The word “I want to export abroad” has been increasing in Türkiye in recent years. One of the main reasons for this is the decrease in production costs compared to abroad and the shifting of production in China to other countries. In this article, we will briefly explain to companies that want to export abroad where and how to start this business. We will strengthen our writing with many educational articles on our site. We wish you a good reading.
Preparing the Product and Company for Abroad
First of all, there are some basic steps you need to take before stepping abroad.
First of all, you need to take quality images of your products. When shooting your images, there should be nothing in the background that will overwhelm your product. In the images you take, make sure that there is no text embedded in the photo [For structural products such as seating sets, shelves and similar products, a diagram can be included with the photo]. Your images should reflect the actual color of the product. The majority of customers abroad can place orders without requesting a sample. Therefore, a small tonnage difference in your products will leave you with a bad image. Therefore, the visual part must be completed as simply and accurately as possible.
After completing the visual part, you should prepare general information for your products. How many cm is it? What is its grammage? These are the most basic information. This is the information that will help you the most, especially during transportation. You have to have basic knowledge about your products. If you have difficulty selling products in the domestic market, it will be at least twice as difficult for you abroad. That’s why you should learn as much as possible about your products.
After preparing images and information about your products, you need to think about pricing. Since your products will go abroad in bulk, you need to decide what your minimum purchase will be. You can use units such as at least 100 pieces, at least 500 pieces or at least 10,000 pieces, or at least 1 ton or 1 container for food products. Remember, if you keep the minimum purchase amount as low as possible, you will be able to sell your products to that many customers. In English, this term is referred to as minimum order quantity [moq]. When companies ask you what the MOQ is, they are asking the minimum number of units they can purchase. Therefore, you should decide this before exporting.
In our last step, after the product images, product information and product prices are ready, you need to prepare a short promotional article for your company. If you achieve this, you prove that you are a candidate company to expand abroad.
Finding Customers from Abroad
This is the most difficult part for companies that say they want to export abroad. There are not many resources on the internet about how to find customers from abroad. Therefore, companies may remain at this stage after completing the first stage because they do not have sufficient information about how to expand abroad. Most likely, the companies reading this article have product images, information and prices ready. But they do not know how to exhibit these to companies abroad. Here we will briefly tell you about the methods by which you can pass this stage.
We actually explained this situation to you in detail in our article on finding customers from abroad . Here we will briefly summarize this article.
Finding Customers for Export with B2B Sites
B2B sites are one of the most well-known methods of finding customers from abroad. By publishing your products on these sites, you can receive messages for your products. In this way, you will contact many of your potential customers. For more detailed information, you can read our article titled B2B Sites .
Finding Customers from Google Searches
Google searches are widely used around the world. Therefore, it is important that you somehow appear in Google searches. To explain it with a short example, if you are an olive oil producer and want to find a producer from abroad, you need to be visible in words such as “buy olive oil from Turkey”.detailed information about this from our services section.
Finding Customers with the Help of Bill of Lading Database
To summarize briefly, all trading activities around the world are recorded. The place where these documents are collected is called the bill of lading database. Thanks to this database, you can access the information of the buyer companies. For more detailed information, you can read our article on finding customers from abroad .
Finding Customers from Abroad with Linkedin
Linkedin has become a very popular business-social networking platform in recent years. You can find new customers using this platform. After you find companies that can do business with you on Linkedin, you can access the e-mail addresses of the CEOs or purchasing managers of these companies with your Linkedin Premium account.
Communication with the Customer
In the first part, you prepared your products for abroad, in the second part, you published your products worldwide and found customers for your products. In this section, we will talk about how to communicate with the customers you have found. First of all, the most important factor you should pay attention to in this communication is to ensure trust. If there is no trust, even if you sell a product for free, you cannot even make them pay for shipping. Therefore, trust is our key to opening the most important export door. What you need to do to ensure trust is to convey it accurately to the other party when information about your products is requested. Here you are not selling retail products, you are selling bulk products. A person who buys a loaded product is knowledgeable about the product you sell. Therefore, he may want to test your knowledge.
If you are selling a shirt, you can ask about the quality of the fabric, the cotton ratio, or the sewing method. If you answer these questions with “I don’t know,” that person may think that you are a fraud or someone who does not know the job and may stop paying you a large payment. Therefore, you need to do the first step correctly. But we should not forget that sometimes the questions he asks can be very specific. Therefore, it may be natural that you do not know. When you encounter such a question, you should ask someone who is in production or knows the answer to this question and get back. We need to leave no questions hanging in the air between you and the customer. Every answer you give will strengthen your bond with the customer. Please note this for foreign customers. It’s the customer you can make the most profit from, but it’s also the customer you can lose most easily .
After establishing trust with the customer, let’s start giving information about how to talk in conversation tools. Our communication with the customer can proceed through three channels. It can proceed via e-mail, SMS or WhatsApp, respectively. There are many messaging applications such as Whatsapp. While China uses Wechat, Russia and countries close to Russia use Telegram. You need to download these applications to your phone. Among these three channels, the channel that will accelerate your trading the most is the conversations you make via WhatsApp. When we look at the product sales rate, it proceeds as WhatsApp > mail > SMS. Most sales are generally made via WhatsApp.
Generally, the first channel you reach companies is via e-mail. We recommend that you read our article on communicating with customers abroad via e-mail . In this way, you will have a basic starting level on how to write an e-mail. If possible, try to carry the trade to the phone during the e-mail phase. In this way, your trading will accelerate even more. Usually a WhatsApp number is given. If the other party does not have a WhatsApp or messaging application, you can communicate by sending an SMS. You can also organize SMS-related campaigns for your customers. You can review our SMS communication article. The method where you can do the most work is communication via WhatsApp. Trade via WhatsApp progresses faster than other methods and more documents and resources can be sent. You can get more information by reading our Whatsapp contact article.
Payment and Transportation Transactions
You can make payment and transportation transactions through transportation cargo.
Payment and transportation transactions are generally located in the final parts of the trade. You cannot get to this stage with a company that does not like the price or quality of your products. If you have completed the previous steps, if the customer likes the price and quality of your products, and if your communication has built trust in the other person, you can move on to this stage. This stage is generally carried out by the joint decision of the buyer and seller. The buyer company will inform you of its demands. He can say that the products should arrive by plane or ship, the products should arrive within 1 month, or send them with whatever is the cheapest method for transportation, time is not that important. You must handle the transportation procedures according to these demands. If you do not have sufficient competence, you can make an agreement with transportation companies and ask them to solve this situation.
