What is this service offering?

We help devise strategies and design programs that improve the performance of export assistance organizations through enhanced understanding of exporter needs and behavior.

Who might need this service?

Government agencies and non-profit organizations that provide export assistance to manufacturers or product companies.

How do we do this? What deliverables might we provide?
Strategic Advisory
We help export assistance organizations to assess the implications of data or analysis on strategy development to ensure that critical decisions are rooted in concrete intelligence about exporter and other stakeholder needs, performance metrics, and organizational economics.
Identification of Strategies and Practices of Successful Exporters
Insights into what a successful exporter looks like and how it achieved success can help assistance organizations improve services. Because of our extensive private sector experience, our team can see through the lens of company leadership, allowing us to help organizations develop and tailor programs and services that disseminate best practices and foster the growth of successful global competitors.
Exporter Segmentation Map / Targeting Strategy
We develop a map that defines meaningful exporter segments and describes them in terms of size and growth; drivers and trends; priority assistance needs; purchasing behavior; and the landscape of public and private assistance providers that serve them.

This segmentation allows organizations to make strategic choices, such as:

  • Prioritizing or targeting client segments based on explicit evaluation criteria (focus of resources)
  • Matching services and programs to client needs, or focusing on unmet needs or gaps where government and non-profit organization support is necessary to unlock opportunities (because private sector alternatives fall short)
  • Developing segment-specific outreach, selling, marketing, and branding strategies.
Export Assistance Program Content and Tool Development
We help create customized export content and tools (such as educational material, planning tools, workshop designs) that focus on exporter strategy as well as export mechanics. We design innovative and customized sessions that move beyond one-size-fits-all PowerPoint presentations, allowing exporters to acquire knowledge relevant to their businesses that will spur their international growth.
Assessment of Impact of Global Trends on U.S. Exporters
Just as companies must adjust with agility to a changing world, government and nonprofit organizations that serve these companies must adjust quickly as well. We assess the impact of global competitive forces and industry trends (e.g. emergence of new global competition, changes in regulations) on the assistance needs and behavior of US exporters. Assistance organizations will gain insight into the implications of these trends for service offerings and program strategies.
Strategic Facilitation
Based on years of experience in facilitating collaborative processes that yield valuable insights, innovative thinking, and effective decision-making, we offer customized and structured strategic thinking support.
Strategic Research and Analysis
We provide concrete intelligence and analysis of client and stakeholder needs, performance metrics, and organizational economics, which contribute to strategy development. Examples include interviews with exporters, partners, or stakeholder groups to gain meaningful feedback and insights; analysis and synthesis of client-generated performance data or reports; and construction of economic or cost models.
Why Stone & Associates?

No one has deeper experience studying the assistance needs and behavior of US manufacturing exporters, particularly small to mid-sized manufacturers, due to our numerous projects for the US Department of Commerce (NIST/MEP — National Institute of Standards and Technology, Manufacturing Extension Partnership and the Commercial Service), including: research and analysis that identified exporter needs and strategies of successful exporters; and development and delivery of export growth educational material, workshops and planning tools to hundreds of exporters.

Furthermore, we helped develop and continue to deploy ExporTech — a highly lauded national export assistance program with measurable results. Our ExporTech content, workshops, and planning tools were developed based on real world business experience and systematic data collection on the practices of successful exporters.

Project Examples
  • ExporTech
  • ITA Trade Mission Program Strategy
  • ITA Tradeshow Program Strategy
  • Report on Export Assistance Strategy for SMMs
  • Market Research and Segmentation – US Exporters
  • Strategies of Successful US Exporters
  • Export.gov Content Review / Gap Analysis
  • Coaching Companies and Delivering Workshops at Global Business Development Conferences & Trade Missions
  • Export Seminar for CEOs
  • Conference Facilitation
More Details
Reports / Articles
Tools