Is the domestic market no longer sufficient? Does your company need to find new customers to absorb your surplus production? How do we select the countries to which to export our product or service?
How to start defining your international strategy
Today at AcciónMK we would like to give you some tips that will help you to defining your international strategy in a globalised environment that offers us numerous opportunities for business growth.
However, before starting this process, there are some basic questions to be asked that will indicate whether our organisation is really ready to export or whether a process of fine-tuning is necessary for exporting. expansion in international markets.
Key 1. What is your starting situation? Are you really ready to export?
The first step before taking the decision to enter new markets is to set up your company. It will be necessary to carry out an internal analysis to consider what areas we need to work on in order to face this new situation in optimal conditions. Some questions to ask are: is my product and/or service exportable, do I have a suitable image for the target market, do I have staff trained in languages to attend to my potential clients, what new operations should I introduce in my export value chain? With the answers to these questions we can sketch a picture of the current state of the company before the internationalisation process, which can also condition the choice of new markets.
However, we must also take into account what are the specific characteristics of the market or selected markets, so we need to ask ourselves the following question.
What is the legal, political, economic, social, technological and ecological environment in the countries of export destination?
There are many market conditions that can determine the success or failure of our international strategy. For this reason, it is important to carry out a prior PESTEL analysis that allows us to know in depth the context in which our product or service is going to compete and to be prepared to adapt to the demand of a market that is still unknown to the company.
Key 3. Who are my allies in this new strategy? Is there support to help me expand into international markets?
It is important to know that you are not alone on this new path. Trade relations with other countries is a subject on which various public and private organisations can advise you and even finance part of the investment you will have to make.
Extenda, the Andalusian Agency for Foreign Trade, has various programmes aimed at advising companies on their international expansion. Among them is the International Digital Marketing Planaimed at entities that want to use the online channel as a fundamental tool for their expansion. If you are at an early stage of the process and you are still not clear about your markets or what the best strategy is, you can access the Advice programme for the Diagnosis of the Internationalisation Potential of Andalusian Companies. Both programmes can help you to carry out both an Internal Analysis of your company and an external analysis of the market with which you can obtain a guide to face your new facet as an exporter.
