How to export through a trading company

1. 1

   Discover

   Step 1: Decide what you want from an intermediary

   Government export roadmaps put readiness and a plan before the choice of channel¹. Write down what you want: a test sale, steady volume, or a first step toward a bigger presence. Then the markets you would accept, your lowest price, and what you will not hand over, such as your brand, your pricing or your after-sales service.

   What this step produces

   • A one-page brief for intermediaries

   Common mistake: Signing with the first intermediary that calls, before you know which markets and channels you want to keep for yourself.

   With Promote:Global

   The Demand explorer ranks countries by how much of your product they import and how fast that is growing, with the year of every figure, for 1 AI action, so you know which markets to ask an intermediary about. On iPhone, the route advisor asks four questions (what you offer, how much you can invest, how much control you want, how long you plan to stay) and ranks up to three routes, each with its commitment, control and risk.

   Tools

2. 2

   Discover

   Step 2: Choose the kind of intermediary: one that buys or one that sells for you

   An export management company works as your outside export department, often for several non-competing products. A trading company may work the same way, or buy your goods and resell them through its own network. A merchant or remarketer buys outright, may repackage the goods, and sells at its own risk. A confirming house is hired by a buyer abroad to purchase for it, and is paid by that buyer^2,5,6. A domestic customer that builds your goods into products it exports is an indirect route too².

   The names are used loosely. What decides the work is whether the firm takes ownership of your goods or acts for a fee or commission, which the step on who does what sets out task by task^2,5.

   What this step produces

   • The kind of intermediary you want, and why

   Common mistake: Assuming that a firm calling itself a trading company buys your goods, when it only earns a fee.

   You do this step yourself

   Which kind of intermediary suits you is your decision, and Promote:Global does not know whether a given firm buys or only represents. Ask each firm, and read the contract.

3. 3

   Connect

   Step 3: Build a long list of intermediaries

   Ask your industry association, your national export promotion agency or trade commissioner and your embassy’s commercial section, and meet firms at trade shows^3,7. Published directories help too: in the United States, the International Trade Administration keeps a directory of export management companies and another of business service providers^6,8.

   Both directories say that a listing is not an endorsement. A list is where your checks begin, not where they end.

   What this step produces

   • A long list of firms that handle your category

   Common mistake: Treating a directory listing as a quality check⁶.

   With Promote:Global

   On this route, Search for possible buyers has no default counterpart, so it looks for whoever you describe: an export management company or a trading house that handles your category, for example. It searches the open web for 1 AI action and says where each result was found; each one is a lead to check, which you can save to the project. If your trade agency or chamber works with you on Promote:Global, you can also ask it for an introduction, and the other side decides whether to accept.

   Finding connections Introductions and consent

4. 4

   Connect

   Step 4: Check each firm before you commit

   Talk to several firms before you meet any of them. Ask each about its sales force, track record, territories, product mix, facilities and customers, and which other producers it represents, including any of your competitors³. Call the references. In some countries the trade commissioner service will run a background check on a prospective intermediary on request³.

   What this step produces

   • The same questionnaire, answered by each firm
   • Reference notes

   Common mistake: Relying on a brochure or a website alone.

   You do this step yourself

   Promote:Global does not check firms. Search results come from the open web and say nothing about whether a firm is sound, so take the references and order any credit reports yourself.

5. 5

   Prepare

   Step 5: Settle who does what

   Who does each task depends on whether the intermediary takes ownership of your goods or acts for a fee or commission, so settle it task by task, in writing^2,5.

   Either way, ask in writing who is the exporter of record, the party responsible for checking whether the goods need an export license².

   • Finding the customer and setting the price

     It buys outright

     It owns the goods, finds the customer abroad, sets its own resale price and invoices that customer; you sell to it at home, on domestic terms^2,5

     It sells for a fee or commission

     It finds the customer and negotiates for you; you usually invoice the customer and approve the price^2,5

   • Shipping and export documents

     It buys outright

     It exports in its own name and arranges the shipping and the export documents; you supply the goods, the product information and the invoices it asks for^2,9

     It sells for a fee or commission

     It may prepare the paperwork while you ship^2,9

   • Payment risk

     It buys outright

     You carry the risk that it does not pay you; it carries the risk on the customer abroad^2,5

     It sells for a fee or commission

     The risk on the customer is yours: where you do not know the buyer, use a secure payment method or export credit insurance^2,5,10

   Who does what, for an intermediary that buys outright and for one that sells for a fee or commission

   Task	It buys outright	It sells for a fee or commission
   Finding the customer and setting the price	It owns the goods, finds the customer abroad, sets its own resale price and invoices that customer; you sell to it at home, on domestic terms2,5	It finds the customer and negotiates for you; you usually invoice the customer and approve the price2,5
   Shipping and export documents	It exports in its own name and arranges the shipping and the export documents; you supply the goods, the product information and the invoices it asks for2,9	It may prepare the paperwork while you ship2,9
   Payment risk	You carry the risk that it does not pay you; it carries the risk on the customer abroad2,5	The risk on the customer is yours: where you do not know the buyer, use a secure payment method or export credit insurance2,5,10

   What this step produces

   • A who-does-what list, agreed with the intermediary
   • The exporter of record, named in writing

   Common mistake: Not knowing whether the intermediary buys your goods or only represents you².

