The export pricing assumption nobody questions

Most manufacturers I speak to have done the same thing.

They looked at their home-market price. They checked the exchange rate. They adjusted.

And they felt good about it.

That feeling is the problem.

Because adjusting for currency is not the same as pricing for the market. It feels like you have done the hard work. It feels like the number is now export-ready. But what you have actually done is take a home-market assumption and dress it in a different currency.

The market does not care about your home-market assumptions.

Here is what the market actually cares about.

What does your product cost to land, fully cleared and delivered, in that country? That is your real floor. Not your factory price with a currency conversion applied.

What does your distributor need to earn to develop that market seriously? Their margin gets added to your price before it ever reaches a buyer. If you have not modelled the final shelf price, you do not actually know if your price is competitive.

What are buyers in that market already paying for comparable solutions? That is their reference point. Not yours.

What happens to your margin if payment terms stretch to 90 days? That timing has a cash cost. It belongs in the price.

And here is the one that surprises people most.

Does your value proposition mean the same thing to a buyer in that market as it does to a buyer at home?

Often it does not.

The features your home-market customers value most may be irrelevant, or even confusing, to a buyer operating in a completely different context. If your value is not translated into local buyer terms, your price will feel expensive even when it is not.

Export pricing is not a currency problem. It is a market-fit problem.

That one shift changes how you approach the whole exercise.

You stop converting. You start building from the market inward.

If you want to work through what that looks like for your business and your target market, reply to this email.

Tell me where you are trying to grow. I will tell you what I think needs to be solved first.