Trade Routes – 5 Tips to Help You Choose the Right Foreign Markets for Your Export Product | After reaching your full potential in the domestic market, you may be inspired to broaden your horizons. There’s a whole world out there and every reason to believe your products could be a massive hit in foreign markets. However, that world is also something of a mystery. You may be an expert at managing local markets, but are you ready to tackle those in other countries? How do you even begin? Here are a few tips that may help:
Talk to the Experts
Any export finance broker can be a wealth of information for anything relating to export and financing those exports. If you’re almost at the stage where you’re ready to tap into a foreign market, it can be worth making a few phone calls to get some experts on board.
They can not only tell you if you’ve got a feasible idea but can even provide flexible finance options for the next step of your business journey.
Check Out Import Country Requirements
You may have ticked all the boxes for legal exporting, but have you considered the receiving country’s import requirements?
There are few things as stressful as finding out the products you just shipped don’t meet that country’s requirements. You may have overlooked something, structured the deal incorrectly, or simply failed to realize all your responsibilities.
No one wants to end up in such a bind, but it can be prevented. Before you start the export process, contact the International Trade Administration. They are a wealth of information for helping you plan your international sales strategy.
Learn About Export Controls
Depending on your product line, there may be a need to learn more about US export controls. The export and re-export of software, technology, and commodities fall under US laws, regulations, and policies administered by the US Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security.
While it’s unlikely that these export controls will impact your line of work, it can be worth familiarizing yourself with them, so you’re aware of any “red flags.”
These red flags in export transactions can be things like a customer’s address being similar to one on the Commerce Department’s list of denied persons or a customer paying cash for a big-ticket item that usually calls for financing.
Plan for After-Sale Service
Weeks and months of planning can go into preparing a product for export. You’re focused on finding new markets, financing those markets, and making sure your product meets the import country’s requirements. What about your role in after-sales service?
It pays to think about the logistics of how customers can contact you if they have a question, concern, or dispute. Fortunately, technology has made international communication far easier than ever before, so there are plenty of options to consider.
Focus on Communication
If you’re exporting your products to a country with English as its second language, it’s a good idea to have a communication game plan. Any communication with your new customers is going to have to be planned out to avoid significant problems.
Speak clearly and slowly, get to the point, avoid slang and clichés, and use simple terms. You can also make use of an interpreter if you’ve got quite a few things you need to discuss in great detail.
Choosing the right foreign markets for your export products can take a lot of planning. You have to make sure you understand export controls, know their import requirements, and even make sure you have the ability to converse clearly with your prospective purchasers. Consider the points above before getting the export process underway.
