This is a question many in sales struggle with: if you have a strong brand domestically and are beating some international brands on your own turf (“home field advantage,” if you will), can you compete with them in other markets? Should you?
In short: yes, but be prepared..
You are beating them locally because of your flag, not because you have the scale to play with and beat them on an international stage. Going up against a huge global brand and trying to beat them globally means you need an absolute ton of resources, and most companies don’t have that. Apple makes about $60B a year. They can crush you in markets you are not as familiar with.
The sheer reality of how you beat competition
You can win over a bigger company in one of three ways — >
- Be local and win on your turf.
- Be cheaper.
- Be the best.
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Smaller companies mostly win on (1). You can win on (2) but that’s a race to the bottom. Eventually cheaper doesn’t win and can hurt your margins on whatever core product/service is. And if you’re constantly cheaper, intermediate to long-term you can be seen as a crappier option.
(3) is interesting because it involves a degree of self-awareness. The best product in a market is defined by the view of potential customers, but many in companies believe that if they think they are the best, then they are. It doesn’t matter what your executives think, in other words. All executives think their stuff is the best. They are paid in part to think that. The particular market-segment you intentionally choose has to believe you’re the best.
But if you truly are the best, you’ll try to go outside of local — and then you are faced with the local competition in those other markets and in addition with the same set and even more global companies you fighted on domestic market . You’ll soon run into resource and capacity and product-market-fit (value proposition) issues, and you’ll try to price down, and you won’t be the best anymore.
Business and sales are a giant circle! Stay in your lane while you can. Win revenue there and prepare well for the international play. Here’s how we can help you for your DACH expansion:
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