Are you a professional?

by Tom Reilly

Professional is a term we reserve to describe someone who operates at the top of his or her game. The dictionary describes professional as “engaged in a specific activity as a source of livelihood; performed by persons receiving pay; having great skill or experience in a particular field or activity; one who has an assured competence in a particular field or occupation.”

 

We use synonyms to describe professionals: accomplished, gifted, polished, capable, big-league, topnotch, talented, expert, virtuoso, maestro, genius, prodigy, conscientious, and top-flight. At a gut level, we know a professional when we see one. This person stands out from the crowd. There is something visibly and viscerally different about this person: their knowledge, skill, execution, preparation, attitude, and the way they carry themselves. These people serve as a benchmark for the rest of their profession. Do your customers and peers say this about you?

Professionals may enter this world with natural talents, but they do not reach the peak of their profession by luck or birthright. They work hard to get there and even harder to stay there. You don’t see them resting on their laurels once they achieve professional status; they realize that professionalism is a dynamic state of mind and matter.

Professionals begin their journeys with preparation and training. They study; they practice; and they continue to grow. Professionals learn as much as they can about their profession. Professional salespeople study their products, their companies, their customers, their markets, and their competitors. They have an insatiable desire to learn and develop. Professionals realize the one product over which they have the most control is themselves.

Professionals invest heavily in training. When they’re not selling, they’re training—reading, studying, and practicing. Imagine armies going into battle without extensive training. Would a professional sports team face an opponent without training for the competition? Would you go to a physician who lacked the training to treat you? How far would you travel on an airline piloted by someone who once read a book on flying? How many musicians perform without ever practicing their music? And their training is ongoing. Most professions require members to attend continuing education programs and earn credits for their participation. These professions understand that professionalism is a journey, not a one-time event.

Professionals carry themselves differently. You see it in their demeanor. It’s the way they walk and talk. It’s their appearance. They look like professionals. They behave like professionals. And this behavior is tied to their attitudes. Professionals commit to something bigger than themselves. Professionals subscribe to a code of ethics that define standards of performance: excellence, integrity, and selflessness. They take pride in what they do and how people view them. Professionals will take a risk to stand out from the crowd. They make it a habit to do what others consider to be a hassle. They richly deserve the recognition and respect that others give them.

As a salesperson, you never reach the top of your field until the customer says, “There goes a real pro.” You don’t reach the top of your profession until you are the benchmark by which every other salesperson is judged. Your customer deserves to deal with the best. Your company deserves the best representation you can offer. And you owe it to yourself to have others call you a professional.

History of Paper

The Amazing History of Paper!

Just imagine Ts'ai Lun.

The Chinese government official and scholar is grinding up plants - mulberry bark, linen and hemp. He makes a big wet mush of separate fibers, then spreads it all out in a mat made of coarse cloth and a bamboo frame.

It looks like he's got a mess on his hands, and chances are his family, friends and neighbors are making fun of him. But when he's done, and the sun has dried the matted material, he's made something really remarkable.

Ts'ai Lun, 2,000 years ago, has made paper, and it will become one of the most important inventions ever.

Even though archaeological evidence shows that paper may have been made even a little earlier, Ts'ai Lun was the first to have his efforts recorded. Like many inventors through the centuries, he built upon the work of others.

Okay, people had written even before paper was invented. They scratched on cave walls, painted too, and drew characters on wet clay. They even wrote on papyrus made from thinly-sliced papyrus reed which they glued together to make a sheet.

But it was paper, not papyrus, which has come to touch just about every aspect of our lives, from term papers and books, to money and personal care products. There's never a day, and hardly a waking hour, that isn't made better by paper.

People did the weaving to make papyrus. What Ts'ai Lun and others discovered was that plant fibers, separated and suspended in water, would form their own woven mats: paper.

The invention credited to Ts'ai Lun was so elegantly simple that you can re-create it at home, making your own paper by following the directions on the back of this brochure.

Chinese papermaking spread slowly but steadily all over the world, from Asia into Africa and Europe. Soon just about everyone knew how to make paper. Still, there wasn't a lot of paper around, since making it gobbled up a lot of paper-making material.

