Are You A Non-USA Technology or Business Process Outsourcing Company Attacking the USA Marketplace Or A USA Company Looking To Source Goto Market

Bob Courteau, President of SAP North America said at this morning’s Technology Association of Georgia (TAG) and Metropolitan Atlanta Chamber of Commerce (MACOC) event that (and I misquote) “despite what you may hear about our economy North America outperformed all other regions for SAP in the past 3 years …. what I find as I visit China, India and many other countries is that as well as they might be doing, almost all the people and companies I meet there want to come to the United States”.

There are many innovative solutions companies across the world that are building technology and business process solutions that can help USA business and who are eager to enter this market. They know this market is huge and influential but are often justifiably terrified of the costs and potential for error in entering this market.

After the event a few of us were talking about this comment and since Customer Results specializes in helping offshore and emerging solutions companies goto market that have solutions that address marketing, sales and services issues (especially niche, high value add solutions from non-usa based companies) the following top 25 thoughts and questions list help you think through your strategy and avoid repeating the mistakes of the past:

1. Marketing
   1. Do you have well defined target market in terms of customer size, industry and other influencing criteria (like what CRM system and phone system they have installed)
   2. Have you identified any other target customer criteria within this market segment (global companies headquartered in Asia and Europe with divisions in USA  for example)
   3. Do you have a market development strategy and the tools, techniques, processes and people in place to get the attention of these companies including increasingly influential social media channels
   4. How do your existing clients play into your goto market segmentation and targeting
   5. Have you defined your got market strategy (high quality, low price, flexibility, functional advantage
   6. How does social media play into your marketing program and how good is your partner / resource at this particular market segment
   7. Do you have the recognized thought leadership in place to get the market attention
   8. Have you identified world class marketing resources to hire or contract / partner with to perform market development and lead generation or are you going to expend the cycles of finding the right people over time
   9. Who will Americanize your collateral and got market message
   10. Do you have metrics against which to measure success and a formalized process to report and monitor and adjust
   11. What is your budget for market development and prospect identification
   12. What CRM tools are you using to provide an integrated and agreed reporting mechanism

1. Sales
   1. What is your strategy and process for qualifying prospects and focusing in on the best prospects.
   2. What is you sales strategy to support your market strategy (e.g. buy your way into the market, be a quality service leader, hire the best sales people)
   3. Have you decided which geographies or tightly defined market segment you are going to sell into first, second etc (USA is a big place)
   4. Have you identified world class sales professionals to take you to market proven in a product or service targeted in your market and representing a firm of your size (e.g. a successful IBM sales rep with for 20 years of success may have no idea how to sell an unknown  30 person company’s software solution no matter how good her resume)
   5. Have you thought about market or market segment exclusivity
   6. Do you have metrics against which to measure success and a formalized process to report and monitor and adjust
   7. Have you defined a market entry comp plan with sufficient incentives to cause a sales person to achieve your objectives
   8. How will you implement your product
   9. What CRM tools are you using to provide an integrated and agreed reporting mechanism
   10. What is your sales budget and how will it be allocated and managed

1. Post Sale Service
   1. How are you going to take care of your customers after they have purchased
   2. Is it a onetime sale or a process
   3. Who will take the first support call
   4. How will provide technical support to resolve problems
   5. How will you build a community of clients
   6. What CRM tools are you using to provide an integrated and agreed reporting mechanism
   7. What is your post sales service budget and how will it be allocated