Cindy King's International Business Blog » business development

3 Reasons Why I Can’t Help Your International Business

Cindy King — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 23:00:08 +0000

Have you got a great idea for an international business? It’s not always easy to find specific how-to information for international business development and this is why I provide some international business resources here on this blog, simply to help others.

But this leads to my getting emails with all sorts of odd international business requests. You see, I only help businesses at the point of new market entry, which is a very specific moment of time in the process of creating an international business… more about that below.

This is why I thought I’d share with you here the 3 main reasons why I won’t be able to help you with your international business. Here they are.

#1: Export Business Model

“My grandfather has a cement company in Japan and I want to import his products in the US”
“We are in Turkey and sell industry-specific pipes to manufacturing plants all over the world”
“We are based in Mexico and produce large scale artwork and want to sell directly to international buyers”

In short, these examples are all about exporting and importing products. To put it bluntly, I’m sorry, but I can’t help you here.

To be perfectly honest, I find import and export a bit boring. I do find this easy enough to do, but it’s just not what I like doing.

Besides, it’s a waste of my particular skills which allow me to get a much deeper understanding of:

What would make people from a different country buy your products or services
How to get them to buy
What you need to do to get more international sales.

This is how I help businesses to adapt their products, marketing and sales tactics to get more international sales.

Now, I do occasionally help export businesses with general tips to get unstuck. But I can only do this if there is a real business functioning in the background, and most of these requests are only based on an idea of exporting products into a new market. There’s no actual business up and running yet, so I can’t help them get unstuck if they haven’t even started.

I can’t help people with ideas simply because it’d take up too much of my time, cost too much money and my interests are at another level as you’ll see below.

Tip

Get on the phone and talk to the people listed on my international business resources. Find the international trade lists for your industry. Talk with the Trade Commissioner from your country’s embassy in the foreign country involved. Listen and follow up the advice you get.

That’s just a starting point.

You’ll probably need to travel and meet with the right people. You’ll need to hustle and learn how to ask the right questions in the right places. You’ll also need to develop your business knowledge. Commit to doing this preliminary business research properly.

#2: Unclear Business Model

Some requests are so fuzzy I have no idea what industry is involved and cannot get a good picture of where the business is and even if there is a business involved at all.

Brainstorming international business ideas can be fun, and I do enjoy this from time to time, but you need to articulate your idea well to get any value out of a brainstorming session.

If you are having trouble conveying your idea to others, you need to work on it some more. You should ask yourself whether you have a business idea at all, and if there is a business model somewhere behind this idea and one you can take abroad.

I often hear from people who do not have a clear understanding of the business model for their international business. This is usually a company which “does everything” and wants to develop their international business on the same scale. This fuzzy bunch of “everything” translated into a big nothing. This just isn’t going to work. You need to start with a very clear business model.

Tip

Strengthen your primary business first. Before thinking about developing your international business you need to get a clear understanding of what you do, why it works in your country, who you sell to and why. It’s scary the number of business professionals who contact me who do not know this. How can you expect to take your business into a different culture if you don’t understand what it is in your own culture?

And how well does your business work? If your business isn’t working in your own country, what makes you think it’ll work in another country? If you haven’t been able to resolve the challenges in your own cultural environment, how will you be able to do so in a foreign cultural environment? Hone your business skills first.

#3: No Business Model

Here’s my favorite “international business” request which comes in frequently:

“I have a book and want to get it published in many different foreign languages.”

A book is not a business model. I’m sorry I can’t help you.

Tip

Your publisher can probably point you in the right direction.

Bonus Tip

If you don’t have the money to invest in a professional translation by a native speaker, living in his native country with specific industry knowledge on the topic of the book, then don’t bother.

Where I Help Businesses Get Faster International Sales

I help established businesses at their point of new market entry when they are connecting with their new international clients for the first time. I help them to adjust their international business development strategy based on the initial feedback from this first connection with a new market. I get sales and marketing tactics fine-tuned to bring in results from a new culture enabling faster international market penetration.

