Seasonality in the Southern Hemisphere

"A funny thing happened on the way to the (U.S.) company's year-end (December) celebrations and quota performance recently when dealing with South America....no one bought any of its product!"

Thus started a sad and fruitless chapter in one particular company's history in Latin America, despite its well-known mantra of Kaizen (constant improvement) and other customer-centric philosophies. You see, for those who have only a limited knowledge of South America, the seasons are reversed, and the selling motion and customer interaction are at times challenging for "northern" firms that think everything in the world operates on "U.S. standards".

Therefore, pay attention to these kinds of realities, when doing your work in the southern hemisphere, particularly in Latin America:

• Budgets for capital expenditures (big ticket software, computers, machinery, etc.) are often set early in the calendar year, and are fully-allocated to vendor "A" or "B" by mid-year.
  
  
• Companies that operate a year in advance for such budgeted items will often be planning their "next year" budget one (1) full year ahead.
  
  
• Expenditures for these kinds of acquisitions will often be completed by December/year-end, however, if you and your firm have not been actively engaged in the "purchase cycle" well in advance of the previous year's budget season, you'll have another year to wait to be considered at all.
  
  
• Additionally, if you and your firm have not earned the right to provide product or services, then for all your excellent marketing and capabilities, folks in South America (and Latin America, generally) will simply not give you the credibility to consider your value proposition.

To be sure there will be happy exceptions to these generalities, but based on this writer's many years of experience in the region, it's critical to take into account the seasonality that affects the southern hemisphere. What's cold and wintry to you in the north, is hot and summery in the south. Buy cycles, decision time-frames and associated operational imperatives are significantly different in the southern hemisphere (e.g., South America), than they are in Europe or North America. Sound simple? It can be, but you have to know, you have to plan and you have to execute appropriately to make it happen.

How does your firm handle this kind of challenge? What are you doing to get ahead of the curve and work your calendar effectively in light of fast-approaching summertime dates in South America?

Thanks for reading, commenting and passing along these tips from LatinAmericanKnowledge.

For other blog topics from this same author, take a look here.

© Daniel A. Cabrera, TopExec.org, All rights reserved, 2008