Cranesy: What suppliers should know apriori before providing customer service and selling construction equipment to russian customers?
Svetlana Morozova.: First of all, you’d better speaking Russian (smiling). However to be honest, if you can conversate with a client in his mother tongue, you’ll have more benefits since you can understand his needs, listen and gather the lightest shades of the issues like “if he’s seriously intended to buy”, “type of customer he is”, and check out for other important issues concerning the transport and customs.
C.: What brands/marks do russian customer usually use to order abroad?
S.: Russian customers actually prefer to order construction equipment of the manufactured brands, whose dealers have the mechanic’s workshops equipped with spare parts and technical support based in the Russian territory. This is due to a simple reason: if an equipment breaks down, a customer can find an assistance with spare parts, asking for them to russian suppliers. They always keep in stock the most required spare parts.
This way the russian customer can also call for technical assistance, which will make a maintenance work/service in case the client does not know the kind of problem with the unit.
C.: Years range of construction equipment that russian customers look for?
S.: Russian customers consider the equipment for their price-quality ratio. And they prefer buying used equipment no older than 10 years and with a few working hours.
C.: Regarding the transport procedure, what do suppliers have to know before? Give us some tips.
S.: Transport in Russia is a pretty important point. In the last period 90% of my clients arrange logistic operations by themselves and book the truck to transport the equipment directly from transport companies to Russia without my assistance. Why? I can explain it with a simple sentence: “this kind of transport procedure works better than if you book the transport from the supplier’s country to Russia”.
Russian transport companies, usually ask to Lithuanian, Latvian and Polish logistics offices, if they have any trucks, that have already unloaded the goods in Italy (and going back to the country of departure) available for loading another equipment.
This kind of transport procedure offers a low price and a huge choice of trucks available in different loading sizes. Moreover, trucks are always available, any day you need.
Some advice for suppliers of construction equipment: ALWAYS ask the client where he’s planning to do export declarations… in Italy or another EU country? Permits for travelling in the EU are limited and 99% of trucks must be transhipped in Poland, Lithuania or Latvia, but mostly in Poland. So, the export declaration should be opened in Poland to avoid unpleasant situations, because if you open it in Italy and the equipment travels without permit, any police control will lead to the block of transport and consequently to the block of the cargo.