I usually only intervene for the first 6-12 months of a new market entry with the aim to provide the best operational guide to get sales in the new international market. I get involved in the international sales and marketing as this is where my cross-cultural and international skills enable me to interpret the real market feedback and learn how to adapt business tactics for best results.

Risk when managing the unknown and risk in cultural blunders are critical factors when entering new markets. So I also coordinate with senior management and other key players to closely monitor the risk factor. It’s valuable for risk evaluation to have people with strong international and cross-cultural skills involved at both the operational level and at the decisional level.

I have extensive experience in new market entry in traditional international business environments and I also have a few years in new media for international business development.

New media is taking up most of my time now. And to further develop these skills I also take on a few clients to hone specific marketing tactics such as blog editing, social media promotion and online community building.

So, if you have a new international business idea:

You’ll need to:

Get a clear understanding of your business model
Do all of the preliminary research for your new international business.

Look at the links under the resource section to get you started. But you’ll still need to dig further and do the groundwork needed to start your international business.

When you’ve done all of this preliminary work, set up a company and are just beginning to make sales in your new international market you’ll probably find that you need to adjust your tactics. You’ll find that all of the research you’ve done is not quite right, things are taking longer than expected, you’re not getting the results you expected. You might even hit a barrier or two. What works on paper and looks good in research usually needs adaptation when you start your real business.

And this is where my particular set of skills and expertise can help you.

Now, over to you…

Do you have a clear understanding of your international business markets?
What are you doing to develop your business into new international markets?
What are your favorite resources for international business research?

Please share your comments below.

International Business: 3 Tips On Product Marketing

Cindy King — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 23:00:06 +0000

International Business Development Strategy

In today’s economy, it seems that everyone is scrambling to keep existing clients and find new ones. And the question of getting international clients pops up.

The trouble is that some people seem to look at developing their international business with a little too much haste. The businesses that contact me for guidance on developing their international business almost always need to be reminded of the following three important points.

Find The Right Product

It’s easy to embrace international business when you already have something to sell. If you are currently selling something to local clients, it’s easy to assume you can sell it abroad.

The problem is that your assumptions may be wrong. And the problem gets bigger if you develop a marketing and sales plan based on these wrong assumptions. The sad thing is that wrong assumptions can keep you from identifying great market opportunities.

Key Point: Spend time to make sure your product is appropriate for your international market. The amount of time you need to spend on market research here depends on your business, your product and many other factors.

Tip: There’s a balancing act to do in knowing when you have too little information or whether you’re expecting too much information at this stage. You may need a little bit of international marketing flair to know when you have enough information to proceed.

Position Your Product

Even when you’ve identified what you want to sell in a new foreign market, you still need to spend time to find the best way to position your product within this new market. Your sales success depends on how well you can position your product in your international market.

Key Point: Find the right way to position your product for international sales and use this in your international sales and marketing tactics.

Tip: Different cultures respond to different emotional buttons, so always listen to learn more about these emotional buttons and improve your empathy with these clients.

Adapting Your Product

When you sell to different cultures, you may need to adapt your product to increase your sales appeal to different clients. It’s not always an easy task and there are many little things that can be overlooked.

In addition to this, adapting your product to an international market can also impact many different areas of your own business. The process can take some time to get it right.

Key Point: Give yourself time and resources to learn how to adapt your product to sell well to different cultures.

Tip: Pay close attention to your assumptions about your international market and spend time cultivating and listening to feedback from you new clients.

Successful International Business Expansion

Many businesses spend time preparing to enter a new market only to realize they need to re-work their sales and marketing once they reach the entry point.

This is a direct result of cultural differences and the challenges faced when trying to sell to people who respond to different emotional buttons and live in a different environment.

What About You?

Do you have any international business tips to share?
How are you developing your international business?
What are you doing to identify the emotional buttons that bring in international sales?

International Social Media

Cindy King — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:18:45 +0000

Social Media In International Web Marketing

I have a new website – International Social Media. This is where I will publish detailed articles on how to do different aspects of international social media.

