Skip to content
GullySales
Tell us what you need

Import-export trading companies · Lead generation

Find the overseas buyers who order your products, and the factories that supply them.

Lead generation for a trading company means finding two kinds of contact: importers abroad who buy your product lines, and suppliers at home who can fill their orders. GullySales works on a buyer list by product and country, a way to reach those buyers, and a record of what each contact asked for.

Tell us what you needor call +91 80958 58589

Scope, fee, reporting and term are agreed in writing after we have read your brief and spoken to you.

Realistic editorial illustration of industrial suppliers and distributors at work in the United States

What lead generation means

Lead generation is the combined work of every channel that brings in a new enquiry, whether from search, adverts, referrals or a stall at an exhibition. GullySales runs these channels together and reports the number of enquiries each one produced, not the activity behind it.

Also for import-export trading companies

Sales and marketing for import-export trading companies, the overview.

Last updated 18 Oct 2026.

For import-export trading companies

Where it usually goes wrong, and what we would do.

  • “A portal listing is one door, not the whole building”

    A buyer who sees your name only on a single B2B portal can compare you with every other listing there, one click away. Buyers also search on Google, ask in trade groups and follow introductions from forwarders. A trader found in only one place is priced against the whole portal.

  • “Cold enquiries need the product and the country in the first line”

    An importer in Nairobi buying tea packaging and one in Hamburg buying cotton throws do not want the same message. A general line about being a leading exporter gets deleted. A line naming the product, the packing and a port the buyer already uses gets read.

  • “Supplier leads count as much as buyer leads”

    A trader who wins an order and has no second factory for that product is exposed. A mill that raises its rate, or changes the grade, leaves the buyer quote worthless. Looking for backup suppliers is lead generation too, and it protects the margin you have already agreed.

  • “An enquiry from an unknown buyer needs a check before a quote”

    Some enquiries are real, and some are fishing for samples or prices. A short set of questions about volume, destination and past imports sorts them before courier money is spent. Payment instruments and country rules differ and change, so your bank or adviser decides the terms.

What we do

What we deliver for import-export trading companies.

Every deliverable, what it covers for you, and the result it is there to produce. Nothing here is an extra.

  1. Buyer list by product and country

    A list of importers, distributors and wholesalers for each product line, with the product they buy and the contact route.

    Result: You can open the list and see which product and country each name belongs to.

  2. Outreach message for each product

    A short first message naming the product, the packing options and the ports you ship from, written for the buyer's purchasing desk.

    Result: Each message states one product and one proposal, not a general company pitch.

  3. Enquiry screening questions

    Questions on quantity, destination, past imports and sample use, asked before a quote or a sample goes out.

    Result: The team has one sheet to run through when an unknown buyer writes.

  4. Supplier shortlist for each product

    Names of backup factories and mills with the grades they make, kept beside the main supplier record.

    Result: A second source is on paper before the first one changes a rate.

  5. Lead source tracking

    A field on each contact recording whether it came from a portal, search, a trade show, a referral or outreach.

    Result: You can see which source produced quotes and which produced only messages.

How the result is measured

  • Enquiries generated
  • Cost per enquiry
  • Enquiries by source

Recorded as a baseline before work starts, so every later report has an honest comparison.

Read the full demand and lead generation page

What to capture or send

Record the product, the country and the buyer's role on every enquiry.

Product, grade and packing
Taken from the first message, so the quote starts with the specification the buyer wants and not a general price list.
Destination country and port
Decides freight, documents and which supplier fits. A missing port is the first question a trader asks back.
Expected quantity per shipment
A container load and a sample order are different leads. The figure sets how closely the enquiry is checked and who handles it.
Buyer's company and role
Importer, distributor or agent. An agent may be passing your quote to someone else, which changes how you price and who you meet.
Where the enquiry came from
Portal, search, trade fair, referral or outreach, marked at entry so the owner sees which source brings buyers who ship.

Who it is for

This is written for these import-export trading companies.

  • Agri-product exporters trading rice, spices, pulses and similar goods
  • Textile, garment and home furnishing export traders
  • Handicraft and gift item exporters buying from artisan clusters
  • Engineering goods and hardware export traders
  • Import traders bringing in electronics, machinery spares and components
  • Chemical and dye importers who sell inside India
  • Dry fruit, edible oil and food item importers
  • Merchant exporters who source from several factories for one overseas buyer

Not for

It is not the right fit if.

