I was recently preparing for a meeting were I expected to spend significant time on the topic of entering a new market. Gaining access to a new market for a business can obviously drive significant growth. It can also be a phenomenal waste of time and money for a business that’s not ready to enter the market. So as I prepared for my meeting, I made some notes that I thought were worth sharing here. Also, these notes anticipate either entry into a new industry market or a new geographic market. So how do you prepare to enter a new market to grow a business? Ask some questions and plan carefully:
1) Walk in customer shoes--meet with them, don't necessarily sell to them, but connect with them and their peers.
• How do they work? Why?
• Who do they work with? Why?
• What are their business processes or behaviors of the market/audience in the area of business you're interested in?
• How do they buy products/services? Why?
• How are the answers to these questions any different today than they were 5 or 10 years ago? Why?
• Who are role-models for customers? Do they emulate customers you know from your ‘home’ market? How? Why?
2) Walk in partners' shoes--meet with them, don't necessarily sell to them, network with them and their peers.
• What is the scope of product/service they provide? Why?
• What is their growth strategy? Why?
• Who do prospective partners partner with? Why?
• How have they succeeded? Why?
• Where have they been successful? Why?
• What are the experiences and skills of their leaders? How do they make decisions?
• Build a case-study for something they were really excited about and very successful with. And build a case-study for something that they were really excited about and that failed.
3) For your product or service, understand expertly the perspective of target partners and customers.
• How do they talk about your product / service (categorically and specifically)?
• If you partner with companies in your home market, do those companies operate in your new market? How have they done it? If they offer different / variations on their solutions, how might that impact your product / service?
• What do competitors get paid for their solutions in the new market? Is it different than in the home market?
• If adoption of your product / service requires change on the part of your customer target, how can that be supported in the new target market?
• And critically, how can you demonstrate expertise and generate trust?
4) Evaluate your own business readiness.
• Based on what you’ve learned, what people do you need to enter the new market and make customers happy/successful? Can you get the right people?
• What advantages / disadvantages are there to partnering to enter the new market? How can your business maximize the advantages and mitigate the risks?
• What resources/systems do you need in the new market? What resources/systems do you need in your home market supporting you? Can you get them?
• What communication infrastructure and processes do you need to support entry and on-going operation of the business for the benefit of customers?
• Can the business make the sustained commitment to enter and grow in the market with the expected returns in year 1, year 2, year 3 and beyond? Can you build support for this? How?
• Is entry to the new market going to deliver results that are better than doing something else? Why?
This isn’t exhaustive, but is a decent start. If you have good answers to these questions, and can make the commitment—go for it! You have to be able to clearly shift from analysis mode to action mode to create the momentum to succeed.
Anything to add? Let me know.
