A three-step journey to successfully expand across Europe
August 2, 2023
Four out of five technology leaders are considering expanding into new territory in the coming 12 months. That proves that this topic is more relevant than ever. But international expansion is not easy to achieve and can come with a lot of unexpected cost and complexity. However, when done correctly, the benefits are substantial.
At RocketX, we have identified a three-step journey for successful international expansion:
Determining a go-to-market (GTM) strategy
Setting up operations
Scaling
Rushing your expansion plans before you’ve got these three steps in order could undermine your business efforts - both internationally and domestically.
Determine GTM strategy
When looking to expand internationally, you should target the market segments that will bring you the highest returns. You want to spend your resources and investments as intelligently as possible and for that, you need a well-thought-out GTM strategy.
We’ve distilled the key consideration to creating a sound GTM strategy, which are:
Create strategic alignment
Analyse market potential
Determine routes to market
Determine your operating model
Prioritise investments
While it may sound obvious, creating strategic alignment is often considered to be an afterthought. After speaking to more than 100 scale-ups over the last few months, we noticed that businesses should only aim for international expansion once they have product-market fit. Any earlier and there’s a risk that you will spread your resources too thinly and create unnecessary amounts of complexity.
International expansion is never an isolated activity, it influences and touches upon all aspects of your business. If you understand your objectives and believe the timing is right, mobilise the organisation, engage the relevant stakeholders, clearly communicate your goals, and assign your resources appropriately.
When you expand into new territory, all of your assumptions will need to be re-evaluated. You may experience significant setbacks – so remember to factor that into your business strategy.
Then, analyse the market potential. Once you know that international expansion is imperative for the company’s future existence and growth potential, you’ll obviously want to know which markets have the highest investment potential. Segmenting these markets means understanding their respective sizes, but also being aware of other factors like the business environment, competitive dynamics, and networking opportunities.
Determining your routes to market is another key consideration for your GTM strategy, with both direct and indirect channels worth evaluating. Direct channels include direct sales and marketing, while indirect channels concern partner programmes and affiliates.
There are typically three archetypes to explain how to leverage channels and bring your product to market. There’s the “high-touch” approach, typically used for enterprises operating in complex environments with larger deal sizes and longer deal cycles. There’s “low-touch”, which can involve a combination of inbound marketing and sales, with somewhat smaller deal sizes and cycle times. And there’s “no-touch” or self-serve, which is typically used by e-commerce or self-service SaaS players with smaller deal cycles, very short cycle times and which do not require any local configuration. Finally, determining your operating model is dependent on your commercial team, and how you set up your IT infrastructure, your logistics, the manufacturing process, and your governance.
Start-up life is about making decisions. You need to prioritise where you place your bets and you need to select your priority segments. Be mindful when making these decisions and try to avoid doing too much at once. It’s better to do one thing well, learn fast, and move on.
Setup operations
When your GTM strategy is in place, it is time to set up operations internationally. Here, there are three key phases to be aware of:
Implementing your operating model
Setting up your infrastructure
Launching an MVP
The decisions that you’ve made in your operating model (building your customer journey, deciding your hiring roadmap, and finalising your legal requirements) will have a huge impact on the success of your initial foray into international business. Then, set up your infrastructure and get ready to launch your MVP. At his point, however, we advise staying as lean as possible before scaling up.
Scale
Scaling is often thought of purely in terms of customer numbers or revenue but we’ve actually defined four dimensions that must be taken care of to scale effectively. The first, is people. You might be in desperate need of talent but you should never compromise on culture. Ultimately, it will pay off if you have a rigid selection procedure. Build a recruitment engine, be diligent about your recruitment processes, liaise with local agencies, and standardise your processes. Build and manage an employee journey and be sure to celebrate success.
The next dimension for successful scaling is revenue. You may start as a small player in the market, but identify new pockets of growth to reach mass. Come up with a balance between inbound and outbound leads and iterate on market planning. That allows you to invest where needed.
Operational excellence will also prove key to scaling. Determine the KPIs and set up structured reporting, so you have consistency in what you measure. This will provide the triggers upon which you build your business. Craft processes that have been tested, standardised and automated (where possible), and see how you can configure your tech stack to make it fit with your global strategy.
And the fourth factor for successful scaling is your cashflow. Managing this is crucial as a lot of investment is needed for international expansion. Consider your payment terms – make sure these are optimised for you – not just complying with the market standard. And make sure the process around your revenue collection is streamlined.
International expansion may not be easy, but it is certainly worthwhile. It enables businesses to develop new relationships, expand their customers base, and achieve global brand recognition. Don’t let fear or a lack of strategic knowledge prevent your company from crossing new horizons.
