Post by Trade facilitator on May 31, 2020 21:58:02 GMT 1
The basis of any plan is to define your objectives; that is, what you want to achieve. Planning means deciding what you are going to do and how you are going to do it. It helps you to determine what you need to do to have the best chance of succeeding.
To plan means to adopt a business approach to your activities: to think about your options, decide your best course of action, and organize yourself to undertake it. It is a dynamic process, in which you are looking for your customers and ensuring you have the capacity to respond to them. You do not have to be a big business in order to plan; but if you do not plan, you almost certainly never will be one!
To succeed in exportation, you should develop your Operational Activities (immediate specific actions) and Marketing Strategy. Planning helps a business in many ways which include these two;
First, when responding to matters that arise from day to day, you will be clear how they affect the longer-term position of your business, in order to make the best decisions. Second, knowing how to run your business will help a great deal in taking initiatives in order to succeed. In other words, a plan is a spur to action.
Planning is not something which a business does once or only at the start of business, it is a continual process. Like the marketing process, it is a circular activity.
Planning Steps
The marketing plan of an investor who intends to start export business might include the following:
Objective:
To plan means to adopt a business approach to your activities: to think about your options, decide your best course of action, and organize yourself to undertake it. It is a dynamic process, in which you are looking for your customers and ensuring you have the capacity to respond to them. You do not have to be a big business in order to plan; but if you do not plan, you almost certainly never will be one!
To succeed in exportation, you should develop your Operational Activities (immediate specific actions) and Marketing Strategy. Planning helps a business in many ways which include these two;
First, when responding to matters that arise from day to day, you will be clear how they affect the longer-term position of your business, in order to make the best decisions. Second, knowing how to run your business will help a great deal in taking initiatives in order to succeed. In other words, a plan is a spur to action.
Planning is not something which a business does once or only at the start of business, it is a continual process. Like the marketing process, it is a circular activity.
Planning Steps
The marketing plan of an investor who intends to start export business might include the following:
Objective:
To achieve 30 per cent of current sales level in export in the next two years.
Strategy:
· Approach two export markets in Europe.
· Expand production by attracting ten new members.
· Increase the product range to additional items, or increase export quantity.
Activities:
Get information about overseas markets.-
Source for product to meet up with market demand
Develop a range of approximately 5 new products as the business grows. Concentrating on easily transportable items.
Ensure constant quality control measures
Appoint a sales representative responsible for domestic and export customer contact.
Talk regularly to local community groups about your export activities.
Review performance and adjust targets accordingly every month.
Set a target time by which all plans should be achieved.
Allocate responsibility to a person or people who will undertake them.
Characteristics of a Good Planning
- Plans must be constantly reviewed in the light of what happens, so that they remain achievable.
- They must be expressed in terms which can be measured, and against which activities can be defined. For example, a strategy to start exporting' would be too vague. If in two years' time you had achieved one export order or have not achieved any export. Again, if you do not state what to export, where to export to, how can you target your promotion etc, you may not have focus. It would be much better to set a strategy to 'start exporting in Europe next year'. This could then be followed up by a statement under operational activities make research on the international market and find out how to penetrate the market with your product.
Planning saves a lot
Regrettably, many small-scale businesses do not make marketing plans. As a result they adopt a passive approach to marketing, probably maintaining the existing customer base or simply wishing to get customers, or getting new sales only when an actual or potential customer makes an enquiry. Even if they succeed in getting orders, they may have difficulties in production, or in fulfilling export procedures.
Business, of course, is unpredictable and you cannot plan for everything. New market opportunities might occur which you had not foreseen, such as a new market trend or fallen demand. Conversely, a supply of raw material might dry up because of a change in the weather. Of course, you cannot plan down to the last detail. If you are entering new fields of activity, such as an export market, you cannot possibly predict all you will need to do and know in order to obtain and fulfil orders. This is why planning is a continuous process, in which you should always be analyzing what has happened in the past in order to estimate what is likely to happen in the future.
