Top 12 Export Manager Skills to Put on Your Resume

In the competitive world of international trade, an export manager’s resume has to telegraph range and reliability. Hiring teams scan for a blend of precise operational know-how and human savvy—someone who can thread complex regulations, steer cross-border logistics, and still negotiate with tact and speed. Hard skills keep shipments flowing. Soft skills keep relationships humming. Together, they tip the scales.

Export Manager Skills

1. Salesforce
2. SAP
3. Negotiation
4. Market Analysis
5. Compliance
6. Logistics
7. CRM
8. Multilingual
9. Forecasting
10. Trade Finance
11. Incoterms
12. ERP

1. Salesforce

Salesforce is a cloud-based customer relationship management platform that helps export managers manage and analyze customer data and interactions across the lifecycle, streamlining processes and sharpening service and sales performance.

Why It's Important

Salesforce matters for an Export Manager because it centralizes accounts, deals, and service cases, automates routine tasks, and surfaces real-time analytics for smarter decisions—especially useful when juggling international client portfolios and complex sales cycles.

How to Improve Salesforce Skills

To make Salesforce hum for export operations, focus on these levers:

1. Customize for Export Workflows: Adapt objects, fields, and page layouts to track international sales stages, shipment milestones, compliance checks, and trade terms.

2. Enable Team Mastery: Provide role-based training and refreshers so sales, logistics, and finance use the same playbook.

3. Integrate Your Stack: Connect logistics, finance, e-signature, and messaging tools to reduce swivel-chair work and double entry.

4. Automate Repetitive Steps: Use flows, approval processes, and scheduled actions for order confirmations, export document prompts, and follow-ups.

5. Use CRM Analytics: Leverage dashboards and CRM Analytics (formerly Einstein Analytics) to spot trends by market, channel, or product mix.

6. Maintain Your Data: Clean, de-duplicate, and update routinely. Good data means cleaner forecasts and fewer headaches.

Dial these in and Salesforce turns into a control tower for international sales and service.

How to Display Salesforce Skills on Your Resume

2. SAP

SAP provides enterprise resource planning software to run end‑to‑end processes across sales, logistics, finance, and compliance—key terrain for an Export Manager handling cross-border orders, customs, and inventory flows.

Why It's Important

SAP brings integrated, real-time data across order-to-cash, inventory, and trade compliance, enabling accurate planning, faster exception handling, and consistent customer experience worldwide.

How to Improve SAP Skills

Get more from SAP by tuning the system to export realities and staying current:

1. Tailor SD and GTS Processes: Configure Sales and Distribution and, when applicable, Global Trade Services to mirror your quotation, export control, and document flows. Use current SAP best-practice content via SAP Signavio Process Navigator.

2. Integrate Compliance Tools: Connect to global trade management solutions (for example, E2open GTM or AEB) to automate screening, classification, and customs filing.

3. Automate Output: Set up output determination for invoices, packing lists, certificates, and shipping docs to cut manual prep time.

4. Upgrade Reporting: Build export-specific KPIs and use SAP Analytics Cloud for deeper insight into lanes, lead times, and on-time delivery.

5. Keep Learning: Tap SAP Learning Hub and openSAP for updates on new features and best practices.

6. Engage the Community: Participate in SAP user forums to compare approaches and troubleshoot quirks before they snowball.

When configured well, SAP minimizes friction from quote to customs clearance and helps squash errors before they cost money.

How to Display SAP Skills on Your Resume

3. Negotiation

Negotiation, for an Export Manager, is the back-and-forth that sets prices, terms, service levels, and risk-sharing with overseas buyers, agents, and carriers—getting to yes without giving away the store.

Why It's Important

It secures favorable terms, preserves margins, and builds resilient relationships that ride out delays, shortages, and currency swings.

How to Improve Negotiation Skills

Sharpen the craft with deliberate prep and clear tactics:

1. Prepare like a pro: Know cost drivers, alternatives, and walk-away points. Map the other side’s constraints and incentives.

2. Build rapport fast: Respect time zones, culture, and etiquette. Small gestures, big dividends.

3. Listen actively: Surface hidden interests. Ask short, pointed questions. Reflect back to confirm.

4. Be crisp: State needs and limits plainly. No fog. No hedging.

5. Use structured concessions: Trade variables, don’t surrender them—payment terms for volume, Incoterms for price, lead time for commitment.

6. Manage emotions: Keep tone steady; de-escalate. Pause rather than push when tension spikes.

7. Chase mutual gains: Engineer packages where both sides win more than they expected.

Practice, post-mortems, and a running playbook turn negotiation from art into repeatable habit.

How to Display Negotiation Skills on Your Resume

4. Market Analysis

Market analysis is the systematic scan of international markets—size, growth, buyer behavior, channels, rivals, and rules—to decide where to play and how to win.

Why It's Important

It reveals fit and timing. It trims risk. It directs spend toward markets that want what you sell and flags barriers before they ambush you.

