Export Strategy

For the past few months, Probes Unlimited, Inc., has been participating in a program called ExporTech by DVIRC that helps manufacturing and technology companies enter or expand in global markets. While PUI is currently a global company, we really want to focus on expanding those markets. At the moment, our sights are set on China, Canada, Germany and Australia.

These all-encompassing export sessions have provided us with a wealth of knowledge. We’ve also benefited with the support of an individual coach who answered any of our questions and guided us through the process of creating our own export strategy.

On April 3, 2013, we are scheduled to present our export strategy for each country in front of a panel of experts who specialize in different sectors of the exporting process. We have learned so much during these past few months and we thought we would share some of the important tips that we have been incorporating into our own export strategy.

We learned one of the biggest distinguishing factors of a successful and not-so-successful exporter is their marketing message.  As we all are aware, first impressions are often the deciding factor for whether or not a prospecting buyer is going to further pursue getting to know more about your company and the products/services you offer. We learned that it is imperative to have a clear message on how we differentiate from our competitors and why choosing our company will benefit the potential buyer. Seemingly an easy task, we soon found out how difficult it was to create a successful elevator pitch that was targeted for each country and product we were pitching.

The second valuable lesson we learned was the importance of doing thorough research to determine our target markets. Doing our homework and answering questions like: what foreign markets are most attractive for our product or service? And how can we be successful in these target markets were so valuable. From those questions, we were able to broaden our knowledge of product trends, to identify our biggest competitors in each market, and to understand our key obstacles that we might not have known.

Lastly, the process of writing our plan of action for the next three years was a huge help. Not only in the sense of having a concrete ‘To Do’ list that we can refer back to, but it really highlighted what is expected of each member of our team. That is, holding each of us accountable for specific tasks that will ensure that we complete our goals.