"We are going to a new structuring and renewal in our Foreign Trade department. Currently, we export to 65 countries. Our goal is to make Sigma Electric a company that exports to 80 countries by growing even more in the sector in 2019. Our efforts to bring our brand to better points continue intensively. We put forward our claim with our quality and cost calculation." We talked with Sigma Electricity Export Director Genco Uysal about the company and its goals. -Can you tell us about yourself so that our readers can get to know you better? Who is Genco Uysal? I was born in Istanbul in 1983. I completed my high school education at Saint Benoit French High School in Istanbul and then my university education at Robert Schuman University Business School in Strasbourg, France . I completed my Master's degree in International Business at Haute Ecole Bruxelles University in Brussels, Belgium . During this period, after working my own business in Belgium for three years, I returned to Turkey in 2009 and started as a regional sales manager of a company and then assumed the responsibility of sales in Africa, Middle East and Europe. Subsequently, I worked as a country manager in a well-known construction company in order to carry out very important investments and projects in Côte d'Ivoire (Africa). Later, I worked as the General Manager of one of the largest plastic producing companies in Turkey in the subsidiary company in France. In this process, I visited 120 countries and established important commercial connections and friendships. Ultimately, I returned to Turkey in 2014 due to my parents' health problems and worked as an Export Director in various companies in our sector. - How did you meet the electricity sector? After returning to Turkey, I started to work as an export director in an electronics company. We have achieved a significant growth with the new organizations and studies we have done in the company where I have worked for 2.5 years. Then, in order to appeal to wider circles both in Turkey and in the world market and to make greater breakthroughs, I stepped into the sector in January 2016 by evaluating the offer I received from a well-known company in our sector. In addition to both domestic and international trips, I had a very good interaction with the sector stakeholders. At this point, I must say that I have always had a good working environment with all the sector representatives and companies I have worked with so far. What is your position in Sigma? I am in the position of Export Director at Sigma Electric, a company I started two months ago. I am responsible for sales, operations and marketing for overseas customers in order to grow exports. I am very happy here and I love my job. - What would you like to say about your brand recognition and goals as Sigma Electric? Sigma Elektrik is a company that currently exports to 65 countries and is one of the important companies in the role of manufacturer in Turkey in the switchgear sector. I believe that it is one of the most important players, especially in the domestic market. We can observe that our Sigma branded products are in a very good condition in terms of price quality performance abroad. Our goal is to make Sigma Electric a company that exports to 80 countries by growing even more in the sector in 2019. I believe that we will achieve this. Algeria, Angola, Afghanistan, Romania, Kyrgyzstan, Sweden, Portugal and Hungary are already in the process of joining this list. -Is your goal of reaching 80 countries focused on a specific continent/region or is it general? We are present in Asia, Europe, South America and Africa. Currently, as Sigma Elektrik, we export to many countries such as Suriname, Cameroon, Peru, Vietnam, Indonesia etc. In particular, our target is Central Asia and the Baltic countries for now. With my travels to 120 countries, we will have realized this process in a very short time with the commercial connections and friendships I have made. -Do you think of any innovations or changes related to your overseas structuring? First of all, we are going to a new structuring and renewal in our foreign trade department. We will implement a different system. We can call it "We will implement our own system." We carry out an important planning work on reporting, reaching customers, seminars, public approvals of the relevant countries, fairs we will participate in (In addition to the Dubai, Hannover fair we attend every year, especially Nigeria, Indonesia, Kenya fairs, which we have not been before). In addition, our company has implemented a single dealership system in the countries it exports. We want to develop this by diversifying a little more by taking into account the incoming demands. We have identified 3 different categories in this regard. Our first goal is to make a main dealer for government tenders and large projects in the project leg – with our Sigma brand. Our second goal is to supply wholesalers with our Sigma brand again in the OEM section. Our third goal is to provide goods to both the project and the wholesaler as an OEM. -How do you evaluate the view of your current partners to the Sigma brand? Sigma Elektrik has managed to announce its brand to many countries with 4-5 international fairs it participates in every year. Our partners know this very well. Of course, they demand the use of this situation and the further strengthening of awareness through practices such as promotions, seminars and visits specific to their own countries. These demands are taken into consideration, so we have many seminars and promotional activities, and after that we will work to increase our brand awareness by increasing our customer / field visits. In addition to meeting with our partners and realizing the relations through these companies, if necessary, we plan to go door to door in the organization of our partners and explain our company and our products. We have started to reap the fruits of these seminars and promotions. We have taken important steps and achieved gains in order