How to Improve Market Analysis Skills

Build a tighter view of your markets, top-down and bottom-up:

1. Clarify positioning: Run a quick SWOT for each target market to pinpoint edge and exposure.

2. Track macro trends: Use reliable statistics and trade data to catch shifts in demand, pricing, and regulation.

3. Map competitors: Benchmark offerings, pricing, channels, and service promises using reputable databases and company filings.

4. Decode rules: Review import duties, standards, labeling, and certifications via official government trade resources (for the U.S., start with trade.gov).

5. Mine digital signals: Analyze site traffic, search trends, and engagement to gauge interest by region.

6. Use local voices: Lean on in-country partners, distributors, or chambers for ground truth.

7. Gather direct feedback: Short surveys and pilot offers validate assumptions fast.

8. Walk the floor: Trade shows and industry events compress months of learning into days.

Blend data with field intelligence, then iterate. Markets move; your picture should too.

How to Display Market Analysis Skills on Your Resume

5. Compliance

Compliance is playing by the rules—export controls, sanctions, product standards, documentation, and reporting—so your shipments clear and your company stays out of hot water.

Why It's Important

It prevents fines, seizures, and reputational damage. It protects licenses. It keeps customers and banks confident you’re a safe partner.

How to Improve Compliance Skills

Put structure around it and keep it current:

1. Stay current: Monitor official updates on export regulations and sanctions. In the U.S., trade.gov and the Bureau of Industry and Security are key sources.

2. Build an Export Compliance Program: Document screening, classification, licensing, and recordkeeping. Assign owners. Audit routinely.

3. Train the team: Regular, role-specific training for sales, logistics, and finance. New markets mean new refreshers.

4. File accurately: Use AESDirect in ACE (U.S.) or your country’s equivalent for timely, accurate filings. Spot-check for errors.

5. Ask experts: Consult trade counsel or specialized advisors when edge cases arise. Cheaper than penalties.

Compliance isn’t a hurdle; it’s the guardrail that lets you go faster safely.

How to Display Compliance Skills on Your Resume

6. Logistics

Logistics is the choreography—planning, moving, and storing goods across borders—so orders arrive intact, on time, and at the right cost.

Why It's Important

It protects margins and service levels. Missed vessels, dwell time, or damaged freight ripple through cash flow and customer trust.

How to Improve Logistics Skills

Streamline, illuminate, and adapt:

1. Use smarter systems: A transportation management system and connected warehouse tools improve routing, consolidation, and visibility.

2. Lift visibility: Real-time tracking platforms (for example, project44-level visibility) help spot delays early and reroute.

3. Right-size inventory: Apply just-in-time principles where feasible. Balance service risk with carrying cost.

4. Strengthen partners: Lock in dependable forwarders and carriers. Share forecasts; get better rates and space when it’s tight.

5. Invest in people: Train teams on Incoterms, dangerous goods, and documentary accuracy. Small errors, big delays.

6. Optimize shipping: Compare modes and lanes, consolidate where possible, and revisit packaging to reduce dimensional weight.

7. Design for sustainability: Target modal shifts, better load factors, and recyclable packaging to cut footprint and costs.

8. Review relentlessly: Scorecard performance, then tweak. The network you improve is the network you control.

Operational calm comes from systems, partners, and habits that keep freight flowing even when the world wobbles.

How to Display Logistics Skills on Your Resume

7. CRM

CRM, or Customer Relationship Management, is how you track prospects, customers, and partners—who they are, what they need, and how to keep them buying.

Why It's Important

For an Export Manager, CRM ties global conversations together, aligns teams, and ensures follow-through across time zones and languages.

How to Improve CRM Skills

Turn data into action and relationships into momentum:

1. Know your customers: Segment by market, channel, and buying behavior. Let insights drive outreach.

2. Personalize: Adjust messaging and offers for local norms, holidays, and regulatory quirks.

3. Tighten communication: Establish clear SLAs for responses; integrate email, chat, and phone logs so nothing slips.

4. Close the loop: Collect feedback, track complaints to resolution, and surface themes for product and ops.

5. Train continuously: New features and new hires both need onboarding. Keep playbooks fresh.

6. Choose the right tool: Systems like Salesforce, HubSpot, or Zoho can support multi-market teams if configured well.

7. Nurture relationships: Meet regularly, not just when deals are on the table. Events and check-ins build stickiness.

Great CRM is a habit of attention, supported by a system that makes the next best action obvious.

How to Display CRM Skills on Your Resume

8. Multilingual

Multilingual capability is the practical ability to conduct business in more than one language—negotiations, emails, specs, and subtle cues included.

Why It's Important

It accelerates trust, cuts misunderstandings, and opens markets where English alone won’t get you far.

How to Improve Multilingual Skills

Blend consistent practice with real-world exposure:

1. Structured learning: Use tools like Duolingo or Babbel to build daily momentum.

2. Language exchange: Practice with native speakers via platforms like Tandem or ConversationExchange.

3. Business-focused workshops: Seek courses geared to commercial vocabulary and etiquette.

4. Immerse: Travel, short residencies, or in-market projects accelerate fluency.

5. Consume media: Read the news, watch films, and listen to podcasts in the target language.

6. Network multilingual: Join international business groups and contribute in the target language.

7. Hire a tutor: Target weak spots—pronunciation, negotiation phrases, or industry terms.

8. Study culture: Learn norms, gestures, meeting customs; language lives inside culture.

9. Get feedback: Ask colleagues to correct you in real time; iterate without ego.

10. Use support tools: Translation apps and glossaries help in a pinch—use them, then learn from them.

Consistency beats intensity. Ten minutes a day compounds faster than a weekend cram.

