{"id":102946,"date":"2020-11-02T09:30:37","date_gmt":"2020-11-02T06:30:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/5-tips-for-global-software-sales-my-team-learned-the-hard-way\/"},"modified":"2020-11-02T09:30:37","modified_gmt":"2020-11-02T06:30:37","slug":"5-tips-for-global-software-sales-my-team-learned-the-hard-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/5-tips-for-global-software-sales-my-team-learned-the-hard-way\/","title":{"rendered":"#5 tips for global software sales my team learned the hard way"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_85 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a39ade5d673b\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a39ade5d673b\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/5-tips-for-global-software-sales-my-team-learned-the-hard-way\/#1_Start_small\" >1. Start small<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/5-tips-for-global-software-sales-my-team-learned-the-hard-way\/#2_Do_the_math\" >2. Do the math<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/5-tips-for-global-software-sales-my-team-learned-the-hard-way\/#3_Hire_locally\" >3. Hire locally<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/5-tips-for-global-software-sales-my-team-learned-the-hard-way\/#4_Be_prepared_for_unexpected_challenges\" >4. Be prepared for unexpected challenges<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-5\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/5-tips-for-global-software-sales-my-team-learned-the-hard-way\/#5_Create_a_blueprint\" >5. Create a blueprint<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<p>&#8220;<strong>#5 tips for global software sales my team learned the hard way<\/strong>&#8221;<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2020\/10\/global-earh-international-gq-796x417.png\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n                                <span>As tech companies expand their reach across the globe, it\u2019s inevitable that some assumptions about various markets will turn out to be wrong, if you don\u2019t rely on the knowledge and expertise of those working on this particular market.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>At JetBrains, which grew from a small startup in Prague to an established company whose tools are used across 213 countries and territories, my colleagues and I had the early assumption that most developers speak English, for instance. It\u2019s a requirement for developers at JetBrains to have good English skills, and most developers in our inner circle are fluent, so we thought it was a safe assumption to make. It isn\u2019t.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>And it\u2019s getting even more demanding when we talk about non-technical decision-makers, which might be the ones deciding on the purchase for their technical team. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Thus, JetBrains had to learn how to localize its product, marketing, and sales strategy as it expanded. Here are the five top lessons my team and I learned from that experience \u2014 read it so you don\u2019t waste time repeating our mistakes.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"1_Start_small\"><\/span><b>1. Start small<\/b><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span>At JetBrains, we had organic growth across the entire globe, which means our tools were being used around the world before we started local market-specific activities. In Mainland China, which has been one of the most challenging markets to expand on, our software was used and sold prior to our local activities launch back in 2015.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><em>[Read: What audience intelligence data tells us about the 2020 US presidential election]<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>That year, as a joint initiative of our Sales and Marketing departments, we launched a pilot program in the country, which is a great way to get your toes in a new market. Mainland China is a huge market, but the culture and purchasing patterns are very different from what we got used to, so we had to adapt our business <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>roaches a lot.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Moreover,\u00a0 the company was expected to communicate in Chinese rather than in English, and international credit cards are not widely available in favor of local payment methods, such as WeChat, AliPay, UnionPay, along with many other specifics.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>That all meant we had to localize not just purchasing methods, sales support, and product info, but even the product itself. Only once we saw positive results from our pilot program did we scale that approach to more markets all around the globe, where we have local teams building local operations with an understanding of local business specifics.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"2_Do_the_math\"><\/span><b>2. Do the math<\/b><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span>Starting small through the pilot program is important because localizing your business processes, web site, or a product is expensive and cumbersome \u2014 especially when it comes to localizing the product itself.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Our product <\/span><span>IntelliJ IDEA is now localized to Chinese, Korean, and Japanese, which requires a lot of investment on our side. And it\u2019s not just the upfront investment, as you can\u2019t localize the product once and then live with it. It requires continuous updates in perpetuity.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Thus, companies need to do the math and make sure the market in question helps you enough to be worth this lift. In our case, we ran macroeconomics research internally and with third-party agencies. Through that research, we curated countries into different clusters to understand where to go.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The first goal for us was to identify low-hanging fruit where the least effort and expenses can grow revenue the most and then start from there, scaling our local marketing and sales operations country by country, while maintaining a global approach to all other markets.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"3_Hire_locally\"><\/span><b>3. Hire locally<\/b><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span>Once you decide it\u2019s worthwhile to expand into a certain market, it\u2019s important to not assume anything. Even if you think you know the market, you probably don\u2019t. Thus, you must hire local professionals who understand the local business.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>I personally had a lot of assumptions about the Russian market, for instance, because I was born there, although I live in Germany now. But it came apparent I didn\u2019t know how sales and marketing worked there, as I had worked internationally for many years.