   You do this step yourself

   Who does what is for you and the intermediary to agree; Promote:Global does not know whether a given firm buys or only represents, and does not check credit or insure a sale. Keep the list as a note on the project, where Meridian reads it when you ask about the project.

6. 6

   Prepare

   Step 6: Agree the price or fee, exclusivity and reports

   If the intermediary buys, agree the price per unit, the payment terms and when ownership passes. If it sells for you, agree its fee or commission and the prices it may sell at^2,5.

   Then settle exclusivity (which products, territories and channels), minimum performance, the reports you will receive, and who owns the customer information.

   What this step produces

   • A term sheet

   Common mistake: Granting broad exclusivity with no minimums and no review date.

   With Promote:Global

   Landed cost shows what your goods cost by the time they reach a market: goods value, freight, insurance, duty, tax and fees, each line marked as your figure, an estimate or a live lookup. Set beside the price the intermediary sells at, it helps you judge the margin it keeps. It is free.

   Landed cost

7. 7

   Prepare

   Step 7: Sign a written agreement with a trial period

   Canada’s trade commissioner service recommends a short trial contract to test the arrangement³. Cover the territory, exclusivity, the term, termination with and without cause, reporting, your trademark and confidential information, the governing law and how disputes are settled, and have a lawyer review it.

   Add a clause against diversion. Without strong contracts, goods sold through a domestic middleman can turn up in markets or channels you meant to keep for yourself⁵.

   What this step produces

   • A signed intermediary agreement

   Common mistake: Leaving out a clause against diversion, so your goods appear in markets you wanted to protect⁵.

   You do this step yourself

   Promote:Global does not draft or review contracts and gives no legal advice. Have your own lawyer review the agreement before you sign it.

8. 8

   Grow

   Step 8: Prepare the goods and run the first orders

   Supply what the agreed split leaves with you: the goods, packed and labeled for the market, the product information, the safety and origin documents, and invoices in the agreed form^2,9. Run a first order end to end before you scale, so each side sees the other’s part work.

   What this step produces

   • A product data pack
   • Invoices and certificates as agreed

   Common mistake: Shipping a first order before the documents you owe the intermediary are agreed in form and content.

   With Promote:Global

   Export check lists the documents a shipment to the market needs, by stage, with who issues each, which gives you and the intermediary one list to divide between you. Export documents, on the web, fills a commercial invoice, a proforma invoice or a packing list from the project, to check and print.

   Export check and Export documents

9. 9

   Grow

   Step 9: Ask for reports and compare them with the minimums

   Ask for regular reports on the markets your goods reach, the customers, the prices they sell at and any complaints, and compare sales with the minimums you agreed³. Without reports you learn nothing about where your product goes or what it sells for.

   What this step produces

   • Regular sales and market reports

   Common mistake: Accepting silence, so you never learn where your product goes or at what price.

   With Promote:Global

   The Revenue tracker adds up the revenue you log, by market and by project, against the goal you set for each market. Promote:Global does not monitor an intermediary’s sales: the figures are the ones you enter.

   The Revenue tracker

10. 10

    Grow

    Step 10: Review, and decide whether to go direct

    At the end of the trial, renew, renegotiate, change intermediary, or go direct in the markets where your volume justifies it. Many firms move from an intermediary to an export operation of their own, or to a partner abroad, as they gain experience⁴.

    What this step produces

    • A decision on the next step, market by market

    Common mistake: Staying with the intermediary because it works, without asking what margin and market knowledge you are leaving behind.

    With Promote:Global

    When you are ready to change route, Meridian can recommend one for the project, with its reason, as a Set entry method card, and nothing changes until you accept it. In Promote:Global, the route this one grows into is a distributor.

    Meridian

The duty, origin and certificate steps are looked up from your product’s HS code and the two countries, so their number depends on what you sell and where. A step with a condition in brackets appears only where it applies. In your own project, each step names your product and your countries. Building the plan uses no AI action.

On a project, Search for possible buyers looks on the open web for whoever you describe, ranked by fit, for 1 AI action. A result is a lead to check before you contact anyone, not a confirmed buyer.

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