How to Display Multilingual Skills on Your Resume

9. Forecasting

Forecasting estimates demand and revenue by market and product so you can plan production, inventory, cash, and capacity—without whiplash.

Why It's Important

It reduces stockouts and overstock, aligns teams, and sharpens capital use. In exports, it also informs freight bookings and currency planning.

How to Improve Forecasting Skills

Make it data-rich, collaborative, and adaptable:

1. Lean on analytics: Analyze history, seasonality, and promotions. Use regression or time-series models when patterns allow.

2. Track market signals: Layer macro indicators, channel feedback, and competitor moves on top of internal data.

3. Tight cross-function sync: Sales, marketing, supply chain, and finance should review and challenge the same numbers.

4. Adopt fit-for-purpose tools: Demand planning software or BI dashboards help refresh forecasts quickly and transparently.

5. Price and risk: Incorporate scenarios for currency swings, lead-time variability, and regulatory shocks.

6. Continuous calibration: Measure forecast error, learn, and adjust models and assumptions frequently.

Good forecasts don’t predict the future; they reduce surprise. That’s the win.

How to Display Forecasting Skills on Your Resume

10. Trade Finance

Trade finance covers the instruments and services that fund and protect cross-border deals—letters of credit, documentary collections, guarantees, supply chain finance, credit insurance, and more.

Why It's Important

It safeguards cash flow, tames non-payment risk, and can make your offer more attractive with flexible terms.

How to Improve Trade Finance Skills

Pair smart structures with strong partners:

1. Go digital: Use electronic documentation and digital trade platforms (for example, Komgo or Contour) to speed approvals and cut errors.

2. Build bank relationships: Engage banks and alternative financiers early; negotiate facilities aligned with seasonality and growth.

3. Use credit insurance: Protect receivables—Allianz Trade (formerly Euler Hermes) and others provide cover that can also unlock better financing terms.

4. Tap government programs: Explore support like U.S. EXIM Bank, SBA export programs, or UK Export Finance for guarantees, insurance, and working capital.

5. Master the instruments: Know when to choose LC vs. open account with insurance, standby guarantees, or documentary collection.

6. Hedge currency risk: Work with your bank’s FX desk or platforms such as Kyriba or 360T to set forwards and options that match cash flows.

7. Tighten documentation: Standardize templates, e-sign, and automate checks to prevent costly discrepancies.

Well-structured trade finance turns big international orders from risky to routine.

How to Display Trade Finance Skills on Your Resume

11. Incoterms

Incoterms are internationally recognized rules that define delivery points, risk transfer, and cost allocation between buyer and seller. For an Export Manager, they shape contracts, logistics, and price strategy.

Why It's Important

Clear Incoterms reduce disputes, align expectations, and help price correctly by revealing who pays—and risks—what, where.

How to Improve Incoterms Skills

Stay current and apply with intent:

1. Know the latest version: Incoterms 2020 remains the standard; specify the rule and named place precisely in contracts.

2. Choose strategically: Match the rule to your control, capability, and risk appetite by lane and product.

3. Communicate clearly: Reflect Incoterms consistently across quotes, POs, invoices, and shipping docs.

4. Manage risk: Align insurance and carrier selection to the chosen rule’s risk transfer point.

5. Collaborate: Work with forwarders, brokers, and legal to implement correctly and avoid accidental obligations.

6. Educate teams: Train sales and operations so nobody promises a term that ops can’t support.

Right term, right place, written right—small details, large impact.

How to Display Incoterms Skills on Your Resume

12. ERP

ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) integrates core processes—orders, inventory, purchasing, finance—so data flows cleanly and decisions get faster. Essential plumbing for export operations.

Why It's Important

One source of truth reduces errors, speeds reconciliations, and supports on-time, in-full delivery across borders.

How to Improve ERP Skills

Turn the ERP into an export engine:

1. Integrate the stack: Connect ERP with CRM, WMS, TMS, and trade compliance for end-to-end visibility.

2. Customize where it counts: Build reports and dashboards for international sales, multi-currency, tax, and compliance checkpoints.

3. Automate the boring: Trigger document creation, compliance screening, alerts, and customer notifications automatically.

4. Train and govern: Standardize master data, naming, and workflows. Invest in user training and clear ownership.

5. Analyze deeply: Use embedded analytics to track lead times, OTIF, write-offs, and margin by lane.

6. Enable mobile: Give field teams secure access for approvals and real-time updates.

7. Keep it current: Apply updates and review new features that improve international capabilities.

With the right setup, ERP becomes the quiet engine that keeps global operations smooth.

How to Display ERP Skills on Your Resume