An importer's email has arrived. The first reply isn't for selling.
A foreign enquiry is the moment export stops being a project and becomes an email to write. Almost all Italian first replies go wrong in the same way, and it comes in two opposite forms.
Reply the same day, even without the material ready. A foreign enquiry almost always reaches several suppliers at once. Whoever replies first doesn't gain a goodwill advantage, they set the terms of the comparison: everyone else will be read as an alternative to their proposal.
Don't send the price list in the first reply. A price without Incoterm, volume, format and destination market is a number that only serves to get you compared on price. Three questions first, then the right price list.
The first reply has four jobs: to exist quickly, to show in two lines that you know what you are talking about, to qualify whoever wrote, and to propose a next step with a date.
This piece is part of the guide to export operations for the small food producer and covers the entry point of the whole flow, the one whose cost can also be calculated line by line: the request that arrives.
The template, to download
The two templates below, plus a third that appears on this page only as a principle: the reply to someone asking about a country for which you don't yet have the certificate, the label or the registration. A clear no with a date, which preserves the relationship. The English version is the one that goes out; the Italian one is there so you know what you are sending.
| File | What it contains | Link |
|---|---|---|
| EnglishWord, to fill in | The three templates with square brackets to fill in and, for each, the note on when to use it. |
|
| EnglishPDF, to read | The same page, to keep open next to your inbox. |
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| ItalianWord and PDF | The translation of the three templates, to understand what the English version says. Also in PDF. |
The files are free. There is no form in front of them, we don't ask for an address and we receive no notification when someone downloads them. The square brackets are filled in with your details, and the line about goods held until a date is used only when it is true.
The two replies that lose
The first is three days of silence. It doesn't come from lack of interest, it comes from the opposite: the request is important, so the reply must be perfect, so first the export price list has to be prepared, the sheet translated, the accountant asked. And meanwhile the days go by.
The second is the catalogue thrown at them. The request arrives and everything goes out at once: full catalogue in PDF, domestic price list, photos, the company's history since 1954. It is a fast reply, and it loses all the same, because it offloads onto the buyer the work of understanding what they need.
The two wrong replies have the same cause: neither of them asks a question.
On speed there is a measure that is useful for the direction it points to, more than for the exact number. The InsideSales.com/MIT study by James Oldroyd, presented in 2007, puts it like this: «The odds of contacting a lead if called in 5 minutes versus 30 minutes drop 100 times». Two limits, and they should be stated straight away: it measures call-back phone calls, not emails, and it concerns US web enquiries, not food buyers. What that number proves and what it doesn't we examined in the five minutes that decide a request.
The four jobs of the first reply
A reply that works does four things in a few lines, and none of the four is selling.
| Job | How it is done | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Exist quicklysame day | Confirm receipt, say who you are in one line, state when the full material will arrive. |
The enquiry has almost always gone to several suppliers. The first to reply becomes the reference the others are compared with. |
| Show competencetwo lines, not two pages | A detail only a real producer knows: yields, available formats, batch lead times, markets already served. |
It distinguishes a producer from an intermediary. The foreign buyer spends half their time weeding out intermediaries in disguise. |
| Qualifythree questions | Destination market, sales channel, indicative volumes and format for a first order. |
Without these three answers there is no correct price list to send, and any price sent will be the wrong one. |
| Propose the next stepwith a date | A short call in two proposed slots, or sending the material by a precise day. |
A reply that ends without a next step leaves the buyer with the task of remembering you. They won't. |
The template: generic enquiry
The most frequent enquiry is also the vaguest: someone says they are interested in your products and asks for catalogue and price list. Here is a first reply that does the four jobs while staying short.
Subject: Re: [product] enquiry - a few questions before I send the right price list Dear [name], thank you for reaching out. We are [company], a [size] producer of [product] based in [region, Italy]. We produce [key technical detail: yield, batch size, formats] and we currently supply [countries / channels]. So that I send you the correct export price list rather than a generic one, three quick questions: 1. Which market will the product be sold in, and through which channel (retail, food service, distribution)? 2. What volumes are you considering for a first order, and in which packaging format? 3. Do you need our own brand, or private label? In the meantime I attach our English product sheet, so you can see the range while we wait. I can send the full quotation within [24/48] hours of your reply, or we can go through it in a short call: I am available [day] or [day], [time range] CET. Kind regards, [name] - [role] [company] - [website] - [phone]
Three things deserve attention in this text. The subject line already states why there is no price inside, and this stops the missing price list from looking like reticence. The technical detail in the first line does the work of half a page of company presentation. The three questions are numbered because a numbered list gets answers point by point, while the same content in a paragraph gets a single, generic answer.
The template: already specific enquiry
Sometimes the enquiry arrives complete: product, format, volume, market. In that case slowing down with questions is a mistake symmetrical to sending everything straight away. Here the correct reply is dense and operational.
Subject: Re: [product] [format] - availability, terms and next step Dear [name], thank you for the detailed enquiry, it makes this easy. Availability: [product] in [format] is available, current lead time [X] working days for [quantity]. Terms: our export price list is attached, quoted [EXW / FOB port]. Minimum order [MOQ] for this format. Compliance: the English technical sheet is attached; [label adaptation / certificate] for [country] can be prepared in [timeframe]. Two points I would like to confirm before we go further: - the destination market, since labelling requirements differ, and - whether you need samples before the first order. If it works for you, I can hold [quantity] from batch [reference] until [date] while you review. Kind regards, [name] - [role] [company] - [website] - [phone]
The final line is the one that moves things most: availability with a stated deadline turns an email into an appointment. Use it only when it is true. A reservation of goods announced and never kept costs more than the negotiation it was meant to speed up.
