ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the reasons that induce firms to export, and then shows how firms deal with some of the problems that are peculiar to marketing abroad rather than at home. The reasons given by firms to the research team for being in the highly competitive business of exporting were mainly economic. Predominant among the reasons was the limitation on output and, in turn, overall profitability if selling were confined to the home market. There was a wide spread of attitudes towards the systematic surveying of export markets, just as there was towards market research at home. The organisation of a company's export sales force was more often than not a pointer to the thrustfulness or otherwise of that company's attitude to overseas selling. At least as important as the selection and management of export salesmen is the selection and control of overseas agents or dealers, who are a vital link in the sales network of many exporting firms.
