Strategic Planning and Trade Management
Strategic Planning and Trade Management tests whether you can convert an export ambition into a resourced, measurable plan and run the trade function that delivers it. Questions ask you to choose between strategic options and to identify which control measure would reveal a plan going off track.
The planning cycle
- Analyse: PESTLE for the environment, SWOT for position (keep internal strengths and weaknesses separate from external opportunities and threats), Porter's five forces for industry attractiveness, value-chain analysis for where margin sits.
- Set objectives: SMART, with market share, revenue, margin, and compliance targets.
- Formulate strategy: Ansoft's matrix (market penetration, product development, market development, diversification) and Porter's generic strategies (cost leadership, differentiation, focus).
- Implement: entry mode, channel, product adaptation, pricing, resourcing, budget, timeline.
- Control: KPIs, variance review, corrective action.
The export plan
Market selection rationale, entry mode, product and pricing decisions, distribution and promotion, staffing and partner agreements, financing and payment terms, compliance obligations, risk register, milestones, and exit criteria.
Trade management function
Centralised versus decentralised export operations, documented compliance program, classification and origin records, document control, CRM and order management systems, distributor performance reviews, and trade-show calendars. Digital tools shorten order cycles but do not replace compliance controls.
Worked example
A Canadian manufacturer of established industrial pumps faces flat domestic demand. Using Ansoff, the lowest-risk growth option is market development - same product, new market - rather than diversification. Selection narrows to two markets using weighted criteria (market size, growth, tariff, logistics, competitive intensity). The plan then specifies entry by distributor, a two-year exclusivity conditional on annual volume, a marketing budget of 8% of projected first-year revenue, a compliance check on the distributor, and monthly KPIs: qualified leads, quotation conversion, average order value, landed-cost competitiveness, and payment days. Exit criterion: if conversion stays below 10% after 18 months, the territory is reassessed.
Traps that cost marks
- Confusing internal strengths with external opportunities in SWOT.
- Writing objectives with no measurement or deadline.
- Treating compliance as an administrative afterthought rather than a strategic risk.
- Entering with no exit or review criteria.
- Giving exclusivity without performance thresholds.
- Planning without a resourcing and financing line.