Trade mission: a possible and profitable mission

Trade missions are one of the most common ways for businesses to share their knowledge and business prospects beyond the traditional boundaries of their operations. When a businessperson decides to participate in a trade mission, it's because they have positively assessed the opportunities it offers to expand their network, promote their products or services, and identify strengths and opportunities, as well as threats and weaknesses, of their business idea on the ground.

Attending a trade mission requires business owners to understand the scope and scale of the planned activities and to assess both the direct costs of the operation and the opportunity costs (what they forgo while traveling, learning, and negotiating). It is advisable to establish indicators of expected results so that, after the mission, the business owner can evaluate the activity. This evaluation compares the resources allocated (time spent preparing and carrying out the mission; travel and accommodation costs away from the company; promotional costs for the mission, etc.).

In the training activities carried out in international business courses, a trade mission is a fundamental component. The course participant must find a company that will assign them a specific agenda of activities: interviews with potential agents or distributors of its products, identifying retail outlets and industrial plants, analyzing the comparative advantages of opening a branch or office, and exploring opportunities for establishing a presence in foreign markets, among others.

The agreement between the company and the course participant is formalized in a list of operations to be carried out and expected results. Personal experience adds an inevitable element of unforeseen events which, to the extent possible, provide added value to the mission.

The search for a company to commission an agenda is an activity that resembles the job search: personal and curriculum presentation, explanation of the objectives of the visit to the employer, defense of the project, specification of the operations to be developed, agreement on the conditions, establishment of indicators to measure the final result.

A trade mission allows a company to learn firsthand about aspects that secondary sources cannot convey. Advances in information and communication technologies make it possible to gather reports and data with a significant saving of effort and time. Digital communication is an increasingly used resource by professionals, institutions, and individuals alike. However, there are still a set of perceptions and intuitions that can only be grasped through physical presence and live, direct dialogue. Numerous external and accompanying signs of a relationship constitute the rich repertoire of what is known as nonverbal communication, to which we can also add non-digital communication. A trade mission is an activity that is difficult to replace with virtual contacts, which does not mean undervaluing the possibilities of technology. The key lies in understanding the scope of the elements considered and their contribution to the value chain.