Four out of five technology leaders are considering expanding into new territory in the coming 12 months. That proves that this topic is more relevant than ever. But international expansion is not easy to achieve and can come with a lot of unexpected cost and complexity. However, when done correctly, the benefits are substantial.
At RocketX, we have identified a three-step journey for successful international expansion:
Determining a go-to-market (GTM) strategy
Setting up operations
Scaling
Rushing your expansion plans before you’ve got these three steps in order could undermine your business efforts - both internationally and domestically.
Determine GTM strategy
When looking to expand internationally, you should target the market segments that will bring you the highest returns. You want to spend your resources and investments as intelligently as possible and for that, you need a well-thought-out GTM strategy.
We’ve distilled the key consideration to creating a sound GTM strategy, which are:
Create strategic alignment
Analyse market potential
Determine routes to market
Determine your operating model
Prioritise investments
While it may sound obvious, creating strategic alignment is often considered to be an afterthought. After speaking to more than 100 scale-ups over the last few months, we noticed that businesses should only aim for international expansion once they have product-market fit. Any earlier and there’s a risk that you will spread your resources too thinly and create unnecessary amounts of complexity.
International expansion is never an isolated activity, it influences and touches upon all aspects of your business. If you understand your objectives and believe the timing is right, mobilise the organisation, engage the relevant stakeholders, clearly communicate your goals, and assign your resources appropriately.
When you expand into new territory, all of your assumptions will need to be re-evaluated. You may experience significant setbacks – so remember to factor that into your business strategy.
Then, analyse the market potential. Once you know that international expansion is imperative for the company’s future existence and growth potential, you’ll obviously want to know which markets have the highest investment potential. Segmenting these markets means understanding their respective sizes, but also being aware of other factors like the business environment, competitive dynamics, and networking opportunities.
Determining your routes to market is another key consideration for your GTM strategy, with both direct and indirect channels worth evaluating. Direct channels include direct sales and marketing, while indirect channels concern partner programmes and affiliates.
There are typically three archetypes to explain how to leverage channels and bring your product to market. There’s the “high-touch” approach, typically used for enterprises operating in complex environments with larger deal sizes and longer deal cycles. There’s “low-touch”, which can involve a combination of inbound marketing and sales, with somewhat smaller deal sizes and cycle times. And there’s “no-touch” or self-serve, which is typically used by e-commerce or self-service SaaS players with smaller deal cycles, very short cycle times and which do not require any local configuration. Finally, determining your operating model is dependent on your commercial team, and how you set up your IT infrastructure, your logistics, the manufacturing process, and your governance.
Start-up life is about making decisions. You need to prioritise where you place your bets and you need to select your priority segments. Be mindful when making these decisions and try to avoid doing too much at once. It’s better to do one thing well, learn fast, and move on.
Setup operations
When your GTM strategy is in place, it is time to set up operations internationally. Here, there are three key phases to be aware of:
Implementing your operating model
Setting up your infrastructure
Launching an MVP
The decisions that you’ve made in your operating model (building your customer journey, deciding your hiring roadmap, and finalising your legal requirements) will have a huge impact on the success of your initial foray into international business. Then, set up your infrastructure and get ready to launch your MVP. At his point, however, we advise staying as lean as possible before scaling up.
Scale
Scaling is often thought of purely in terms of customer numbers or revenue but we’ve actually defined four dimensions that must be taken care of to scale effectively. The first, is people. You might be in desperate need of talent but you should never compromise on culture. Ultimately, it will pay off if you have a rigid selection procedure. Build a recruitment engine, be diligent about your recruitment processes, liaise with local agencies, and standardise your processes. Build and manage an employee journey and be sure to celebrate success.
The next dimension for successful scaling is revenue. You may start as a small player in the market, but identify new pockets of growth to reach mass. Come up with a balance between inbound and outbound leads and iterate on market planning. That allows you to invest where needed.
Operational excellence will also prove key to scaling. Determine the KPIs and set up structured reporting, so you have consistency in what you measure. This will provide the triggers upon which you build your business. Craft processes that have been tested, standardised and automated (where possible), and see how you can configure your tech stack to make it fit with your global strategy.
And the fourth factor for successful scaling is your cashflow. Managing this is crucial as a lot of investment is needed for international expansion. Consider your payment terms – make sure these are optimised for you – not just complying with the market standard. And make sure the process around your revenue collection is streamlined.
International expansion may not be easy, but it is certainly worthwhile. It enables businesses to develop new relationships, expand their customers base, and achieve global brand recognition. Don’t let fear or a lack of strategic knowledge prevent your company from crossing new horizons.
