Are you a recently established sales organisation? Are you in technology, domiciled in a remote country far outside where the big buzz is?
Think big, think internationally.
From the very beginning, start thinking how you will approach sales outside your region, outside your market. Unless you have set up the company in a huge market (which again sooner or later you should start thinking how to approach the global market), you need to make a sales plan that targets more regions.
Reasons to grow this mindset?
You will soon realise that the reception in your country is limited. How many end customers can you get there? The target market is small and cannot give you the upside you wish for.
The cost of investment in product development is big. Any application you want to create, in the beginning, its cost is high and margins low. How are you going to experience lower margin and high ROI if you don’t increase substantially your revenues?
The ability today to go globally is so easy. Imagine trying to sell abroad twenty years ago. How could you do it without the marketing capabilities, the easiness and the cheaper outreach offered today? Sending an email abroad, messaging someone in LinkedIn or run a marketing campaign in a different country was never that easy like today.
If part of your plan is to attract investment to your endeavour, the target market should be big when presented to potential investors. Being able to sell internationally increases your chances to attract more funding.
Of course this is easier to say from my side than do it.
It needs a good strategy and research to decide where to go, which region and which industry to approach. There needs to be a thorough analysis to minimise the risk of failing. Of course failing is never a fatal mistake if you can manage that well.
Plan the activities in the global scene. Different actions work in different markets.
Be open to work with partners that can help you identify the opportunity and execute the plan.
Take into account sales tactics that work in a country. Cultures are different; selling in Japan is different to selling in Europe.
If finally you are looking for another reason to think internationally is because you can.
Happy selling.