JB Experts - Blog #Export Management

Export Broker vs Export Consultant vs Export Management Company: Which One Do You Need?

Thu, 01 Oct 2026 02:29:17 +0530

Three people will offer to get your product overseas. They use different words, they get paid in different ways, and the choice decides whether you own an export business in two years or have simply lent your factory to someone else's.

Here is the difference between an export broker, an export consultant and an export management company, what each one costs you in reality, and how to tell which one you actually need.

The export broker or commission agent

The pitch is simple and attractive: you pay nothing upfront, and the broker takes a percentage of every deal they bring. Two to ten percent depending on the product. If no deal comes, you pay nothing.

What that structure actually does is decide the broker's behaviour for you. A commission agent is paid to close any deal, so they push the buyer who is easiest to close, not the one who is best for you. Price gets negotiated down because a slightly smaller commission on a closed deal beats a bigger commission on a deal that stalls. The buyer relationship stays with the broker, because that relationship is their asset, not yours. And when a better-paying factory appears, your buyers go with the broker to the new factory.

None of this makes brokers bad people. It makes them the wrong tool if your goal is to build an export business that belongs to you. Use a broker for a one-off surplus lot you want cleared. Do not build your export future on one.

The export consultant

A consultant sells advice, usually by the hour, the report or the workshop. Good ones will tell you which markets to target, what certifications you need, how to price and which mistakes to avoid. Then they leave, and you do the work.

That is fine if you have a team that can execute. Most Indian manufacturers do not. The report sits in a drawer, the buyer list goes cold, and eighteen months later the owner says exports did not work for us. Exports did not fail. Execution never started.

A consultant is the right choice when the question is small and specific: should I export this product at all, which three countries first, what will my landed cost be. That is exactly what a paid consultation is for. It is the wrong choice when the real problem is that nobody in your company has the time or the skill to do buyer outreach, documents and shipping every week.

The export management company

An export management company does the work, but under your name. Your company, your IEC, your invoices, your brand on the product. The team finds buyers, negotiates, handles samples, compliance, documents, freight and payment follow-up, and reports to you. You manufacture and approve. The buyers are yours, on your records, and they stay yours when the engagement ends.

The payment structure is a fixed fee for a fixed term, with milestones tied to results. Because the company is not paid per deal, it has no reason to push a bad buyer or cut your price to close faster. Its incentive is your export turnover over the whole term, which is the same thing you want.

The catch is that it costs real money upfront, and it only makes sense for a company that has a finished product, capacity to produce, and the capital for samples and stock. If you are still deciding what to sell, you are not ready for it yet.

The question we get asked most

Almost every week a manufacturer asks us: why not just work on commission? You find the buyer, we pay you a percentage. It sounds fair to both sides, and we decline it every time. Not because the commission is too small, but because the moment we take it, we become a broker, with every incentive described above. We would be paid to close deals, not to build your export business. JB Experts works on a fixed fee precisely so that the only way we earn well is if you export well, across two years, with buyers you keep.

How to decide in five minutes

You have one lot to sell and no plan to export again: broker.

You have a specific question and a team that can act on the answer: consultant. Book a paid consultation and come with the question written down.

You want to learn and run exports yourself, with someone checking your work weekly: Build With Me.

You have a product and capacity, and you want exports to become a real revenue line without hiring an export team: an export management company, which for us means Done For You.

Whatever you choose, ask one question before signing anything: when this ends, who owns the buyer? If the answer is not you, keep looking.

How JB Experts works with you

JB Experts is a global export management company. Every export runs under your own company name and your own IEC. We manage the work and represent your company with buyers. We are not brokers or commission agents. You pay for a defined service, and every deliverable is written into your agreement.

Consultation, Rs 10,000 + GST: a 60-minute strategy call on your product, markets and next steps. Book at meeting.jbexperts.com/#/60min

Build With Me, Rs 1,18,000 including taxes: 12 months of live sessions, Monday to Friday, where you build your own export business with our team reviewing your work every week. www.jbexperts.com/build-with-me

Build With Me 121, Rs 6,50,000 + GST: the same 12-month build, one-to-one, shaped around your product and your buyers. www.jbexperts.com/build-with-me

Done For You, Rs 20 Lakh + GST for agro products and Rs 30 Lakh + GST for non-agro: our team runs your complete export operation for 24 months with a written 10x export turnover commitment. www.jbexperts.com/done-for-you

Export intelligence reports on specific products and markets: shop.jbexperts.com

Done For You Export Management: How It Works, What It Costs, and Who It Is For

Thu, 01 Oct 2026 02:09:42 +0530

Most manufacturers who call us have already tried exporting. They attended a webinar, hired a freelancer, listed on a B2B portal, and got enquiries that went nowhere. Two years later the export department is still one person, part-time, and the only foreign order was a cousin in Dubai.

