How do you balance the global and local aspects of your sales approach?

You might have the best product in the market, but if there are a lot of local manufacturers where you want to go, you better be ready to sharpen your pencil, because quality is important, but pricing is more important.

Entering a new market is like building a startup - so you go through the same motions: - analyzing competitors - talking to local experts - adapting your product .. but most of all, you gotta talk to customers. No amount of market research can replace this. Find their pain points. Find what they hate about their current solution. Identify exactly what they're trying to do with yours. Hire local expertise to sell on your behalf. Even if you speak the language, you're likely not familiar with cultural nuances. But then again: nothing replaces customer research.

All the above is true, SWOT, market analytics, etc are necessary and most of them possible to do in a back office environment. But you also have to bare in mind that you are doing business with people, as such, soft skills, deep understanding and respect of local culture, it's geopolitical relations, local regulations and above all commitment and social engagement are fundamental to succeed.

Then, use your learnings from your customer interviews. Which pain points are different? Which end goal is the customer trying to achieve by using your product? Use exact quotes from your interviews in the pitch. Work with your local expert on tailoring the pitch to the culture you're working with, and let them take the lead. As international sales leader, when you enter a major market, I've always found it beneficial to spend time in-country and actually start learning the language. It teaches you a lot about what you're dealing with (+ builds respect and rapport!).

Adapt "the pitch"... should become a mantra we recently started engaging in a new overseas area and we did "the pitch"... You know the good old pitch... Well we had a picture on the pitch that would have caused a lot of offence. It truly saved us running it past a local who was and is a great vocalist for us and stopped us having an issues from the get go..

I've seen that in many cases local experience is now more important than global experience. In other words, prospects want to see how you help other organizations in their market and are not as impressed with case studies from abroad.

Global assets and case studies can add credibility to your story. A brand that has been around in many countries for a long time has demonstrated resilience and an understanding of a variety of consumers. However, eventually, everything comes down to how this expertise can be translated to win locally. You can take markets that have similarities in specific aspects that are relevant to your category (even if at a surface level the two may look different. This may be similar retail environment or retailers, consumer profiles, climate, culture, etc. Then (and only then) show how you won in them.

Think global, act glocal. Never set apart dna of a company but make it understandable to all target market. Per my own experience, we should never give for granted something that is considered an added value local would also be perceived the same way somewhere else. It could even happen that would not catch consumers attention at all. Adapt pitch is key.

Even more so, ensure that your local team in the new market is fully integrated with the core team! This means: - providing the same key benefits to them as to any other employee (sometimes difficult when using employers of record) - looping them into the same channels, conversations, events inside your company - ensuring that the majority of communication takes place in a common language (usually: English) - pushing their agenda internally The last point is huge: when expanding internationally, you will always face competition with the existing business. Which is more predictable. Which generates more revenue. Which has more powerful stakeholders. So always, always take the side of the international business.

Again, expanding internationally is like building a startup. You won't get it right the first time. Or the second time. So focus on speaking to customers, getting your product in the hands of people, and moving quickly. Most organizations fail not due to lack of speed, but due to high latency. Be quick to react. Document your learnings, then improve. Follow the build -> measure -> learn cycle over and over again.

International sales require agility. Regularly evaluate the effectiveness of your strategies and be ready to pivot based on feedback and changing market conditions.

The advice I like the most is to "globalize whenever you can and localize whenever you have to." From a sales standpoint, using a global standard CRM and sales system makes sense. However, make sure to localize (localise :) your messaging, content look and feel and case studies.

In ALL considerations, focus on maintaining a dynamic equilibrium between global standardization and local customization. Consider Global-Local governance by establishing a structure balances global oversight with local autonomy. Maintain cultural intelligence by a deep understanding of the culture-code of the region/country that influence business practices and consumer behavior. Cultivate and empower the local teams to make decisions aligned with global strategy but tailored to the local market. It's a process so balance between global standards and local autonomy, fostering a teams where global and local teams are equally valued and heard, to forge global competitiveness while being locally relevant and responsive.