Some of the first things, you would need to do is to assess is you are export-ready and where you should focus on in terms of country (which European country are you going to start with?) and to define your low hanging-fruits, that means defining which customer target your are going to start with in Europe.
Taking the test Go Export Ready is a great way to evaluate where you are at and what are the next steps you should take to export to Europe.
That is a good question. First of all, what we found when taking dozens of small and medium-sized businesses to the European market was that picking the largest distributor in the market is not always the best way to go. Large European distributors are very demanding and can put some level of pressure on a small business, notably in terms of rebates. Also they often find it hard to launch and push a new innovative market, because as they generally like to stick to what currently works.
Therefore, the question might not be who is the largest distributor if your chosen European country. The question is which European distributor is going to have the best sales platform for your product or solutions.
Now finally to answer the question, there are many ways to find a distributor in Europe, a very reliable one is to check trade shows and conferences, the other way is to check your competitors distributors in the country. Start with these two methods and go from there.
You can check our White Paper about Securing high-performing distributors here.
At Exportia, our engagement model is very simple, the first step is for any future client to go through the Go Export Ready online assessment tool and this is free. Then if your business is ready, for a fixed fee, we will design a strategy for you in relation to the European Market, this is our GoMapOut package. We then implement it over a 6 month period, and this is our GoFieldCheck.
Then you begin on our one-year programme GoSalesTeam, and we provide you with an Exportia European sales team that is integrated with and reports to your business. This is available for a monthly retainer.
Just take a test with our Export diagnostic tool! It will take x minutes and provide answers to your queries.
KEYWORDS TO USE
Export to Europe: 179 Mio
Export diagnostic: 38 Mio
european distributors: 22 Mio
european sales agents: 57 Mio
export ready: 100Mio
