How to find buyers abroad
You cannot look for buyers before you have picked a country. The order that gets to a first order.
updated · 2026-09-20
How do you find international buyers for your products?
The sequence is: pick one country, find out who already imports your product category there, work out who makes the purchasing decision at those companies, and write to that person in their own language. The usual mistake is running the sequence backwards — sending one generic introduction to fifteen countries at once, which reliably produces nothing.
In short
- Choose the country before looking for buyers; reversing that order is why most export attempts stall.
- Pick the country on three data points: import trend, tariff barrier and freight cost.
- Customs and trade data names the companies already importing your product category.
- An email in the buyer's own language outperforms the same email in English, markedly in German and French markets.
Step one: pick one country
Most companies starting to export send the same introduction to fifteen countries. It fails every time, because price expectations, documentation requirements and buying habits differ in each one.
Choosing one country is not a restriction, it is an accelerator. Once you have learned one market's customs rules, certification requirements and freight economics, every subsequent quote is faster.
- Are imports in your product category growing there?
- Do tariffs or quotas price you out before you start?
- Is freight a sane percentage of the product value?
- Is there a mandatory certification for your product?
- Is there any signal that they need a supplier like you?
Step two: who already imports this?
The company you want is the one already importing your product category. Converting an existing importer is far easier than convincing a company to start importing.
Three sources identify them: trade data recorded against product codes, exhibitor lists from sector trade fairs, and distributor and wholesaler directories in that country. Used together they produce actual company names.
Step three: who decides there?
At an importer the decision usually sits with a purchasing manager or a category manager. At a small company it is the owner. Mail sent to a general info address rarely reaches either.
Learn the local title. The same job is Einkauf in Germany, purchasing in the UK, compras in Spain. Searching the correct local title narrows the list sharply.
Pocufy
Three agents run the part of these steps that repeats every week: defining the audience, building the list, writing each email for the person, and following up on the reply.
Step four: write in their language
Even where English is the working language, an email in the buyer's own language gets more replies. The reason is not politeness, it is credibility: a supplier writing in the local language is read as serious about that market.
The effect is most pronounced in German and French markets. If you do write in English, keep it short and plain — ornate English reads worse than a simple translation.
What goes in the first email
An import buyer wants three facts immediately: what you make, at what capacity, and which certifications you hold. Cover all three in one sentence each and attach nothing.
Keep the ask small. Offering a sample or a price range gets far more replies than proposing a partnership.
After the first order
The first order is where the real work starts: payment terms, delivery terms, packaging and shipment tracking. A mistake here can end a hard-won customer at one order.
What produces the second order is not price, it is keeping your word. Hitting the delivery date is the strongest argument available in export.
Common questions
One where imports in your category are rising, tariffs are low and freight is a reasonable share of value. Countries picked on instinct rather than those three data points take much longer to produce an order.
Three sources used together: trade data by product code, trade fair exhibitor lists, and distributor directories in the target country. You are looking for companies already importing your category.
It is sufficient but not optimal. Writing in the buyer's own language gets more replies, particularly in German and French-speaking markets. If you use English, keep it short and plain.
Send a range or offer a sample, not a full list. A complete price list at first contact becomes a comparison tool; a range starts a conversation.
Pocufy
Rather than doing all of this by hand, try it: paste your website link and get your first customer list in ten minutes.
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