Analyse Your Business Performance
For example, analyzing your sales performance is a vital activity. If certain products are not selling well, you need to ask why; ask yourself and, if possible, ask your customers. Look at the products against your better sellers. This will help you identify the direction in which your product range should be moving. Did your performance deteriorate: late deliveries, poor quality, perhaps? A marketing plan is the application of the marketing process to your particular situation.
Planning must start with knowledge or at least an informed guess about the markets in which you are going to sell. For example, you cannot say, 'Because we sell cashew nuts, we will sell 5,000 bags of cashew nuts this year'. What you can say provided you have a reason to believe it is, 'Because the market will buy 5,000 bags of our cashew nuts this year, that is what we will make ready'. From the identification of the market opportunity and a decision about the products to offer, you must then consider the other aspects of the marketing process. Your pricing policy, means of promotion and method of distribution. The decisions which you make provide the plan.
Interestingly, the more experience you gain, the easier it will be to make more realistic plans. The more realistic they are, the more rigorously applied and the more carefully they are assessed, the better chance you have of achieving your objectives. Without a marketing mentality, you are unlikely to make good plans. There is always more than one option throughout the marketing process. Consider the various possibilities of attracting customers for 5,000 bags of cashew nuts. You might prepare cashew nuts of the highest quality and seek a high price, or sell them more quickly and cheaply because a particular market is very price conscious. You might like to use the opportunity to train some new exporters, like we do at THE THY GLOBAL COMPANY. You might decide to take a sample to a new market to see if you can get some new customers. The decisions you make will be the ones which appear to serve your aims best.
Have a Market Oriented Approach
A lot of small exporters adopt a product-oriented rather than market-oriented approach to their activities. This means that they make their key decisions about what to produce, and at what price to sell it, without analyzing the market opportunity or thinking about the options available in the marketing process. They try to sell what they can produce, rather than try to produce what they can sell. They are more influenced by tradition and a fear of risk than by the realities of the market place, and as a result their chance of acceptance in the market is less. They are going against the law of business, which says that production exists in order to satisfy demand, not to satisfy producers.
This sort of approach to business is unfortunately very common and it results in loss of investment by the investor or disappointed hopes. A good exporter must research the marketing options, should not make wrong assumptions about what could be sold and make continuous attempt to find new customers.
Some fundamental requirements to be followed in good planning
1. Marketing mentality: this recognizes that marketing success depends on a dynamic relationship with the market, in which the product is adapted to the requirements of the market. The process starts with the market, not with the product.
2. The business approach: this establishes systematic planning and monitoring procedures so that activities are always based on realistic objectives.
3. When making your plans, ensure that:
They are achievable.
You are committed to them.
There is a time allocated for achieving each plan.
You have thought of all the things you need to do or find out in order to try to achieve success.
You have thought about the resources you will need in order to achieve your plans.
Your plans will produce the results which you want.
Conclusion
The credibility of a business depends to a large extent on the quality of its planning, and rightly so. Without a comprehensive plan, no bank or agency will have the confidence to support a small-scale business. For more, contact
Our areas of specialization include, Mentoring Service, Export Planning Service, Contract Securing Service and Export Market Info.
Strategy:
· Approach two export markets in Europe.
· Expand production by attracting ten new members.
· Increase the product range to additional items, or increase export quantity.
Activities:
Get information about overseas markets.-
Source for product to meet up with market demand
Develop a range of approximately 5 new products as the business grows. Concentrating on easily transportable items.
Ensure constant quality control measures
Appoint a sales representative responsible for domestic and export customer contact.
Talk regularly to local community groups about your export activities.
Review performance and adjust targets accordingly every month.
Set a target time by which all plans should be achieved.
Allocate responsibility to a person or people who will undertake them.
Characteristics of a Good Planning
- Plans must be constantly reviewed in the light of what happens, so that they remain achievable.
- They must be expressed in terms which can be measured, and against which activities can be defined. For example, a strategy to start exporting' would be too vague. If in two years' time you had achieved one export order or have not achieved any export. Again, if you do not state what to export, where to export to, how can you target your promotion etc, you may not have focus. It would be much better to set a strategy to 'start exporting in Europe next year'. This could then be followed up by a statement under operational activities make research on the international market and find out how to penetrate the market with your product.