Early paper was made of rags, and rags were hard to come by. Ironically, when the disease called the Plague or Black Death killed millions of people in Europe, tons of clothing and rags became available - at just about the time the printing press was invented.

Suddenly, more books were printed, people became better educated, and these better-educated people scratched their heads, trying to figure out a substance that might provide even more paper-making material.

One of those people was a man named Rene de Réaumur who, in the 1700s, watched a species of wasp we now call the paper wasp. These insects were munching on wood. Not eating it, exactly, but chewing it up, spitting the mush back out and forming nests with it. Not pretty, Réaumur might have thought, but pretty interesting. It seemed to him that the wasps were making paper out of wood.

Somehow, Réaumur never got around to trying to imitate the wasps by making paper himself, but had stumbled upon the secret of practical papermaking: wood could be broken apart, like the other organic materials, and crafted into paper. We still follow Réaumur's advice and the wasps' example, although papermaking has become a more complex and efficient process, and its products incredibly varied and advanced.

People picked up the paper challenge. One person, a man named Kellar, learned how to grind wood efficiently. Others invented new ways to separate wood fibers. If Réaumur had written down his paper recipe - or more accurately, the wasps' recipe - it might have looked like this: wood fiber + water + energy = paper.

We still make paper using that same basic formula. We just vary the kinds of wood fiber and energy, and the techniques of bringing it all together, to get just the kinds of paper we want.

There are certainly many types of paper - newspapers, school books and writing stationery; envelopes, boxes, packing and wrapping paper; paper toweling, tissue, and personal hygiene products. Not a day goes by that we don't use paper in dozens of ways.

And it all goes back to Ts'ai Lun's innovation and Réaumur's industrious wasps.

Yes, paper was once made one sheet at a time by artists, and many people still enjoy making their own special papers. You may discover you like the magic of turning all kinds of materials into paper.

But papermaking today, creating all the kinds of paper we use in such huge quantities, is a science as well as an art. Engineers and technicians speed things up, using computers to help guide factory machines that can produce huge rolls of paper at more than 45 miles an hour.

That would have confounded Ts'ai Lun. Réaumur's wasps couldn't have kept up. But every day, papermaking companies around the world turn wood from trees into pulp, pulp into paper, and paper into products we all use.

Waste Paper Market in First Quater 2008.

Exporting recovered fibres, in the first quarter of 2008 was a major challenge in balancing firm to strong export demands with changing monthly freight rates due to a variation in BAF & CAF rates and a highly volatile Dollar.

The strengthening of the Dollar, seen towards the end of 2007, was reversed within the first quarter, as Dollar/Sterling rates rose once again above 2, and the Dollar/Euro rates weakened from 1.46 to well over 1.55.

Demand into the New Year continued on a firmer basis, with export prices of most grades rising steadily. Projected demand from China & other Asian countries, for 2008 was positive with more new capacities being announced, particularly in China.

In the year 2007, total imports into China were in the region of 22.6million MT, of which America supplied some 10 million MT (44%), and Europe supplied 7.15 million MT (32%).

Year on year growth from 2006 to 2007 was just under 3 million MT – meaning 15% more recovered fibre was imported by China.

The growth in exports from Europe to China from 2006 to 2007 was 1.6 million MT, which is an increase of almost 30%.

Demand from other Asian countries (India, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam and many others) has also continued to grow.

During the current quarter we saw prices for European OCC strengthen from USD 210+ to USD245+, whereas US OCC prices moved from about USD225 to USD255+.

Exporters from USA were experiencing container shortage problems, and were therefore not able to meet the projected export volume for the quarter.

UK exporters were similarly affected, but with a shortage of vessel space, following the crane collapse at Southampton in January, which took many weeks to put right.

With the easing of the Winter, and increased availability of fibre, and the reduced container availability in the USA, we saw the first signs of a slight weakening in the price of fibre, generally.

Between mid to end March, we saw a small correction in USA OCC export prices, moving downwards from USD255+ to nearer USD250+. At the same time, European OCC prices adjusted from USD245+ to USD240+.

OCC exports from other regions (Japan, Australia, etc.) were adjusted likewise.

With the US recession and the sub-prime crisis, already filtering into weakness in the global stock markets, this will eventually have some impact on demand & liquidity within the industry.

