Once upon a time I had a client from an Asia Pacific country (we’ll call him Bill) that came into my office to talk about his US sales effort. I had received a call from the airport from Bill that he had just landed, was going to a trade show the next day and wanted me to set up some sales meetings for him. At first I thought he was joking as lining up sales meetings the same day or week is challenging at best in the US. But I was familiar with the business culture of his country and explained that in the US people do not answer the phone but rather use voicemail as a screening device. Setting up meetings is a challenging dance that takes time and you need to know who and why someone would want to speak with you and have your value proposition / 30 second elevator pitch ready to go. Where he came from people pick up the phone when you call and you generally get someone to speak to immediately, can get right into it.
Bill was a bit taken aback when I told him I would try to set up some meetings (I was able to) but could not guarantee anything due to the short notice, the need to get up to speed on his product as well as needing to know a bit about his competitors. His next shock was when I asked him who his competitors were? He said he didn’t have any and within 10 minutes I showed him five (95% of the time when someone tells me they don’t have any competitors I know they haven’t done any research). I then asked him how he was going to price his product, deliver it and service it after the sale. He replied “She’ll be right mate, no worries”.
Well, I was worried. I was putting my neck on the line to get Bill meetings from my business network based on my reputation and he needed to be ready or I was not willing to put him in front of anyone. Long story short I spent quite a bit of time with him that first day and after going through the fundamentals of international market entry strategy planning, he bought into it, starting mapping out a strategy and ended up setting up US operations a couple of years later.
I have seen similar scenarios many times and I should no longer be surprised but there are always a number of aspiring exporters that jump on a plane fly over and land with their proverbial sales “six guns” shooting expecting to make big money. I liken it to the “Fire, Ready, Aim” scenario which often leads to disappointment not only for the exporter but often for any purchasers who were unlucky enough to buy from them.
Preparing for market entry requires a pre entry plan that includes a solid reality check. How does your product stack up against the potential competition in your entry country of choice? And, what do you do better, cheaper and faster than said competition? If you can’t clearly articulate what makes your product / service better or it isn’t different then you’ll need to compete on price and service (which then becomes what you differentiate by).
On my next post, we will dive into what a competitive analysis should look like and what the objectives are.
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