How to Expand Internationally: 5 Things to Consider

Kelsie Anderson profile picture
By Kelsie Anderson

Published
9 min read

Growing your business is exciting, but it can also be terrifying and confusing.

Figuring out how to accommodate a growing staff by acquiring more office space can be complicated enough without considering opening a satellite office in another state, let alone another country.

However, issues related to growth and expansion are good problems to have. They mean that your business is doing well and can take a chance in other markets to grow even more.

If you're thinking of expanding overseas, good for you! I hope you're ready to put in the work to expand the smart way.

Luckily for you, Capterra has some experience with international expansion. Not only does half of our traffic come from areas outside of the United States and Canada, but we recently launched websites in France and Germany to better serve software buyers in those countries.

To help share some of that knowledge with you, I spoke to my colleagues at Capterra who have experience coaching sales and marketing teams through the B2B international expansion process.

Read on for a few business basics on how to expand internationally.

5 questions to ask before you expand internationally

Expanding internationally is a lot of work in and of itself, and it means more work for your team in the future as you acquire new customers in different countries and time zones.

However, successful international expansion also means more revenue, diversified revenue streams, a dramatic increase in global brand awareness, and exposure to international business technology and methods.

If you try to launch in other markets without a decent strategy, however, you risk outward hostility from a new market, a ruined brand reputation from bungled business deals, and huge financial losses.

So before you start your expansion journey, there are a few questions you should ask yourself to make sure you're ready for this large and exciting project.

1. Do you know why you're expanding your business?

You might respond to this question with an eye roll and an answer along the lines of, "more business, and more money."

Growing revenue is a primary reason for expanding to international markets, but you should look beyond the dollar signs floating in front of your eyes when you consider making this move.

 Factors to consider:  Put aside the idea of cash flow for a minute, and think about why you picked the markets you have your eye on and how your product can best serve those markets

Kelsey Walsh, manager of client success at Capterra, helps B2B software companies grow their international reach every day. Her advice is to focus on making data-driven decisions.

Kelsey Walsh

Manager of Client Success at Capterra

"The first thing we ask when it comes to international traffic is 'Do you already have customers in any other countries?'"

This might seem like a no-brainer, but if you're already making sales and accumulating clients in a particular country, that country should be your first target. The important thing is to look at hard data to make a responsible decision. Otherwise, why not just throw a dart at a map?

When narrowing down your expansion options, consider some of the following issues:

  • Are you currently seeing organic demand, such as traffic to your website, from countries outside of the U.S.?

  • Does the problem your product solves in the U.S. also exists for customers in international markets?

  • Will the demand you're seeing from other countries justify the efforts of expansion?

Being able to point to justifications beyond potential new revenue streams will make your case for international expansion stronger, in addition to helping you understand possible hurdles before you encounter them.

2. Do you have an international business plan?

Now that you've figured out why you want to expand, you need to figure out how you're going to do it.

Keep in mind that just because your company is running successfully in the U.S. doesn't mean that it will fare as well overseas.

 Factors to consider:  Think of expansion as if you're starting your business from scratch. Do your research into how your business would function in an entirely different environment.

Are you aware of the laws governing business operations in the market you want to be in? Do you know who your local competitors are and how you're going to outsell them? Do you have trusted partners to serve as part of your supply chain?

Don't take anything for granted when it comes to expanding to new markets. Just because you know how to do business in one country doesn't mean you have everything figured out in others.

3. Do you know anything about the culture in the country you want to expand to?

After you've covered some of the nitty-gritty business logistics, start looking into the people you think will buy your product.

You might have the best sales team this side of the Mississippi, but don't bank on their techniques translating to every market you serve.

 Factors to consider:  While eCommerce makes it easy to sell to consumers all over the world without leaving your home office, that doesn't mean a business trip is out of the question. If you're serious about expanding to other countries, a quick visit to get a feel for how things operate there is not a bad idea.

However, if international travel isn't in your budget, doing small things such as learning a few phrases in your new customers' language or even some regional slang might help endear you to your new market. Plus, it might help you avoid some of the cultural gaffes that even large companies have made when expanding into other countries.

