Navigating New Markets - Insights from a Year in North America

1. Background

When I was first approached by the founders for this role, it did not take too long for me to say yes, despite not fully knowing what lied ahead. My experience thus far was only limited mostly to within Asia-Pacific (APAC), but I was really keen for an exposure stint in the North American market.

My time spent opening up the North American market was met with several challenges, a number of small wins, and countless lessons. In this reflection article, I want to share some of the key takeaways of this recent experience - essentially what worked and didn't, as well as the approach and strategies that helped me navigate this highly competitive landscape.

Note that I will not go too deeply into the technical or commercial details, for confidentiality reasons. Also, the views and opinions presented here are of my own.

2. Entering a New Market and Adapting to Local Norms

Logically a key milestone of success in entering a new market would be to get the first customer, and then growing or scaling the customer base. In parallel, one could also consider establishing partnerships as an initial benchmark of progress.

Here is where we had a problem, save for a few initial early customers who we’ve gotten through referrals from Singapore, we literally started with zero leads in the North American market. Initial efforts were therefore focused on building the pipeline.

Setting up outbound sales channels

• There were a lot of things we had to figure out?—?how to structure our outbound approach, what network to leverage, what trade shows to attend, who the local competitors are, and who our customers are.?In general we worked backwards from identifying our ICP (Ideal Customer Profile) based on what worked (or essentially historical data) in APAC. This laid the groundwork for the rest of our approach.
• Various avenues were explored before we come to finalise on a particular outbound sales approach - generally consisted of an in-house outbound SDR (Sales Development Representative) team. I won’t share the full details here but feel free to DM me if you wish to know more; though I will share that 3rd party lead generation services did not work for us. It could be because the sequences were not well crafted, the shortlisting of leads were not specific enough, or we were simply not using them correctly.
• Our website, white papers, and case studies were mostly overhauled to make them more palatable for an international audience. We also looked for prominent trade shows in the same sectors, and worked on designing a booth layout that can best demonstrate our capabilities in person. I will cover more on my trade show experiences in a later segment.?

Adapting to local interaction styles

• The customers here are more well versed and knowledgeable in most things automation related. Even in smaller organisations there are dedicated teams handling and sourcing such systems, whereas lots of customer education in Southeast Asia was still necessary. This tied in to why our pitch might have been overly long because we spend a number of slides explaining certain technical metrics, which many US SMBs (Small & Medium-sized Business) are aware of and already tracking as a performance metric.
• This may be anecdotal, but we noticed a subtle yet important difference when engaging with customers. In Singapore, or perhaps APAC in general, we were used to a more formal approach—minimal self-introductions and a focus on methodically presenting our deck. A one-hour introduction call seemed a reasonable amount of time.
• However, in the US, we observed a different dynamic. Meetings often started with small talk and detailed self-introductions, seamlessly weaving into the main discussion agenda. Instead of walking through the entire deck, we found it more effective to focus on 2-3 key slides highlighting our value proposition and architecture, and then opening the floor for discussion to better understand their pain points.

Refining pricing strategy and model

• Pricing is always a sensitive topic to customers, but it shouldn't have to be, as long as the required investment aligns with the desired outcomes or ROI. It goes without saying that customers in APAC and North America have different buying power, and hence refining the pricing strategy for the new market has always been a crucial task.
• Deep dive studies into our competitors' products were important, along with understanding their pricing models. We found that there wasn't a standardised way of how the competitors price their solution, and this meant we needed to distill the value of their offerings down to a common key metric so that we can perform a direct comparison with ours.
• As the new kid on the block, we'd never want to be the most expensive one. Yet, we have to be mindful not to price ourselves too low and risk being perceived as 'inferior' in quality (more prevalent when there is hardware involved). Eventually we settled on a rather reasonable range based on positive feedback from potential customers.

