Develop Your Export Plan – Part 1

Once you’ve decided to sell your products abroad, you’ll need to develop an export plan.

The purposes of the export plan are:

·         To assemble facts, constraints, and goals.

·         To create an action statement that takes all of those elements into account.

The plan includes specific objectives, time schedules for implementation, and marks milestones so that the degree of success can be measured and can motivate personnel.

At the first time your export plan should be kept simple. It need be only a few pages long because important market data and planning elements may not yet be available. The initial planning effort itself gradually generates more information and insight. keep learning more about exporting and your company’s competitive position to get more detailed and complete export plan.

From the start, your plan should be written and viewed as a flexible management tool, not as a static document. Objectives in the plan should be compared with actual results to measure the success of different strategies. Your company should not hesitate to modify the plan and make it more specific as new information and experience are gained.

A detailed plan is recommended for companies that intend to export directly, meaning selling to an end-user in another country. If your company chooses indirect export methods or sells via your or a third party’s website, you may use much simpler plans.