Unit XIII Text I. Testing the market-finding out

The first step you take as a potential exporter, before spending time, effort and money on trying to develop overseas sales, is to establish that there is such a demand for your product. Whether you wish to sell goods or services, it is still vital to establish that an overseas market does actually exist.

It is not generally difficult to find out the overseas market prospects for a product. If your company has a showroom or has been promoting its products at trade fairs, exhibitions and seminars in the UK, you will probably already have had some contact with overseas buyers and other foreign visitors. You should have kept yourself informed of the UK market for your product by reading the relevant sections of the trade press. Doing so will probably have given you a good idea if there is some interest in your type of product overseas.

Where to find information and advice

Once you have decided through reading, talking and listening to other people that there are export possibilities for the company’s products, then is the time to assess the prospects more systematically. A good start can be made by consulting relevant books and publications in addition to making contact with people who already know the overseas market for your particular product. The central libraries in most major towns and even smaller local libraries will stock many trade and product journals and directories. The Statistics and Market Intelligence Library also provides detailed import and export statistics by each individual country.

In all likelihood there will be a trade association which your company can join. This will undoubtedly have an export committee which can give advice on the potential markets you are interested in. It is probably that companies with products in the same commercial or industrial sector, and who are already exporting, will give advice on export market opportunities. This is, of course, providing that your products would not be competing for the same business as theirs.

The British Overseas Trade Board (BOTB) gives excellent advice on export market opportunities. You would be well advised to make contact with your local regional office to obtain as much specific information as possible. The Export intelligence Service (EIS) of the BOTB also publishes information regularly on a wide variety of export opportunities in many overseas markets.

Other sources of information include the international division of the major clearing banks and local Chambers of Commerce which have an export information service. As part of this desk research it is helpful to draw up a questionnaire detailing the information required to establish whether or not there are markets abroad which will purchase your product. This question and answer process of analysis helps to introduce a systematic approach, which is essential for success.