to invite the public authority of the relevant country to the seminar and to obtain public approvals. Especially this year, we aim to create new partners in regions such as Africa, the Turkic Republics, the North Baltic countries, the Middle East and West Africa. How do you evaluate the technological infrastructure of Sigma electricity – both in terms of your product and your goals? Our company has a very strong production infrastructure, technology and technical staff. After the products are designed in their own R & D department and completed in their own Mold Hall with their own modern machines and machines, they are produced in accordance with the relevant standards in the production lines equipped with modern test devices within their production and presented to our customers. We are increasing our production capacity day by day. A capacity increase is being considered for new products to be released this year. Because we have a growth-oriented budget this year, which you can appreciate only happens with investment. The necessary investment is being made to achieve this growth. -Do you have any thoughts about adding different products to the structure? Yes.. We have completed our VERTICAL TYPE LOAD SEPARATOR study that we started in 2018. Tests and pilot production are now nearing completion. We will offer it for sale in March. We have started to reap the fruits of our work on the samples related to this product. We have already received pre-orders from Oman, Poland and Kosovo.In addition to this product, we continue to work on NH Knife Insurances and the production of this product will be finished in a short time. In addition, we continue to work on Sigma branded Switch / Socket products, which are requested a lot from abroad... - What kind of challenges do you face in the international market? The most important problem in the international market is brand awareness and biased approach. The fact that the international brands you compete with entered the market many years ago and have completed the necessary official approvals cause you to start the race from behind.We are making serious efforts to overcome these difficulties by participating in many international fairs, completing official institution approvals and increasing our visits.We trust our products, once the customer who uses our product tests that there is no difference in terms of quality, he becomes a loyal Sigma user when he takes into account the cost element. In the name of our brand promotion, we will continue to participate in fairs, organize promotional seminars and increase our visits. - What do you intend to do to show the power of the brand and to bring Sigma's name to the forefront? We participate in 4 or 5 international fairs every year to increase brand awareness. Especially continuity in fairs is very important when the customer sees you at the fairs every year, his trust in the brand increases. Seminars and introductory meetings are also very useful. In addition, we put forward our claim with our quality and cost calculation. We are in constant communication with our customer. These make very serious contributions to our branding and growth. Given that Europeans are worried about market loss, do you have difficulties at customs – indirectly – at customs? No tax is paid to Algeria, Morocco or Senegal for a product sent from France, but we pay 30% tax as Turkey. The customer also prefers products of other countries instead of paying taxes at that time. Our government needs to work to pave the way for our exporter companies in this regard. Given the recent volatility in exchange rates, what will Sigma's approach to the process be? The fluctuation in the exchange rate is not only a situation that affects us. In many countries of the world, there have been countries that have been affected two or three times more than us. (Russia, Algeria, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, all African countries, etc.) Our company has made the necessary stock, necessary measures and necessary production plans in 2018. Sigma has not been affected much by the fluctuations in the market as it has realized its growth plans accordingly and sold its products in foreign currency by making a large domestic production. Turkey is a country with very different dynamics. Accordingly, I think that the market will come to much better places in the medium and long term in 2019. Have there been any deviations from your goals set out in 2019 – along with your new vision? So far, we have not experienced the slightest negativity. In addition, we have set our sustainable targets in a way that can be realized. While revealing our 60% growth target, we made our plans over advance payments, not term payments. Our advance payment plans abroad are arranged in a way to protect us from all kinds of economic hardship and turmoil. -What kind of attitude do switchgear companies (customers) adopt about brand change under market conditions? The same product (the same quality product with everything) is sold at different values in terms of brand value. A very important element comes into play here: the ability of the salesman and the salesman to persuade. Persuading the company for brand change and the trust you provide in your relationships is the main actor of this event. In addition, when you reduce your profit share, brand change can be realized more easily. Sigma has this flexibility, and this advantage in profit share paves the way for a change of brand. In short, "Persuasion and Trust" is very important. -Finally, can you share your thoughts that you would like to add? Everyone attaches great importance to eating. For me, food is success. I am a person who feeds successfully. I am confident that we will bring Sigma to the places it deserves in 80 countries (both by adding value to our country and by making an economic contribution to our $ 500 billion target for 2023). I hope, I'm not saying. I 'm sure! Because Sigma; is a company with a strong infrastructure in production, finance and service.