Our local consultant can advise you on the best way to identify and approach potential clients with a customized proposal. He can act as your local respresentative.
Germany is home to tens of thousands of businesses ranging from small sole proprietorships to large conglomerates. In fact, a large part of the reason for the prominence of Germany’s economy on the world stage can be linked to the small and medium sized businesses (SMEs) of the Mittelstand. So be prepared for smaller and mid-sized companies with a family member as the director and a long-term vision.
Most German companies empower a few senior managers. Larger companies (AG & GmbH) are governed by a Supervisory Board (Aufsichtsrat) which chooses the Management Board (Vorstand). The management board however is the final decision-maker on matters affecting day to day management.
Work and personal lives are rigidly divided, and Germans subscribe to the ideal that there is a proper time and place for every activity. Talking about personal subjects and politics should be avoided, and the focus should be on work-related things, even in the limited small-talk.
As Germans are very focused on efficiency, meetings may only be scheduled for half an hour and only then if it is clear what the purpose of the meeting will be. This requires a very clear and focused approach, in which you show that you have found out already something about the company and its challenges. Slogans are disregarded, proof is important.
Germans place a high priority on academic and technical education and business houses value the same. Mostly, companies are run by technocrats rather than lawyers and accountants. Meetings are often large with a designated specialist from each area involved in the matter under discussion. People are expected to contribute to the debate when discussions touch their area of expertise but are not necessarily expected to have an opinion on everything.
Germany has many trade shows which are an excellent way to showcase your products and to orient yourself on the market. However, due to the sheer size of these shows chances are small that a purchasing manager or decision maker will accidentally visit your booth. A dedicated business development approach may yield more results for substantially less than the costs of a booth.
If you decide to have your booth at a German trade show, be well prepared and have your message tailored to the European and especially German visitors. It might be a good idea to contact relevant prospects in advance and invite them to your booth.
With the tooling of our partner Instantly.ai you can define your target group, whether it’s 50 or 50.000 people. Send them a sequence of emails, directly in their inbox, for typically under 10 dollarcents per persoon.
Even if your business is really international, it may be wise to set up local website translations and check whether your text aligns with the culture.
With regards to content, my personal experience is that if you have a successful blog topic in one language, it is likely to do well also in other languages. Don’t reinvent the wheel, just make a proper translation.
For targeting a country you may need website translations that go beyond Google translate. You can do this with WPML.
WPML is a Wordpress plugin that helps you set up different translations of your web pages. This can be with automated translations, but you can also choose to have manual or adjusted translations or even specific content on the language pages.
First of all you may have to pay import duties or settle VAT. This can be complex if you don’t have your own legal entity in the country.
There may also be non-financial bariers, like certifications or approvals to be obtained. Especially for food, cosmetics or medicine this may be the case. Check this in advance, even before you invest in your marketing.
Getting your products imported and delivered in a specific country can be a challenge. I have good experience with Tecex, who can act as your importer of record and even physical distributor. If you leave your details, they will contact you.
First determine who can be the end-users for your product or service. From who do they purchase now? Interview a number of key players in the value chain how they perceive your offering and ask them who is your competition. Only then you can position your product or service and effectively approach potential buyers.
Yes, we can certainly do that, because we have experienced business developers in the country. Of course it is important that your product is good, well documented and you have discovered the best sales processes already in your home country.