The demand & supply trends in the second and third quarters will pose some new challenges for our industry, which like other industries, we will have to work hard to work through.

Finally, once again, the Shipping Lines have announced their intention of a possible freight increase between April and May, which besides the BAF & CAF increases will be another hurdle for us to overcome in the coming quarter.

- Mr. R.S. Baxi

VALUE ADDED SELLING

Here is a short list of some things to remember about selling:

1. Add value, not cost; sell value, not price!

2. Sell to the customer’s needs, not necessarily against the competition.

3. Promise a lot and deliver more.

4. Plan every sales call.

5. Listen more than talk on a sales call.

6. Sell all three dimensions of value: your product, your company, and YOU.

7. Remind the customer often of your value added and everything you do for them.

8. It’s important to know where to call; it’s imperative to know where NOT to call.

9. Cutting price is only one way to deal with a price objection.

10. Treat your customers as if they were prospects, for they are, for your competition.

Why Customer Negotiates ??

Price Objections Are the Result of Expectations

Buyers expect to get cheaper prices. Why? Because salespeople give them cheaper prices when they ask for them. It's the environment of expectations. And some environments invite greater price sensitivity. For example, when you buy a car, you expect the salesperson to negotiate the price. It goes with the territory. When you go to a restaurant, you expect to pay the price on the menu. You buy a new television set from a small appliance store and you haggle for free delivery. You go to the dentist and pay his or her price. After all, who wants to bargain with a person who will stick needles in your gums? You purchase furniture for your home and negotiate the sale price that expired last week. The salesperson pleads with you not to tell your friends of the deal you got. On the way home, you stop at the grocery store and lay out two hundred dollars for groceries without a thought of negotiating. Why?

Some environments are more conducive to negotiating. As a salesperson, you may not be able to dissuade buyers from asking for cheaper prices, but you can influence their expectations for actually receiving cheaper prices. How? Don't be in such a hurry to sell. A lack of pressure to sell—AKA no urgency—means that you demonstrate patience in the sales process. And this is really hard for salespeople to do. Imagine saying to the buyer, "Go ahead and think about it. I'll get back with you later to hear your decision." Most people reading this will think I have lost my sales trainer's mind. Prudently drag your feet. Time and emotion are your negotiating foes. They cause you to make really bad sales decisions. Slow down the sales process. Get that look off your face that you will starve if you don't make the sale. Buyers know when you're too hungry. Then, they drag their feet and you drop your price.

Hold the line on prices by holding the impulse to react too quickly to price resistance. Change the environment of expectations.

About the author: Tom Reilly is a professional speaker and author of Value Added Selling.

International Marketing

Buy, Sell: Two terms which defines business. Who ever you are today this 2 aspects of business are utilized by you wherever you go and in whatever you do. A proper synchronization of this values through Trade will always lead to profit.

Marketing is a Buying material 'A' from X Place Selling at Y Place. Trading of 'A' between this 2 places, which are totally different in their Culture, Society, Topography, Mentality and meeting the requirements of people at Y is called International Marketing.

At its simplest level, International Marketing involved by International Trading Firm - ATOMOS is in making one or more marketing mix decisions across national boundaries. At its most complex level, it involves the firm in establishing manufacturing facilities overseas and coordinating marketing strategies across the globe, through the knowledge gained by extensive studies, communications, research, instructions or data that is in both organized or unorganized form, in short known as Information.

Excise Bonding Procedure.

Excise Bonding:

Excise bonding is levied in the cases where goods manufactured are not liable to pay Excise Duty. It is the undertaking given by Manufacturer or Merchant that this goods are meant for Exports only and will not be utilised or sold in the local market allowing the exporters to sell the goods in International market at competitive rates.

