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New market entry is a natural next step for leaders in a fast-growing business. You believe in your product and services, you’ve hired a team of superstars, and you’ve established partnerships that prove you are not alone in this belief. The next step is to share your company’s vision and product far and wide.
When you embark on a new market entry project, use this four-step blueprint to build your go-to-market plan, and accelerate value faster.
Step 1: Hire your first team members abroad
Your first hires in a new country are critical to your success during expansion. You need someone with staying power, local knowledge, and the will to build and coach an entirely new team.
Debbie Millin, Chief Operations Officer at Globalization Partners, told The Economist, “the first hires in a new market are so crucial — they need to do more than just their standard job responsibilities. They become the ambassadors for your company and play a key role in establishing your presence there and building a team. Look for utility players who are able to function across the business in a variety of ways.”
To establish your presence in a new market or simply test the waters, you need a trusted team member helping lead the way. Take the time to make sure it’s the right fit – it’s worth it.
Step 2: Set them up for success
Once you’ve chosen the perfect candidates for the job, most companies need to contract support personnel, human capital management technology, Internet providers, and other services for their teams. You will need to set up financial controls and an expense system. The new hires may expense equipment, networking, travel, local suppliers, and interviewing costs as they begin building their teams.
Here’s why you need to trust your first hires implicitly: Real team players can inform on the best workspaces, service providers, and expensing needs for their markets.
Here’s why you need to trust your first hires implicitly: Real team players can inform on the best workspaces, service providers, and expensing needs for their markets. Click To TweetStep 3: Receive revenue from abroad
If you laid firm groundwork for your new market teams, they’ll be eager to get down to business, bringing in clients, setting up local partnerships, and most importantly, generating cash flow. Repatriating foreign profits safely and quickly to your local currency is crucial, but you’ll also want to secure the best rates on transfers, so your ROI doesn’t dwindle due to uncompetitive exchange rates and high bank fees.
Setting up a business bank account abroad and having paid-up capital of about US$100,000 (which is a necessity for many banks) often requires executives to make in-person visits to the country, according to Globalization Partner’s Asia-Pacific General Manager, Charlie Ferguson. Time and travel restrictions may simply make this an impossibility. A sound option is to open a multi-currency account, which saves companies time, administrative hassles, and cost while offering better exchange rates than any bank.
Step 4: Build out the team
If all goes well, your first hires will need a team quickly. Also, first hires are entrepreneurs at heart, so will be looking for the next big challenge once the local team is settled in.
Millin confirms this: “The importance of having someone in the market to understand it, as well as to build out a local team, is clear. However, what we’ve seen is that those first hires in a country are very entrepreneurial and may be perfect to move to the next big market once the local team is established. With a global Employer of Record there’s no problem for these people moving market-to-market throughout their careers.”
Whether they stay put or look to the next adventure, you will need in-country experts to support with onboarding, taxes, compliance, and protecting your intellectual property.
Globalization Partners and Tempus provide solutions to ensure the movement of people and money internationally goes smoothly. Team up with experts in global hiring and global payments.
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Download the Global Sales Strategy Workbook to read in detail about how to analyze the best new market and begin making progress towards your international revenue goals.