3. Importance of Strategic Partnerships

Due to the vast geographical scale of North America, partners were essential, as I was operating mainly solo. It wasn’t sustainable to fly frequently to remote areas to install trials or resolve on-site issues. We needed a more efficient way to extend our reach and influence while optimising costs. Partnerships provided the solution by allowing us to service regions locally through trusted partners.

Partner outreach approach

• As we tried to improve the performance of our outreach efforts, we experimented with routing the effort to potential partners, distributors and integrators instead of direct end customers.
• This turned out to be a positive move because once we made the adjustment, the number of meetings booked increased drastically. This was one of many moments where we realised what worked in APAC do not translate directly to a foreign market like the US.
• Pitching to partners is similar to pitching customers, except there is room for more collaboration and the benefits feel much more mutual. A lot more hand-holding was required, where we aren't simply doing an introduction or showcasing our solution, but also a lot of training was needed on installation, troubleshooting, understanding and navigating various features of the product.

Maintaining strong relationship matters

• The main objective of building partnerships is to leverage their network of clients, where our solution can potentially fill a gap in their service offerings as well. There was also an 'assurance' effect when we meet new customers together with our partners as the former would feel more at ease knowing there is local support.
• In order to ensure continued success with partners, we had to actively build a good relationship with them. Apart from general obligations like product and sales training, subtle things like response time of our team was crucial as well. There will definitely be times where partners will consult us on some technical matters or to discuss the flexibility of pricing, and we can't leave them hanging.
• Given that most partners have a plethora of different products in their arsenal, we needed to incentivise them for placing priority on our product. All things being equal, whichever product range from different vendors can help the partners drive more revenue, that product will receive the most resources. It makes sense for us to be more proactive in bringing deals to partners wherever possible.

Expanding the scope of our reach

• With partners in key regions, we could feel more confident in providing assurance to customers for product support, site walk, along with customer satisfaction. Some partners have business relationships with their customers stretching over decades. If such partners are convinced of our value proposition and commercial potential, their recommendation will hold significant weight in pitching to their existing customer base.
• Tapping into the partners' existing customers will allow us to scale more rapidly and efficiently, at the same time reducing our travel and operational costs. Ideally we wish to have representation in every state in the US, though realistically there isn't a need because not every state possess the relevant industries for our use cases.

4. Power of Trade Shows and Industry Events

"There's no school like old school" applies to participating at trade shows. In terms of customer outreach, technology has given us multiple tools to manage online marketing for inbound, and automated cold email sequencing for outbound. Yet I feel there is still nothing more directly engaging than being in front of potential clients and pitching your solution or product in-person.

Sense of presence

• Trade shows were necessary for us because it showed that we are physically present in the market, to send the message that we are here. This helped create brand awareness, and also allowed us to study our competitors up close.
• While desktop research was helpful, we only discovered many of our competing solution providers when we encountered them at these events. It was the same for customers, where a substantial number of decision makers from small and medium-sized businesses might not be active online, but could be found browsing in person at such trade shows.
• Since our solution comprised of a hardware portion, having an exhibition booth worked well in our favour. It always feel better to have something tangible to see and hold, instead of merely looking at a deck of slides or a corporate video. It was also easier to demonstrate to attendees the concept of how our solution works.

Forced us to improve our pitch

• The immense size of the exhibition halls in US led to some interesting observations. For large shows held in Vegas or Chicago, many attendees come from outside the city or state, which means their time at the show could be very limited (effectively 2.5 days or less). And in this short amount of time they'd want to cover most of the show. This meant they could not always stop and talk for long durations at every booth they are interested in.
• Hence, as exhibitors we had to make our pitch sharp and concise. If we babble on for too long, they will lose interest fast. Even though Americans are generally a friendlier crowd than what I've seen in shows in Asia, their attention span might be short because of the need to cover the entire exhibition space in the limited time.
• As our pitch got more streamlined each time, eventually it was easier to open up conversations with attendees and actually get them to share more on their pain points and objectives. We were able to capitalise on the learnings from our experiences at trade shows during other introductory calls and meetings as well.

