I think what really matters is the experience you brought in with you, the type of products you sell and your financial standing.
1. Your experience in sales and shipping will be important in determining what methods you want to apply. If you are fairly inexperienced and the type that requires a long learning curve, then it may be wise to concentrate in your region for a while and this period of transition will depend on how long it takes you to overcome these short comings.
2. The nature of products you sell, physical or digital is important when considering your target market share. For example digital products may not necessarily require any constraints in terms of geographical area, so to this extent you may decide to ship globally. However, for physical products, the advice in #1 above suffice.
3. Your financial situation really maters in this regard. This is because as an ECA you pay for the shipment of goods to customers before you are reimbursed by SFI, which may take a couple of days. This means that you are going to spend more on shipments to destinations outside your region, so if you are buoyant you may decide to broaden you area of operation, otherwise it is advisable to stick to your region to reduce cost, especially on shipment of physical products.
To conclude, one cannot discount the advantages in marketing your products globally because your products will be exposed to an infinite customer base, increasing your market share and hence revenue. Having said this, it may not be economically and practically viable to globalize, hence a tactical and strategic consideration is made to go local. Please note that a globalized marketer may not necessarily be more successful than a localized one.
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I think what really matters is the experience you brought in with you, the type of products you sell and your financial standing.
1. Your experience in sales and shipping will be important in determining what methods you want to apply. If you are fairly inexperienced and the type that requires a long learning curve, then it may be wise to concentrate in your region for a while and this period of transition will depend on how long it takes you to overcome these short comings.
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