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Are you still wondering what product to sell abroad? Does it seem like a critical choice to make?

Businesses just starting to develop international markets often spend considerable time wondering what they should sell abroad.

There is more than one way to get stuck while choosing which product to sell.

I regularly meet business owners who do not think they have an international business potential. Simply because they cannot see which of their products they could sell abroad.

And yet after a few minutes discussion I can identify an expertise others in different countries would like to have access to. After that, it is just a question of packaging that expertise in a way a foreign market wants to receive it.

Don’t get stuck in choosing the perfect product the first time you sell abroad.

An excessive focus on trying to find the right product to sell in a foreign country is often a waste of time. Well, this is often the case if you do not have any specific, first hand, foreign market knowledge.

Rather than focusing too much on how to choose the right product to sell first, there is a better strategy.

Trends In Change

First there are two important observations to make:

1. International business development almost always implies adapting some part of your business process. It can also involve changes in several areas: product, packaging, delivery, sales pitch.
2. International product development for products sold on the web, no longer follow traditional product development processes. The process is more fast paced and usually involves several business functions all at once: marketing, manufacturing, finance, engineering, distribution.

Ready For Change

There is one important thread to notice here:

• You must be prepared for change.

Changing and adapting to new markets is the key element for your success, especially in the beginning or your international business development. This is where you should spend a little time.

Businesses just starting out into new foreign markets should not spend too long agonizing about what to sell.

At this stage, the question of what to sell is often not as critical as how you are going to learn how to sell to different cultures.

The real challenge is to:

• Be ready for change
• Be flexible
• Learn how to see differences in market needs
• Learn how to understand your foreign market
• Adapt your business processes where necessary

Your Foreign Customer Gives You The Key

The reason why you need to be ready for change is because your foreign customer is different from the customers you are used to in your home country.

Your products need to appeal to your foreign customers.

Different cultures have different buying triggers. There are also several other different factors that come into play: language, cultural environment, habits, religion.

How can you know what appeals to your foreign customers before you get to know them?

This is why you will probably need to learn how to adapt some aspects of your products or how you do business.

If you become successful, the first product you sell abroad will not be your last one.

To become successful at international business you need to learn how to adapt to doing business in different cultures. Concentrate on this.

Spend some time getting your team ready to participate quickly if and when needed. Your first steps into international markets requires action, and reaction.

Final Thoughts On Choosing Your First Product

And, how should you decide which product to sell abroad first?

I hope this article has taken the edge off of your actual choice in product.

Of course, you should give some consideration into what product to sell abroad first. There may be a few obvious misfits you should avoid.

But you develop your international talents by adapting what needs to be adapted to different cultures.

Are you committed to speeding up your international sales cycles?

Learn how to combine cross-cultural marketing tools and international sales strategies for faster sales.

Join us on the International Sales Road Map

Would you like to develop your international business?
Are you a beginner at international sales and marketing?
Read the Beginners Guide Discover Your International Business

Cindy King is a Cross-Cultural eMarketer & International Sales Specialist, aligning businesses with different cultures. She has over 25 years field experience in international business development and helps mid-sized business owners create international business development strategies that shorten time to profitability.

Bill Clinton gave N. Korea their nuclear capabilities & the Russians, Chinese and French are supplying parts and materials to develop and build the missiles/armaments that may be used against the USA. Folks here in the USA are bitching and moaning because Uncle Sam is eavesdropping/spying on international phone calls, email, and banking transactions to get information on terrorists before they get on the next plane to New York or D.C., protesters are raising hell because our military puts a little pressure on suspected terrorists in Gitmo, and the rest of us are analyzing all of it; standing around the water cooler, or sipping lattes at Starbucks while the world turns to poop.

America always has been, and always will be considered the bad boy on the playground. Other nationalities detest us because of our growth, wealth, and worldliness. Growth: everybody wants what we have, so they come here to enjoy the blessings we enjoy. Wealth: a misconception that all of us are filthy rich based on media that covers the ones who are, and turns a blind eye to those who are starving, or dying from inadequate medical care, in the greatest country on earth. Worldliness: another misconception based on mass media displays of homosexuals, abortionists, pornography and drugs. Third world countries have such a limited view of what we’re really all about. BUT, because of the biased media that has ruled this planet for many years…Time Warner, which owns/manages the majority of ALL television, radio, newspaper, and magazine business in the WORLD… even our own people believe what they see or hear or read is fact, when it is not.

(See? here I am…offering my own analysis…and as I’ve said before, it’s worthless, because it’s merely my own opinion.) But…I believe if you’ve got nothing to hide, why should you care if Uncle Sam listens to you talking to Aunt Gertie in Israel on your cell phone? If you’ve got nothing to hide, why should you care if Uncle Sam looks at why you wired two million dollars to a bank in Syria? If you’ve got nothing to hide, why should you care if the Homeland Security agent looks through your bags at the airport, and makes you take your shoes off? Won’t you feel safer on the plane knowing that the fellow sitting across the aisle from you that looks like he might be an Arab/Muslim/Islamic had to go through the same inspection? And if you think our government is unfair to put pressure on suspected terrorists, who are prisoners of war, go talk to some mothers who didn’t get to look in the coffins of their children brought home from England, France, Germany, Italy, Africa, The Philippines, South Korea, Vietnam, Bosnia, Somalia, Afghanistan, Iran, or Iraq because their heads had been lopped off, or other parts blown away by bombs. If you think we’re tough on prisoners of war, go talk to wives who got little brown envelopes back with a DNA report on the few small bone fragments inside, which is all that is left of their husbands who were at work in the World Trade Center. If you think we’re tough on terrorists…. go to the top of a building that stands across the street from where the twin towers stood, and look at ashes that are still over two feet deep, and cannot be removed until every last speck has been sifted for possible remains. If you think we’ve mistreated prisoners, go talk to a former POW who spent six years in a three-foot by three-foot cage, sleeping in his own filth, until he was unable to stand upright or walk when finally released.

Why should it be left up to the USA to solve the crisis with Korea? Except for our rousing success in the invasion of Grenada, we have been grossly inefficient in solving the problems of the world. In some cases, (Somalia) we made things worse. And, now, there is Civil War in Iraq which we are totally unable to stop. They are killing each other by the thousands. Sometimes democracy does not work, especially when forced upon a nation.

I don’t like the Iraq war. I don’t like any war. But somewhere along the way, during our 240 years of existence, we became the protector of the rest of the world. Uncle Sam wears a blue leotard with a big red S on his chest, and answers every cry of help he hears, anywhere in the world. We (Americans) fight for the freedom of people who despise us. We die for people who spit on us. We feed people who sent us the worst plague known to mankind (so far), and we come home to be mocked by our neighbors who expect every freedom promised by Uncle Sam, but are not willing to sacrifice for it, in any way, shape, or form.

Thank God there are more of us who are willing to step out, rather than stand and watch, when it comes to serving this country. Thank God there are men willing to right wrongs. Thank God there are people who are not afraid to speak up, knowing it will cause them ridicule and disfavor. Thank God, that, for now, these people are in the majority. God help us if the balance ever tips the other way!