As a business owner, if you are expanding to the EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa) region, building great EMEA channel strategies will help you develop in those markets.
Whether or not your product line already has a presence in these nations, or whether you are just entering the market, you have to choose the right channel partners in these areas, to drive traffic, get the sale, and increase profits and revenue margins.
There are many things that may work in the US or South American markets, that don’t work in other parts of the world, and EMEA regions; therefore, choosing the right partners, is the first step in developing your EMEA channel strategies.
Choose Powerful Partners
It is important to go with quality, as opposed to quantity when choosing partners to front your sales channels in EMEA markets. As a business owner, you want to train and develop the right partners, in the product lines you sell, rather than hire hundreds of partners that are going to compete with one another.
You want all markets working together, and therefore should focus on the quality of great partners, using the right sales channels and resources, to reach out to their market base in the regions your company plans on expanding to.
With a powerful product, and well known partners, over time the product line will sell itself; so, rather than focus on hiring hundreds of partners, in several small markets, focus on going with partners that offer quality and experience in your line of work, rather than those you are going to have to intensively train.
Find the Right Regions to Promote
In certain regions, a product line might not sell. If there is no need for the product you plan on selling in a Belgium market, but there is a need in a French market, focus on those markets.
There are some third world countries in the EMEA market, that will never need certain electronics, or product lines. As the business owner in the US market, you have to keep this in mind; there is no amount of marketing that can be done, if customers will never need a particular product, and are never going to consider that product line.
So, focus on the regions where you know the product will sell, where prior sales have come from in the past, and focus on the strong markets, to ensure the sales increase is noticed, and to make the entry in to the EMEA market meaningful.
Make Marketing Translate
With your EMEA channel strategies, hiring the right partners will play a big role in this area. In English, a saying might come off to be offensive if it is literally translated in to another language. Therefore, you have to find the right partners, translators, and team members, to ensure this does not happen.
Since you are head of a company in a US market, you focus on marketing and sales tactics geared towards that market.
So, when spreading out to EMEA markets, you have to hire the partners and marketing professionals that will focus on the right message, tone, and entry, in to the particular markets you want to open and spread in to, with your marketing channels and sales channels.
Hiring the right personnel, and making sure the words are properly translated, can go a long way as to whether or not a product is going to be successful, or whether the new local market is going to be offended, and turned off by your product line and company.
Make Sure There is a Need
In certain markets, there is quite a bit of competition with many product lines. As a business owner planning your EMEA channel strategies to enter certain markets, you have to make sure there is a niche market that will purchase, you have to find out who the big competitors are going to be (that are already developed in a country or region), and you have to make sure the sales partners and sales channels being used, are truly the best way to enter the new country or market.
Before entering a market, it is important to:
– Find out if there is a need or want for your product line in that market.
– Know who the biggest competitors and threats are, to the market you are entering, and the product line you want to sell.
– Reach out to the right sales partners and channels, to ensure they properly deliver and market your product.
– Research to find out which buyers are more likely going to be interested in your product lines; and,
– Find the marketing tactics and advertising mediums that work in a particular EMEA country, to ensure you have the resources, and the right team to create those messages, to your potential audience in that region.
Know How Manufacturing and Distribution Will Occur
Of course when entering any new market, it is a trial run for many businesses.
But, if your product does take off, and becomes a big seller, you have to consider whether:
– You will continue to produce in the US and have products shipped overseas.
– Build new developing, manufacturing, and distribution plans in the local area.
– Or work with third party companies, to develop a product and sell in the new markets you have entered.
If your company is a well know and trusted name, it is possibly best to keep manufacturing within the company, to ensure consistency. So, over time, you have to consider whether it is in your best interest to move a production team overseas, or have products shipped over.
Each company’s EMEA channel strategies are going to differ, depending on the type of product, resources, and the markets they are entering.
Of course a company’s budget, and their expectations will also play a role in the strategy an the methodology of entering the EMEA market.
So, as a business owner, these are a few factors to keep in mind, when developing your EMEA channel strategies, and entering those new overseas markets.
