Finding customers and business partners when exporting

Find customers yourself

You can use a distributor or commercial agent to help you look for export customers and business partners. But there are also ways you can search yourself, such as:

• Get in touch with the Enterprise Europe Network (EEN). They offer, among other things, access to a database of business partners with profiles of thousands of companies from about 60 countries. You can also register your own profile.
• Use the NL Business Hubs Network (in Dutch) of NLinBusiness.
• Ask for help through the international network of the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO). RVO has contacts in almost all countries through embassies, consulates, or Netherlands Business Support Offices (NBSOs). These organisations know the market and opportunities abroad.
• RVO regularly seeks suppliers for projects in developing countries and emerging markets.
• RVO also offers business partner support to quickly provide you with an overview of potential business partners in your chosen country.
• Ask for information from other entrepreneurs working in your sector. Or who do business with the type of customers you are looking for.
• Ask for advice from the KVK Advice Team or the advisers at RVO.

Take part in events

• Visit international trade fairs where you can meet potential customers. The Enterprise Europe Network organises meetings at international trade fairs for this purpose.
• View events organised by various organisations (Dutch/English) on the International Entrepreneurship platform.
• Join a trade mission.

Collect information about customers and partners

Have you found a potential customer or business partner? You can get information on customers and partners in several ways:

• through foreign registers that list businesses and organisations
• through a business's annual report
• by visiting the customer or business partner
• from existing clients of the company you want to do business with

Check how reliable a foreign business partner is

Check the reliability of your customer or business partner in advance. This way you reduce risks. Check, for example, whether the company is registered in the local Business Register. RVO can also help you find a reliable business partner abroad (in Dutch).

You can also have a potential business partner checked by a trade information agency. You can find an information agency through the Association of Credit Information Agencies, for example. You will have to pay for this. An information agency can also check whether the business is creditworthy. Creditworthy means that the business can pay for the products you supply.

Record agreements

Always put agreements in writing. You can use standard agreements for this. Such as a distribution agreement, or an agreement for a commercial agent.

Is your business partner authorised to sign?

Also check who is authorised to sign within a company. Do you later discover that your business partner is not authorised to have signed the contract with you? Then the contract is invalid.

Video: Doing business internationally? Discover how to find business partners

What is the business culture like in the country where you want to do business? What are the laws and regulations? How do you contact international business partners? And how will you work together? Corine van Voorbergen is an artist who creates artworks that are exhibited all over the world. In this video, she explains how she makes it happen.