How to Sell Internationally, From Home

This post can also be read on the SalesforceIQ Blog.

For over a year, my role at Salesforce has been a unique one. I have been tasked with selling one of our newer product lines (SalesforceIQ) from the comforts of Silicon Valley into a set of countries that I had previously never been to; Australia & New Zealand. A year ago, SalesforceIQ had almost no footprint in these countries, and today I'm proud to say that this is one of our most successful regions. Through this whirlwind experience and responsibility, I've developed a playbook for anyone who finds themselves in a similar situation. 

1. Learn the Land:I'll never forget the 1:1 with my manager where I got the news that ANZ (Australia & New Zealand) would be my selling territory because I truly knew very little about the region. To top it off, we also had no prior marketing or sales footprint there for SalesforceIQ. However, once the surprise wore off, I set to work to get a better understanding of these countries and tackle what would become one the best experiences of my professional career.

One of the first things that I did was head to YouTube to watch a couple hours of videos that touched on the history, culture, industry, and current state of these locations (maybe a cat video too). This really started to give me a good foundation for the people that I would soon be interacting with, and it even boosted my credibility in selling into ANZ simply because I wasn't ignorant to the basics.

2. Time it Right:Hands down, the main difficulties that I had early on was figuring out how to balance such a different time zone with my own life in San Francisco. I simply couldn't start work at 2:30pm and finish at 12am, and so I needed a solution that was sustainable. The answer became a simple one once I realized that the decision was solely up to me to figure out because no one else on my team was in this predicament. In the end here are the 3 key things that I did which made all the difference:

• Block your calendar: Clearly blocking my calendar ensured that I didn't get meetings put on past 6:30pm at night (unless there was an exception needed, and sometimes flexibility is needed).
• Be flexible within reason: Since there are a little under 4 hours each day where I could be actively selling into ANZ, I also opened up my Sunday schedule for a couple of hours (Monday in the ANZ time zones) where I would take calls.
• Know when to stop: Lastly, when I got home each night I force myself to set my email, Gchat, Slack, Chatter, and work down. The challenge here was that I may have been done with work for the evening, but ANZ would still be humming along for a number of hours past that, and so I would awake to an overflowing inbox. Don’t get me wrong, I strive to attain the mythical inbox zero as much as the next person, but having a work life balance is tantamount to keeping the quality of your work at its best.

3. Make Friends:The good news in all of this was that Salesforce has thriving offices in Sydney & Melbourne Australia, as well as in Auckland, New Zealand. The reps here were my counterparts who I sold SalesforceIQ products with, and it provided an exceptional opportunity to make strong internal relationships with my fellow salespeople along with the regions’ leadership. These relationships were not only a big reason for our consistent success in ANZ, but it is hands down one of the greatest joys of my job to work with such a phenomenal group. At the end of the day, many of my colleagues abroad are more than colleagues; they are true friends.  

4. Talk the Talk:Now, I’m not saying to go and speak with an Aussie or Kiwi accent, but I am saying that it doesn’t pay to speak like an American either (Plus, I could never shake my California accent). One of the things that I quickly learned about ANZ is that its people are nationalistic, and tend to get along with people who understand that. Naturally, one of the best ways to fit in in that sense is to speak with the colloquial phrases and terms that they themselves use. If you ever catch me on a call to Australia, trust me when I say that you’ll notice heaps of difference in the words I choose to say. Switching your vocabulary isn’t an easy thing to do, but it pays off in a big way when building customer rapport and trust.

5. Get a Megaphone: Because I partner with a large number of AEs, RVPs, SEs, SDRs, and BDRs (acronyms FTW) in ANZ, the actual act of product enablement and developing our selling strategy became complex, fast. Each stakeholder group in the region has a different role to play and different needs of their own in order to develop a sustainable sales machine. Below are my top two tips to ensure that you are multiplying your selling and product expertise:

• The top-down approach: When new products get introduced into the Salesforce family, their distribution does not magically happen; it must first be internally sold and proven to the reps. One of the best ways to do this is to work closely with their managers, and their managers’ managers to discuss the value and potential opportunity in front of them that the new products hold (I even did a few spontaneous demos). This way, it became a much more powerful message when a manager is backed my mission rather than just going it alone.
• Stay relevant, not annoying: Once the reps and myself had begun to really start getting our sales motion down, the challenge became ‘how could I continue to enable reps on new product developments and resources without them feeling like I was badgering them’? To effectively answer this, I turned to our own product within Salesforce called Chatter (Similar to a private Facebook group) where I was able to update our specific page with resources and communicate with my reps on a mass scale. In addition to this, I also led product and selling strategy sessions to drive up everyone's product knowledge and comfort of partnering together on deals. In keeping things simple, exciting, and fast-paced, we accomplished exactly what we needed to.

6. Go Native: When I was growing up, I used to ask my Dad why he traveled so much to conduct business when he could just have a conference call with his customers; I now understand why that just doesn’t cut it sometimes.    

Lastly, travel is expensive and takes resources. In fact, I’m on an airplane right now as I write this. However, the numbers show that it is well worth the investment of at least one trip in order to meet with your internal team in the region, as well as with your customers. This especially rang true for ANZ because face-to-face business is a staple of the region. My advice is to go in with a plan, prioritize your time wisely, set your goals for what you want to get out of it, and don’t forget to dedicate time to enjoy the new place you’re in!

In conclusion, thank you for taking the time to read this article. I hope that it provides a line of thinking for anyone who is about to embark on an international business development journey where you aren’t actually going anywhere at all. Please throw this article a ‘like’ if you enjoyed it, and comments below are much appreciated.