Know-How Exchange : Strategy

My first post, hope it work. Thanks for helps.

史蒂夫,你有一些艰难的工作要做。哟u are in a frighteningly competitive market and you're up against some very large corporations who do not like visitors of any kind.

Firstly, the Japanese market is almost certainly a no-go area. Renault bought a big slice of Nissan in the expectation of being able to export cars there. No chance! If they can't do it, my guess is that you can't. That doesn't mean you cannot, it will be an exceptionally tough market to crack. Just a respectful warning.

From what you say, the 3-year after market is the one to go for. Where else are these vehicles used? South Africa comes to mind, India (?) possibly not. New Zealand, Australia? They are very different from the US. Again, it would be under your 3-year strategy.

Now: any real strategy you develop must not focus on price. If you do, anybody and his dog can undercut you. What are the qualities of your batteries? Are there any advantages in terms of weight, amperage, longevity, durability etc. etc. that puts your battery over the rest? Take a careful look at the market and your competitors. And I mean take a microscope to it. This is tough: you have to find one thing that makes your battery qualitatively better. As second best, it must be better for a reason that isn't claimed by the other manufacturers.

Then your job is to find the people who want to replace their batteries for that reason.

That is when you don't have to focus on price so much, and although the price is advantageous, you are already their clear leader in terms of something far more desirable in their minds.

Is this making any sense to you? Comments are limited. Was this any help at all??

Moriarty (Mrs ;-)

I think you are in a very challenging situation.

Entering Japan would be very difficult. Japan works very much on relationships, and you pretty much have to be located there to build those relationships. And even with the relationships, you only have a small chance of breaking in (as Moriarty says). The Auto industry is ore difficult than many, as can be shown by how few non-Japanese cars of any make are sold there even after years of these manufacturers spending a lot of money trying to get in. Added to this the worries about battery safety (think Boeing 787 battery, laptops batteries that spontaneously combust, etc.) and the Chinese reputation for quality, and it will be a huge challenge.

日本也提出许多测试障碍玩乐g the approval by customers. Some of these are valid - they will want to know that the product is safe and effective. Others are used to limit competition (part of why the profit margins are so high). You will undoubtedly have to meet some JIS specification (the Japanese equivalent to UL or CE). They will want to see tests done to show the products meet these requirements. This is not likely something you'd want to do as a reseller, as the Chinese manufacturer would have to be involved and any work you do is not protected from them taking those results themselves direct to customers.

So what would I suggest you do? As a trading company, what you bring to the deal is the connection between US customers and the manufacturer. There are a few options I see that you can do here, but none are great:

1)保持高价值客户的我们n't want to go direct with the manufacturer. International deals are challenging, with letters of credit, shipping, duties, language barriers, etc. Make these as easy as possible for the customer, especially as compared to dealing direct with the Chinese company. People would be willing to pay a bit more for this than going direct. The more of the challenges you can take away from the customer and do yourself, the better. Some customers will go direct as they want to save every penny, but others will put a value on the service of getting the product easier.

2) Keep the value to the manufacturers high. Try to convince them to re-sign an exclusivity agreement with them. Talk to them about how well their experience going direct is working and these same language, shipping, etc. barriers and how you can handle all of that for them. That said, with my experience with Chinese companies, this likely won't happen.

3) the "veiled threat" you have to do to give option 2 more weight is to drop the Chinese manufacturer's product (so they lose much of that 70% of sales you currently do for them). Before you do this, you may want to research other options. Best would be find another battery maker who makes batteries that meet the Nissan needs and quality requirements so you can switch your current customers over to them. But there are other options, such as seeing what other products your customers need that you can provide and start trading in those products (find a new market for yourself and drop this declining market).

Thanks to your comments, it is really professional.

I know the situation is tough, but still hope to fight. After all, Nowadays for small trading company, the business chance are not easy to find.

I hope you professionals can contineu to give comments when you have free time, as it will help me a lot.

