How to run a sale on the international market and get a quick result

His Work / by admin / December 26, 2019

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Alexander Ponomarev

Exporter, International Marketing Specialist, Consultant.

Why the need for export

All the companies, which I deduced the international market, are the same stages: preparation and collection Information → first sale of a partnership → packing → offers → scaling a share market. And unfortunately, neither one of them can not be excluded. Therefore, not all have the energy and patience to get to the stage where sales abroad will hold a permanent share in your business.

However, at a time when the Russian market falls, sales from exports have become a lifeline.

We have long built export sales of one large machine-building plant. Sales abroad were long, less the margin, without prepayment, the technique had to constantly refine. In general, compared with sales in Russia, our deal was terribly distressed. But exactly as long as the Sound of a crisis 2008.

When sales stopped and the machine-building plants in Russia fell like a house of cards, many have not been able to recover. This is where the income from export sales that came regularly saved the whole enterprise. In fact, the plant lived on the proceeds from the export of almost half a year, and this has allowed the company to resist.

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Not to mention the fact that exports - it is also a status of an international company, and additional income, which in the Russian market, you can not get already. Another plus - the development of the product. You start to follow the advanced world technologies and implement them in a natural way.

To export contraindicated

Every company wants to increase sales at the expense of exports. But not everyone is given and not all turns out for several reasons. But in what cases you export will not work:

If your product is easy to reproduce.
If your product is cheaper to reproduce locally than to drive in another country.
If you do not have a stable sales in the Russian Federation to support the company and invest in new projects.
If your product does not have at least one unique feature:
- design;
- taste;
- service;
- characteristics;
- manufacturability;
- capital intensity of production.

This information can save you millions of rubles and up to three years of life.

I have seen many companies who want to be very international, spend a lot of time and money, even get some sales, but in fact it's a fight against windmills. It is better to pay attention to the other direction businessThat will give you many times more revenue at a lower cost.

Those who are found in this part of yourself - to save the text and reread whenever you feel that we should go to foreign markets.

For the rest - will discuss how to launch international sales.

Where to start entering the international market

I have seen many companies who have access to non-CIS countries takes 2-3 years. This is a normal result, if you do not have the right tools. Experienced exporters will tell you, in some countries the decision can take a long time - you have to go around and get customers on their request through the year. Another thing is that the activities and applications must be many times more.

What you need to avoid making mistakes that stretched your start in three years?

An experienced export manager? Not. Only if you aggro a human competitors, who have exported the same product. Such specialists in Russia by your unit product cost of their services is expensive, and the company for their very stick. All the others, even experienced managers, unfortunately, your product will have to be wrong as well.

Know the tools and sales techniques? This, too, is not enough, because sales in other countries are based on other technologies. Although these tools are now available for free (one educational program that costs REC), on their own, without the details and nuances of their application, just give 2-3 years.

You need a release technology for export. And I'm talking about the system exports, which takes a constant interest in your company's sales structure and the possibility of this share is growing. Here's how to proceed.

1. Gather information

All you need to know to get started, you may find yourself (or if you do not speak English, ask for help to those who speak the language and know your product) just a couple of weeks. And the value of this information for the actual export sales will be hundreds of times higher than the toughest market research for a million rubles.

How to collect data:

To conduct a desk study. We are looking for on the Internet all the information about markets, customers, competitors. Choose the country where to go in the first place, where - in the second, where - in the third. "Where to go" until he means "where to sell." entering the country, we finally define for themselves much later.
Consult with those who are already selling for export to your industry. You learn a lot by simply asking. Where to sell what the terms of payment, where some partners.

These are the things that you moved the ball rolling and do not require resources.

2. Prepare marketing materials

While gathering information, create a minimum set of materials in English. You will need them to build confidence in communication, at least a minimum. While not spend a lot of money on it. Website, catalog, official letter - everything you will need to get started.

3. Communicate with existing players in the market

Collect contacts of all those to whom you will come across during the desk research, and try to communicate. Call not to sell, and to consult. Also works well for this international exhibition in one or more target countries.

4. Start selling

To make your offer attractive for foreign customers, you need to collect 100 failures. More precisely, be prepared that your first 100 attempts to sell end failure. And that's fine. In this case, you should try to complete. Only then you will be able to understand what the client wants from you abroad. You redo its proposal and start communicate more effectively.

5. Find partners for sales in other countries

Remember how you build sales and marketing in Russia, before they started to work as it should? Ready to re-take the path to each selected country? The feeling is that this is not enough life. And money.

Therefore, the most effective strategy for expansion into international markets is a partner network.
In every country, you need a partner who is already selling products similar to yours. He knows Channels, nuances and tools that work in this country.

Types of partners:

dealer;
distributor;
agent;
marketing agency;
local producers;
service representative;
the head of your mission;
trading agent.

The right partner - the key to success in each market, so the choice of partner - a single technology. It is necessary to be extremely selective and act with a cool head. Good people - it does not mean professional.

We have found a partner in the Middle East - an agent, a small private company with administrative resources that helped us win the government tender for the supply of equipment. We have participated in tenders directly, but they guide our actions and influence the decision on the tender. The result - supply equipment for 12 million dollars.

At the same time we had a queue of agents that are in the newspapers the information about tenders and offer to participate together. Such are not needed. You need professionals, influencing the result, and they have to look for themselves, they do not come.

With partners can launch sales in the top ten countries for the year, and it is absolutely real. So you get a quick sale and will gain volume. And when you will have an entire partner network, you can run into it more and more new products and get them with extra income. In fact, the network itself becomes a new asset.