You are considering a new country, perhaps Sweden. Maybe the first export step didn’t progress as expected. You have market research in hand, but not yet the voice of the buyer. In our experience, the first person you talk to in a new market often tells you what you want to hear. How do you find out the truth before investing in the market?
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I have worked for about ten years in international companies and abroad as a sales director, development director, and country manager, with responsibility for several countries. I have worked in Sweden for many years, been responsible for the Swedish and Nordic markets, and worked for a Swedish company. My colleagues Mikko and Markku have long experience working with foreign companies and accounts, so this article draws on all of our experience.
My own lesson from Sweden is this: a couple of times I built a plan based on what I was first told. Then we wondered for a long time why the plan didn’t work. When we finally got a second opinion from elsewhere, we realised that the image we had built upon had been wrong for a long time.
I had been told a bit of what I wanted to hear.
It wasn’t a matter of ill will. The first person I spoke with told things from their own perspective, and I didn’t ask anyone else.
At the same time, we learned what the Swedes do differently than us. They discuss for a long time before making a decision and then follow through with it. This left us with a habit: important matters are verified from at least two directions before building upon them. I first wrote about the lessons from Sweden in the spring (What the Swedes did differently). In this article, I explain how buyers are listened to before investing in a new market.
In our experience, the same matter requires more discussion in Sweden than in Finland. The relationship was built for longer before the need and solution were decided upon.
A long discussion does not mean slowness. Once a decision is made, things move forward, and the same matter is no longer dwelled upon.
To a Finnish salesperson, a long discussion easily feels like uncertainty. It feels like the deal is slipping away. That’s when you feel like telling them a bit more about the product.
This is the most important thing we learned from Sweden. The first friendly person you talk to doesn’t yet tell you how the market decides. They tell you how they see the matter themselves. Sometimes they also tell you what they believe the listener wants to hear.
I said the same thing at a workshop for a software company preparing for expansion into Sweden. The team was wondering when Swedish buyers would even have time for meetings if budget and financial statement rushes take up half the year. There was no experience of this yet. I suggested that the timing and progress of procurement be verified with one call to a local partner and then from another direction.
That’s why there are two sides to listening. You listen to several buyers. You also listen to those who are satisfied with their current supplier. They tell you what switching would require of them.
There is one more feature in Sweden that is good to know. When a familiar Swede tells another that a solution is easier and works better, the message comes from a familiar mouth. It carries more weight than a Finnish salesperson’s own assurances.
In Finland, there is a persistent idea: a good product defends itself. When something is built well, the world will find it.
I understand the thought. It is the strength of many Finnish companies. The product is built with care and refined for a long time.
I have said in internationalisation workshops that many Finnish companies face the same challenge in a new market. The product range is put in order and taken there. Everything else is left waiting. It is difficult to build the missing pieces afterwards when you are already in the market.
By ‘everything else’, I mean the things the buyer weighs alongside the product. Whose salesperson arrived on time? Whose proposal did their management team understand? Who answered the question that wasn’t asked in the RFP but that the buyer had been thinking about for weeks?
These are acts of sales and service. The right actions are only found when you know what the local buyer expects. You rarely find that out from Finland by reading research. You find out by asking.
One example is language. In software company projects, I have often seen that implementation goes much more smoothly when the user interface is in the country’s own language. English sounds like a universal language, but a service operating in one’s own language feels to the user like it was made for their own market.
A company’s internationalisation often proceeds in a familiar order. First, a market analysis is done: market size, growth, and competitors. Then a sales plan with schedules and budgets. Then market entry, carried by excitement for the first few months.
The research is often done carefully. However, it is based on public information that is also available to competitors. Market size and competitors can be found out from behind a desk. What switching would require from the buyer is known only by the buyer themselves.
In research, it is also worth looking at the market timing: is the market favorable right now. This is influenced by legislation and its future changes, the competitive situation, the maturity of the industry, and how ready the buyers’ needs are. The same product can be too early in one country and already late in another.
Much market research remains at a high level because at the beginning, it’s not yet known what needs to be investigated. The core of research is interviews with decision-makers in the right target group. Without them, the research lacks what is decisive: why a buyer would switch suppliers.
A CEO considering internationalisation had already commissioned a light survey of a few Nordic countries. I told him that the survey is a good foundation. However, the greatest benefit comes from the next stage, when you get to discuss with customers, partners, and other players. Those discussions reveal what needs to be adapted in the offering for the new market. Those things are usually not big or difficult, but you can’t bring them out from anywhere else.
Quite a few plans look good on paper. When discussions with buyers are skipped, the plan often fails to materialise. Then you face a difficult decision: do you increase the stakes or pull back?