Planning saves a lot
Regrettably, many small-scale businesses do not make marketing plans. As a result they adopt a passive approach to marketing, probably maintaining the existing customer base or simply wishing to get customers, or getting new sales only when an actual or potential customer makes an enquiry. Even if they succeed in getting orders, they may have difficulties in production, or in fulfilling export procedures.
Business, of course, is unpredictable and you cannot plan for everything. New market opportunities might occur which you had not foreseen, such as a new market trend or fallen demand. Conversely, a supply of raw material might dry up because of a change in the weather. Of course, you cannot plan down to the last detail. If you are entering new fields of activity, such as an export market, you cannot possibly predict all you will need to do and know in order to obtain and fulfil orders. This is why planning is a continuous process, in which you should always be analyzing what has happened in the past in order to estimate what is likely to happen in the future.
Analyse Your Business Performance
For example, analyzing your sales performance is a vital activity. If certain products are not selling well, you need to ask why; ask yourself and, if possible, ask your customers. Look at the products against your better sellers. This will help you identify the direction in which your product range should be moving. Did your performance deteriorate: late deliveries, poor quality, perhaps? A marketing plan is the application of the marketing process to your particular situation.
Planning must start with knowledge or at least an informed guess about the markets in which you are going to sell. For example, you cannot say, 'Because we sell cashew nuts, we will sell 5,000 bags of cashew nuts this year'. What you can say provided you have a reason to believe it is, 'Because the market will buy 5,000 bags of our cashew nuts this year, that is what we will make ready'. From the identification of the market opportunity and a decision about the products to offer, you must then consider the other aspects of the marketing process. Your pricing policy, means of promotion and method of distribution. The decisions which you make provide the plan.
Interestingly, the more experience you gain, the easier it will be to make more realistic plans. The more realistic they are, the more rigorously applied and the more carefully they are assessed, the better chance you have of achieving your objectives. Without a marketing mentality, you are unlikely to make good plans. There is always more than one option throughout the marketing process. Consider the various possibilities of attracting customers for 5,000 bags of cashew nuts. You might prepare cashew nuts of the highest quality and seek a high price, or sell them more quickly and cheaply because a particular market is very price conscious. You might like to use the opportunity to train some new exporters, like we do at THE THY GLOBAL COMPANY. You might decide to take a sample to a new market to see if you can get some new customers. The decisions you make will be the ones which appear to serve your aims best.
Have a Market Oriented Approach
A lot of small exporters adopt a product-oriented rather than market-oriented approach to their activities. This means that they make their key decisions about what to produce, and at what price to sell it, without analyzing the market opportunity or thinking about the options available in the marketing process. They try to sell what they can produce, rather than try to produce what they can sell. They are more influenced by tradition and a fear of risk than by the realities of the market place, and as a result their chance of acceptance in the market is less. They are going against the law of business, which says that production exists in order to satisfy demand, not to satisfy producers.
This sort of approach to business is unfortunately very common and it results in loss of investment by the investor or disappointed hopes. A good exporter must research the marketing options, should not make wrong assumptions about what could be sold and make continuous attempt to find new customers.
Some fundamental requirements to be followed in good planning
1. Marketing mentality: this recognizes that marketing success depends on a dynamic relationship with the market, in which the product is adapted to the requirements of the market. The process starts with the market, not with the product.
2. The business approach: this establishes systematic planning and monitoring procedures so that activities are always based on realistic objectives.
3. When making your plans, ensure that:
They are achievable.
You are committed to them.
There is a time allocated for achieving each plan.
You have thought of all the things you need to do or find out in order to try to achieve success.
You have thought about the resources you will need in order to achieve your plans.
Your plans will produce the results which you want.
Conclusion
The credibility of a business depends to a large extent on the quality of its planning, and rightly so. Without a comprehensive plan, no bank or agency will have the confidence to support a small-scale business. For more, contact
Our areas of specialization include, Mentoring Service, Export Planning Service, Contract Securing Service and Export Market Info.