Here’s The Scoop

As you probably know I started a business 2 years ago helping businesses develop their international markets. And my primary clients are not in France where I live. So I use international web marketing and, in particular social media, to identify and engage potential business partners abroad.

When I started I didn’t realize how my cross-cultural skills and international business development expertise would help me in finding the best way to use social media to develop my own business. But it did, and it does makes lots of sense. There are many similarities between establishing best practices in a new culture whether it is in a new country or on social media platforms.

The thing is, as I went about my own business, other people noticed my success in using social media to build my business. And I keep getting requests to share my knowledge and help other businesses use social media.

So I recently decided to combine the copywriting & social media skills I use in developing my own business with my cross-cultural skills and expertise in international marketing, sales & business development. And I now help businesses in effective business development with social media content marketing.

In A Nutshell, Here’s What I Do

I use my business development expertise to create content for business focused social media marketing. And that’s not all. I spend the next 6 to 12 months adapting this content marketing until I get the right web marketing and social media tactics for specific business goals.

This is similar to what I do for international business development in new foreign markets. I only work at market entry and leave as soon as I have a Sales Guide established specific for each client and each new market. Although it depends on the business and the market, this usually takes between 6-12 months.

Of course, this means I get involved and:

Create content
Tweak strategies to get them to work
Manage business content, blogs, tweet plans and social media marketing
And I also proactively move these content marketing plans forward towards the specific business goals in collaboration with top management.

Now Taking On A Client Or Two

This is why I am now offering the same services I used to develop my own business… with one hitch.

I only have the time to work with a 1 or 2 clients at a time and they have to sign up with me for at least 6 months.

Although I enjoy working towards developing international business this is not my only area of action. Most web marketing involves working with culturally diverse communities where my cross-cultural business skills are particularly useful.

Businesses get the most value out of my skills to jump into unknown markets with different rules and customs, and figure out how to get things to work for their business objectives when things look complicated. Those are the skills I picked up in international business development: flexibility, adaptability and risk management. And they are also needed for social media marketing.

This is how I landed the position as Managing Editor of the new online magazine, Social Media Examiner, where I work alongside several of the best social media experts today.

If you have a moment, take a quick look at my new website which describes my social media marketing services in more detail.

Let me know what you think. And, if you happen to know anyone in your network who may be interested in the kind of help I provide, please pass this link along. I’d really appreciate it. My email is cindy@cindyking.biz

I’d love some feedback from you…

What are your biggest web marketing challenges?
How do you think your social media tactics are working for your business?
What do you expect social media to add to your business?

Please share your comments below.

Are People In Small Countries Better International Business Developers?

Cindy King — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 10:00:13 +0000

International Business Development Strategy

Readers often ask me about the current climate in international sales. And in response, I often simply check the number and type of requests I get for business requests.

After a recent trip to Eastern Europe, David Meerman Scott asked some interesting questions about international business in a recent blog post:

The marketplace is the outside world, not your comfortable office

Do you think that when a country is bigger, it is less likely that the companies in that country will market outside of their borders?

And the question that interests me most:

Do you think the companies in small countries develop their international sales more than companies in bigger countries?

The comments here are also well worth reading. Of course you need to have the basics of business. But let’s take a look at this question from another angle…

Life In A Small Country

You see I come from a small country. The Bahamas, with 250,000 people over 800 small islands.

There is one difference I see between the people there compared to the people where I now live in Europe.

In a small country, if you want something you know you have to get up and do something yourself. There is usually no other way. On an island it is even more complicated: isolation is real. What you want or need might be on the other side of the sea.

This almost creates some sort of survival instinct or primal consciousness. This reaction to take personal responsibility, and take action, kicks in before any other options such as:

“I do not feel like it”
“Let’s wait and see”

In an international setting, it is even possible to identify people who come from this type of environment.

Content With The Good Life

The trouble is that coming from a small country is not the only thing that gives us the desire to conquer international markets.

