5 Steps to Selling Globally

In today's increasingly competitive environment, expanding abroad has become highly valuable. Many companies are not limited to their own markets; they are taking steps to globalize in order to generate foreign currency revenue and demonstrate their potential. This is, of course, a challenging process because while dealing with a different culture, different market conditions, and different rules, you also have to get to know the customer, find new business partners, and invest. For this reason, companies need to conduct thorough research during the globalization process and focus their energy and time on the right point.

So which strategies should companies focus on to manage this process correctly? At this point, very different goals can be set depending on the company's industry, the product's target audience, and the opportunities identified. In this article, we focused on the US, the country with the largest market share.

In the table below, you can see the world's top 20 economies as published by the IMF in January 2019. The countries with the largest percentages are the world's largest markets in terms of the goods or services they produce. These markets are not only a potential in themselves but also generally offer the best route on the path to becoming a global brand.

At this point, the success of the US, which holds the largest slice of the pie, stands out. With a population of 327 million, the US has a serious domestic market and, despite political volatility, remains one of the most open markets to foreign companies and ventures. In a country that has successfully produced numerous global companies, it is also relatively easy to find experienced investors, consultants, and legal representatives in this field. In addition to these opportunities, the US is one of the rare markets where, due to its cultural diversity, what is learned there is also observed to be effective in other markets. Therefore, with what you experience in the US, you can become an effective player in other markets as well.

Here are the 5 questions that, according to the mentors of the Innogate International Acceleration Program, which has been running since 2014 to help technology companies globalize, technology companies aspiring to be global players need to answer:

1. Is your product suitable for international expansion?
The first thing you need to do is conduct a market analysis and then determine how you will differentiate yourself from your global competitors in your target market.

When determining its target market, a company looking to expand abroad needs to conduct thorough research and choose the market most suitable for its interests. For example, when entering a new market, the central location of the targeted destination and its proximity to potential customers becomes one of the most important factors in determining the target market.

When conducting market analysis, the needs of the market must be identified. Otherwise, companies that build a market entry strategy with the product they have without understanding the market's needs may miss critical points when it comes to being successful. For this reason, needs and feasible actions must be balanced.

Listen to the demands of the market. When you want to differentiate yourself from your competitors, regardless of your target market, you must consider consumer demands. The critical point here is to understand demands accurately and then take rapid action by producing solutions that address their needs. Companies need to draw inspiration from the demands of local consumers.

2. How will you manage your operations?
Time management is a team effort. Considering that the time difference between the US and Türkiye is approximately nine hours, working hours are almost diametrically opposed. When global business partners from different parts of the world are included, a planned division of tasks among company employees becomes extremely important.

Companies must proactively address who in a global office should be informed when a problem arises, who should be contacted in emergencies, and who will fill in if the correct people cannot be reached. In addition, establishing a baseline time zone and arranging the workflow largely accordingly, along with having a thoroughly planned system for when emails will reach recipients, is also extremely important.

Human capital is extremely important. Another important point that companies starting operations in a new market should pay attention to after determining their target markets is building strong internal communications. The new vision must be communicated to all employees, they must be told that the overseas office is not a dealership, and they must be reminded to take the rules of different countries into consideration. For the human capital needed in the global market, the first stage is obtaining work visas for current employees in Türkiye and employing local workers, taking confident steps until the company finds its footing in its global positioning activities. Another option is meeting human capital needs through partnerships established in the US.

3. How are legal processes managed?
Companies looking to incorporate globally need legal counsel during the research and selection of legal and tax regulations to comply with. While account management becomes important for companies, working with accounting firms is extremely important. For example, one critical issue is the more accurate guidance companies receive on the tax advantages of regions by working with accounting firms. Because tax regulations are among the most fundamental expense items, the criteria of taxing federal and state income taxes on revenue rather than profit come to the fore.

Copyright and trademark rights vary from country to country. A brand registered in Türkiye also needs to be copyrighted in the US. In other words, having your trademark registered in Türkiye does not give you trademark rights in the US. Also, simply registering a domain name does not give you trademark rights either.

In addition, examining the targeted region in terms of real estate costs becomes important when renting facilities such as warehouses, production facilities, and offices. Choosing states with abundant federal and local incentives is one of the important factors in selecting a target market.

4. Which marketing strategies should be defined?
The Michelangelo Strategy

Also known as the Lean Startup strategy, in the US it appears in entrepreneurship literature as the Michelangelo strategy and is a strategy based on the foundation of ''value proposition.'' Lean Startup is a methodology used to develop businesses and products that aims to shorten product development cycles, discover whether a proposed business model is viable, and obtain quick results about customer preferences through experience-based outputs. The essence of Lean Startup is the business model rather than the business plan. In contrast to the long R&D cycles of large companies, Lean Startup advises producing a product/service at the lowest cost with the highest return on investment against risk (Minimum Viable Product) and testing early-stage prototypes directly with small customer groups. As you test your new product or service, you obtain new data, and you can improve your product with this data. You can even pivot to a new idea by recognizing your mistakes. In this way, you both lower costs and obtain important feedback for growth without taking bigger risks by attracting investment and scaling with large customer groups. The aim in Lean Startup is to move as quickly as possible within this cycle.

The Roll Up Strategy

The Roll Up strategy is the merging of multiple small companies in the same industry, thereby growing the company's current market share. By consolidating small companies into a larger company, it allows for pooling resources, reducing operating costs, and increasing revenue.

The consolidated company can expand its geographic reach to cover the markets served by the smaller companies. It also offers a wider range of products and services compared to a single small company. As a result, investors and shareholders benefit from a large investment pool.

The Beachhead Strategy

This strategy is about concentrating your limited resources on a small market segment. When an early-stage company introduces a new product/service, it must first win the market it targets; only then can it move on to larger and broader markets. With the Beachhead strategy, after penetrating the small markets they can enter, companies can dominate the rest of the market.

Beachhead turns a small market you target into your stronghold before spreading your idea and business resources to a wider market or transitioning to product categories.

5. How do you integrate your value proposition into the target market?
The most effective way to keep customers' attention on your own brand is the value proposition that is part of your brand strategy. When the value proposition is done correctly and tested, it provides great benefit to your company. If a value proposition can answer the questions ''What, for whom, and how should it be done?'' clearly, you are on the right track. You should always strive for clarity when answering these questions.

What matters in the value proposition is making your company stand out from your competitors. Most people review four or five different options or service providers before deciding to buy a product or service. In this case, your proposal and offer must stand out.

Make your offer unique. The most important criterion here is ensuring your offer is unique only in the customer's mind. Remember that a sale takes place outside of the competition in the market, only in the customer's mind.

The Program That Accelerates Global Sales: Innogate
As you can see above, becoming a global technology company is not difficult when the right steps are taken. But how can you make this process easier for your company?

We recommend taking a look at the Innogate Program, which ITU ARI Teknokent has been developing and strengthening to support hundreds of companies for five years.

Companies participating in this program receive training and consulting support from 450 mentors, both local and foreign, who are experts in fields ranging from business models to marketing strategy, pricing to market analysis; they are introduced to the program's entire relevant network in the US. As a result, companies quickly find customers, partners, and workforce in the US, or can establish their distributor network. Additionally, they can use ITU ARI Teknokent's office in San Francisco and benefit from consulting, PR, and operational support.

To join the new term of Innogate, which is open until February 7, you can visit this web page and have the Innogate team contact you.