It’s been a week since we announced the launch of Sales Innovation, and the Interests from people wanting to get involved have been overwhelming, & beyond my expectation.
I was asked by a prominent US analyst why I started this business.
My answer was this. I am tired of seeing companies with great software come into Asia fumble, flounder, and fail to the detriment of themselves, their customers, their staff and their investors.
There’s a better way.
It happens with alarming frequency that companies come into Asia unprepared, knowing so little about the countries, histories, intra-regional dynamics, cultures, and people, then wonder why they can’t get traction.
Asia Pacific is a vast area with over 4.7 Billion people. Just considering the commercially viable countries for software sales, there are easily over 3.5 billion people, and unlike a decade ago, most of them are online.
The area is big - From Auckland to Mumbai, the distance is 12.3K km and takes over 17 hours of travel time. No two countries are alike even those within close proximity, and languages in most parts are a serious challenge, sometimes even when they speak English.
What it takes to succeed in Asia is not always a person from HQ or wherever else who speaks your own language and understands your culture and way of doing things. Even with great intentions, this often results in a prolonged path to gaining traction. It takes people who understand the intricacies of hiring, selling, managing, appointing, and forming teams in the local context.
Dealing with people and understanding them when their languages, priorities, cultural assumptions and ways of communicating are different is tough. When the strategy of the company headquarters is one that doesn’t align well with the regional peculiarities, taking the time and effort to understand why to make it work within the local context is pivotal. Earning people’s trust to really get to the crux of the issue takes significant time, patience and dedication.
Those who have done this well have been enormously successful. Here, I would be remiss if I didn’t pay credit to many people sent from HQ who have instinctively understood that they need to build strong local relationships and trust to succeed. Sadly, there aren’t enough of them and even less with the actual experience. Most of them are also outside the budget of many companies looking to enter Asia.
This is why I felt compelled to start this business.
The supply of experienced people to help in the Sales as a Service model is abundant. Too many regional leaders have seen and felt the pain themselves and want to help. We amassed an incredible depth of knowledge and experience in our company’s resource pool within a very short time.
The question now is will the companies that are having these challenges be open to a new approach? They can learn from the collective lessons of those who have done this all before, succeeded, and live to impart the lessons.
#salesinnovation