In the Bahamas, many of my compatriots say that we are a lazy nation. After all life treats us well compared to many other countries. You will never achieve anything unless you actually do something.

Desire For More

Not only do you need to be able to put yourself into action, but you also need to have the desire for more, the desire to go outside of your boundaries.

Of course, you do not have to live in a small country to be like this. But I think David’s hunch is right. There is probably a higher percentage of businessmen in small countries willing to make the extra effort it takes to get international business. When you have no other choice, going the extra mile is not an option. I think people from small countries have this primal consciousness or awareness of their own role in their success.

Beyond Motivation

It takes effort to set up an international business. For many people, it also involves considerable personal investment. Some people jump to it and some people do not.

Motivations can be many things, including economic or personal passion. The question is:

How do you put you motivation for an international business into action?

This is where coming from a small country may give you an advantage.

More In These Get International Clients Business Guides:

Copyright Cindy King 2006-2010 - International Business Blog

Are People In Small Countries Better International Business Developers?

Marketing Maturity At Different Stages

Cindy King — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 23:00:56 +0000

Improve Your International Marketing

Last week I wrote about an example of how a broad cultural generalization was used out of context.

Cultural Differences Affect How Business Is Done

I personally cannot think that an entrepreneur in one country is really any different from an entrepreneur in another country. People are people.

Entrepreneurs from different countries simply have to do business in different cultural environments. And these cultural differences may create different, or additional, stages of business development.

Different Stages Of Market Maturity

I remember one evening when my French brother-in-law came in to a family dinner very excited. He was definitely very happy about something. We all wanted to know what his good news was all about.

He then proceeded to tell everyone that he had just implemented a great, new rule in his office. Something that was sure to increase his business and make him more money.

What was this new rule?

The telephone had to be answered before it rang a third time.

Now I am North American. And I had worked with North American customer service standards for a while.

So what? He finally realized it is good business to be nice to your clients and not have them wait before trying to reach your competitor?

Well, this happened over 20 years ago. Yes, American businesses were stronger at customer service. But French businesses were even further behind then than they are today.

I have written about my frustration at the lack of a business-building service mentality here in France… compared to the American standard service.

A Clash In Market Maturity

The question is:

Is there an element of different degrees of market maturity in customer service between France and the United States?

There probably is. Mixed with different cultural perceptions of what good customer service is, of course.

Ever since I came to France, I have heard the French people tell me that France was 20 years behind the Americans. Now, this has to be framed in the right context. You will probably not be able to understand this, unless you have lived in France for an extended about of time. So do not take this at face value. It is a terrible cultural generalization.
I continually marvel at the increased sophistication of American marketing today. Can marketing get any more sophisticated? I do wonder. There only seems to be one way to go next: back to marketing basics.

New Marketing Opportunities

If there is any validity to this…

The Americans will go back to marketing basics
The French will go into the next stage of marketing sophistication… they have not reached the top yet.

In addition to the obvious differences in international marketing approaches, there appears to be some new marketing opportunities here.

More To Improve Your International Marketing

Branding And Building An International Business
Marketing Maturity At Different Stages
Marketing Tactics For Different Countries

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Market Research For International Business Development

Cindy King — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 23:00:13 +0000

International Business Development Strategy

Market research can have a bigger role to play in international business development than when selling to your domestic market.

Why?

Because you need to start from the beginning when learning about foreign markets.

You can look at international market research from 3 angles:

Primary Market Research

This is the hardest. This is the market research no one wants to do.

Why?

This is where you gather information about your market. This information gives you what you need to:

Position your products
Find the right offer
Find the right price

You need to be in direct contact with your market to find the right answers. The only way to do it right is by rolling up your sleeves and doing it.

Secondary Market Research

This is the easiest. This is the market research everyone thinks about doing first.

Why?

This is gathering information online, getting published reports. This information gives you:

Broad industry information
Regulatory and legal information
Industry and country trends

This information is usually easy to find or track down. The publicly available information may be out of date though. And you may have to pay consultants or research firms high prices to get current information.

