Wamore, Inc. is an aerospace engineering company specializing in precision air-drop equipment solutions for military, commercial and humanitarian operations worldwide. In 2014, as part of the company’s strategic growth plan the leadership team identified the need to grow sales and diversify their base of customers. At that time while the company had international sales, the U.S. Department of Defense represented most of their sales. The team determined that strategically growing their export sales would help them achieve their growth and diversification goals.
ExporTech Development Process
In 2015, the company hired a director of business development, Vince Hearn, who was tasked with developing the company’s export business. As the first step in developing their go-to-market export plan, Wamore enrolled in the Arizona Commerce Authority’s State Trade Expansion Program (AZSTEP). The program is for small businesses looking to grow their exports. Along with their participation in AZSTEP, Wamore enrolled in ExporTech™ program.
ExporTech is offered by the Arizona Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP). ExporTech provides manufacturers a structured and accelerated approach to the development of export markets. During the nine-week program, Wamore identified target export markets, identified business development and marketing initiatives they needed to execute, and defined export revenue goals. “This program gave us the playbook and confidence to achieve our global goals,” said Vince. “When we enrolled in ExporTech, we had no idea how little we knew about global export. The expertise and level of instruction received during ExporTech was on par with any executive level course we have experienced.”
Results
Three months after graduating from ExporTech, Wamore implemented their go-to-market implementation plan. “After graduating from ExporTech and working with the Arizona MEP to implement our go-to-market plan, our future has never looked brighter,” said Vince. Four years after completing the program the company is now doing business in 12 countries, their export markets are diversified, including Europe, the Middle East and Asia Pacific, and exports are a significant part of their business. Wamore continues to utilize the connections they made through ExporTech and has just returned from a trade summit to the Middle East lead by Kevin O’Shea, the Arizona Commerce Authority’s Vice President of International Trade.