Alessandro Dotti: Mantova Export Managing Director

Mantova Export is a service centre for export companies that are generally engaged in internationalization. In other words, a company having business relationships with foreign companies has to face customs or tax issues (it easily occurs when operating with foreign Countries), payments, VAT, foreign standards, etc.; what does this company normally do, in such a case? Usually, it surfs the internet searching for an answer and this results in a waste of time, because everything and its opposite can be found at the same time; for this reason, the personnel in the company has to call a shipper, or a professional accountant that will give their version, but finally the person shall take its own decision. Only in the future, in the event a checking by customs or the Revenue Office occurs, the company will know if its decision was right or wrong ... But if they call Mantova Export, the answer will be prompt and very practical in 98 % of cases, moreover, it will consider many aspects of the issue.
We provide about 4600 consulting services a year. In 2 % of cases we have to inquire on our own, we only need one day to answer and from that moment on, everyone facing the same issue will receive a prompt answer. This is one of Mantova Export's pillars.

We also carry out researches aimed to find potential customers or suppliers; this is another pillar of ours: when a company intends to widen its area of activity in the market they are still present on, or penetrate a new market, they only need to contact us, we carry out a preliminary research whose costs are borne by Mantova Export, after that we submit our offer for a research aimed to find commercial counterparts. It consists of a telemarketing research, i.e. after a basic research regarding potential customers (in case the company is looking for customers), each customer is called by speaking in the language of the concerned foreign parties, in order to overcome linguistic barriers; these interviews allow us to separate correct company names from the ones that wrongly entered our database. After that, we will know the name of the contact person in the foreign companies, check the interest of the latter in receiving more details, and finally draw up a report writing as follows for instance: "If you intend to penetrate the U.S. market, channels and the names of companies concerned are as follows: [...] We inform you about the contact persons and a possible interest in your products, maybe not to immediately buy them (because this can only occur in the future), but at least a possible interest in receiving more details relating to your products." Somebody will say "Yes, I am interested", somebody else will say "No, I am not interested in your products, because I already co-operate with other suppliers", and somebody will ask you if you intend to attend a certain fair. We half-open a door, this door can then fully open or not, but this is up to the committing company and depends on its ability.

Companies structured in such a way can therefore already avail themselves of an important basic factor to be developed; the other ones can anyway rely on us, our suggestions and advice allowing them to create their relationship. We constantly assist them and this is our second pillar.

In addition to the above, we offer a wide range of professional services developed during forty years (Mantova Export was founded in 1974), which include markets researches, trademark and patent registration, international contracts, Intrastat service, export check-up, professional translations and interpreting, as well as many other services. We do not want to sound immodest saying that we are the best, but doubtlessly our prices are probably among the most competitive ones and this is possible because of the legal form of our organization, a consortium. This word is not often used but as a matter of fact, "we are a consortium" means that our associated companies are the "owners" of Mantova Export. Our Board of Directors includes entrepreneurs that only require two things: the best service at the lowest cost and this allows us to offer professional services at extremely competitive costs.

During more than 40 years, we have assisted (and still are assisting) hundreds of companies, from the smallest-sized ones (with one employee, only) to the largest multinational corporations. We are present all over the Italian territory, even if our main customers are located in Central and Northern Italy.
Some years ago, the importance of co-operation with foreign companies was not clear enough, but what happened during the last years has clearly emphasized the value of the companies operating in foreign markets, because they are not particularly affected by the crisis, for this reason they have a better growth and are in a position to take on staff. Therefore, operating in foreign markets is very important and not only to the companies, but also to the whole productive fabric the companies are located in. So, we would like to think that we have made a very positive contribution to the increase of the number of companies starting to operate in foreign markets, as well as to a consolidation of the presence of companies having already business relationships with foreign Countries.
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