In case of Merchant Exporter the requirements are:

1. B-1 Bond on 100 Rupee Stamp Paper duly Notarized + 2 Zerox
2. RCMC Original + Self attested copy
3. IEC Origininal + Self attested copy + Onlin Copy of IEC from dgft.mumbai.nic.in
4. Profile in appendix 2 of Exporter.
5. Proof of address (Rent Receipt)
6. Original PAN Card + Self attested Copy.
7. Self Attested Copy of LC/ Overseas Buyer
8. Declaration that no cases of Central Excise or Customs are pending agains the exporter.
9. Authority letter to the person submitting and collecting the bond. The authorised person should be the employee of the firm.
10. List of Propreiters/ Partners / Directors along with their photographs pasted on a letterhead and countersigned by the individual.
11. Bank Account No. Certified by the manager with his seal.
12. Balance Sheet / FOB sales certified by CA
13. Declaration of pending liabilities
    

If Merchant exporter is not the member of any Export Promotion Council than he is liable to give the bank guarantee upto 25 % of the excise amount, else the payment receipt of the Export Promotion Council is enough.

Note:

• Excise Bonding has to be filed in the excise office near the exporters office or Port from which it has to exported.
• Excise duty is only applicable in case where turnover of the company is more than 1.5 crore.
• If Excise duty is not applicable than only sales tax / VAT is levied.

Details mentioned above are derived from the personal experience during filing of excise bonding for ATOMOS.

Paper Market

Being in the division of Paper for about a year now. Have seen a only the steep hill drive of rates.

You require paper for each and every use right from signing of contract (even though digital signatures are out people still are prefering signed contract) to shopping to writing down in exams. But here we are not going to see how the finished paper market is booming but we are going to get the reason of how this waste paper has given rise to the whole new industry.

Waste paper refers to all kinds of utilised paper i.e from Used Newsprints to Office paper waste to Used cartons. All this so called waste is of the best use, and is the most lucrative product in the Paper Producing Industry.

ATOMOS in India one of the major importer of this kind of papers and serving Indian Recycling Industry and thus assisting Foreign Trade. Operating from its Head Office in Mumbai, the company imports different qualities of recovered fibre, such as old newspaper, magazines, recovered corrugated boxes and office stationery.

Paper industry is primarily dependent upon forest-based raw materials. The first paper mill in India was set up at Sreerampur, West Bengal, in the year 1812. It was based on grasses and jute as raw material. Large scale mechanized technology of papermaking was introduced in India in early 1905. Since then the raw material for the paper industry underwent a number of changes and over a period of time, besides wood and bamboo, other non-conventional raw materials have been developed for use in the papermaking. The Indian pulp and paper industry at present is very well developed and established. Now, the paper industry is categorized as forest-based, agro-based and others (waste paper, secondary fibre, bast

fibers and market pulp).

In 1951, there were 17 paper mills, and today there are about 515 units engaged in the manufacture of paper and paperboards and newsprint in India. The pulp & paper industries in India have been categorized into large-scale and small-scale. Those paper industries, which have capacity above 24,000 tonnes per annum are designated as large-scale paper industries. India is self-sufficient in manufacture of most varieties of paper and paperboards. Import is confined only to certain specialty papers. To meet part of its raw material needs the industry has to rely on imported wood pulp and waste paper.

Indian paper industry has been de-licensed under the Industries (Development & Regulation) Act, 1951 with effect from 17th July, 1997. The interested entrepreneurs are now required to file an Industrial Entrepreneurs' Memorandum (IEM) with the Secretariat for Industrial Assistance (SIA) for setting up a new paper unit or substantial expansion of the existing unit in permissible locations. Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) up to 100% is allowed on automatic route on all activities except those requiring industrial licenses where prior governmental approval is required.

Growth of paper industry in India has been constrained due to high cost of production caused by inadequate availability and high cost of raw materials, power cost and concentration of mills in one particular area. Government has taken several policy measures to remove the bottlenecks of availability of raw materials and infrastructure development. For example, to overcome short supply of raw materials, duty on pulp and waste paper and wood logs/chips has been reduced.

Following measures need to be taken to make Indian paper industry more competitive:

• Improvements of key ports, roads and railways and communication facilities.
• Revision of forest policy is required for wood based paper industry so that plantation can be raised by industry, cooperatives of farmers, and state government.
• Degraded forest land should be made available to the industry for raising plantations.
• Import duty on waste paper should be reduced.
• Duty free imports of new & second hand machinery/equipment should be allowed for technology upgradation.

Outlook for paper industry in India looks extremely positive as the demand for upstream market of paper products, like, tissue paper, tea bags, filter paper, light weight online coated paper, medical grade coated paper, etc., is growing up.