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The Foreign Trade and Investment Institute of Castilla La Mancha (IPEX) encourages companies to not throw in the towel and to put common sense into their exporting

Today at FENAVIN the Director General of the Foreign Trade and Investment Institute of Castilla-La Mancha, Ángel Prieto, imparted the lecture "Ten Basic Errors in Exporting", during which he put forward the demands of the markets, which among other things, involves providing the client with better service

"Common sense is almost always the best possible remedy for the errors that companies commit when undertaking exporting". This is what the Director General of the Foreign Trade and Investment Institute of Castilla-La Mancha, Ángel Prieto, stated during the lecture he imparted at FENAVIN, "The Ten Basic Errors in Exporting".

In an auditorium busting at the seams with young people, Prieto explained that in an internationalization process common sense must be present in all its facets, ranging from the evaluation of the company itself, the scope, the decisions to be taken, the actions to be carried out, right through to the results of these actions. In Prieto"s opinion, "errors are committed because we are human and in each country or culture this aspect may be more obvious and in others it may not quite be as such". This is why the IPEX encourages companies to identify their errors, to reflect "and not give up, but to correct them to improve".

Aware as he is that errors are indeed committed, Ángel Prieto does not lose sight of the goal, insisting on wagering on improving commercialization, "as we may commit 6 or 7 errors, but we have to continue selling and earning money, hence our philosophy must be one of continued improvement in foreign trade".

In this sense he has acknowledged that the wine industry in Spain in general and in Castilla-La Mancha in particular has really improved the product in the last few years, with important technological investment and process control, although we have to continue working on two aspects: on the one hand, a greater wager on commercialization, "the entrepreneur must be aware that any type of investment should be aimed at sales, because that is where the profit is to be found"; and, on the other hand, improved client service, "which is what is really being exacted, and this forces the entrepreneur to be more flexible".

During the conference the representative of the IPEX mentioned several experiences of companies under the protection of the institute during their first steps in internationalization, likewise commenting on the impressions and the demands of the importers and professionals from Africa, Asia or America.

When questioned about the best markets, whether these were the traditional markets or the emerging markets, Ángel Prieto once again mentioned that common sense must come into play; "if there is flat growth in Europe and there are other areas with increasing growth, then it is much better to sow our seeds in those markets rather than on markets where one has to compete by elbowing out the competitor". In his opinion there is no reason to give up just because it takes us 18 hours on a flight to reach Asia, apart from the culture and language barriers, but quite the contrary, we have to insist and continue. Notwithstanding, he did mention that it is important to not forget and leave behind traditional places such as Europe.

IPEX champions self-sustainable evolution at FENAVIN

Finally, in the opinion of the Director of the IPEX, FENAVIN is a great trade fair on Spanish wine at an international level, hence he champions more of a self-sustained evolution. In his opinion, the difficult part has already been done, with a huge critical mass of 1300 companies, "although external support for the private sector is still necessary". In commercial terms, with a great demand, "but we really have to believe it and this means that it must be self-sustainable, at least on the mid term", he concluded.