There are 1.5 billion company records in the world’s trade databases. Almost all of them are noise for your business. The exporters who grow fastest are not the ones who contact the most companies — they are the ones who filter hardest before contacting anyone.
Here is the three-step screening framework we teach, plus the 100-point scoring system that operationalizes it.
Step 1 — Access thresholds
Before anything else: can this company legally and physically buy from you? Check for an active import license, customs activity in your HS code within the last 18 months, and a company size above your minimum-order floor. A lead that fails any threshold is not a lead — remove it before it wastes a single email.
Step 2 — Demand matching
Now measure how well their demand fits your supply. Import frequency tells you if they buy your category regularly or once. Volumes tell you whether you can serve them profitably. Seasonality tells you when to reach out. Supplier-switching signals — a change in origin country, a gap in shipments — tell you who is actively shopping right now.
Step 3 — Decision-maker targeting
Companies do not answer emails; people do. Identify the actual purchasing decision-maker, find the channel they respond on (in Central Asia, often WhatsApp over email), and time the contact to their buying cycle. Multi-thread larger accounts: procurement plus an operations contact beats a single thread every time.
The 100-point scoring system
- Access (40 points): import license, recent HS-code activity, size floor, no sanctions or credit red flags.
- Demand fit (35 points): frequency, volume match, seasonality alignment, switching signals.
- Reachability (25 points): decision-maker identified, verified channel, response history, language match.
Work only leads scoring 70 or above. In practice this cuts outreach volume by 80% and multiplies reply rates — the math every tired salesperson wants.
Putting it to work
On Made-in-East.com the scoring runs automatically: the Global e-Station agent screens customs data against your product profile and hands your team a ranked shortlist each week. The framework is free to steal; the point is to stop treating all leads as equal.
