B2B EXPANSION: SALES MISSIONS
For over 10 years I have organized and executed B2B sales missions for companies in various industries that wished to expand internationally, and I can tell the difference when a mission has been well prepared or not. Basically it is all about preparation, that will make a difference in going to the sales mission to meet new people or to close partnership agreements.
Of course, you can invest in visiting a few potential partners in a country without having explained them previously your value proposition, and take the chance to explain them during your visit. But if you want your B2B mission investment to truly be profitable, I strongly recommend you to prepare it as much in advanced as possible: study the market and make a SWOT analysis while you have Skype meetings with all potential partners, you build and present a value proportion and partner benefits they will appreciate. Then when you finally pay the tickets, the hotel and all the other expenses for you to go and meet these people in another country, you know it is because you will sit down with them to sign an agreement and start generating profitable business together; because you will have been at least 2 months evangelizing them about how good the partnership is for them. Let me put you a couple of examples of real experience:
1) My first sales mission to Morocco was to meet new contacts. It was like 8 years ago, when Morocco was even more underdeveloped digitally than today. So I cooperated with the Chamber of Commerce of Barcelona. They did a huge research for me and I prepared myself an agenda of over 10 meetings with potential partners for 5 days in Casablanca area. Obviously I did not close any contract then, it took me 3 months to generate the first business and another visit to Morocco. It was a nice way to start-up in a new country, and it provided business, but we had to do a higher investment until we recovered anything. Though at that moment it was the best possible way to enter the Moroccan market.
2) On the other hand, when I went to Brazil 2 years ago, I worked in the project for almost 3 months before I organized the sales mission. It took some time to study the particularities of the Brazilian market, realize what were the advantages and the possible threats, check for the best potential partners, build a value proposition they would perceive positively and more... Then I appointed visits with 5 partners in Sao Paulo and we went there: they all signed an agreement during my visit with the company I represented then. Furthermore, we met a new potential partner while visiting another, who sent the signed agreement after we arrived back from Brazil, pushed by his competitors having signed with us few days earlier. In less than 3 months first projects were started, they registered qualified opportunities. In 6 months those partners had several opportunities in course and first deals in. The investment to go to Brazil from Europe was small and recovered before 1 year. Had we gone without all that preparation, probably a second sales mission would have been required to secure agreements.
So, you can do a sales mission just to explore a new market, but that is only required when the market is not yet digitalized. Or you can monitor your investment by making sure it will be profitable. At IBCC we take care of everything for you. We deliver the sales mission ready for you to sit down and sign beneficial agreements with relevant partners, so you take out the most of one unique investment in developing abroad. Click here to request more information about B2B sales missions.
