Three things you need to know about any country before expansion. 2003 Wrap-up.

Another year comes to its end and it’s time to wrap up.

There were 19 episodes this year. We have explored and virtually travelled with you to 10 countries and got insights from local experts from: Denmark, Ukraine, UK, USA, Israel, Canada, Japan, Lithuania, UAE and finally Colombia.

The more interviews I conduct the more I see the commonalities in all markets that we talk about. In this Christmas episode I will go through some points that are similar in all countries.

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Host, Dmytro Shvets https://www.linkedin.com/in/dshvets/

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hi, I'm Dmytro Shvets, your host at The Start Global Insights, where I interview experts

(00:11):
from different countries about local business secrets and international expansion experience.
Hello, shalom, hej, buenos dias, konnichiwa, assalamu alyekum, labas and vitayu.
And this is not to show you and to brag how many languages I know, because actually
most of these languages my vocabulary is close to zero.

(00:35):
But it is to show you how long was this year and how many countries we have been virtually
visiting with you.
There were 19 episodes and we have explored and got insights from local experts from Denmark,
Ukraine, UK, USA, Israel, Canada, Japan, Lithuania, UAE and finally Colombia.

(01:00):
And you know what, listening and editing all these episodes for you, I noticed that there
are some commonalities about all these markets.
And in this wrap-up episode I wanted just to summarize several of them, mainly three
main points that will help you to enter actually any market in the world.

(01:24):
So let's go through some points that are similar in all countries.
And the first point is trust.
Yeah, this is what you need to enter any country.
Though to earn this trust you may face different approaches depending on the market.
For example, in Colombia and UAE, I suppose also in Ukraine, but to a lesser extent, you

(01:49):
need to establish more personal relationship with your local partners.
And it may take a while.
Because in these countries relationship is first and business goes only after that.
And in Denmark or Sweden you will get the benefit of the doubt upfront.

(02:09):
And you will have it till you fail to deliver your promises.
So I urge you not to do that because it would be actually the end of your sales in these
countries.
The second point is knowing the rules of the game.
That means that actually before going to any market, you need to know what is going on

(02:31):
there.
Yeah, so you need to analyze the market, you need to know how many and what stakeholders
are at this market, what the stakeholders may be your potential clients, what do they
expect from you, what are their needs and relations in the market.
So you need to make your homework very well.

(02:53):
And you can say that this is very obvious, but in my experience, my clients or the participants
of my learning programs not often do that before doing their expert activities.
And doing these expert activities, they actually understand the market.
But this is quite expensive way of doing that.

(03:15):
And what is most interesting that today you can do that easily from your office.
There are a lot of sources in internet.
So you can just go to Google, search and understand how the market works, not even visiting that.
So knowing the rules of game is very, very important.

(03:36):
And to recap on that, you can listen to episode 4 of season 2 from July 26 of this year and
get a short explainer on how to research a foreign market in easy steps.
And episode 13 of season 1 from January 18 with quick tips on how to choose your focus

(03:59):
market abroad.
Because your resources are always limited.
So you need to be really focused and have the efficiency with all your resources available.
The third point is the B2B sales cycle.
Because even if you are selling to B2C in your local market, in most cases, when you

(04:20):
are going global, you will be selling through partners, through local partners that you
will find.
And this is already B2B business to business market.
And disregarding the country, this sales cycle is very long.
It depends on the country how long it is.
Like it may be up to two years in UAE when you are like one year you are drinking tea

(04:45):
and then the next year you are starting to talk about business up to 9 to 12 months in
Denmark or Canada.
But the sales cycle is surely long enough everywhere.
This happens because of the two first points that I mentioned above.
You need time to understand your market and you need time to establish your connections

(05:08):
and network and to earn trust to make business.
To get more insights on how to generate leads in B2B, sell and negotiate, you can listen
to the following episodes from this year.
Episode 16 of season 1 from the 1st of March, How to generate international leads.

(05:32):
Episode 11 of season 2 from November 15, How to sell globally B2B sales experts insights.
And finally episode 8 of season 2 from September 20, a very interesting conversation about
negotiation internationally with Linda Nech, a lecturer from Harvard and Stanford and negotiation

(05:57):
practitioner, from which you can understand the basics of Harvard Negotiation Project
or interest-based negotiations.
So that were three main points that you need to know by entering any market in the world,
any country, trust issue, preparation analysis of the market and long sales cycles in B2B,

(06:18):
so be prepared for a marathon, not for the sprint.
The world is big and so many countries are yet unexplored.
That's why the next year we will fill with even more exciting episodes.
I will take a little break and will come back to you in the second half of January with
more interviews and insights from local experts.

(06:40):
I want to thank you for being with me and listening to my interviews.
And special thanks to those of you who are leaving your comments and reviews in YouTube,
Apple Podcasts and Starglobal webpage and to me personally.
Your feedback makes this show go on, so don't hesitate to subscribe to Starglobal Insights

(07:02):
and you can do that on all major podcast platforms.
And please share that with your colleagues and friends and don't forget that you can
influence this show with your questions.
So please send me them in email.
Like what countries or topics would you like to listen about in the next year?
Because this show is for you, so you can choose what we will talk about.

(07:27):
Or maybe you will have some specific questions about the international expansion, so I will
try to cover that either by myself or with the help of subject matter experts.
You can write your questions to an email podcast at start minus global dot biz podcast at start

(07:49):
minus or dash global dot biz or leave your comments on YouTube, Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
I am reading all of them and so you can leave your wishes for the next year there.
It was a pleasure working for you this year and I would like to wish you a Merry Christmas

(08:09):
and a Happy New Year.
I hope next year will finally bring peace and victory to Ukraine and there will be even
more opportunities for international trade for you and for your businesses.
Stay tuned for the next year of the international expansion with the start global insights.
Take care!