Many (especially) service-companies want a larger piece of the international pie…
but, are unsure about how to start marketing and selling in a new market.
Want to know how a few everyday-B2B companies are successfully doing it? They start with strategy (you knew that); specifically, by niching down.
This serves the purpose of being able to market and sell better because your messaging, all communications and presence can be more specific and more relevant than anybody else’s on the market. This is a huge advantage, especially if you are a new player in a country.
OK, but how do we do it?
We take our clients through a 90-minute workshop that helps them define a narrow, well-defined sub-market, or niche where they can really excell and market powerfully. For IT development companies, a niche is usually defined by
– the industry and sub-industry (vertical)
– your solution to a problem: note, it’s not service offered but think in terms of a narrow set of problems you are solvnig
– geography
Then, we employ about 12-15 factors to get to the answers.
For starters, consider these easier ones:
1. fun/interest-factor: this surprises people, but straight out of the gate, we ask founders – what do you and your people enjoy doing most? No point in setting up a machine for doing Android dev, when the core people at the company want to focus on UX projects – even though, you can do both and the former might seem more profitable.
We’re looking for the intersection of both profit AND enjoyment here.
2. domain expertise – what are you best at or where can you improve a lot
3. resources – what service can you scale, meaning you have enough man- (and machine) power or can hire fast
4. case studies, references – you need to be able to prove your expertise
This is often a painful process for company owners – it feels like letting go of capabilities and throwing them out the window…. but fear not! You can always cross-sell your existing capabilites once you have acquired a client.
This is just for front end presentation and branding to prospects – to make sure your entire DNA and being revolvs around solving one acute problem in an industry.
