There has not been a better time to sell smarter! This is my conclusion from the last months of being grounded in Australia and having my European team in lock-down for a couple of months, instead of visiting key European customers and partners throughout Europe.
There are two different levels of success in an overseas market, there’s a superficial level of success, initial leads, a few sales, a distributor has started selling in a given country for 50K$ of products. And on the other side of the scope, there is being truly successful in a market.
Now is the time to explore opportunities in the European market! With over 500 million consumers, Europe hosts a large number of multinationals hungry for technology and Australian innovation (Airbus, Sanofi, Bayer, Danone, Remondis, Daimler, Fiat…).
One of the reasons I love what I do at Exportia, is that I get to work on a daily basis with brilliant minds. Founders and CEOs of small companies (they are often both) are amazing to work with, they are passionate about their business. They inspire their team and they create a vision and direction for the business. This is why they often are the best person to articulate the sales pitch. They know precisely what problem their business is solving and they know what makes a person buy their product or solution.
Price is an element of the mix that is quite important when introducing a product into the European market. It will determine the level of profitability of this line of product for the years to come. I often have this debate with one of my customers, who is quite anxious to get early sales, but at the same time, his CFO and I keep telling him we don't want to discount. The CFO thinks of long term profitability and I just don't like to discount too soon and without a good reason. Here is why.