Done For You exists for that company. This article explains exactly what it is, what it costs, what we commit to, what happens if we miss, and who should not buy it.

What Done For You actually is

A 24-month engagement in which a dedicated JB Experts team runs your complete export operation: product and market selection, export pricing, buyer research and outreach, samples, negotiation, contracts, compliance, documentation, freight, customs and payment follow-up. You manufacture. We do everything from your factory gate to the buyer's warehouse.

Two things make it different from hiring an agent or a consultant. First, every export runs under your own company name and your own IEC. Your invoices, your brand, your buyers. We represent you; we never sit between you and the customer. Second, there is a written 10x export turnover commitment in the agreement, set at ten times your fee on business from the buyers we bring: Rs 2 Crore for agro, Rs 3 Crore for non-agro.

What it costs

Rs 20 Lakh + GST for agro products such as spices, grains, pulses, processed foods and farm produce. Rs 30 Lakh + GST for non-agro products such as engineering goods, textiles, chemicals, home products and branded consumer goods. Non-agro costs more because buyer cycles are longer and positioning, sampling and negotiation run over more rounds before volume orders come.

The fee is fixed for the full 24 months. There is no monthly retainer and no per-shipment charge. What is not included: your product, packaging, samples, testing and certification, and freight and insurance on each shipment. Each of those is quoted and shared with you before it is spent.

How you pay: 50, 30, 20

50% when you sign. 30% on your first export order secured through us. 20% when your export turnover reaches Rs 50 Lakh. Two of the three payments fall due only after we deliver. If we do not perform, those milestones do not arise. The 30% and 20% instalments become payable within 7 days of you receiving the buyer's payment for the relevant order, not on order confirmation, so your cash flow is never ahead of ours.

The 10x commitment, and what happens if we miss

We commit in writing to export turnover of ten times your fee across the term. If you have existing export buyers, you declare them before we start, and turnover with those buyers is excluded from the measurement, so the 10x is on business we bring, not business you already had.

If the 10x target is not reached inside the 24 months, we extend our services at no extra charge, typically for another 6 to 7 months, until it is. There is no refund clause of any kind, and we say that openly, because the remedy that actually helps a manufacturer is more work from us, not money back and a half-finished export business.

Success fee from 1 October 2026

For agreements signed from 1 October 2026, once your export turnover crosses the 10x threshold (Rs 2 Crore for agro, Rs 3 Crore for non-agro), JB Experts earns a success fee on every order it closes after that point: 2% for agro, 3% for non-agro. Below the threshold there is no success fee. This is not commission and we are not agents. The fixed fee pays for the team; the success fee only starts once we have already delivered ten times your fee.

What happens in the first 90 days

Month 1: product and costing study, market selection on import data, HS codes, pricing and compliance mapping. If you do not hold an IEC, we set up IEC, AD code and export registrations before the first shipment. Month 2: catalogue, export price list, buyer database and outreach begin. Month 3: first buyer conversations, samples and quotations. Every lead, sample, quotation and shipment sits in a shared dashboard you can open at any time, and you get a monthly performance report and review call.

Who Done For You is for

A manufacturer or established trader with a finished product, reliable production capacity and working capital for samples and stock, who wants exports to become a real revenue line without hiring, training and managing an export team. It suits owners who would rather sign off on prices and samples once a week than learn export documentation themselves.

Who it is not for

Anyone without a finished product or a dependable supplier. Anyone who cannot fund samples, certifications and the first production run. Anyone expecting confirmed orders in the first few weeks; buyer cycles in most categories run three to nine months. And anyone looking for a broker who works on commission. We decline those arrangements, because a commission agent is paid to close any deal, and we are paid to build your export business.

If you want to build exports yourself with our team reviewing your work, Build With Me is the better fit. If you are still deciding whether your product should be exported at all, start with a paid consultation.

How JB Experts works with you

Consultation, Rs 10,000 + GST: a 60-minute strategy call on your product, markets and next steps. Book at meeting.jbexperts.com/#/60min

Build With Me 121, Rs 6,50,000 + GST: the same 12-month build, one-to-one, shaped around your product and your buyers. www.jbexperts.com/build-with-me

Export intelligence reports on specific products and markets: shop.jbexperts.com

The full agreement is shared as a draft before anything is signed. Read it, question it, and sign only when every line makes sense to you. That is how every Done For You engagement starts.