CEO and founder of Kite Hill PR, Tiffany Guarnaccia, and co-founder and principal of Sparrow Advisors, Ana Milicevic, virtually came together for our PR agency’s latest “5 in 5” (5 tips in under 5 minutes). The two discussed the in’s and out’s for international businesses looking to enter the US market. What to consider. How to do it correctly. And everything in between.
Catch the video here for more on their discussion.
Tiffany Guarnaccia: Hi, I'm Tiffany Guarnaccia. I'm the CEO and founder of Kite Hill PR. We're an agile tech PR agency.
Ana Milicevic: And I'm Ana Milisevic, the co-founder and principal of Sparrow Advisors, the management consultancy that focuses on rapidly evolving industries like adtech, martech, commerce and adjacent digitally influenced spaces.
TG: Thanks so much for joining us today. I'm really excited about today's topic. We're gonna do our 5 in 5. It's all about business and PR strategies for leaders who are looking to enter the US market. I know that's something that you and I were talking about. There's so much interest here, and it's something that you're doing all the time. Tell me more about some of the work that you do at Sparrow Advisors that relates to this.
AM: Yeah, this is one of our practice areas. We help companies enter the US market, foreign companies enter the US market and US companies expand to other global markets as well. So we've seen a lot of best practices, but also a lot of bad practices here that I'd like to flag, because there's no reason why folks should be falling down the same holes that others have fallen into before.
TG: So let's start off with our 5 in 5: the five tips that can ensure that everyone out there who's watching this is prepared to take the US market by storm and get ready for success.
AM: So our number one tip is before embarking on a US market entry, really look at your go to market strategy. A lot of companies are very tempted to kind of brush upon their collateral and fix their messaging a little bit and land here and are waiting for business to just open. And we think that the better approach is to also look at pricing, product, the way you're manifesting here, market partnerships and similar more strategic efforts that you need to take care of anyway. But ideally, you would take care of them before you land on our shores. And then you can proceed to step number two.
TG: Tip number two: adapt internal and external messaging. So, as you're starting to plan for a market entry, and we start off with a lot of the factors that you're considering overall, within the go to market plan, you need to take a step back and really evaluate and start to understand what the existing messaging looks, what's worked for you in the past, and how does it start to translate into the market that you're breaking through into. The US market tends to be more crowded, there tends to be a lot more competition. So that means we need to sharpen our pencils, and really put a finer point on some of the existing messaging that we have. So, you need to adjust, adapt that based on the market, your competition and your audience.
AM: That is such a great point. So I'm gonna follow up with tip number three: just be smart about hiring. The US market is very different in terms of labor regulations than most other markets. Especially if you're coming in from the EU, you're going to be surprised by how few regulations there are here and how easy it is to hire and, let's face it, fire people who don't necessarily work out. There's a downside to this. And that usually means that we see a lot of hyper specialization in roles here in the US. So for somebody that you're planning in your native market would be one or two people over here, you're going to need a team that's at least two or 3x that size, and that can really, really, really look frightening in your spreadsheets as you're planning. So you have to have a really tailored and articulated sophisticated approach to hiring and know which sequence of key hires you're going to execute to ensure that you have optimal success in marketing.
TG: Such a great point. I hope everyone got that. It was really mapping out what your team looks like and how you're set up for success. That's going to be crucial, and really how you break through and continue then not only to enter the market, but also helping you scale.
AM: That's right, and some of the things that are more normal here in market, these are the salary and compensation expectations around that, are going to be very different than what you're used to. And hence may require you to consider capital planning or, in general, supporting the US market entity differently than you would consider an expansion in your native market or markets. So our tip number four is understanding and growing your partner and channel ecosystem. Most companies that are ready for expansion to a foreign market have obviously experienced a certain level of success in their home market, which usually means that they have a really good network of either clients or partners that don't necessarily translate really well over here. For example, even if you're working with tier one brands in your home market. Unless those same brands are present here in the US, highlighting a case study or a success story won't really have that same effect when you present it in the US. One often overlooked strategy is to work through channel partners and business development. Most companies usually bring on their sales hire as their first hire here. And that is somebody who's focused on signing new logos, and then tend to deprioritize the business development angle here. So we're saying make sure that doesn't fall off the wagon, that you're actually prioritizing business development and channels from day one on your market.
TG: And our last tip, tip number five: stay agile, stay flexible from your go-to-market approach, to your PR plan, to your marketing plan. Agility and flexibility are keys to continued success within the market. As we continue to work with more clients that are coming from the EU from different areas into the US, one of the things that we've seen really over the past 18 months is the focus on agility and looking at a lot of near term planning, in addition to long term planning. So we're starting that initial plan, we're reviewing some of the impacts and results that we need to see within the first 90 days, but we're keeping a laser focus on how things are performing, and looking at adjustments within the market. Now, that brings us really to how we're looking at our external messaging, full circle, and how we're starting to inform our PR and communications programs because not only are we looking at our story, as a company, as if you're a founder, or if you're the head of communications for someone who's running a business. You're not only looking at how your story and your messaging are relating to the US market overall, but a key thing is how it's translating within existing market conditions, how they're changing, and, for us, looking at the current news environment to see what stories are bubbling up, and how you then fit into that current news agenda. So that's not only something that you're thinking about upfront, as you're getting started, you need to do that on a regular basis on an ongoing basis. Stay agile, and that's going to set you up for success as you continue to scale and grow within the US market.
AM: And so I'm going to throw in an extra tip for us today. And that's understanding who's going to pick up the bill for whatever services you're selling. And there's another dimension of planning that comes into play that has to do with when and where your potential customers are in their budget cycle. So if somebody's on a calendar budget year, and they do all of their budgeting in September and October, if you show up in November, you could be selling the hottest thing out there but they simply won't have budget for you and you'll have to kind of wait your turn and until that budget comes up. That is probably one of the most frequent challenges we see with companies coming into the market. They just don't have the awareness of how companies pay for their services here because it may be very, very different than in their native market. And so that would be my bonus tip for everyone is to have that calendar handy and know where everybody is on the calendar.
TG: Yes, thank you. I love that bonus tip. It’s something that we hear time and time again - just adjusting the budget. I hope everyone enjoyed this 5 in 5. That was a lot of secret sauce, but if you want more information follow us on social @KiteHillPR, read our blog, or you can reach out to us at Hello@KiteHillpr.com.