Article: Selling Internationally

Question 1

Elaborate on the first question “Do you know your customers?”

Answer 1

• Good CRM system that enables you to segment audiences and perform analytics that can give you the demographic characterstics you need
• Why do customers buy your product?

Question 2

Elaborate on the second question “Do you understand your internal sales culture?”

Answer 2

• Sit down with the sales team and discuss the following things:
• > What are the stages of the value cycle?
• > What do you do and why? What are the values which lead you to making certain decisions?
• > Which materials do you consider as important and why?

Question 3

Elaborate on the third question “Do you even need to expand?”

Answer 3

• Are your domestic markets even saturated enough?

Question 4

Elaborate on the fourth question “Do you understand the international environments in which you want to sell?”

Answer 4

• When you know your customers well enough you should be able to project this on the target market and identify potential customers
• Addtionally, you should be able to modify your approach to customers with other values
• > Where might exist differencs in the sales cycle? In values?

Question 5

Elaborate on the fifth question “Will you need to alter your approach to account for these differences?”

Answer 5

• Take time to understand your customer base and the cultural and regional characterstics of those markets

Question 6

Elaborate on the sixth question “Will you need to alter your products or services to account for cultural differences?”

Answer 6

• Expanding to foreign markets might require companies to amend their product and service offerings as well as their selling efforts

Question 7

Elaborate on the seventh question “Are you marking the best alignments for your products and services?”

Answer 7

• Align with products and businesses in international markets that are complementary with your own products

Question 8

Elaborate on the eigth question “Do you have the capacity to sell internationally?”

Answer 8

• Companies can get into trouble when the service they are offering isn´t repeatable or the products aren´t of a consistent quality and performance
• Are your supply chains and your supplier network robust and agile enough?

Question 9

Elaborate on the ninth question “Is it better to sell direct or to use an intermediary business partner?”

Answer 9

• It could be better to find a reputable business partner that already has a local presence and cultural awareness
• Selling directly could lead to higher profit margins
• Often depends on the country you want to sell in
• Important to know your risk tolerance

Question 10

Elaborate on the tenth question “Where do you find the right international business partners?”

Answer 10

• How well will your partner work with your customer persona in a given country?
• Do they have the required skills and expertise?

Question 11

List the ten questions a company should ask itself when selling internationally

Answer 11

• Do you know your customers?
• Do you understand your internal sales culture?
• Do you even need to expand?
• Do you understand the international environments in which you want to sell?
• Will you need to alter your approach to account for these differences?
• Will you need to alter your products or services to account for cultural differences?
• Are you marking the best alignments for your products and services?
• Do you have the capacity to sell internationally?
• Is it better to sell direct or to use an intermediary business partner?
• Where do you find the right international business partners?