Hearing immediate feedback and pain points

• Adding on from above, once we managed to get the attention of potential customers, it was crucial to let them talk as well. There was no better opportunity to gather immediate feedback of our solution from such a high concentration of prospects in a matter of days.
• Hearing specific pain points from potential clients directly helped us further angle our pitch to bring out different aspects of our value proposition. It was a constant loop of iterative improvements, the more we talked to people in trade shows.

5. Navigating Market Challenges and Building Resilience

With a combination of cold outreach, trade shows, and tapping on our partners' network, we got busy with quite a number of customer engagements, as well as onsite trials. The level of activity was high, but merely getting our foot in the door was far from enough, as we encountered several curveballs along the way. Regardless, it was important to understand that immediate success do not come easily, and that whatever we were doing contributed to data points that will build a foundation for future progress.

Subtle pain point differences

• We've definitely generated interest from relevant customers, but their pain points vary slightly from the existing customer base in APAC at times. We came to know that US customers mostly prefer sourcing for systems that act more as an additional module in their overarching enterprise system. There were more integration requests, coupled with a lack of urgency from some discussions which led me to believe that we were not addressing some of their key pain points well.
• It took us a little bit of time to dig deeper by talking to more potential clients and reframing some of our discovery questions and qualifying criteria. Different versions of our pitch deck were experimented with, and gradually we found a better angle to position ourselves.
• Interestingly, we found the Mexican market to bear some similarities to Southeast Asia, in terms of technological awareness and organisation readiness. Price sensitivity was pretty comparable as well. This made communication of the product value proposition and use cases more transferable from our home markets.

Competition

• We encountered several direct competitors in North America, most of whom are purely operating domestically in the US market as we have not seen their presence in APAC. Each time we attend a trade show, aside from seeing some familiar competitors, there will always be another 1-2 companies with similar offerings who we're seeing for the first time.
• In a direct comparison, I’d say our solution appeared more advanced than most competitors we encountered. That said, some of them, with more years in the market and significantly greater funding, certainly offer more specialised features and a more refined marketing approach.
• That said, the big boys are each targeting slightly different sectors, and given the geographical scale of North America, there is still room to play and a large pool of underserved customers. Finding these people were challenging but our initial customer base provided validation that they exist.

Keep looking for different avenues

• We never stopped spreading the word, and kept finding channels to pitch and to share. Significant portion of time was spent on building up partners with more training, so that customers under their purview would gain enough confidence to renew or expand existing projects.
• I also participated in the GIA (Global Innovation Alliance) program organised by Enterprise Singapore in partnership with Plug and Play. This program provided ample support and introductions to VCs/investors for Singaporean companies looking to expand in the US with the Bay Area as their first stop. While the core objective of the program was not a perfect alignment with my mission of getting more customers, the exposure resulted in some conversations with potential customers nonetheless.
• Shout out to Block 71 Silicon Valley for all the assistance as well. Together with SGN (Singapore Global Network), they have successfully built a community of Singaporeans working and living in the US, and created a 'safe house' environment for overseas Singaporeans whenever they feel overwhelmed or in need of support. The consistent networking events organised by B71 provided another channel for me to spread the word.

6. Lessons for Future Reference

Some observations and lessons over the past year:

Product-Market fit can differ from market to market

• What has worked in APAC may not necessarily transfer to another market like the US. While there wasn't any issue with the value proposition of the solution, there were subtle differences in pain points for customers in the US. As such, the pitching angle needs to be curated accordingly.
• Intuitively we know these differences should exist, but subconsciously we may still believe that if it has worked for one type of customer in a certain sector, all we had to do is rinse and repeat the process in another region. While this isn't necessarily a bad approach to kick things off, the important matter is we acknowledge the variance and make iterative improvements on the pitch and positioning.

