International Entrepreneurship: How to Find Your American Clientele

The United States is known as the land of opportunity and, seen from abroad, seems like a large and uniform market. Many foreign entrepreneurs think: “What an attractive market! How hard can it be to launch my product there, after all, it has proven itself very popular over and over in my own country. We could be selling to 300 million Americans in no time.”

They couldn’t be more wrong. Having personally experienced starting or coaching dozens of tech companies in both Europe and North America, I have seen that there are many, many different Americas: The USA of the traditionalist starched-shirt business etiquette of the East Coast and the Hoody-and-sneakers wearing tech startup community culture of the Silicon West Coast could not be more different from each other. I have learned the single most critical factor for success: Make Americans fall in love with your product, and your US expansion will be a success. 

Surely, there are unfamiliar regulations and visa questions and permits, and taxes to learn about – and these are all solvable issues. Finding and getting thru to your clientele in the giant haystack that is the 300 million American consumers, however, is another matter. And to achieve even more than just finding how to truly listen to their needs and how to rapidly adapt products to fit. This is the key to the success of American expansions. And seemingly difficult in a vast country such as the USA. Unless you employ a methodical process to cut up this giant elephant into easily digestible pieces. 

The following is my advice for getting this accomplished in 7 methodical steps.

1. Truly Listen to Potential Customers and Develop Sales Leads from Day One

Your customers are your most effective sounding board. This may seem obvious, but you’d be surprised how many entrepreneurs find themselves in echo chambers where they are more focused on the unique features of their offerings than going back to basics to understand the pain points of their customers that need solving. In the American market, the wants and needs of the market may be different than those in other markets. The only way to really know is to ask! Engaging with potential customers and getting feedback from the outset builds trust and establishes relationships that make it easier to close deals and secure long-term customer loyalty.

2. Confirm the Pain Point you Solve and the Persons you Solve it for to Create the Marketing Plan

The most successful marketing plans are built around coming up with customer-centric solutions that directly address a customer’s pain point. But the only way to know what that pain point you are solving is to have extensive primary research that shows a clear pathway to a product-market fit. By confirming the pain points early, you will save countless hours and thousands of dollars in adapting messaging to market effectively and allocating your resources.

3. Adapt your Sales Packages to Customers’ Needs to Form the Sales Plan

Once pain points and product-market fit are established, sales channels, organization, pricing, and compensation plans must be decided upon based on addressing various market factors. Sales are not one-size-fits-all, so having some flexibility in what you offer can make a difference in how customers choose you over your competitors and build trust that you know who you are serving and the trade-offs they are willing to consider in order to receive your product or service.

4. Prioritize the Product Adaptations to Develop a US Product Roadmap

Certain products that work in other countries won’t necessarily work in America – this can be an engineering issue or just a user-experience difference. It’s important to consider your product through the eyes of an American – how will they use it? What might be confusing for them? Don’t be afraid to test things out until you find the most intuitive solution for your customer.

5. Put the Right Systems in Place and the Right Business Setup

Once you know what products your customers want and how they prefer them delivered and delivered, it’s important to recognize what tools and technology need to be put into place, both back and in front of the house. Everything, from marketing and sales to fulfillment and customer service, needs to be tailored and scaled to U.S. customers.

It’s a good thing that you started with lead generation from day one because these tools now form the basis to build the business setup. This goes hand in hand with deciding on the right legal setup. Partnering with service providers and relying on widely used tools and systems helps to limit risks, ensures ready support, and shortens the time to launch – it is not worth reinventing the wheel here.

6. Ensure you Have Sufficient Funding for your US Expansion

Do not start until you have the money secure! Implementation of the lead generation, figuring out the marketing & sales approaches, development of US-specific product features, and getting the back office systems in place costs money, takes time, and requires the right team members, so it’s vital to have a solid financial plan worked out and a clear idea of where the funds will come from.

7. Don’t Try This Alone, and Don’t Be Afraid To Ask For Help

Many entrepreneurs may attempt to take a do-it-yourself approach as a cost-saving measure. However, taking on the American market alone can be overwhelming, and it often ends up costing even more time and money overall. Don’t try this alone, especially if this is your first time standing up a business in the USA. And don’t be afraid to ask for help from experienced US expansion builders – they know what works and what doesn’t, have access to experienced partners and service providers, and perhaps most important of all, they have an established contact network you can tap into.

Before enlisting help, however, be sure to ask for references and insist that they employ a methodical framework so that you can proceed in phases and receive data and documentation that you can share within your own organization at home.   Such partnerships can be a great way to reduce risk while learning how to adapt to the US business environment, find potential partners and clients, and get valuable and repeatable advice and support.

In Conclusion…

Overall, starting a business in the United States can be a challenging but rewarding endeavor. With the US being the single largest developed market in the world, taking a methodical approach, focusing on the right strategic areas, and strict customer-centricity will maximize your opportunity to not only find your American clientele but also to make them fall in love with your product. International entrepreneurs can increase their chances of success in the U.S. market by following the seven proven steps of global expansion.