Trade leads through B2B portals is an extremely important aspect of international business and considered an inexpensive way of getting new buyers and consequently export orders. However, like many other Internet hypes, we need to realistically examine and understand it in terms of who places these leads, why and most important how to use them effectively for expanding your international business.

Mushrooming dot com greenhorns announcing 'yet another' revolutionary market place will like you to believe that these trade leads (also called RFQ) are export orders waiting for your taking and what a fantastic opportunity awaits you from thousands of companies floating millions of trade inquiries. What is wrong with this concept, as is wrong with many other Internet hypes, is the assumption that this additional information can be easily assimilated into a business enterprise and made useful without any cost whatsoever. Nothing could be further from the truth as major problem with trade leads is that many of them are of questionable value.

Does that mean we should always remain skeptic about these leads and avoid them like plague ? This is folly on the other extreme - with care and imagination you can turn them into real opportunities. I have seen them happening and there is no reason why you can not do it. The purpose of this article is to help you look at these leads realistically and offer suggestions on how to deal with them profitably.

There are many kinds of trade leads like business opportunities, foreign govt tenders etc. For this discussion, we take the most prevalent type of offers in WWW - message placed in B2B portals by private company or individual for buying or selling a specific product/service within a reasonable period of time.

Foreign distributors know exactly where to go when they want to buy something for resale. They do not have to place a trade lead to procure anything except in very rare cases. Then why such proliferation of trade leads ?

The advent of Internet has dealt a serious blow to traditional distribution system, specially in overseas trade. In more specific terms, middlemen are in serious danger of loosing substantial business. Earlier, foreign buyers like retailers had little option but to buy from local supplier who usually imported the stuff in bulk and distributed in local area. Importing in small quantity was neither feasible nor economic.

With the advent of Internet, retailers can now reach sellers in distant countries, see their products in websites, negotiate a favourable price and buy in small quantity. There is no dearth of exporters who are prepared to sell in small quantity at regular intervals.

This direct buying by retailer at a favourable price in turn puts pressure in local market and distributors feel hard pressed to find new suppliers, new products and most important lower price. So what was once a rather lengthy distribution chain of seller to exporter to importer to wholesaler to buyer, is increasingly loosing middle players . Agreed, large part of International trade is still dominated by traditional distribution system but the trend is towards marginalisation of middle men, facilitated by an open medium like Internet.

Like most things in life, reality is never in black and white - there are always shades of gray. So, alongwith serious buyers looking for serious sellers there are sundry others ranging from window shoppers, arm-chair international businessmen to potential buyers exploring the market. So, we find trade leads posted for variety of reasons like:

• Advertisement - pure and simple product promotion (seller in the garb of buyer)
• Find price (usually to put pressure on existing supplier)
• Find out about competitors
• Locate alternate or additional suppliers
• Find suppliers for new product
• Begin negotiation for a later purchase
  
  
  To be continued....