Aligning Your Questions To Build Your International Business

Cindy King — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 23:00:00 +0000

International Business Development Strategy

When I first speak to clients who are not familiar with international business development I almost always have to do the same thing.

Get back to basics.

You see most clients call me when they are ready to go into international markets. They have already made a few outlines in their strategy, but they realize they need a stepping stone to help they get into action.

But their questions are already too far advanced.

They have not answered the more basic questions. And you need the answers to these basic questions before you can go any further.

You know…

The difference between the questions most businesses ask me and the information they need to know before anyone can answer these questions reminds me of Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs pyramid.

A Quick Exercise

Look at this pyramid and think of the questions you need to ask your foreign market with regards to the product or service you want to sell to them.

Yes, you do need to stretch your imagination a little. But if you do this, you can see where a common problem lies.

Optimizing Business

You see…

Most of my clients start off by asking me questions that are too advanced for a new foreign business. They assume that their new international business is an extension of their basic domestic business model.

So their questions fit more in the green or blue part of this pyramid:

How do we sell our products to an international market?
What do we need to sell our products abroad?

Understanding Your Foreign Prospects Uniqueness

But no one can answer these questions without looking at your international market through a different lens than the one you use for your domestic market. Yes, it is a completely new market.

You need to know the answers to questions that fall in the red and orange part of this pyramid.

What does your client need?
Are your clients needs different?
How will your prospects respond to you?
Will they feel threatened in any way?
Will you appear friendly, in the right area of communication they need?

Now, you do not always have the answers to these questions. In fact you should not hang around to get them. Besides, even if you do have answers, they may be wrong.

In Maslow’s pyramid these are after all very personal questions.

So…

How can we find out what the answers to these questions are?

Communication

The key is in the yellow part of the pyramid. This is where you need to start.

Because you need to:

Make contact with your foreign prospects.
Communicate with them.

Before you can get anywhere else.

And…

This is very important…

During this “get to know each other” phase you must not forget to verify your assumptions about the answers to all the questions you can think of in the red and orange areas.

This is why you must start here before you can answer any of the more advanced questions. If anyone answers any of your green or blue questions before this, you risk making false assumptions. And in cross-cultural business relations this can happen without you realizing it.

Ongoing market research and business intelligence limits this risk.

Don’t forget to have a look at these two articles. They do not speak about Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. But they also explain the sequences involved in international business and why certain questions need to come before others.

The 7 Traditional Paths To International Business Development

5 Traditional Marketing Steps To Become An International Business

Start With Relationships

Let’s look at it another way.

International business is based on international sales.
International sales are based on relationships.
And relationships need to start someplace and then grow.

When you begin to develop your business abroad you will have to do some very basic tasks first.

These basic tasks will involve market research or the gathering of information.

The problem is that most business forget to ask the basic questions, or enough of these basic questions, during this market research phase.

Without the answers to these basic questions you can easily assume your new international market is like the markets you are familiar with and get off on a bad start.

Both Sides Of The Coin

This can work for you and against you.

Of course, you can be lucky and make all the right assumptions.

But you can also waste time and money creating the wrong offer or the wrong sales message for your foreign market.

And don’t forget this last scenario…

I have come across a number of businesses who do not believe they could sell their wares to foreign shores. Business is a struggle in their own domestic market and they cannot believe all the hassle of foreign exchange rates and foreign clients can be worth the effort.

And yet, these are the businesses that miss real opportunities.

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Aligning Your Questions To Build Your International Business

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