Many American companies overlook the great opportunities that there are to boost their revenues and profits by building a global sales effort. In fact, American manufacturers are way behind other companies in terms of their dependence on exports and their realization of how exports can help them to grow their business. Why do I think this is? For one thing, America has it’s own vast internal market and as a result of that, many business owners can find plenty of opportunities to sell their products locally, regionally, or nationally and even the national program is quite difficult for many business owners to foresee as within their scope of capabilities. But for American companies with our innovative spirit and our technology prowess, we have great opportunities to compete overseas.

Developing an international mindset is a very important part of setting the foundation for going international with your company. If you’ve traveled overseas or had extensive experience in dealing with foreign languages and cultures, and you’re interested in other parts of the world besides the US, this sets an excellent foundation for taking your own company international. In particular, if you’re thinking about going international and you have these sorts of interests but you don’t have the time to personally develop this, it’s quite possible to go find talent that is capable of focusing on this effort.

Starting an international sales and marketing effort begins with finding a talented, experienced, global sales professional who has the knowledge and understanding to set up and develop overseas distribution channels for your company. It’s quite easy to recruit this kind of international sales and marketing talent if you know where to look. Finding professionals with regional interests and language skills of European, Latin American, or Asian focus is an important part of expanding your international sales. Companies that are serious about expanding their business internationally and selling in key markets throughout the globe typically regionalize their efforts and add sales and marketing professionals with the right ethnic, cultural, and linguistic backgrounds in order to match up with the markets they’re trying to attack.