Notes for owners · Business growth
Export readiness for a small manufacturer: a checklist you can score yourself
A self-scoring checklist for a small manufacturer thinking of exporting: product, papers, costing, payment terms and one first market, with a rule for when to wait.
The GullySales team · Updated 17 Oct 2026 · 5 min read
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- Email one: "Please send your specification and photographs"
- Email two: "What is your price delivered to our port?"
- Email three: "How do you want to be paid, and what registrations do you hold?"
- Score yourself on the three emails
- When you should not export yet
- Choose one market from evidence you hold
- Fix the lowest three rows
A first export enquiry can arrive by email from a stranger and sit unanswered for days, while the buyer asks other makers the same questions. Export readiness is simply the ability to answer those questions on the day. The quickest test is to read the three emails a serious buyer sends, in order, and see whether you could answer each this afternoon. This post does that, then scores what you find. The route from registration to follow-up is in how to get export orders. This one is the test you run on your own unit first.
Email one: "Please send your specification and photographs"
The buyer wants to know what exactly you make. A catalogue photograph is not enough. They need one page per product with dimensions, material, finish, packing unit and a picture taken in your own works, so they can see it is real.
Imagine, as an invented example, a unit in Firozabad that makes decorative glass lamp shades. The owner has bright catalogue pictures but no sheet giving the glass thickness, the neck size for the fitting, how many fit in a carton or how they are padded. A buyer who has to ask for each of these may stop asking.
Ready means a sheet per product you could send within the hour, and a sample you can price and courier without a meeting. A separate point: decide who prepares samples, since the person who packs them also packs domestic orders.
Email two: "What is your price delivered to our port?"
This is where small units stumble. A small unit may have only quoted ex-works to local dealers. A buyer thinks backwards from what the product must sell for at their end, subtracts freight, insurance, duty and their margin, and sees what is left for you. Do the same sum before you reply.
Start at a hypothetical buyer's port, work back to your gate, and check what remains. If it is below your domestic price, you have learned something useful before wasting a courier fee. Duty, tax and incentive treatment differ by product and country and change, so ask your CA or forwarder, and do not copy figures from a forum.
The Firozabad owner found that fragile packing, with divided cartons, added more to the cost than the freight did. The owner had never priced it because domestic dealers collect in bulk and accept breakage. The quote changed, and the smallest items turned out not to be worth exporting at all.
Email three: "How do you want to be paid, and what registrations do you hold?"
Payment terms are a decision made beforehand, not improvised in the reply. Decide what you will accept from a stranger on a first order, what changes after a repeat, and what you will refuse. Which terms are safe depends on your cash position and your bank, so talk to your bank's trade desk before writing a number down.
Registrations and test reports come here too. You need to know which export registrations your trade requires, and whether this buyer's country asks for a test report or certificate for your product type. Rules differ by country and change, so check with your forwarder or the relevant export body, and keep the answer on file.
Score yourself on the three emails
Give each row 0 if you could not do it today, 1 if you could with effort, 2 if you could send it this afternoon.
| Row | Score 2 when |
|---|---|
| Specification sheet | One page per product, own photographs |
| Sample plan | Cost, courier and packer known |
| Delivered costing | Built backwards from a named port |
| Payment terms | First-order terms written down |
| Papers | Registrations and reports identified with an adviser |
| Capacity | You know what an export order does to your domestic customers |
| First market | One country and a reason it fits |
| Responder | A named person who answers email in clear English the same day |
Fourteen or more out of sixteen: start looking for buyers. Eight to thirteen: fix the zeros first, because a buyer reads a gap as risk. Under eight, this is preparation, not selling.
For example, the Firozabad owner scored 6. The cheapest rows to fix were the specification sheet and the costing, both a day's work. The papers row was left for the forwarder. Two old portal enquiries waited until the first two rows were ready, and were then answered with a short apology for the delay.
When you should not export yet
Exporting will not cure a thin domestic book. Wait if quality varies between batches, because a repeat order that does not match the sample ends the relationship. Wait if one export order would take so much capacity that your best domestic customers queue. Wait if nobody can write clear English emails the same day.
None of these is permanent. Fix them and the score rises.
Choose one market from evidence you hold
Pick the first market from where your enquiries have come, where your domestic customers re-export, and where a buyer you know has contacts. Then confirm that the product is allowed in, that you can meet the standards, and that the buying route is reachable for a unit your size. A bad first market costs a season of samples and courier fees, so make the choice on paper first.
Fix the lowest three rows
Score the table with whoever handles dispatch and accounts, and write the lowest three rows at the top. Buyers abroad will also look you up, so your marketing presence has to match the sheets you send. Export and international market development is the service for the whole route, and when you are above the line and want help choosing a market, tell us what you need.