Ongoing Market Research

This is what most people forget to do. This is the process you need to set in place in order to get:

Wider international business intelligence to improve your overall marketing and positioning
Current market research to identify trends

Without ongoing international market research you can easily go off course.

It Is A Process

Don’t forget…

International business development cannot follow pre-set templates.

It is a process. You need to have the right tools and a strategy to help you through this process.

Marketing is part of this process. And market research gives you the tools.

In international marketing you equally need both:

Market Research – to define your international market and learn how to get to know it
Marketing – to communicate, build relationships and persuade

And you can see why market research comes first.

In international marketing the process of defining your international market takes a bit more time, effort and skill than when marketing to your own country. You need to develop your market research more.

Don’t Forget Your Tools

You also need to adapt your international marketing to provide the tools you need to make the best business decisions for your international business development.

Don’t forget any of these 3 aspects of market research:

Primary Market Research
Secondary Market Research
Ongoing Market Research

Carry out all three and they will give you valuable tools for your international business development.

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.

More In These Get International Clients Business Guides:

Copyright Cindy King 2006-2010 - International Business Blog

Aligning Your Questions To Build Your International Business

When Discrimination Is Useful In International Business

Cindy King — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 23:00:45 +0000

International Business Development Strategy

To be successful in international business you need to spend a lot of time opening yourself up to different cultures. This is an ongoing exercise. You learn to put your own cultural prejudices aside in order to be able to create authentic cross-cultural communication.

Prejudice

Yep. I just said prejudice. We all have them. Even when we think we don’t. We acquire cultural prejudices through our up-bringing, the environment we live in and our own experiences.

Prejudice is a form of discrimination.

Although we try to put aside our own personal prejudices during our cross-cultural encounters, there is one side of international business where discrimination is crucial for success.

Discrimination

You need to learn to make discriminating choices in business. And probably even more so for international business development. To grow your business abroad you will learn through failure. It might not be outright failure all the time. But you can count on surprises. Surprises happen often when you are new to developing your business abroad. Success comes to those who stick with it. You need to adapt your business to your foreign clients.

Learning Through Your Decisions

International business development takes work. Discrimination in your decisions, based on what you learn through practice will help you develop your business abroad. You need to keep at it. And learn to adapt by taking the right decisions. Discriminating decisions are part of the process.

Cindy King's International Business Blog » business development

3 Reasons Why I Can’t Help Your International Business

#1: Export Business Model

#2: Unclear Business Model

#3: No Business Model

Where I Help Businesses Get Faster International Sales

More On International Business Development Strategy:

International Business: 3 Tips On Product Marketing

Find The Right Product

Position Your Product

Adapting Your Product

Successful International Business Expansion

What About You?

More On International Business Development Strategy:

International Social Media

Here’s The Scoop

In A Nutshell, Here’s What I Do

Now Taking On A Client Or Two

More on Social Media In International Web Marketing

More in the Get International Clients Business Guides

Are People In Small Countries Better International Business Developers?

Life In A Small Country

Content With The Good Life

Desire For More

Beyond Motivation

More On International Business Development Strategy:

More In These Get International Clients Business Guides:

Marketing Maturity At Different Stages

Cultural Differences Affect How Business Is Done

Different Stages Of Market Maturity

A Clash In Market Maturity

New Marketing Opportunities

More To Improve Your International Marketing

Don’t Miss:

Market Research For International Business Development

Primary Market Research

Secondary Market Research

Ongoing Market Research

It Is A Process

Don’t Forget Your Tools

More On International Business Development Strategy:

More In These Get International Clients Business Guides:

Aligning Your Questions To Build Your International Business

A Quick Exercise

Optimizing Business

Understanding Your Foreign Prospects Uniqueness

Communication

Start With Relationships

Both Sides Of The Coin

More On International Business Development Strategy:

More In These Get International Clients Business Guides:

When Discrimination Is Useful In International Business

Prejudice

Discrimination

Learning Through Your Decisions

More On International Business Development Strategy:

More In These Get International Clients Business Guides: