This Ebook – The Nuts and Bolts of Export Planning is an in-depth study in the Planning and Strategy Fundamentals to succeed in an Export business or in taking your product into international markets. When a company decides to develop an export business, planning is critical to answer key questions such as which are the best products to export, which markets to focus on in the short term, medium term and long term, what channel of distribution to use, pricing for export markets and many other questions. How to develop good business strategy? This unique, easy to apply approach on developing good business strategy is an approach used by CEO of the century, former GE Chairman and Business Guru, Jack Welch. Nowhere can you find a more comprehensive and well put together book on export planning and export strategy to guide your company to win in export markets. The book can be used as an off the shelf manual to guide your company as it seeks to enter export markets.
This 200 page ebook outlines all the market research and information gathering techniques required to develop a plan to guide your export business. Apart from all the ‘How to’ explanations, the book has a detailed template about developing an export plan as well as a case study.
It will enable you to:
systematically select and plan the entry into new international markets;
enhance the chances of success through its integrated review of analysis and strategy with marketing, logistics, organisation and finance;
put together a sound line of reasoning from strategy to implementation.
This book provides you with:
an Export Planning - Model: a framework to develop your international marketing plan;
Phases showing you how to set up an Export Policy, Export Audit, Export Plan and Export Roll-out;
10 steps and 5P's for export which can be used as a toolkit;
a checklist to review whether you are ready for export.
Click here to view the Table of Contents.
Get this ebook for only $124.95. Click here to see Table of Contents. Click here to purchase.
Read below a brief on Developing an Export Plan:
What is an Export Plan?
An export plan is your guideline for the development of your international business. It consists of the identification of markets, goals, activities, proposed ways of achieving objectives, required resources and expected results.
What is Involved in Developing an Export Plan?
Developing an export plan involves performing a variety of tasks including conducting market research, creating a marketing plan, deciding on market entry and service delivery methods, planning day-to-day operations and potential expansion activities, addressing the issues of export financing and insurance and setting targets and timelines.
Approaches to Developing an Export Plan
Export plans vary from company to company, service offering to service offering and country to country, particular those dealing with the export of services. The following is intended to serve as an outline of approaches that you may take towards creating a document that will guide you in your international business development activities.
State Objectives, Plan Approach and Assign Responsibility
a) State your export objectives, document your motivation for exporting and include expected outcomes.
b) Plan your approach by holding discussions and reaching consensual agreement on the export planning approach with key members of your firm.
c) Assign responsibility for implementation, orient key personnel to the export planning process and determine whether to use a team approach, or to bring in an export management consultant.
Management Issues Involved in the Export Decision
Management Objectives
What are the company's reasons for pursuing export markets? Are they solid objectives (e.g., increasing sales volume or developing a broader, more stable customer base) or are they frivolous (e.g., the owner wants an excuse to travel)?
How committed is top management to an export effort? Is exporting viewed as a quick fix for a slump in domestic sales? Will the company neglect its export customers if domestic sales pick up?
What are management's expectations for the export effort? How quickly does management expect export operations to become self-sustaining? What level of return on investment is expected from the export program?
Experience
With what countries has business already been conducted, or from what countries have inquiries already been received?
Which product lines are mentioned most often?
Are any domestic customers buying the product for sale or shipment overseas? If so, to what countries?
Is the trend of sales and inquiries up or down?
Who are the main domestic and foreign competitors?
What general and specific lessons have been learned from past export attempts or experiences?
Management and Personnel
What in-house international expertise does the firm have (international sales experience, language capabilities, etc.)?
Who will be responsible for the export department's organization and staff?
How much senior management time (a) should be allocated and (b) could be allocated?
What organizational structure is required to ensure that export sales are adequately serviced?
Who will follow through after the planning is done?
Production Capacity
How is the present capacity being used?
Will filling export orders hurt domestic sales?
What will be the cost of additional production?
Are there fluctuations in the annual work load? When? Why?
What minimum order quantity is required?
What would be required to design and package products specifically for export?
Financial Capacity
What amount of capital can be committed to export production and marketing?
What level of export department operating costs can be supported?
How are the initial expenses of export efforts to be allocated?
What other new development plans are in the works that may compete with export plans?
By what date must an export effort pay for itself?
Conduct Situation Analysis
To conduct a situation analysis, you may wish to address the following topics:
a) Background
History and present situation of the firm
Industry trends
Position within the industry
Position within domestic and/or international market
b) Mission Statement
What business is the firm in?
What market/customers this company serves now and wishes to serve in the future?
What are the needs that this company intends to fill in the international marketplace?
How does this company meet the needs of those it serves and what is its future vision?
What makes this company unique?
What values does this company seek to promote?
c) Market Opportunities and Threats Analysis (as regards the target market)
Sources of funding and support
Political issues (tax, regulation, policy)
Demographics
Technology
Competition
d) Strengths and Weaknesses Review (firm’s potential for success in the target market)
Assessment of services strengths
Assessment of market-specific strengths
Financial resources of the firm
Human resources (staff and management/knowledge and skills)
Marketing and public relations
Service product delivery
Management policies and practices
Rank Critical Success Factors and Issues
Critical success factors and issues, some of which will be revealed during the situation analysis, should be ranked in order of importance. As a general rule, the list should contain a maximum of twelve issues. Once the critical success factors and issues are prioritized, search for options for dealing with each as this will be a crucial element of your international business development strategy. You may wish to seek help from a variety of sources such as:
staff within your firm
government officials
trade consultants
relevant associations
seasoned exporters
staff of foreign embassies
Questions Answered by the Export Plan
As you move towards developing the Export Plan, keep in mind that its contents should be able to provide answers to the following type of questions:
a) Where do you want to export ?
b) Why do you want to export to the markets you chose ?
c) What do you want to export ?
d) How much business you expect to do in what period of time ?
e) How are you going to go about exporting, or what activities do you intend to perform ?
f) What are the:
staffing requirements and responsibilities
financial requirements
facilities requirements
marketing requirements
specific tasks or objectives to be accomplished
who is responsible
time-frame for accomplishing the task
resources required for completion
revenue projections based on goals and objectives
expenses including human resources, marketing and promotion, travel, communications, office and contingency costs
profit projections and margins
Drafting the Export Plan
Once you have performed many of the activities in the previous sections, you are ready to draft your Export Plan as per the outline in the Export Plan icon in this module.
