Exporting (3): 1st step, building up an export strategy. By M.Benhamed.

Assuming that your understand and reasons about exporting are  now clear, your company will need to think about the first step of exporting, i.e. export strategy as  an essential component of its core business.

At this effect, let’s show you briefly  what are the key elements of export strategy, how export strategy can help your company and what are the mistakes to avoid when building an export strategy.

1.The Key elements of export strategy:

Exporting can be a great option for going abroad and entering into new markets. But in the same time, it can be frustrating and financially risky. That is why before moving in this direction and engaging resources into finding export customers, your company should build up an export strategy that determines where it is going over the two/three next years and how it is going to get there.

To put it  simple, we can say that a clear export strategy includes the following three key elements: Goals, strategic priorities and actions necessary to achieve those goals.

Here are some examples of these three key elements:

a) Goals:

•    Expanding activities in new  emergent market;
•    Increasing sales and profit margins;
•    Reducing costs;
•    Establishing partnership or strategic alliance abroad;
•    Etc.

b)Strategic priorities:

•    Choosing foreign market that offers  opportunity for growth;
•    Diversifying production;
•    Adopting new technology;
•    Having an international competitive innovation;
•    Receiving foreign enquiries;
•    Spreading export risks;
•    Etc.

c) Actions:

•     Prospecting foreign market;
•     Establishing relationship with foreign representative;
•     Choosing the model of distribution appropriate to the  market;
•     Attracting important potential customers to visit your company;
•     Etc.

2. How export strategy can help your comany?

To venture into exporting, a clear export strategy is necessary and can constitute for your company a profitable way of expanding business, driving new sales and increasing productivity.

In add, export strategy can principally help your company to:

• Define its export aims;
• Match its resources to those aims;
• Identify and well understand the areas where it has strong competitive advantages;
• Concentrate its efforts in order to provide quality responses to its new export customers.

3. The mistakes to avoid when building an export strategy:

Exporting is not always an easy journey. So, let’s share with you some mistakes to avoid when your company is buiding its export strategy:

• Trying to enter two foreign markets at the same time;
• Not choosing the most promising foreign market;
• Not visiting the target market;
• Not adapting products or services to the needs of the foreign market;
• Not considering export customers of equal importance than domestic customers;
• Etc.

Conclusion:

As small, medium and large enterprises have all today the amazing opportunity to venture into exporting, any campany that is looking  to expand its  activities abroad must think about how to build up an appropriate export strategy  essentially based on an assessment of its own position.

It remains to know how to implement the export strategy, how to achieve the goals and how to finance the actions..