Marketing & Selling “Small” to Win Big in Global Expansion Tech companies who get hyper local are winning the race to enter new markets in the push towards globalization. This means getting small in Marketing – content, language, cultural nuance and Sales – management, sales enablement and channel partners.
Global Expansion is a Question of When, Not If No doubt you’ve seen news stories about Amazon’s acquisition of Souq and what this means for the company’s entry to the Middle East. It’s not just Amazon or other e-commerce giants making international moves, it’s smaller and nimble technology companies looking for their next sources of growth beyond North America or home country. Whether its Eventbrite, Airbnb, Netflix, Uber, Spotify, Facebook, LinkedIn or China’s Qzone, there are huge strategic bets being made that hinge on how “small” these companies can get in their Sales and Marketing efforts. We’ve seen far fewer go in with a “one-size-fits-all” strategy, and we encourage leaders to consider how to get “small.”
How to Get “Small” – Creating a Localization Marketing Strategy There is no longer a “one-size-fits-all” approach for Marketing that will be effective as technology companies try to win over new customers. Here’s what we’re seeing as most effective “go-to-customer” approaches.
Connect to Needs in RealTime
Stress Customized Features
Consider Small-Scale Local Channels
Use real-time customer analytics to determine variations and depth of needs
Message how “localized” your product is, consider cultural and language nuance
Take advantage of whitespace in marketing through untraditional smallscale local channels
Segment Market by Micro-Geo Ensure marketing caters to each micro-market, and get granular in messaging
Understand Customer Variation Remember that “regional” customers are not homogeneous, high variations in close proximity
Major Global Tech Companies Make Data-Driven Marketing Decisions • With over 1,000,000 listings in 34,000 cities and 190 countries worldwide, Airbnb enlisted data-driven market prioritization and a mix of top-down and bottom-up global marketing strategies • With over 75 million members in over 190 countries, Netflix used locally created and globally distributed content with heavy attention to in-house subtitles and audio dubbings to become the world’s leading internet television • Eventbrite sales teams keep close eyes on emerging trends in each market to continually revamp its product – it offers localized UI and Help Center, currency/payment support, and in-country presence • China’s social networking website Qzone attracts a global audience through its platform customizability, which allows global brands to tap into its features to match campaign’s goals and reach target audience
© Market Strategy Group, 2017
MSG Insights – April 2017 www. mkt-strat.com
Decentralizing Your Sales Management to Get More Local Wins The following are some creative examples of effective best sales and business development practices in global expansion, as exemplified by several tech companies. Remember, one-size doesn’t fit all.
Roll-Out Sales by Micro Geo
Leverage Untraditional Partners
Make Sales Materials Matter
Roll-out by vast geographic region won’t work. North America or Europe and Africa is too vague
Team with channel partners who have “local domain” knowledge. These may not be the biggest kids on the block
Sales enablement requires customization. Giving your sales force the same meterial across markets won’t work
Decentralize Sales Management Maximize decision making authority to local sales teams. Too much power at the top can get in the way of empowering local sales experts
Benchmark Customer Success Customer expereince and success also needs “localization” – how are you protecting your company from attrition?
Global Tech Companies Have Taught Their Sales Force “Micro” Sales Habits • To harness international expansion opportunities, companies like Google, Facebook and LinkedIn created small teams from headquarters and sent them to new regions, tasked with hiring a local sales teams. This is has worked in their favor to preserve and export the company culture and ensure brand consistency around the world • Airbnb ensures close attention is paid to language variants at a granular geo-level and leverages word of mouth referral programs to increase sales • As a form of local partnership, Uber works closely with Chinese search engine giant Baidu to give it access to a network of apps and websites to drive sales. In India, Uber also develops partnerships and events around cricket matches, “because that’s the pulse of the country” • When launching in any new market, Spotify builds buzz through local influencers and early adopters, iterating their local features and sales materials based on feedback during this period, and launching to the full market after a few months when there is already a lot of hype surrounding the product
Getting Global Expansion Right MSG understands both the diverse opportunities and the extreme complexities of the global market. Growth in developed nations is as such the leaders of technology companies can no longer count on growth from markets at home. Instead, it is time to look strategically at international options to achieve growth goals. We know that doing this is hard, and have a team of seasoned experts who get it.
About Market Strategy Group Market Strategy Group sees business differently. To us, winning isn't about going from Point A to Point B. It's about aligning three distinct dimensions — business direction, people & process, and markets & customers — to drive growth. Getting this right is critical to your bottom line. And it’s more than an operational challenge, it is often a strategic issue. We have helped organizations get to an answer custom to your unique situation. We should chat if this is an issue. Joel Krauss (joel.krauss@mkt-strat.com) or Alex Kruzel (alex.kruzel@mkt-strat.com).
© Market Strategy Group, 2017
http://mkt-strat.com/
MSG Insights – April 2017 www. mkt-strat.com