Business Missions for Export Development

Direct and reverse business missions are an effective tool for developing sales in export markets.

Marketing tools, similar to weapons, can be divided into two large groups - mass and targeted. Either we cover large areas, as in the case of advertising campaigns, or we work specifically - through direct personal contacts, so to speak, meeting the "counterparty" face to face. As often happens in such situations, various intermediate, less frequently used, but more effective "types of weapons" arise. Such hybrid forms. For marketing, a good example is business missions. How effectively a participant understands this tool for working with the market determines its effectiveness - sales volume and the number of new counterparties.

Direct and reverse business missions

No matter how electronic communication channels develop, allowing many issues to be resolved remotely, including in the field of marketing and sales, personal contact remains extremely important. Business missions are designed to meet the needs for direct communication between parties in commercial relations. Business missions do not necessarily have to be conducted between representatives of different countries (for example, they may involve meetings of businessmen from two or more regions of one country), but more often we are talking about this form of meetings.

Direct and reverse business missions are distinguished.

In the first case, a trip to "foreign territory" is conducted. Russian companies act as guests of foreign businessmen.

Reverse business missions - inviting representatives of foreign companies to Russia to conduct meetings with domestic businesses.

Since our team has experience in organizing and participating in both types of events, we can express a viewpoint on their quite significant differences, if we look at them through the eyes of a Russian businessman.

The main thing I would like to emphasize is that these forms of working with the export market do not replace but complement each other. Just as it is customary in good society to exchange visits, so for building a system of long-term cooperation, it is desirable both to invite a foreign partner to oneself and to be their guest.

What are the advantages of participating in a direct business mission?

Probably, the key point is the opportunity to travel to a territory that represents potential interest for sales and to familiarize oneself with it. Even within a tight business mission schedule, time can be found for primary census, which can be important for manufacturers of, for example, FMCG products. In the era of globalization, consumer trends depend much less on cultural characteristics and are not so tied to the consumer's location; moreover, we can find a lot of information without leaving the office. However, when traveling abroad, you always get some interesting observations that can influence the model of entering a foreign market with your product.

When participating in a direct business mission, in most cases, you have the opportunity, in addition to protocol meetings on neutral territory, to visit the premises of companies - potential partners. By familiarizing yourself with the company's "home," it is much easier to form a correct idea of it. If we are considering cooperation, for example, with a manufacturing company in the framework of creating a joint product, such information is particularly valuable. In a reverse business mission, we cannot form a complete picture of the internal environment of a foreign company, evaluating mainly the transmitted image.

Within direct business missions, it is much more common to meet high-ranking representatives of local authorities (since their time costs are much less than in travel formats), and this is important both for those who work with B2G markets and for countries where business is still highly dependent on administrative resources in making commercial decisions.

The number of potential partners of interest depends on many factors, primarily on the quality of the business mission organizer's work, but all else being equal, more promising acquaintances will be made when traveling abroad. After all, not always companies have sufficient resources, including the time of top managers and owners, to come to Russia, especially from remote countries. If we have the opportunity to come, we can remove this barrier in communications ourselves.

In general, direct business missions have greater potential if we are talking about entering exports, but they are not completely devoid of weaknesses. Participation in them has a certain budget, which is practically absent in reverse events. Sometimes it can be significant for the company's commercial service. Moreover, when participating in an outgoing business mission, the Russian company becomes highly dependent on the organizer, as it cannot fully control the event preparation process. Which, by the way, does not at all imply withdrawal from participation in the process at the stage of forming the business mission. In the end, company representatives can additionally find contacts on their own and either transfer them to the organizer for processing or independently schedule a meeting, expanding the circle of contacts.

Also, with some degree of convention, it can be said that direct business missions are more suitable for companies prepared to work with a specific foreign market. The costs incurred must be compensated by the result, which must be actively facilitated.

Reverse business missions less often (on average) bring commercial effect, but they also have their pluses.

Firstly, participation in them implies minimal costs - both financial and time. That is, the risks here are much lower, which may attract companies with small budgets, as well as those players in the Russian market who are only thinking about working with a certain export market from which guests will come.

Secondly, reverse business missions are extremely useful for those companies whose key advantages are represented conditionally "on their territory." For example, an enterprise may have weak export marketing, which will not allow it to come to a direct business mission and demonstrate a ready export-oriented product. But at the same time, the level of production allows it to be created, so it is important for a foreign partner to be convinced of this. Also, it is important to invite to oneself those business structures that are considering the possibility of producing a product under the partner's private label for sale in a foreign market.

The third factor - reverse business missions are a chance for small companies and even start-up businesses. It is much easier to become a participant in a reverse event, and already there, attract the attention of a foreign partner with "guerrilla methods." As often happens in professional sports - they came to watch one player, but another attracted attention with his potential. However, one must also be prepared for such opportunities in order to timely give an interesting offer to a foreign counterparty.

There are still fewer options to meet a counterparty at a reverse business mission and reach a contract with him than at a direct one. Fewer partners always come than are received on their territory. On the other hand, their level of interest is higher - they much more often have a clear idea of why they need partnership relations. Therefore, reverse business missions are also an excellent marketing tool for entering the export market.

