Opening up sales in a new country is hard... Here are the 5 things I got wrong.

Entering a new market for a B2B product with a high purchase ticket is going to be tough.

You can’t really rely on:

1. Marketing
2. Testimony
3. Referral
4. Trusted relationships.

Don’t get me wrong client proof points are extremely valuable but depending on how the power flows in a large mult-national corporation. This can be meaningless in activating new products.

It can be an absolute blood bath for a first time founder with no executive or corporation experience.

So what happened?

I have done the following market entry in the last 8 years (in chronological order):

1. US Silicon Valley (fail)
2. NZ (fail)
3. US Washington DC ( Partial Success)
4. Canada (Success)
5. UK (Success)
6. US New York, Minnesota and DC (Ongoing)

So what did I get wrong in the US, NZ and US the first time?

Big No No Number 1 - I didn’t live in the market. I just flew in and flew out every few weeks. It doesn’t work. If you have no previous business relationships and you are dropping in cold with no credibility. If you sell a B2B product it relies on a company taking a bet on you and investing. If you fly in and fly out you are missing significant opportunities to intersect with key players continuously across events and your personal life. But if you live in the area for 6 months, you go from the “braggy foreign founder” to the “all in founder” very quickly. Everyone loves the all in founder.

Big No No Number 2 - Don’t sponsor a conference, you are missing the real game. US is known for it’s large scale conferences. I used to attend thinking I could snag a US executive and pitch them easily. It turns out, the meetings happen outside the conference. I found companies use conferences to connect their own remote teams and conduct strategic engagement with their largest suppliers. They are very hard to find or pin down.

Big No No Number 3 - Don’t be too cool and not pay your club member fee. Every culture and country has clubs that can give you credibility and a warm relationship. Australia is terrible at clubs, so I underestimated the value of the club. I’m not talking about hidden secret clubs or high society clubs where people conspire. I’m just talking about joining a member organization with prospects and a problem you care about. This is a great way to meet people who can guide you to the right prospect if done correctly and genuinely. I got this wrong in NZ and the US.

Big No No Number 4 - If you don’t have a sales blueprint or process that is not repeatable and flexible then don’t enter the new market yet. In alot of cases people are buying you not the business as a founder. So before you launch in a new country map out your USP, your discovery sessions, your mutual success process and adoption cycle. If you launch into a new market, you will struggle to compete against local founders with local ties if you don’t pivot from unique story telling to unique value creation. You can do that by absolutely nailing a discovery session with proof points and great qualification.

Big No No Number 5 - Don’t hire a sales team until you have acquired and matured enough customers for local testimony. Sales people you hire in a new country struggle to sell or engage if they don’t have a marketing engine that drives proof points and testimony. Also don’t hire a team that looked like your first team, new market sales require a different approach. You have to acquire them yourself!

How bad did it go wrong?

1. Over 100s of flights with limited success
2. Good initial activation but poor sales maturity
3. Pure physical and emotional exhaustion
4. Poor team member success.

But it eventually went right….

In my next article, I will take you through the 5 things that went right and how I was successful in the UK and Canada.