Those to be interviewed also include those who are satisfied with their current supplier. The interview is conducted in the local language and by an external interviewer. Then the buyer can speak directly.
The interview succeeds when your own company has first been well understood: where you are strong, what you offer, and where you are going. Otherwise, the discussion remains on the surface. You can ask the buyer if things are going well or poorly, but the answer will then remain general.
When internationalisation is being planned or is already underway and something is not progressing as expected, these three questions are suitable as a self-test for the management team.
One: can you name three local buyers who can explain in their own words why they would buy specifically from you? If the answer is “it will become clear when we get to the market,” the purchase decision is still unexplored. It can be explored before entering the market.
Two: from how many directions have you heard the same thing? If your most important assumption is based on one conversation, it is only one person’s view. It is good to verify important matters from at least two buyers. One of them can be a buyer who is not yet interested.
Three: whose task is it in your company to keep the buyer’s perspective visible? It doesn’t necessarily have to be the marketing director or export manager. It can be anyone who brings the voice of the buyer to the weekly meeting and discusses with sales and product development as needed. When the role is named, the buyer’s perspective is reflected in decisions.
When a growth company’s plan lists Sweden as the target country, the first thing I ask is which buyers have already been heard in the research. Good research is a foundation that the voice of the buyers complements.
My colleague Mikko Fransila was involved in a project where external market research had identified the Netherlands as the best target country. The research had been done based on the assumptions the company had at the beginning. Mikko wanted to check the choice immediately. Finland is long and sparsely populated, the Netherlands small and densely populated. Would the same business logic work there?
The company went anyway and started work through a local company. It soon became clear that the companies intended as customers handled the same work themselves. The Netherlands was abandoned and the lessons were saved for the next market. Mikko’s observation was that the same information could have been found with just a couple of days’ visit and discussions on-site.
The effective order is this:
In our experience, it’s not worth trying two markets at the same time. Lessons are gathered from the first country before the next one.
In the beginning, it’s enough to track three numbers: how many meetings are obtained, how many meetings lead to a proposal, and how many proposals lead to a deal. If the numbers are growing, things are moving in the right direction.
In a new market, you can err in two directions.
First: it is believed that the model that worked in Finland will work elsewhere with minor adjustments. The good things from Finland’s successes are taken along, but they don’t necessarily work in another market. On paper, yes; in practice, not necessarily. Purchasing processes, communication, pricing, and even the structure of a proposal vary by market. Localisation is easily forgotten: language, materials, contract terms, and support services are adapted to the local way, not just translated. Differences are rarely found in public information. They are found by asking.
Second: it is believed that the market is so different that the product is not suitable for it. This conclusion is often reached after the first disappointment. Often the product is fine, but the service assembly, sales method, or communication didn’t hit the mark.
Sometimes the reason lies in the maturity of the market. Even if there are many projects, buyers may not yet be ready for your specific solution. Interviews reveal at what stage decisions are made and whether an external supplier can get involved.
Distinguishing between these explanations is difficult without an external interviewer. Therefore, a company may withdraw too early or continue for too long on the wrong path. Listening to buyers before entering the market guides the building process. A second round conducted about a year later shows the areas to be corrected.
When information is needed quickly, I have recommended one method to our customers. Meetings are arranged with players in the target market where nothing is sold. They map out their market, their way of operating, and bottlenecks. The opening can be said, for example, like this:
These five questions are enough as a basis for the discussion. They ask what the buyer has already done, not what they might do.
Five questions for a buyer in a new market
If two buyers tell you the same thing, it’s worth verifying it with a third. After that, you can build upon the observation.
In Sweden, the truth only became clear to me when we got a second opinion. Nowadays, I seek it before the first investment.
You can take two things from the Swedes. Discussion is held before the decision. After the decision, you move forward. A Finnish company can add a third to these: the most important assumptions are heard from two buyers.
Contact us
We interview buyers and resellers in the target country in the local language before the market is invested in or when the first export step needs a new direction. As a result, you will know why a buyer would switch suppliers, what needs to be adapted in the offering, and which market to start with. Thus, you know which market it’s worth going to first and to whom you should sell there. We tell more about our working method on the internationalisation service page.
A couple of sentences in your own words is enough. We respond within one business day and tell you directly if we can help and where we would start ourselves. If the matter can be handled without us, we’ll tell you that too.
A 45-minute discussion with one of us is also possible directly from the calendar.
45 min · Teams or Google Meet · No sales pitch
Or by email: hello@voittogroup.com
A few sentences in your own words is enough. We will respond within one business day and tell you directly if we can help and where we would start.
