Why Sell Internationally?
Selling to customers outside of the U.S. has several distinct advantages beyond the obvious benefits of increasing sales and profits. One of the most notable is that it helps to expand and diversify your customer base, which can help to counter seasonal demand fluctuations in the home market and lessen dependency on individual customers.
Other benefits of export sales include fully utilizing production capacity, realizing economies of scale from larger production volumes, leveraging your innovation and extending the sales potential for existing products. In addition, according to the Export-Import Bank, companies that export generally offer higher wages and are 30 percent more likely to stay in business than non-exporters.
If you are committed to the long-term growth and success of your company, you really can’t afford not to consider selling internationally and participating in global commerce. In today’s fast changing and competitive markets, it’s not a question of ‘if’ you should export as much as it is ‘when’ you will start.
Benefits of Selling Internationally
- Increase sales, revenues and profits
- Diversify and expand customer base- Reduce dependency on individual customers
- Market diversification can counter seasonal demand fluctuations in home market
- Leverage your innovation and technology
- Extend sales potential for existing products
- Fully utilize production capacity
- Additional production volume means lower cost per unit, which improves all margins, enhances domestic competitiveness and increases total profits
- More opportunities for growth and expansion long-term
Realizing the strategic importance of an international sales program, the choice becomes whether to undertake the effort in-house or to collaborate with an intermediary partner such as an Export Management Company. Successful exporting requires specialized skills and a focused effort, and a significant commitment of management time and resources if you plan to do it in-house.
Potential Requirements for Exporting Successfully
- Modify products, labeling and/or packaging; Obtain required certifications
- Adapt and translate marketing, promotional and POS materials for specific markets
- Hire specialized staff to effectively manage a focused export program
- Incur additional administrative costs
- Dedicate personnel and budget for international travel and sales expenses
- Comply with all U.S. and foreign regulatory requirements, standards and licenses
- Secure additional financing
- Manage exposure to foreign credit risk
- Knowledge to overcome cultural and language barriers in foreign markets
- Longer waits to collect receivables
- Ability to forego short-term profits for long-term gains
For many companies these requirements justify a decision to pursue international sales through an Export Management Company such as the Johnson Group. As part of our comprehensive sales program, we provide assistance to our partner companies in preparing their products and we take complete responsibility for all export related and foreign sales requirements.
