8 scale-up tips for Internationalisation and B2B Sales

How to internationalise successfully and how to overcome barriers of international growth and B2B sales with your company? These questions and more were addressed during the recent Internationalisation and B2B Sales Summit hosted by Endeit Capital and weGrow-International.

Panel discussion on internationalisation

Ilan Goudsmit of Endeit Capital kicked off the event by introducing the hosts and highlighting the importance of the changing dynamics of internationalization and B2B sales due to Covid-19 and whether these changes will become permanent. Florent Coudyser the co-founder of weGrow moderated the internationalisation panel with Barend Raaff (Harver), Martijn Hamann (Endeit Capital), and Roland Schaber (xClip) in the lead. The main takeaways of this panel were:

1. Go all in and know the price it will cost. Overplan the budget and time for internationalisation. Anticipate the struggle and the competition to stay ahead.

2. Emphasize the importance of a local team & local insights. Hire locals and train them but also talk with potential local clients and suppliers to have an in-depth understanding of the market you are trying to penetrate. Have a specialised person abroad to be more effective, and make sure one of the founders is heavily involved.

3. Your envisioned investor needs to fit well with you and your company as it is a long-term relationship. You need to find a strategic key partner, someone that will be there for the good and the bad times but also has experience with internationalisation in target markets.

4. Understand when you need to adjust and adapt and to what extent – focus on your company’s unique and strong selling points to serve the industry needs. Be aware of local regulations and culture, and mitigate risks. Define what is important and have a growth mindset that is structured.

5. Think BIC: Believe, Innovate & Internationalise, and Collaborate. – Do not be scared and go for it!

B2B Sales & Marketing

The internationalisation panel was followed by an expert talk from Shimon Ben Ayoun (MD & founder of SpotOnVision), key takeaways are;

6. Changes in B2B sales & B2B marketing due to Covid-19 are here to stay – there has been a “permanent transformation” in how potential buyers research and enjoy interacting with B2B companies. Start- and scale-ups need to place the buyer journey in the center of everything, and therefore should adapt their strategy, processes, and resource allocation according to this.

7. Refocus your sales and marketing efforts to facilitate B2B purchases and the buyer journey. Use the right omni channels to engage, create content, and inform customers in a hyper-automated manner, such as using a personalised ROI calculator for a specific solution or website personalisation.

Social Selling

The summit ended with a talk on social selling by Dipak Vadera (EMEA Sales manager at Leadfeeder, a Endeit Capital portfolio company):

8. Social selling methods are growing, so scale-ups need to adapt. Use LinkedIn to “plant that seed” with your audience, establish credibility, and bring potential customers to your website. Use “the 4 pillars of social selling” to stay on top; have a personal brand, find the right prospects & customers, have engaging content, and develop trusted relationships.

Special thanks to all speakers and attendees!

If you like to get in touch with us for funding international growth plans of your tech scale-up, feel free to reach out to us.