How a window factory starts exporting

1. Answer three questions first

Every later decision depends on these answers. If you can't give them, hold off — a wrong premise here gets amplified at every stage that follows.

1. 1What are you selling: standardized ranges, or made-to-order work? The buyers, the quoting method and the lead times are different for each.
2. 2Who are you selling to: contractors, distributors, or retail? Contractors read drawings and specifications. Distributors look at price bands and supply reliability. Retail looks at appearance and delivery time.
3. 3Why you: price, customization, lead time, or a particular product you do unusually well? If the honest answer is "we're decent at everything", you have no distinct position overseas.

2. Product documentation is the first real barrier

Windows are a considered, made-to-order purchase. Before a buyer will even ask for a price, they need enough information to judge whether you can build what they need. Most factories stall here — not because the product is weak, but because the documentation is scattered.

Before anything else, get the following in order:

• A product range list, grouped by series, with the profile system and typical application for each
• Opening types — casement, sliding, folding, lift-and-slide, tilt-and-turn — and the maximum size each can reach
• Configuration options: profile finishes and colors, glazing build-ups, hardware brands and tiers, sealing methods
• Performance data: which figures you can supply, and which body issued them
• Drawings: node and installation drawings, at minimum a version you can send to a buyer
• Photographs of completed work — even a handful of real installations beats a folder of renders

3. Pick a buyer type, not a country

"We want to sell into the US" isn't something you can act on. A residential remodeller, a commercial façade contractor and a building-products distributor want very different things from a window supplier.

Decide the buyer type first, then look for the markets where that type is concentrated. Once the buyer type is fixed, the product emphasis, the content and the channels all follow:

• Contractors: care about specifications, drawing support and reliable lead times. Long decision chains; LinkedIn and trade channels tend to work better.
• Distributors and wholesalers: care about price band, consistent supply and stock turnover, and whether you can keep supplying over time.
• Installers and remodellers: smaller orders placed more often; they care that the product installs cleanly, the parts are complete and you answer quickly.

4. The minimum viable starting kit

You don't need every channel running on day one. Three things are genuinely required at the start, and missing any one of them creates a leak.

1. 1A site that explains who you are. It needn't be large, but it must carry product ranges, completed projects, craftsmanship detail and a way to reach you.
2. 2A body of usable content. Product pages, project pages, technical notes. Content is the ammunition every channel fires; without it, neither ads nor outreach can run.
3. 3A named owner for inquiries. One person accountable for every inquiry that arrives, with a fixed place to record it. This is the piece most often skipped at the start, and the one that quietly loses the most deals.

5. Three common mistakes

• Translating the domestic site and calling it an export site. The domestic version is usually built to recruit dealers; overseas buyers want something else entirely.
• Using renders in place of installed work. Anyone can produce renders. Buyers want evidence you have built something like their project.
• Handing export to one junior person on the side. Export touches product, technical detail, pricing and documentation — done part-time, both jobs suffer.