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Your local team should consist of a <\/span><span>regional marketing manager and a regional sales manager to start, and then you can grow the team as required. In Greater China, we also have a developer advocate and support engineers \u2014 and we always prefer to expand the team in that order (and it <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/general\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"3\" title=\"General\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">general<\/a>ly corresponds to the market needs as we grow local operations).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>In some countries, like South Korea, we also have a distributor who runs sales, marketing, and support themselves. We quite like this approach, as our partners can help us scale the business a lot, but it\u2019s hard to find reliable partners who would be able to cover all the products and a range of activities required, not acting solely as a billing agent.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>We have resellers and distributors in many countries, and while JetBrains keeps selling directly on these markets and hiring local teams, too, we rely on our partners to provide a truly local experience.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"4_Be_prepared_for_unexpected_challenges\"><\/span><b>4. Be prepared for unexpected challenges<\/b><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span>In general, the Asian market is the most complicated and the European\/USA market is the easiest for us since we focused our operations there from the beginning. But despite that, we still haven\u2019t been able to crack the code in France.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>While we expected the market to be similar to Germany (due to macroeconomics similarities and comparable IT industry size), the adoption of our products is roughly four times lower there. Clearly, there are differences in the market structure itself and the way stakeholders learn about products, choose them, and promote them inside their organizations.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Obviously, we\u2019ve made localization mistakes in other markets as well. For instance, some translations don\u2019t make sense in a particular context (that\u2019s why you always need to localize the experience rather than translate, and why you need to have a local team to verify the artifacts).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>We had a booth at an event in South Korea with an unfortunate banner saying \u201cPyCharm is the best IDE for pythons!\u201d The local contractor did their best but didn\u2019t understand the software development context well enough to localize the slogan. The lesson here is to always be prepared for challenges to pop up \u2014 there will be so many!<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"5_Create_a_blueprint\"><\/span><b>5. Create a blueprint<\/b><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span>Still, we\u2019ve managed quite some successes too, as most of the target markets we chose for local marketing and sales development are outperforming the average worldwide growth of our company revenue.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>As we expanded to new markets, we\u2019ve been able to standardize much of the localization tools, terminology, and workflows. We\u2019ve built out these protocols internally to ensure a high level of quality.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>For instance, we noticed paid events (well, at least when we had events before the pandemics) increase conversions to real participants even if tickets are cheap (we normally set a price tag of a couple of cups of coffee, which is quickly returned by the swag we gave out), while free events tend to lead to a high number of sign-ups but low turnout.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The former approach also enables predictable attendance forecasts. This has different effects in different markets, but it tends to apply more or less across the board. Some markets and strategies will be useful no matter where in the world your company is.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The bottom line is that expanding across the globe is not easy \u2014 but it can be worth it. The key is to identify the markets where the investment in localization is worth your time and effort. Then, hire local people who understand the nuance of that country.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Doing thorough research and running pilot programs are two strategies that have served us well in numerous countries, but the defining feature of global expansion is not assuming anything and learning as you go.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Still, there is no silver bullet, and you will need to find your own approaches depending on your industry, product, and business strategy. I hope that some of the JetBrains experiences I\u2019ve shared will come in handy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"c-post-pubDate\">\n                                    Published November 2, 2020 \u2014 06:30 UTC\n                                <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script data-src=\"https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/sdk.js#xfbml=1&amp;appId=378011798897423&amp;version=v2.6\" id=\"socialSrcFacebook\" type=\"text\/template\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more like this article, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/technology\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Technology category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/thenextweb.com\/growth-quarters\/2020\/11\/02\/5-tips-for-global-software-sales-my-team-learned-the-hard-way\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;#5 tips for global software sales my team learned the hard way&#8221; As tech companies expand their reach across the globe, it\u2019s inevitable that some assumptions about various markets will turn out to be wrong, if you don\u2019t rely on the knowledge and expertise of those working on this particular market.\u00a0 At JetBrains, which grew&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":102947,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/img-cdn.tnwcdn.com\/image\/growth-quarters?filter_last=1&fit=1280,640&url=https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2020\/10\/global-earh-international-gq.png&signature=da409a8c4e6c577d3bf3bbd297465620","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-102946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102946\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}