-Matching System

• Capital Access Program

– Over $90 Million in loans & equity funding

Disaster Assistance:

Resiliency & Recovery

• PPP & EIDL Programs

• Revive Alabama grants

• Guide to Disaster Preparedness & Recovery

• Online Training:

– Quickbooks, Financial Statements, Legal

Implications of 19, SBIR/STTR &

COVID-19, Capabilities Statement, Protecting

Employees, SBA Certifications, Doing Business with: VA, State of AL, AL Power, etc

Short Term Actions

• Ensure your product information and

content is relevant, fact-based and accurate

• Ensure out of stock items or discontinued

services are clearly marked

• Review delivery promise dates

• Reassure customers on how products will be delivered or fulfilled

• Consider how your firm can aid in

community response

Medium to Long Term Actions

• Experiment with innovative digital experiences

– There are many emerging digital technologies that may have even more impact on B2B than in the

consumer market, and that includes augmented

reality (AR) or visual search in a repair scenario

• B2B eCommerce is more important than ever

– While salespeople will still have a role to play in B2B

- reaching customers, being top-of mind, and

capturing demand as it happens will require B2B’s to execute with excellence in their eCommerce

channels and digital marketing efforts

Connect with Customers

• Go on offense:

– Expand on your value proposition to adjust to

your customers’ needs.

– Create hope and fun where appropriate, as

consumers begin to get fearful, bored or restless – Contribute to your customers’ well-being: People will remember a selfless act during a time of

crisis.

Make Smart Budget Decisions

• Take out costs while reinvesting in customers

– Do a fast audit of spending areas, and turn off

anything that’s now redundant

– Avoid cutting into muscle, by understanding what is working and what is not with your most important segments

– Double down on opportunities with key segments, stages of the funnel, or messaging

– Seize the opportunity to zero-base budgets, raising spending only if it has a proven high incremental ROI

Website Internationalization

• Improve the global customer experience by

making sure that your website’s platforms,

workflows, and architecture accommodate

multiple cultural conventions and languages

– Global-ready sites use graphics and photos that are not locale-specific Icons are generic and do not

have text Menus, buttons, and layouts can easily handle text contraction and expansion And, users can easily get to the international site that they

want using a permanent global gateway

Website Internationalization

• Technical aspects:

– SEO, Unicode, languages, keywords, headings, design, text attributes

• Business aspects:

– Languages, currency, taxes/duties, payment, delivery / logistics, returns, customer service

Website Review

https://aitc.ua.edu/website-internationalization/

Going global isn’t simply a matter of flicking a switch

• You have to build the commercial and technical

infrastructure to enable a valid operation in each market that you’re targeting

• While ecommerce platforms might allow you to enter new markets more quickly, you still need to have internal

planning and possibly localized support in order to succeed

in international markets

If you consider these issues early enough in the process you can save yourself a world of pain further down the line.

Specialty Programs: AITC

• Alabama International Trade Center

– Export Market Research – Trade Consulting & Training Programs

• Export Readiness Assessment

• One on one and Webinars

– Trade Finance Programs – Export Alabama Trade Alliance – Website Analysis and Globalization – http://AITC.ua.edu

Birmingham Business Alliance

AL Department of Commerce-International Trade Division

Carolyn Turner & Michael Brooks

Alabama International Trade Center /

Alabama SBDC Network

The University of Alabama

Phone 1-800-747-AITC

AITC.ua.edu

cturner@aitc.ua.edu