Saturday, March 16, 2013

Going Global

I have many conversations about Vadacom going global with customers, suppliers and others in our industry. After all, VadaXchange is now recognisably a world class VoIP PABX system.  We also already have VadaXchange systems running in the USA, China and Australia - those systems are deployed for our New Zealand customers with the global  offices.

We have the unique capability to deploy and support VadaXchange systems internationally. However, up until now, we don't have any sales presence outside of New Zealand.

However, this year we achieved something entirely new - we sold our first system that is deployed internationally where the customer resides outside of New Zealand - that system is in the Kingdom of Tonga.

So what is stopping us from increasing our international sales and how would we go about it?

To find out I went along to Ken Morse's seminar "Global Sales Strategies for Ambitious Kiwi Entrepreneurs"

Ken is the co-founder of 3Com Corporation, Aspen Technology and a number of other global tech companies. I felt if I wanted to grow a successful international tech business, I need to learn form the best!

Ken didn't disappoint. I loved Ken's American, straight-to-the-point style. You can tell Ken knows how to grow sales. His message - sales are harder than technology. And it is true. I'm a firm believer that the ratio of sales to technical staff in a tech company should be 1:1.

Being in a small market, we often find ourselves selling our technology to small companies. Certainly most Vadacom customers at the moment have less than 100 people. So we often sell to the boss, or one person within the organisation who makes the decision.

Ken explained what it takes to sell to larger corporations - places where each decision is made by a bunch of people rather than just one. He calls them "The Jury". He shared with us his good, timeless sales techniques - from the first 30 second elevator pitch, through to building relationships overcoming objections and running  sales presentations.

Ken's message about focusing on vertical, rather than horizontal market did strike an accord with me and focused me on what it will actually take to take VadaXchange to international markets. This helped me focus on what is important in formulating our international expansion strategy.

If you interested to learn more about going global from the master, I would definitely recommend Ken's workshop - you can find details by clicking on the link here.

If you interested to learn more about Vadacom international expansion strategy, please first visit our website to understand what we do then give me a call.

Igor.