Awarded Cross-Border Trade with Chris Walker

Chris Walker is CEO and Director of Diamond Hard Surfaces Ltd, a high-growth SME in the Advanced Engineering Sector producing innovative patented coating materials and thermal management products. The business was established in 2005 and currently exports 60-80 % of its turnover to 22 countries worldwide. Chris is an entrepreneur, Chartered Marketer, and Engineer who has specialised knowledge in establishing relationships between blue-chip companies and early-stage technology businesses to exploit new innovations, and markets. He has a broad knowledge of general management in an international environment. He is also Chair of FSB’s (Federation of Small Businesses) International Trade Policy Unit working to forge new policies to encourage and promote International Trade.  KEY TAKEAWAYS Embracing cultures and speaking different languages is a great asset to have when you want international trade. The more open-minded people are, the better they can understand their customers' needs because of this mindset. It would also help if there were a compelling and interesting story behind your business. With that story, you will portray your enthusiasm, and, in the end, your story will be awarded. BEST MOMENTS “Marketing is the basis of running businesses essentially, although there are days often associated with the activity of marketing communications. Marketing encompasses business planning. Marketing communications and one of the most interesting modules I did was international marketing. And that sort of set me on my journey to internationalization.” “So traditionally, I think if you would go to somebody like DTI, they would say what's your next country you're going to go to? Well, then I'll say so that's the kind of vertical approach looking at geography by geography we've cut across those geographies and looked at market sectors. And we go aftermarket sectors and the great thing about Diamond Hard Surfaces is that when the customer sees apart and sees for things we can do with coatings, they even if they don't have an application themselves, they say, oh, what have you thought about this? Have you thought about that? A lot of our innovation and ideas come from talking to customers and solving their problems.” “I'm very passionate about the fact that when businesses start up, they should think about the internationalization or international market for their products right from the get-go. And when developing a business plan, look at the international side of the potential for their business.” “International trade is exactly the same. It's a specialism where you can get very good expert advice from an expert but sometimes when you get free advice, it's not worthwhile. You get what you pay for. Yeah. You wouldn't go to somebody on the corner for legal advice. You know, you wouldn't ask somebody standing on the corner of the street for legal advice. You'd go to a lawyer, and it's the same with international trade, go to a customs expert. Go to somebody who's will ease your passage into a new territory for example, because they've been there with other clients, and they've done that before.” ABOUT THE HOST Levent Yildizgoren, the author of 'Good Business in any Language', is an award-winning entrepreneur, localisation professional, and a PRINCE2 qualified project manager. CONTACT METHOD Linkedin:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/leventyildizgoren/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/yildizgoren IG: https://www.instagram.com/levent.yildizgoren/ ABOUT THE GUEST Chris Walker is CEO and Director of Diamond Hard Surfaces Ltd and Chair of FSB’s (Federation of Small Businesses) International Trade Policy Unit. CONTACT METHOD https://www.linkedin.com/in/chriswalker/ https://www.diamondhardsurfaces.com/ VALUABLE RESOURCES Do you have any questions about translation, localization, or international growth? Visit TTC website: https://ttcwetranslate.com/ Take your business global with the 5-step LINGO modal! Purchase 'Good Business in any Language' on Amazon now: https://cutt.ly/2ORR