Location matters

• More targeted and focused outreach could be done to prospects in the same business sector and/or geographical region as our initial North American customers.
• If one company in a certain sector has a particular pain point, it would make sense that its competitors should also have the same or similar pain points. In a bid to properly sense or test out the entire market, you risk stretching yourself too thin. Hence, location focus is important.
• A lot of time is being spent on the road, and this could be optimised by being based in a more strategic location, such as the Midwest instead of California. Aside from savings in time, this would also have helped alleviate a sizeable portion of living expenses due to the high cost of living in California.

Importance of local representation

• Roping in a local partner for customer meetings and site visits provides a lot of assurance for the customer as it shows we have buy-in from a local entity, and local support will be available should the customer run into any issues with the system.
• While it may possible for products that are entirely software based, having hardware elements in our solution means we do not always have the luxury of managing everything remotely. This may still come to fruition eventually, but for the initial stages, a well trained local partner is crucial for onboarding and customer success.

Understanding cultural nuances

• This is closely related to local representation, but before we even get to earn the trust of a local partner, we first have to connect well with them.
• It may not be at the top of most people's list, but making good small talk is often overlooked. Especially when you're trying to sell to someone in an industrial town in America, it helps to know at least a little about the local happenings just so we can open up the conversation more.
• As someone who watches a lot of sports, being up to date on their local games or sporting heroes has helped me create lots of conversation topics which further led to commercial discussions. For instance, I spent almost the entire time over dinner talking to our Mexican partners about Canelo Alvarez, Checo Perez and Chicharito. In the US, some knowledge of NFL, NBA and MLB can get you pretty far.

Best practices may not apply for everyone

• In preparation for this overseas venture, we came across lots of social media posts, articles and books on the best practices for market expansion and driving revenue.
• No doubt the content creators reaped massive gains by following certain styles or methods, I think we should be mindful of the specific industry they are from, or the geographical market they are operating in. What may have worked very well for a B2C software likely won't have the same effect for a B2B company.
• By extension, what I have listed here may only work for select companies with similar offerings. Eventually what could be more effective is adapting the parts that work and discarding the rest, and the final playbook would be a mix of advice from others who have done this before, alongside your own experience and judgement.

7. Closing Thoughts

If you made it to this part, I thank you for taking the time to read through everything so far.

From a professional perspective, this entire experience has made me truly appreciate the difficulty in starting something from scratch. In my case it wasn't technically from scratch but you get the idea. There were tons of things that could go wrong, and getting people's buy-in was extremely daunting, sometimes downright demoralising. Yet, I have seen progressions and small wins happening seemingly out of nowhere, might as well be luck. And maybe all it took was simply more luck.

I once came across this quote - Luck is what happens when Preparation meets Opportunity. I feel that luck definitely plays a part in success, and we can all make our own luck in some ways. Not making it directly, but we can 'pad the stats' to increase luck's occurrence. Looking back, there may have been times when I was not as prepared as I thought, or my ability to identify opportunities wasn't as polished. Alternatively, I could have already been doing everything right but more time was needed.

Guess I would never know for sure, but what I do know is that I gave my best with the resources and knowledge that I had, and I'm glad to say I am proud of that.

From a personal development point of view, cliche as it may sound but I've actually learned a lot more about myself. Being the sole person stationed overseas with a 15-hour time difference can be a really lonely affair sometimes. I never knew I had the mental fortitude and discipline in me to push through it. There was a lot of support of course, from co-workers, friends, family, and my ever supportive wife - who told me without hesitation to take up this opportunity the moment I shared with her.

I'm extremely thankful for the entire experience, and I hope the lessons learned and the perspectives gained can be put to good use, in whatever my next adventure may be.

If any readers would also like to know more about the areas regarding administration (eg. visa applications, incorporation of a business entity) or settling down (eg. getting a social security number, opening a local bank account, looking for rental apartments) in the US, feel free to DM or reach out, I'd be happy to share.