How T o Succeed in International Business Introduction Mathieu - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

How T o Succeed in International Business

Introduction  Mathieu Nicodème  20 years of International Sales  Worked in Europe, Latin America, US, Asia and Middle East  Enjoy the field

T oday’s Presentation  How to expand your business internationally  A check list of important aspect to consider  A few advices regarding the inevitable questions raised by international partners and distributors

A Journey

A Journey in 1987

A Journey in 1987 If you don’t go, you don’t know!

A Polish Company: Podróż  Polish SMB less than 50 employees  Successful in Poland right now  Develop their own solution  Consist of hardware and software  Subscription/Service model possible  B2B market  Standalone solution  Can be integrated

Podróż wants to go International  How to make it work?  How to make it worth?

Where to go  SWOT  What is the competition doing?  What kind of price do they have?  What is their distribution model?  Identify the best potential  Take advantage of incoming demands

Prepare  Everybody must be on board  Translate and adapt : ◦ Marketing material ◦ Sales material ◦ Invoices and certificate  Specific norms / Usage?  Define your first customer Sector / Type / Name  Integration capacity (Manual, API, SDK)  Local marketing event targeting your prospects

Why a local partner?  Important for Support / Sales / Marketing  Language and culture  Customers from your target group  Will assume part of the financial risk  Will be instrumental is adapting your marketing and communication within the local market  POS with other solution related

Contracts  First contract should be simple and straight to the points  Quantities should be mentioned  Exclusivity: ◦ Time limited ◦ Territory/Sectors restricted ◦ Quantity/Success motivated

4 types of partners – part 1  Distributors ◦ To sell quantities over reseller and/or customers ◦ Will expect marketing investments and fast selling  Integrator ◦ To sell solution within a project ◦ Could be one shot, could be with every project ◦ Hard work but rewarding eventually

4 types of partners – part 2  Local Sales Office ◦ Dedicate one or more Sales People to market the solution ◦ Usually ask for a retainer (3 to 5K a month) and kick back on sales ◦ Will ask for exclusivity => Can be a good solution to start a market but it is rarely a miracle solution. Be present, be active and do not waste time to reconsider

4 types of partners – part 3  VAR ◦ Real money via the integration and/or the support ◦ Should be interested in the subscription. ◦ Need a well documented API/SDK ◦ Will require good support for development => If the model is right this is a win-win situation

SELL !

T o sell  Be close to the sales process to understand what is working and what is slowing you down  Focus on a limited amount of sectors to have a good understanding of your potential  If a partner is involved, join the party to visualize the process and the results.

Conclusion  Specially in the EU context, it is easy to recruit customers outside of your usual areas of work  It does not have to be expensive  Do not believe in stereotype but know them  Be open minded but not naive

Thank you - Dziękuję Ci Mathieu Nicodème Mathieu.nicodeme@gmail.com +358 40 500 5470

3 CASES

The Publisher goes to Middle East  Invest in local marketing event and dedicate sales and technical forces to the market  After 8 months, a customer is ready to buy, but it needs an Arabic version  Cost for Arabic localization are too expansive, no common ground, the market is abandoned

Startup wants to recruit VAR  Major account in France requesting a deployment of the solution within its organization  VAR will do the integration, the translation and the support of the solution  Software architecture forbid the insertion of a layer between the customer and the Startup  Project is abandoned

Specialist goes to Germany  Startup makes a market study to identify the biggest actors in the laboratory sector in Germany  Using a local support, meeting are set with key actors of these companies  Within 12 months 2 major actors are deploying the solution and 2 others are evaluating.

Thank you - Dziękuję Ci Mathieu Nicodème Mathieu.nicodeme@gmail.com +358 40 500 5470