  • You cannot check an unknown buyer's company before quoting, and a lead you cannot verify is a risk, not an asset
  • Your supplier has no spare capacity for a new market this year, so a buyer found now would wait
  • You are still choosing the product you trade, and outreach would describe a range that is changing

How it works

How the lead generation work runs

The work itself, in order. How an engagement starts, from your brief to a written scope, is set out on our method page.

  1. 1

    Understand your capacity

    We ask how many enquiries your team can answer well, who answers after hours, and what a good enquiry looks like. Without this, the system fills a funnel nobody is watching.

  2. 2

    Audit current sources

    We read your call log, WhatsApp chats, enquiry sheet and platform dashboards. The baseline is recorded: enquiries by source, reply time, conversion and cost per order.

  3. 3

    Strategise the channel mix

    Search and maps are chosen for people ready to buy, ads for people who are not yet looking, and content and referrals for trust.

  4. 4

    Implement capture and follow-up

    Pages, forms, tags, the lead record and the first-reply message are built and tested end to end. We submit test enquiries ourselves before any media money is spent.

  5. 5

    Measure and optimise

    Enquiries are traced to source and judged by what became orders, not by volume alone. Channels that fill the sheet with poor enquiries are cut back. How often you are reported to is agreed in writing.

Where this fits

Three pieces of sales work, in this order.

This work sits inside sales process design, at stage 1, prospecting and lead generation. The audit comes before it, and sales management keeps it running.

  1. Step 1

    Sales audit

    Find where deals are being lost and what to fix first.

    Start here if you cannot say where orders are lost.

  2. Step 2 · you are here

    Sales process design

    One written way to sell, from first enquiry to repeat order.

    Start here if every salesperson sells differently.

  3. Step 3

    Sales management

    A target, a review routine and someone who owns the number.

    Start here if the team has targets and no routine.

Tell us what you need Your brief is read before we call. Scope, fee and term in writing.

FAQ

Questions owners ask before they call.

Not here? More answers, or ask on WhatsApp.

Tell us what you need
Can you bring buyers from a country we have never sold to?
We can research importers in that country and contact them for you. Whether any of them orders depends on your price, your quality and their own needs, so we promise contact, not orders.
Should we stop using the B2B portal?
No. Keep the listing as one source and add your own product pages and buyer records beside it. Then you are found in more than one place and you can see which source produces real quotes.
How do we judge a lead from a buyer we know nothing about?
Ask for the quantity, the destination port and the products they have imported before. Check the company through your bank or a trade body before sending samples. A buyer who will not answer simple questions has told you something.
Do we need a different approach for importers and for factories?
Yes. A buyer abroad wants the product, price terms and proof of shipping, while a home factory wants to know your reach and payment record. Keep two lists and two openers, since a message built for a buyer reads oddly to a supplier.
How much does it cost?
There is no price list, because the work differs by business. The fee is scoped after we have read your brief and spoken to you, and put in writing before anything starts, split into our time, your media spend and production.
How long is the contract?
The term is agreed in writing after we have spoken, along with the fee and the reporting. It is never a default twelve months, and renewal is decided on the numbers against the baseline recorded at the start.
How soon will we see results?
It depends on the trade, the channel and what is already in place. After we have read your brief and spoken to you, we say what we would expect to move first and how it will be measured against the baseline. Nothing here is guaranteed.
Who will actually do the work?
The person you speak to before anything starts. We work from one office in Nagarbhavi, Bengaluru, with no account managers in between.
What do you need from us?
Your brief, and a conversation. After that, access to whatever this work touches, such as your website, your accounts or your enquiry record, and time with the people who handle your enquiries.

More for import-export trading companies

Everything else we would do for you.

Closest to this: leads and follow-up

Also for import-export trading companies

Or start from the overview: sales and marketing for import-export trading companies.

Your next practical step

Tell us what you are trying to grow, and we will read it before we call.

Eight short steps, mostly taps. Skip anything you would rather answer on the call.

Tell us what you need