Below is some extra information:

Product:
1. My battery is 30% higher in capacity compare to original supply.
The reason - adding more rare earth material in battery will make it much more powerful. In China we get plenty of rare earth materials, while the orginal manufacturer in Japan they are difficult to get it.
Therefore, the car drivers using my battery are very happy about it because his car is now much more powerful.
2. Car manufacturer give 8 years warranty in battery. My battery has run 3 years so far with no complains in failure record, I am not sure if it can achieve 8 years or not.
3. I have approached the car manufacturer, but they reject my product. They need fully control of manufacturing works, and need 5 years test before launching to market, while they expect in five years they will change to new lithium battery in their car.

Market
My buyers are mostly car repairs shops, not end users. In USA, young guys are aggressive and willing to face challenge.
Take an example, one young man who got my product from his friend. He called me and discussed with me in phone for 30 min. He then resigned his job in bank and set up a company, and now he is my biggest buyer.
I have tried my channels to contact many Japanese, they always talk, nobody really act.
I have been aiming at Japanese car repairs companies and trading companies. Is it something else I can do for it?

Chinese Manufacturer
They have not touched my USA customers in past simply because they don't have much confident on it. Today they get some customers and immidiately become proud and don't much respect to me like before.
For this company, exclusive agreement is just a joke, and they will immidiately break it if they can get a very little profit. Legal act in China is meaningless.
They don't know much about the world outside China, and mis-believe that the only market in the world is USA. I therefore cannot tell them about the Japan market.

Above is so far I update. If you don't feel it is boring, I will update from time to time for my works, and hope to get your comments.

Thanks a lot for helps.

Thanks to Moriarty and Peter.
I have to agree that Japan is too difficult.
Now need to start other country, starting at Turkey as get friends there,
I will also improve my present service to customers, I know how to do it.
Will tell you later how everything is going.

Keep in mind where the Nissan Leaf cars are being sold. Not sure Turkey has many of them.

From Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nissan_Leaf#Markets_and_sales):
Since December 2010, Nissan sold 49,117 Leafs worldwide during its first two years in the market, making it the world's best-selling highway-capable electric car ever.[150] With global sales of more than 22,000 units in 2011,[151] the Leaf surpassed the Mitsubishi i MiEV as the best selling all-electric car in history.[11] Global sales during 2012 reached 26,973 Leafs, a rise of 22% over 2011 sales, led by Japan with 11,115 units, an 8% increase over 2011 sales; followed by the United States with 9,819 units representing a 1.5% rise over 2011 sales.[152] During the first half of 2012, the Leaf had a market share of 49% of global sales of all-electric cars.[153] As of December 2012, the top selling markets were Japan with cumulative sales of about 21,000 Leafs,[154] the U.S. with 19,512 units,[155][156] and Europe with 6,938 units, of which, 5,210 were sold during 2012.[157] As of December 2012, sales in the European market are led by Norway with 2,841 units,[13][14] followed by the UK, with 1,334 units,[158] France with 607 units,[159] and the Netherlands with 559 units.[160] A total of 1,000 units had been sold in other markets by February 2013.[12] The sales milestone of 50,000 units delivered worldwide was reached by mid February 2013.[10]

Thanks for both of your comments, that is very kind of you all.

By the way, I was surprised why you all mentioned Nissan. I then checked my post - I did described my battery used for Nissan - very sorry, that is my mistake. Nissan is my next target in future to go. I have been studying day and night recently on Nissan car so I made such mistake, sorry again.

My battery mentioned now is used in Honda Hybrid car. Only Honda and Toyota use NiMH battery. Nissan use Lithium battery from beginning.

Honda is much bigger in sales. Its annual sales of hybrid car in USA alone will be around 150,000 cars(not sure if it is correct). After 8 years warranty period, I guess the after market will be around 30,000 - 50,000 each year, while at present I serve only 5000 of them.

By the way, can anyone tell me how I give this 25 points to you both? I think I need to do something, right?