International business expansion is a big step.
Daunting?
Absolutely.
However, the payoff can take your business to the next level in revenue, brand recognition, and market share.
Whenever you are planning a business expansion, particularly if it is the first time you are doing so, it is helpful to get advice from someone who has been in your position before.
Lucky for us, we have a sales specialist within our organisation with just the right insight and experience to provide you with some helpful tips and guidance.
Gavin Page, Excelerate360’s Founder and Director has worked in software and software sales for 30 years. Mostly with international companies coming into, or expanding within Europe.
He also knows the ins and outs of running and growing teams in multiple countries. For both in-house and outsourced lead generation.
We sat down with Gavin to get his advice on expanding and establishing a B2B company in a foreign country.
1. Why might a company decide to expand into a market abroad?
“Particularly for SaaS and software companies, today there aren’t any real borders to grow internationally.
Meaning, that there are a lot of available opportunities out there which might be the deciding factor on whether a company decides to expand abroad.
Cloud-based technology for example doesn’t have a geographic border. So, you can sell from anywhere in the world, and people can sign up from anywhere in the world.
However, this has made a significant difference in how quickly you have to roll out to become market dominant. Companies have to be more reactive and dynamic.”
2. How should a company discover, and decide on which country to expand into?
“A few key things to consider are:
- How big is your target addressable market in that country?
- What does the competitor landscape look like in that country? Where your competitors are there is a market, however is it open enough?
- Do you need any specific functions or functionality or elements to your product, product set, or service for that country? If so, is that the right country to target first?
- Language. This is a huge deciding factor. Without a doubt, you are better off going into a European country with a native speaker, even if supporting collateral follows later.
It sounds simple, but don’t make it difficult for yourself.
Research first, identify common elements with your success to date and replicate that, but if the market isn’t there or your product isn’t going to succeed, don’t force it to fit.”
3. From your experience, what are the most important things to get in order before you implement your international expansion plans?
“In addition to what I mentioned for the previous question, which is assessing your market, how big your opportunities are, and the competitor landscape, also consider whether for some reason your product or service wouldn’t appeal in a particular country.
For example, if you are selling a fibre infrastructure product and you’re going into a country where there isn’t massive adoption of fibre into the home by the main Telcos yet, it will be a barrier to you.
Another thing to note is the difference in rules and laws from country to country.
When handling and collecting data, for example, it is important to know the rules. In Germany, the privacy laws are far stricter than in the UK. So, if you have a front-end marketing product, how you handle your data, data consent, and cookie policies are factors to bear in mind. I haven’t even considered the HR and employment complexity yet!
Something very helpful for business expansion is an international customer with whom you already work with in your home country. It gives you a route in and helps you to win business entities in your new territory.
Plus, straight off the bat, you have a customer reference.
Another huge advantage is having an international team member, or a team member with a second language. Having this skill within your support or commercial team can be leveraged to support your international expansion.”
4. Once you have done your research and prepared for international business expansion, what comes next?
“The misconception is you need to form a company abroad or hire. When in fact you don’t need to hire a team yourself.
Hiring a b2b sales outsourcing organisation means you don’t need an entity present in the country you expand into, as you have a commercial arrangement instead. There is no need to worry about hiring and managing a local team, let an agency worry about that.
Also, choose your partner carefully, you want them to represent you and replicate employees.
One thing you do need to spend some time on however is thinking about what your plan is.
What are your company KPIs for 3-6 months?
Decide on those, measure closely, and make sure you’re putting the right resources in place to make them happen.”
5. What is the most effective way to manage an international sales team?
“Communication is critical. So, ensure you have the right, reliable systems in place to enable that communication.
Also, have the right systems implemented to measure local activity and make sure you’re going in the right direction to hit your KPIs.
You must also be aware of time differences. For example, you might have an 8 hour time zone difference between you and your team abroad. You’ve got to have processes in place to cover the time when you’re not on the phone or available to provide support.
This is imperative to make sure any individuals you’re working with are able to achieve the goals you’ve set out for them and your business expansion, and that you can clearly track performance against them.
Quite often this is why an outsourced model is beneficial to companies expanding abroad because it minimises risk. The agency provides the resource management, alongside the resource themselves.
