Taking your business global has never been easier. Expanding your brand across domestic lines to a global audience can be a stressful, challenging, yet exciting time for your business.
There are a range of tools that have made international business easier. These include: the internet, streamlined global distribution, accessibility of localization, and multi-currency payment platforms. However, ensuring success and maximizing your ROI is where things can get tricky. There are so many essentials, but above all else, it is important to have the right expertise, an efficient and knowledgeable sales team, and to develop a value proposition that will work in your target market.
Why Do Companies Choose to Go Global?
Imagine an untapped market of customers that expanded far beyond the limits of borders. If you can be moderately successful in your own local region, the idea is that you could find hundreds or thousands of those same consumers across the world. That potential in itself is the largest trigger for companies to take their business global.
Businesses and investors choose to go international because:
An increased audience can increase value, not only monetary, but also the social and functional value of a brand as well.
A global brand doesn’t need to only rely on its domestic market. Expanding competition globally steers the business away from only local competitors. It can expand the sales life of its offerings by finding seemingly unlimited markets to position itself in.
They can work with multi-national enterprises and develop strong international relationships with influential brands.
It helps offset the risks of starting a business and provides opportunities to meet objectives far more quickly.
A product created in one country can solve the challenges within another without physically needing to be there - and increase the profit and ROI of said product that could be at risk of decline within its domestic market.
What Should You Consider Before You Take Your Business Global?
Business owners and investors know that there are more things to consider to take their business global than just building a website and hoping for the best. It’s crucial that, from a sales perspective, your brand and product will actually mesh well in your target market. Just because a product does well in one market doesn’t mean it will in another, especially when cultural and language differences come into play.
Before you take any major steps towards international markets, make sure you do your research to find out whether it’s the right market and whether you need to adapt or even change your offerings to succeed with a given audience. Other questions you should ask and research include:
Will I disrupt my target market? We don’t necessarily only mean in a negative way, but whether your product will make an impact and resonate with potential customers in a new market.
Can I find international sales teams to handle production and delivery in other landscapes so all steps don’t have to be completed locally, which could possibly be more expensive and time-consuming?
Will buyers in these new markets be sensitive to working with foreign competitors over locally-owned ones? You can usually take a look at how other international businesses (not necessarily in your industry) are doing within that market and go from there.
How different is the sales process in each new market?
What laws within the new market, such as employment standards and trade laws, will inhibit or require extra work for your brand to reach its consumers?
Will the difference in culture, location, or even time zones affect how I can get my product to my customers and ensure a positive customer service experience?
A important factor is how comfortable you feel within each new country. If you’re strictly English-speaking and have no ability to speak any other language, how well do you believe your brand will do while working with non-English speakers in a country you’ve never visited thousands of miles away? Oftentimes, it’s best to start with what’s familiar and branch out one country at a time while you build connections, recognition, and comfortability in each new market.
How Can My Business Increase Its Probability of Success in an International Market?
Luckily, there are many approaches that you can incorporate into your business plan that can increase the probability of success no matter which market you decide to dive into. It’s important to build your own strategy that includes important factors such as exporting goods, regulations, user and customer support, pricing, delivery, and marketing. If you can finalize how you will approach each area with set-in-stone (and often tried and failed) methods, you’ll be far more likely to succeed in maximizing your ROI long-term.
Unless you’ve already done business in your target market, you can’t know exactly how your product will fair. You must take the time to do market research and identify where your brand may need to adapt prior to going global. You may need to rewrite and strategize along the way, so be prepared to make changes while you get comfortable.
It’s going to be different. Hugely different. So be sure to focus and find a team of global experts to guide you along the way and help ease the transition into reaching your target markets.
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