Temporary Export Manager: scope, cost, and what to expect in 12 months
A temporary export manager opens or rebuilds international sales for an Italian company on a fixed-term mandate: choosing the markets, building the distributor or agent network, and leaving behind a pipeline the internal team can run.
What the mandate covers
- Choosing two or three target markets on evidence, not enthusiasm
- Deciding the route to market: direct, distributor, agent, or subsidiary
- Building the pricing and margin structure that survives a distributor's markup
- Signing and onboarding the first partners, then working the first orders with them
- Recruiting and training the internal person who takes over
Why companies use a temporary export manager
Export is where mid-sized Italian companies most often lose money slowly. A permanent export director is expensive before there is any export revenue to pay for it, and a consultant produces a market study nobody executes. A temporary export manager carries the commercial responsibility during the phase where the risk is highest and the revenue is still zero.
Cost and structure
How to measure it
- Number of qualified prospects in each target market by month six
- Signed distributor or agent agreements by month nine
- First repeat order, the only real proof of product-market fit abroad
- A named internal successor able to run the network by the end of the mandate
https://niklaslindahl.com/guides/temporary-export-manager