At the very least, research subjects such as local traditions and holidays, how long the average business day lasts, and even when the typical lunch break happens.

Especially for B2B companies, having a deep understanding of work culture in the country you're expanding to is crucial.

For example, if you're a point of sale software company that wants to sell to retail outlets in a Spanish market, your sales team should know that many businesses in Spain close down during the month of August.

4. Are you optimized for international SEO?

Even if you're considering expanding to another English-speaking market such as the United Kingdom, that doesn't mean that your marketing and advertising strategies will automatically work well there.

Especially if you're expanding to a country where English isn't the native language, you've got some work to do.

 Factors to consider:  Creating a website for a particular country—an ".fr" site for France, for example—is your best bet for reaching non English-speaking customers.

Capterra_French_Site

Capterra's French site (capterra.fr) helps native French speakers navigate our content, as well as improve our SEO in France

That's because search engines such as Google tend to serve search results and ads that match a user's location and language preferences. So if you're selling electronic signature software, you're much more likely to see French traffic if your site advertises "logiciel de signature électronique" instead.

However, translating a whole site can be difficult. It might be enough to create localized landing pages and invest in translation and PHP redirect services for a small amount of content rather than your whole site.

Make sure your team has thought through the challenges of telling new consumers about your product across cultures and languages.

5. Is your sales team equipped to handle international leads?

You can succinctly explain why you're expanding to the markets you're targeting. You know everything about business operations in a new market. You even know how to talk to new consumers about your product. You're ready to do business internationally.

Or are you? Is your sales team actually equipped to deal with incoming leads from other countries?

 Factors to consider:  Don Georgette, senior business development executive here at Capterra, points out how hard it is to juggle time zones.

Don Georgette

Senior Business Development Executive at Capterra

"It's hard enough for a smaller team to handle inbound leads from the Pacific Time Zone if they're in Boston, let alone leads from even farther-out time zones like Europe."

Georgette's observation stems from the widely known correlation between sales success and response time: not responding to a lead within the first five minutes of receiving it makes it ten times less likely that you'll get in touch with them at all.

Conducting business across time zones—even between the East and West Coasts of the U.S.—can make maintaining fast response rates difficult.

Ensure that your sales team is equipped with the right tools and techniques to handle international leads with a more dramatic time difference. As Kelsey Walsh puts it:

Once you get traffic, you need to starting thinking 'How do I capitalize on this?' In an ideal world, you shouldn't treat a UK lead like a U.S. lead if your sales team is based in the U.S. That wouldn't serve you well.

In order to maintain a stellar response time and give your new leads a chance, Walsh suggests using a tool such as marketing automation software to help follow up on inbound opportunities, even if your team isn't physically manning the office at 9 a.m. GMT.

To give your leads some sense that you're going to get back to them as soon as possible, Walsh suggests the following:

Contact them somehow. Send them anything, something to push them into the funnel. You can send automatically triggered emails, pushing them to either schedule an appointment or send them a thank-you page with details on when and how you'll follow up or information on your process or product.

If you aren't actually making sales, you can't really say you have international "business." You're only handicapping your sales team by not equipping them with the tools and processes to best serve your new customers.

Are you ready for international expansion?

Reaching new markets means your business will be thinking about a lot of new things.

While you can and should build on your existing successful processes, you shouldn't assume that everything your business does well will translate to success in other countries.

The good thing is that all of the questions I've guided you through center around one thing: your customers. By taking a step back from expansion discussions purely based on revenue, you and your team can better ask yourselves how you're going to best serve your clientele.

Doing a better job at that should mean more financial growth for you, but it shouldn't be your main focus.

Has your B2B company expanded to international markets? What did you learn? What lessons could you impart to other organizations looking to reach international customers? Let me know in the comments below!


Looking for Business Management software? Check out Capterra's list of the best Business Management software solutions.

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About the Author

Kelsie Anderson profile picture

Kelsie is a former Capterra analyst.

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