We Spaniards do not know how to sell. No, we do not want to invest

It is not easy to draw this conclusion being Spanish myself. And although Made in Spain Gourmet we do not feel recognized in that group, it is the trend that we follow as a country... and it seems that it is going long.

Meeting with an EVOO company, with an excellent product and very attractive packaging. “Israel, your project is very interesting, but we have invested a lot in the product and now we cannot invest in marketing. When we get sales, we'll see about it” Amazing, it's like building a car and leaving it in the garage raising hollyhocks. Another example. Confectionery company, very Premium that is not a producer but is an exclusive marketer. “Invest in communication with Made in Spain Gourmet How many sales are they going to produce for me, even if they are grosso modo? And in how long?" I tell them, that we are not fortune tellers... for now, and my answer is always the same, 0 sales, because without communication there are no sales. Yet another example. Producers of one of the most important Spanish products, “yes, we have sold in Europe, but because they come to buy from us. But developing our own international sales in Europe is something we are not considering”. They have a spectacular product and they leave everything to what the market dictates, without wanting to influence it more.

And we could make a book with the noes that we have received to work with us. In the project/reality Made in Spain Gourmet. Because? The easy and comfortable answer is that “we don't know how to sell ourselves like others do (especially Italians), they do know… and we don't? Well, I am totally against that mantra. History is on our side. I believe that we started globalization from Spain 501 years ago, yes with the vision of a Portuguese, as it was Fernando de Magallanes. Not to mention what began 531 years with the discovery of America. Creating trade routes that since then have put Spain on the top of the pedestal as the world's leading power. Well, it seems that this was a dream, and what we live today is more like a nightmare.

Of course we know how to sell, like the best. But yes, only when we want, of course. I have a theory, which by the way, there are a good number of people who have bought it from me. And it is that the effect produced by the comfort of living in a country that has everything, and from which it is very difficult to get rid of, there are skills that are lost due to lack of habit. And for proactivity, it is essential to be constant, restless, non-conformist and have that habit of adaptability to changing times.

Well, Spain is one of the giants of tourism, in the top 3 in the last 10 years, with all that this entails. Millions of people who visit our beloved and unique country, leaving millions of euros in their stays. Enjoying, of course, our wonderful and never underrated gastronomy. Filling restaurants, warehouses, and knowing through fgood experiences, workshops, showcookings our gastronomic products. With this panorama, we can already understand that the attitude of selling is more than complicated, because they "buy you" with almost no commercial effort. And that is not a weak point, no, quite the contrary, it is a point that is very much in our favour. What happens is that we have drunk so much of that success that we are drunk and it does not let us see beyond short-termism. The euphoria that having everything full without investing almost nothing gives you to have the premises bursting, with restaurants buying products, makes Spanish gourmet brands look almost exclusively towards this market.

We already know that there are some that do not, that resisted that tide, and became international. But they are very few. Therefore, rather than sell their products, they placed them.

We are tired of hearing "it is that the Italians sell much better than us, and it is that we do not know how to sell". It is true that they sell much better than us, but that is not an aptitude, but an attitude. Based on the conviction that their products are the best in the world, and that is how they transmit it. Besides, the constancy It is essential, because we cannot believe that a single impact is enough to convince new customers. We have to constantly insist on the message communicating our benefits and our uniqueness. Hard work but essential if we want to succeed abroad. Because leaving this work in the hands of distributors is for us suicide for the brand, which will not have the chance to be treated as it really deserves. We can only do that ourselves.

Our Mediterranean competitors invest in international markets, they even buy products from us for them to internationalize, because they know that it is the only way to grow in a sustained and diversified manner.

Leaving it all to our domestic market and international roulette without a professional branding plan, you are ostracized. If we believe we have the best products, we need to go out there and prove it to everyone with our own weapons. But for that you have to invest money. And there everything collapses. Brands ask us for time to do it. What time? Is it that the competition is going to grant it to you? Every day that passes your space is occupied by the competition and you no longer recover it.

Internationalizing cannot be done quickly. But you do have to make a decision which market or markets you want to focus on. The European market is still a great unknown for many of our brands, and it is precisely where they should focus. But for this, you must invest in quality communication, at the level of the quality of the products and their the packaging. Because it is not understood that one part is done and the other is not.

Look at us as an example, Made in Spain Gourmet It was not in Europe, and it was the market we wanted to reach. We had the products and what we did was approach the various European markets as France, Germany, Italy, Belgium y Netherlands. as? Well, investing money in positioning and content (in their languages ​​of course), and thus get a space that we have to work every day. But what it has given us are customers, and more customers, who wanted quality products and an advisory service that would make them reliable. And we have achieved that.

Now we have to get closer and better to the stores to give them that advice that the quality of our gourmet products is superior and that their customers deserve to know and enjoy them.

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