Four out of five technology leaders are considering expanding into new territory in the coming 12 months. That proves that this topic is more relevant than ever. But international expansion is not easy to achieve and can come with a lot of unexpected cost and complexity. However, when done correctly, the benefits are substantial.
At RocketX, we have identified a three-step journey for successful international expansion:
Determining a go-to-market (GTM) strategy
Setting up operations
Scaling
Rushing your expansion plans before you’ve got these three steps in order could undermine your business efforts - both internationally and domestically.
Determine GTM strategy
When looking to expand internationally, you should target the market segments that will bring you the highest returns. You want to spend your resources and investments as intelligently as possible and for that, you need a well-thought-out GTM strategy.
We’ve distilled the key consideration to creating a sound GTM strategy, which are:
Create strategic alignment
Analyse market potential
Determine routes to market
Determine your operating model
Prioritise investments
While it may sound obvious, creating strategic alignment is often considered to be an afterthought. After speaking to more than 100 scale-ups over the last few months, we noticed that businesses should only aim for international expansion once they have product-market fit. Any earlier and there’s a risk that you will spread your resources too thinly and create unnecessary amounts of complexity.
International expansion is never an isolated activity, it influences and touches upon all aspects of your business. If you understand your objectives and believe the timing is right, mobilise the organisation, engage the relevant stakeholders, clearly communicate your goals, and assign your resources appropriately.
When you expand into new territory, all of your assumptions will need to be re-evaluated. You may experience significant setbacks – so remember to factor that into your business strategy.
Then, analyse the market potential. Once you know that international expansion is imperative for the company’s future existence and growth potential, you’ll obviously want to know which markets have the highest investment potential. Segmenting these markets means understanding their respective sizes, but also being aware of other factors like the business environment, competitive dynamics, and networking opportunities.
Determining your routes to market is another key consideration for your GTM strategy, with both direct and indirect channels worth evaluating. Direct channels include direct sales and marketing, while indirect channels concern partner programmes and affiliates.
There are typically three archetypes to explain how to leverage channels and bring your product to market. There’s the “high-touch” approach, typically used for enterprises operating in complex environments with larger deal sizes and longer deal cycles. There’s “low-touch”, which can involve a combination of inbound marketing and sales, with somewhat smaller deal sizes and cycle times. And there’s “no-touch” or self-serve, which is typically used by e-commerce or self-service SaaS players with smaller deal cycles, very short cycle times and which do not require any local configuration. Finally, determining your operating model is dependent on your commercial team, and how you set up your IT infrastructure, your logistics, the manufacturing process, and your governance.
Start-up life is about making decisions. You need to prioritise where you place your bets and you need to select your priority segments. Be mindful when making these decisions and try to avoid doing too much at once. It’s better to do one thing well, learn fast, and move on.
Setup operations
When your GTM strategy is in place, it is time to set up operations internationally. Here, there are three key phases to be aware of:
Implementing your operating model
Setting up your infrastructure
Launching an MVP
The decisions that you’ve made in your operating model (building your customer journey, deciding your hiring roadmap, and finalising your legal requirements) will have a huge impact on the success of your initial foray into international business. Then, set up your infrastructure and get ready to launch your MVP. At his point, however, we advise staying as lean as possible before scaling up.
Scale
Scaling is often thought of purely in terms of customer numbers or revenue but we’ve actually defined four dimensions that must be taken care of to scale effectively. The first, is people. You might be in desperate need of talent but you should never compromise on culture. Ultimately, it will pay off if you have a rigid selection procedure. Build a recruitment engine, be diligent about your recruitment processes, liaise with local agencies, and standardise your processes. Build and manage an employee journey and be sure to celebrate success.
The next dimension for successful scaling is revenue. You may start as a small player in the market, but identify new pockets of growth to reach mass. Come up with a balance between inbound and outbound leads and iterate on market planning. That allows you to invest where needed.
Operational excellence will also prove key to scaling. Determine the KPIs and set up structured reporting, so you have consistency in what you measure. This will provide the triggers upon which you build your business. Craft processes that have been tested, standardised and automated (where possible), and see how you can configure your tech stack to make it fit with your global strategy.
And the fourth factor for successful scaling is your cashflow. Managing this is crucial as a lot of investment is needed for international expansion. Consider your payment terms – make sure these are optimised for you – not just complying with the market standard. And make sure the process around your revenue collection is streamlined.
International expansion may not be easy, but it is certainly worthwhile. It enables businesses to develop new relationships, expand their customers base, and achieve global brand recognition. Don’t let fear or a lack of strategic knowledge prevent your company from crossing new horizons.
