So if Step 1 was trying to enter the new country on the strength of your product, what will Step 2 be?

Step 2 will be trying to utilize your distant network.

Trying to get the attention of that buyer in Berlin? Fortunately, one of the guys you went to high school with lives in Berlin now. Not only does he live in Berlin, he works for the same company you want to sell to. Cha-ching!

So you get the meeting with the buyer. Better product, check. Scheduled meeting, check.

You go to the meeting, but still, you lose out to the local supplier with an inferior product.

First of all, before we get to what went wrong: Kudos to you, because even though you failed, you got closer. You were working on the irrational, emotional side of the line too.

You have to work both sides, the rational one (product features), AND the irrational one (network).

So like I said, congratulations, you got yourself onto the short list of candidates with product and meeting.

But you didn’t get the sale. So now let’s get to figuring out where things went wrong.

Remember, the buyer’s primary motivation was to protect his/her job, it was not to buy the best solution. And how do you protect your job? You do the safe thing. As they say, “No one ever got fired for buying IBM.”

That’s why you lost the sale, yet again, to a local with an inferior product.

Now you go home and rejigger things for Step 3. You’re sure Step 3 will work, but the hard truth is that it will also probably fail.

In the next email, I’ll outline what Step 3 is going to look like.

And by the way, don’t worry, success will finally come in Step 4. I’m not going to leave you hanging forever. 😉