Choosing the target country for a business mission and preparing for it

Participation in a business mission requires preparation if we want to get a tangible commercial effect. Based on practice, two typical mistakes made by business mission participants can be pointed out.

The first of them is related to the choice of the business mission itself. One should not approach this issue too lightly, agreeing to the first proposed option, even if it is associated with preferential conditions (for example, if the regional export support center co-finances the event). Participation in any event should logically follow from the interests and priorities of the company. Not every geographic market may have sales potential for your product, especially in the short term. The choice of country for participation in a business mission must be justified, and the resource costs must pay off.

The second mistake is low involvement in the business mission preparation process. It is naive to assume that the organizer of this event can, based only on a link to the organization's website, select the best options for potential partners in a month or two.

What distinguishes a good business mission organizer?

Three parameters are important: knowledge of the general principles of working in a specific geographic market, the presence of contacts in the reference environment, and the ability to work with the request of the Russian side. If a company meets these requirements, then the likelihood of a good business mission increases significantly, but it still will not take place if there is no clear request from the Russian side. A Russian company wishing to participate in a business mission will achieve success in it if it clearly indicates what partners need to be selected and how to correctly position it (or its product). No one knows the industry better than a player in this market - if they do not have an understanding of how to enter it in a new country, then they trust to chance. It is unlikely that such a position can be considered professional.

Now about how to avoid these mistakes and ensure the effectiveness of your participation in a business mission.

What is a business mission? This is, in essence, a mechanism for converting warm contacts into hot ones, which will allow concluding a contract. The organizer looks for warm contacts - this is their direct task, working through cold ones. And how to form a list of cold contacts for a specific request? Only by knowing the portrait of a potential partner and having an interesting commercial proposal for them. The portrait of a potential counterparty, in turn, arises either on the basis of an analysis of requests to the company from the market or when conducting marketing research.

As we see, all these issues - choosing a priority market, conducting its marketing research or analyzing requests from it to the company, preparing a targeted commercial proposal - must be resolved by the interested party in advance. A company that provides the business mission organizer with a clear technical task in terms of where, whom, and how to look for (geography, profile of counterparties, positioning of the commercial proposal) is more likely to get those foreign partners who will ensure the result.

Therefore, this is where one should start. A company that wants to become an exporter of its products must have a ready list of foreign markets that may be potentially interesting for it. Then the first priorities are worked out, and a general idea is formed of how to enter the markets of these countries. Next, it makes sense to monitor planned business missions and take the initiative to contact infrastructure organizations for export support about interest in certain geographic markets.

As soon as a business mission for the country of interest gets into the plan of events, it makes sense to prepare a description of the desired counterparties and compose a commercial proposal for them.

The company - the organizer of the business mission, having requested information from you and received it in this form, will almost certainly work on it as a priority, because their task is to give the maximum result with minimal costs (as in any business). Even if the organizer does not contact you at the stage of preparing the event (which, of course, characterizes them in a certain way), take the initiative yourself and provide this information. Thereby you will show the organizer your expectations and can positively influence their motivation in work. This is in your interests.

About additional opportunities for business mission participants

Business missions require preparation and a certain budget. Given the importance of export activity, which is highlighted as a priority national project, the state, through infrastructure institutions for export support, provides assistance to exporters through financing or co-financing in a number of areas.

The first is the business missions themselves. This year, export support centers in the regions have been tasked with organizing business missions, the effectiveness of which must be confirmed, among other things, by export contracts. Also, the Russian Export Center organizes business missions, although it is still more focused on co-financing the participation of domestic companies in international exhibitions.

A company wishing to participate in a business mission to a certain country can take the initiative to contact the regional export support center (the names of such organizations may differ by constituent entity of the Russian Federation, but such functions are necessarily implemented). However, those applications that are prepared, as well as submitted on behalf of several companies (perhaps it is worth discussing this topic with competitors as well) are prioritized.

What is the role of export support centers for this service? As a rule, they do not organize business missions themselves. Their task is to select a contractor in the form of a commercial organization and control the process. The business mission itself is paid for from budgetary funds. The participating company bears the costs of sending its representatives - travel, accommodation, and current expenses.

The second is what should precede an effective business mission.

As considered above, a company may need to conduct marketing research of a foreign market, select partners, and prepare a commercial proposal. All these services are provided upon request by export support centers in the regions for small and medium-sized businesses.

At the same time, marketing research is usually co-financed in a proportion of 80/20, where 80% of the costs are borne by the budget and only 20% by the company. As for partner selection services and preparation of commercial proposals (including their translation into a foreign language), they are provided free of charge.

In aggregate, all this opens up good prospects for a company planning its activities to enter the export market to carry out preparatory work free of charge or almost without cost. Over a period of 6-9 months, it is possible not only to perform marketing research of the market but also to form a commercial proposal and work out warm contacts. Such preparation will contribute to the high effectiveness of the business mission even in a "difficult" country and in B2B markets with a long lag in making decisions on concluding a contract.