Growing Global

Import and Export Issues a Big Hit at Global Pet Expo 2007

By American River International

We were very pleased with the attendance and enthusiasm generated from the two seminars presented by American River International (ARI) for APPMA members at The Global Pet Expo. Many APPMA members who attended the seminars also visited with ARI at the Member Services Booth to obtain assistance with their specific import/export needs. It was great to see such interest from member companies seeking information in this area.

The first seminar, held on March 22, was entitled "Best Practices for Managing the Import Supply Chain", dealt with a myriad of issues of importance to many APPMA members such as:

Developing relationships with forwarders/brokers
Review of key "post 9/11" issues such as C-TPAT (Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism) and CSI (Container Security Initiative)
A review of fines and penalties for non-compliance
Review of INCO terms and documentation issues

This seminar will be run again in June as a web cast event.

The second seminar was held on March 23 and was entitled "Best Practices for Exporting to Europe" with a focus on the UK, Italy and Germany. This well-attended seminar addressed some of the following issues:

Selecting the "right" distributor
Denied party screening and other "post 9/11" export compliance issues
Dealing with English, Italian and German cultures
Review of documentation and registration issues
Handling packaging and labeling issues in targeted countries

This seminar will also be run again in June as a web cast event. We hope that those of you who could not attend the seminar in person will be available for the web cast events.

We are also pleased to announce that we will be conducting two seminars in a web cast format in September and October: "General Sales Training Workshop" and "Sales Management Workshop".

"General Sales Training Workshop" will focus on the following topics:

Introduction to selling
Developing leads
Building confidence
Business etiquette
Resource development
Negotiation skills
How to close a sale

The "Sales Management Workshop" will deal with the following issues:

Managing a sales force
Leadership development
Building a sales force
Time management
Sales presentation development
Customer service management

We look forward to you joining us in these web cast seminars. APPMA will announce the exact dates and time for these events in mid-spring.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Neil Lenok of American River International at 908-354-7746 ext. 120 or Nlenok@americanriverintl.com