What should exporting actually involve? Is it enough to join a trade fair and hope for the best outcome? Trade is a two-way street. It works as a process of exchange. In other words, simply attempting to sell, without looking at exactly what your market wants and how you can add value there, and what real benefits you might gain in return, is no guarantee of sustainable success. The key to real exporting is in adopting and developing a proper, thought-out strategic approach.
Identifying Your Market
Finding routes to market overseas should mean looking at the bigger picture, in terms of global relationships. Markets do not exist in isolation; they are a part of a wider set of economic relationships and conditions.
John Holmes, Managing Partner at Core Business Solutions, points out that exporting success involves gaining a deeper level of knowledge about your receiving party. “What you do should be structured to add value”, he says. “This means understanding how your product will impact on the end user, and what the local market priorities are”.
John recently brokered a successful deal between a UK-based company, Power Efficient Systems Ltd trading as EnergyAce, and a major domestic energy supplier in Saudi Arabia, Kafa’at Energy Services. He comments on how this is an example of successfully tapping into a local market by identifying a set of needs against a background of changing domestic policy.
“There is a growing drive for energy efficiency in the Middle East”, John explains. “The current levels of locally subsidised energy use are unsustainable, so there are opportunities for suppliers of energy efficient technology. This was just such an opportunity for EnergyAce”.
The lesson is about knowing how the needs of the market sit in a wider context. In this case, the power sector across the Middle East faces energy efficiency challenges against a background of diminishing oil revenues and the increasing demands for electricity from growing populations and a still-developing industrial base.
“The EnergyAce deal has its origins in a robust business model”, John concludes. “The strategy underpinning it has been sound and the energy efficiency market across the Middle East now has real potential. People need to prioritise markets in terms of products and a good understanding of both local demand and the potential for reciprocal trade relationships.”
If you would assistance or more information about achieving your export success, please call Core Business Solutions on 01695 732 543 or visit core-bs.co.uk