This is great because the management is normally within the same time zone, so your team is managed properly. It reduces the risk of the resource failing or floundering. Plus, you have visibility of what’s happening locally quicker, and gain insight into the strategy country by country.”
6. How would you prepare for language capabilities?
“We’ve already mentioned the benefit of having an international, or multilingual team member. However, you also need to account for how much collateral support in a language you’ll need.
Think about your:
- Website
- One-pagers
- Marketing content
- Company newsletters
- Email communications
- Product or service design
- Customer service and support
- Training
I would recommend you prioritise and consider what you do and don’t translate from a pragmatic perspective.
For example, if you have an international speaking salesperson, you may need to focus on translating your sales deck sooner than your website, as the salesperson can get to work straight away on building relationships.
The most important thing to do following this is to back this up with a translation service. Use a recognised company and be prepared to pay for the service, and think in terms of migrating as well as translating.”
7. Is lead generation the same in every country?
“Essentially yes.
Most European countries have experienced buyers and established markets so you need to use multi-channel lead generation.
Wider afield, however, there are countries where you get better results from different channels. In Asia for example, emails see great results compared to Europe where it isn’t the highest converting channel.
Take note of these nuances from country to country, and dial-up whichever channel is working the best based on the geography.”
8. What is a common pitfall to avoid regarding international business expansion?
“One pitfall when expanding abroad is thinking that what you’ve learned in country one will apply to any other country without doing your homework first.
It may do, but just because you have converted deals and your sales cycle is 4 months in Asia, doesn’t mean it will be the same in Europe.
In America, you might be able to book 10 meetings a month from one SDR, but that may not be the same in the UK.
What you need to do is:
- Model your results in country one
- Take local advice on the next country you’re going into
- From this, understand how you might perform on KPI’s you’ve measured
- Then, put in some factors to recognize the geographic and cultural differences.
For example, the UK is the most heavily saturated country for European companies going to the US, and vice versa.
So, we have more products on the market than many other countries. What this means is the CMO in the UK will get more calls than the CMO in Spain, despite being from the same company.
Based on this, you can calculate how many outreaches you’ll need to complete to get appointments and have the first discussion.
Something to avoid as well is self-doubt.
If you aren’t immediately ‘as successful’ as you are on home turf, don’t automatically think you’re failing.
You’ve got to build the time into your model. If you put the right measurements in place you’ll know if you’re going in the right direction, and if you’re doing the right things.
The most important thing is to keep on top of your numbers, and follow your activity.”
9. What is something people underestimate when going into a new international market?
“The time it takes to get started, and often the cost.
If you predict it will take you 6 months to be successful, it will take 12. I’d advise to take what you expect the time and cost to be, and double it.
You’ve got to remember you aren’t a known brand in that country, and you haven’t got any momentum or build-up.
There will be an entire sales cycle to go through to educate your market as well as yourself and to learn about your new landscape.
People often forget this, once established in their home market where they will have previously gone through the same education piece. So in reality, you are aware of the time it took to ramp up and it will likely be a similar scenario in a new country.
The advantage is that when you expand internationally you can avoid some of the mistakes you made the first time around because you know more already.”
10. What should a company looking to expand do internally to set up correctly?
“You will need to make a few investments, setting up the right tools to properly manage and measure is imperative for example. For all the reasons we’ve mentioned already such as tracking KPIs and activity, and communicating with your team.
Also, I highly suggest you perform a thorough assessment of the market to make sure you can be successful.
There will always be unexpected challenges and bumps along the way, but knowing as much as you can before jumping in with both feet will put you in the best position.”
11. How much funding do I need and how long will my business expansion plans take?
“Unfortunately, this is a ‘how long is a piece of string question,’ it is different for everyone and there are lots of variables which can impact it.
It completely depends on the company, where they are expanding to, and their situation.
I can however advise, when you are making decisions about timing, the amount of money to invest, and deciding whether to go for it or not, don’t try and make the decision on your own.
Use the people around you to check and balance the decisions that you’re making.”
International expansion for a company of any size is a major commitment, but it can see your business and revenue grow to new heights.
It could turn out to be the best business move you ever make.
Using an outsourced sales agency to assist, test your market, provide local sales resources and ensure you have the right language capabilities can make a huge difference to the time it takes, and the money you invest to achieve your goals.
If you would like to find out how we can support your international expansion, get in touch to discuss your plans.