How to Put Together an Export Plan with Minimum Effort

 How to Create a Practical Export Plan with Minimum Effort

Or, I’d Really Rather Not Bother, But It’s Probably a Good Idea

Everyone pretty much knows that having a plan is a good idea, and that a written one is even better.  But putting together plans often takes a lot of work – they take time and require hard thinking and decisions. It’s easy to procrastinate, get sidetracked in the details, or end up with form trumping substance.

In an earlier post, we set out some reasons why having an export plan is a particularly good idea.  There are many types of risks with international sales – most of which can be effectively mitigated – with careful advance planning.

You can find good examples of formal, comprehensive export plans here and here.  If you’ve been exporting for a while, you may be ready to put one like these together, or even already have one.  If you’ve just getting started with exporting, the examples may help you see where you need to go.  Just don’t let drafting the document keep you from the planning process itself.

Think of your export plan as a work in progress.  Start somewhere, and keep fleshing it out.

Start by answering the following questions.  Write your answers down on paper – this really helps solidify your goals and helps you make sure you can really articulate clearly the answers:

1. Why do you want to export?
2. What markets do you want to export to, and why?
3. Which products do you want to export, and what features might make them attractive in other countries?
4. What business model are you thinking of using for exporting?
5. What volume of export sales are you expecting, and by when?
6. How will you support your export business?

If you can clearly answer these questions, you are well on your way.

Many companies are “accidental exporters.”  You have a key customer or partner pulling you into another country.  Or, a foreign customers trying to order from your website.  You have a potential distributor coming to you with the deal of a lifetime.  Or you are positive from reading or talking with business partners exactly what market(s) you should focus on.

Still, you should take a step back and look at these markets as though you are starting fresh.  Answer the questions above first.  Then take a look at your answers, and see if they lead you in any different directions or suggest other places or things to explore a bit more.

Learn from other companies who didn’t create any sort of export plan.  Don’t be like the pharmaceutical company whose resources were stretched trying to support numerous distributors in small markets like Pakistan and Sri Lanka, while virtually ignoring lucrative Canadian and European markets.

Or the surgical instrument company that handed over all of its Latin American export business exclusively to a Miami-based distributor and selling to him at the low price he claimed was necessary for those markets, only to find that not only was this company not buying much product, but was actually selling much that they did buy into markets already served by the company’s other distributors.

Have a plan, and do your homework.

Contact us for a free 60-minute consultation to see how your export business can grow faster!