The language of the reply
The working standard is English, and for the email it is perfectly fine. The real question concerns the attachments, which stay on the buyer's desk long after the email has been read.
The study Can’t Read, Won’t Buy by CSA Research, of 8,709 respondents in 29 countries, measures that 76% prefer to buy with information in their own language and that 40% never buy from a website in a language other than their own, which in the original wording reads «40% will never buy from websites in other languages». It concerns end consumers, not professional buyers, and the difference is real: a German purchasing manager works in English all day.
It remains true, though, that the manager will have to pass your sheet on to a quality colleague, a customer or an inspection body, and that step happens in the language of their market. A sheet already prepared in German removes an obstacle that nobody will ever tell you they had. How to build that document is the subject of the technical sheet in English, with the field template.
What not to put in the first reply
- The domestic price list. It contains retail prices and Italian terms that mean nothing in export, and once read they can't be removed from the mind of whoever saw them.
- The full catalogue. If you have forty products, sending them all is the same as recommending none.
- The company history. It matters later, when the buyer is already deciding between you and someone else. In the first reply it takes up the space of the data.
- Your strictest payment terms. They should be discussed, not announced: putting them in the first email closes conversations that were still open.
- Apologies for the delay, if you replied the same day. The time is reasonable, and declaring it a problem turns it into one.
The five-minute figure comes from a 2007 study of call-back phone calls to US online enquiries collected from web forms, not from emails from foreign food buyers. The difference between a call and an email isn't small, and we say so before using the number. We cite it for the direction it points to, namely that the probability of contact collapses quickly, not as a promise of a result in your case.
The language figure concerns end consumers, not purchasing managers. It serves to explain why it pays to prepare the attachments in the language of the destination market, not to claim that a buyer refuses English.
There are no examples on this page presented as client cases. The English templates are built as templates, to adapt to your product.
When the inbox becomes the bottleneck
With two enquiries a month all this is done by hand, and done well. The problem appears when enquiries arrive from three different places, website, trade fair and WhatsApp, while you are in production.
At that point a negotiation isn't lost through incompetence. It is lost because an email that arrived on Thursday afternoon was read on the phone, mentally filed as something to do calmly, and found again on Tuesday. The moment it paid to reply was Thursday.
That is the point where collection should be taken out of one person's memory and put in a single place that classifies enquiries and prepares the draft reply, with the constraint written in Ethics: the machine prepares and flags, but no reply goes out to a buyer without a person having read and approved it. The first reply to a buyer is a commercial promise, and promises are made by a company, not a system.
Before shipping samples or detailed price lists there is a step worth not skipping, and that is understanding who you are talking to: the signals that distinguish a serious buyer from a time-waster.
Questions and answers
How quickly should I reply to a foreign importer's email?
Within a few working hours, and in any case the same day. A foreign enquiry almost always goes to several suppliers at once, and whoever replies first sets the terms of the comparison: the others are read as alternatives to their proposal.
You don't need a complete reply, you need a present one. You confirm receipt, ask the qualifying questions and state when the material will arrive, without waiting to have price list and sheets ready.
Should I send the price list and prices straight away?
No, and it is the most common mistake. A price only makes sense together with an Incoterm, a volume, a format and a destination market. Sent without those four elements it becomes a number the buyer will use to compare you with anyone else, on price alone.
The sequence that works: reply the same day, ask three questions, send the correct price list once you know which one is correct.
What language should I reply in?
In English as standard for the email. The real question concerns the attachments, which stay on the buyer's desk long after the email has been read.
The CSA Research study of 8,709 respondents in 29 countries measures that 76% prefer to buy with information in their own language. It concerns end consumers and not professional buyers, but it shows the direction: a sheet already prepared in the market's language removes an obstacle nobody will ever tell you they had.
What do I write if I am not yet ready to export to that country?
You say so, with a date. A clear no accompanied by a when, for example certification for that market arrives by the autumn and I will get back to you in October, preserves the relationship and puts you in the calendar.
Silence, or a vague reply that promises to check and never comes back, closes the door twice: it loses this request and teaches the buyer not to write again.
How can I tell whether the enquiry is serious before investing time in it?
From the answers to the qualifying questions, not from the tone of the first email. A real buyer can say which market they will sell in, through which channel, with what indicative volumes and in what format. Whoever doesn't answer, or comes back asking only for the lowest price, is collecting quotes.
Checks on the company are done before shipping samples, not before replying: they are collected in serious buyer or time-waster.
Notes on sources
- InsideSales.com/MIT Lead Response Management Study, James Oldroyd, PhD, Sloan School of Management, MIT, presented on 16 October 2007. This is the source of the comparison between contact within 5 minutes and after 30, quoted verbatim. Sample: three years of data from six companies, more than fifteen thousand enquiries and over one hundred thousand call attempts. It measures phone calls, not emails, and concerns US web enquiries: the figure points to a direction, not a guaranteed result in export. Correction of 13 September 2026: this page attributed the figure to a 2011 Harvard Business Review article, which is a different piece of work.
- CSA Research, Can’t Read, Won’t Buy, 8,709 respondents in 29 countries. The source of the 76% and 40% on language. It concerns end consumers, not purchasing managers.
- The two English templates are built as templates and don't reproduce correspondence from real clients.
Enquiries aren't lost through incompetence. They are lost on a Thursday afternoon.
The first reply has four jobs, and sending the price list is none of them. With Itria we start from the outside to build custom digital systems for exporters. For you that translates into more requests, fewer losses and less manual work. Write us a line about what weighs on you. We take the first step: what a buyer sees when they look you up, and what we found there. Even if we don't end up working together.