How to find commodity buyers?
Finding buyers, as a new commodity trader, can be challenging. As a former commodity trader that worked mostly for small trading boutiques, I can tell you that I’ve used all of the techniques shared on this post. And the greatest part of it is that they worked!
This discussion is all about finding leads. If you want to know how to grab those leads into customers, then check our commodity sales training attestation. I am sure it can be beneficial for you!
Let’s dive in…
Technique #1: Trade shows
Going to industry-specific conferences, trade shows, and trade fairs is a tried and true way to connect with new leads. Personally, this is how I found most of my customers.
My company’s always had a booth at the Gul Food Fair, which was the place to be if you were active in Middle East Africa, and India.
If you are on the fence because it costs a lot of money to exhibit those events, it’s worth it if you go to the right one. Also, the parties on the side of the events are often the best.
Technique #2: Trade associations
Usually, each country has its own trade association in relation to a specific commodity or industry. For example, a trade association would be Het Comite in Holland, Netherlands. This is a Royal Dutch Grain and Feed trade association in Germany.
You can also find the OVID; the association of the old seed processors in Germany.
You can easily contact them and ask for the list of their members. If they don’t want to give the list of their members, you can wait a couple of weeks and then contact them again with another telephone number.
Then, you can say that you are a new startup and you would like to talk to them (sponsor) but for that, you would have to know who their members are.
It’s easy to find any associations. For instance, search “steel association in the UK”
Technique #3: LinkedIn
On LinkedIn, it’s extremely easy to find buyers. For the people that don’t know LinkedIn, maybe you should create an account and explore. It’s quite self-explanatory. Also, don’t hesitate to follow me on LinkedIn; as you can imagine, I write posts about commodities.
Technique #4: Trade aggregators
Trade aggregators are websites that collect all the information available about shipments in and out of certain countries.
20 countries make it mandatory by law that most of the information on any BL in and out of the country must be public. Those data aggregators gather those data and make them easily searchable.
Technique #5: Ask your clients
Shockingly, your clients know their competitors. There are 2 ways to get this information from your existing client: the honest way and the dishonest way.
The honest way: We can just ask them and say, “Look, I’m trying to get more clients in this region of the world. Do you know a couple of them that I could speak with?” Asking those questions usually gives good results. Try it.
The dishonest way: It involves being a bit sneakier. Ask questions like “oh, what are your 3 biggest competitors?” “What type of volume do you think they do?” “Who is in charge? Do you know the guy?” “Is it cool is it nice?”
Technique #6: Oops!
To be honest, there’s no technique number six. I read somewhere that people click more on the number 7. So I said, “why not use seven techniques in my title?” I’m sorry about that.
Technique #7: The Shipping Lines
Usually, the shipping lines have people at destination, or origin or at least they have an agent. Those people have all the information about what’s going on. In one way or another, you can contact them and ask nicely, like What is going on with rice, copper, or steel. Usually, they talk.
Warning: I’m not claiming that all of those techniques are 100% legal. If you use them in the future and you get caught please don’t say that you’ve got the idea from me.