What is the purpose of this section?
The Company section of your export plan should include subsections addressing the following topics:
Start working on the Company section of your export plan
Why is this important?
- Why is your company pursuing export markets? Is it to increase sales or expand your customer base, and so forth?
- What do you and your company's management expect as the outcome of your efforts in developing an export plan? Do you expect to double the size of your business or to gain one new customer? Do you simply want to learn more about exporting, or is exporting critical to the survival of your business?
- Exactly when do you and your company's management expect to regain your initial investment in export marketing? Do you have six months to show results, or are you laying the groundwork for the business five years from now?
- How much is management willing to invest in export marketing efforts and other necessary preparations? Consider time and resources as well as actual dollars.
- How is your company planning to allocate funds? Will there be a line item in the annual budget, or will one activity be funded at a time?
- How long can your company sustain the cost of export efforts before they must begin to generate some profit?
- What foreign countries have inquired about your products? In which products did those countries show an interest?
- Do you or others in your company have experience with or knowledge of doing business in particular foreign markets? Or is the company willing to hire new employees with knowledge of exporting?
- Do you or others in your company have direct access to people who have lived in foreign countries? For example, is one of your employees a foreign national or married to one?
- Do you or other company employees speak foreign languages? Which languages?
- Have any of your company's employees lived or traveled extensively in foreign countries? Which countries?
- Which domestic customers presently buy your products for sale or shipment to foreign countries? What products are they exporting? To what countries are they exporting?
- What lessons have you or others in your company learned from previous attempts to export? Lessons from failures or successes are equally important.
- Do you or other company employees have or plan to obtain training related to exporting?
- Do you or others in your company have preferences for exporting to certain markets?
- Is the trend in your company's inquiries and sales up or down?
- What is your company's current customer base?
- To what types of customers do you sell: wholesale, retail, restaurants, or commercial food services?
- What are those customers like? Are they large or small companies? Do they sell to affluent or low-income consumers? Are they urban or rural? Are they fast food or full-service restaurants? Are they commercial food services that supply vending machine companies, airlines, or hotels?
- What promotional strategies have been most successful for marketing your company's products domestically: direct contact, mailings, advertising, catalogs, or others?
- Who are your company's main domestic and foreign competitors?
- What products are your competitors selling that compete directly with the products your company wants to sell in a foreign market? Think about both domestic and foreign products.
- What volume of additional product(s) can your company produce without impacting service to its existing domestic customers?
- What will the additional production cost? If possible, this should be a unit cost. For example, how much does it cost your company to produce an additional pallet of pretzels or cookies?
- Are there seasonal fluctuations in your company's sales? When? Why? Could it be to your company's advantage to increase foreign marketing activities during periods of lower sales?
- Would your company have to expand its production capabilities to meet sales requests from foreign countries? How much would that expansion cost?
Continue on to the Target Market section of your export plan