The problem
Most market entry fails on the ground, not on the spreadsheet
The business case is usually sound. The market is real, the product travels, the numbers work. What goes wrong is everything between the decision and the first year of revenue: the wrong first hire, a go to market model copied from home, partners who agree to everything and do nothing, and a head office that cannot tell whether the silence means progress or trouble.
I have been the first person on the ground in a country where the company had no office, no clients and no reputation, selling a product the market had never heard of. I have also run the other side, deciding from Europe how an underweight market should be structured.
What the work involves
Building the commercial operation
- First hires. Defining the roles the market actually needs rather than mirroring head office, then recruiting and onboarding them
- Partner base. Building the relationships that make the market work, which in most countries is the difference between presence and revenue
- Go to market adaptation. Working out which parts of the model travel and which have to change, before rather than after the first year
- Commercial process and pricing. Rate cards, terms, discounting rules and a process that fits local buying behaviour
- Local setup. Entities, contracts, trade presence and the practical machinery of operating in the territory
- Reporting into head office. So the centre can see what is happening without needing to interpret it
- Multi market scaling. Extending from a first country into a region without rebuilding everything each time
- Handover. A local leader who can run it, which is the only real measure of whether entry succeeded
Evidence
Three countries opened from zero
Brazil for a European hotel technology group, as the first hire, with no office and no clients. I built the client base to 800 through direct relationship work rather than marketing spend, established the commercial process, pricing rules, local entities and trade show presence, and grew the team to nine.
Then across the region: I personally hired the first account managers for Buenos Aires, covering Spanish speaking South America, and Mexico City, covering Mexico and Central America. The Mexico hire is still with the company more than a decade later. I also recruited the country manager who then became my own line manager, which is the clearest evidence I can offer that I hire for the business rather than for my own position.
800
Clients built from zero in Brazil
9
Team built from a start of one
200+
Partners onboarded in twelve months, earlier, in an undeveloped territory
+153%
Mexico commission in one year, restructured rather than rebuilt
A different answer
Sometimes the right entry is not a new team
Years later, running six markets from Europe, I inherited an underweight Mexico. The expected answer was to build a Mexican operation. Instead I moved Mexico under the existing Brazilian team, who already spoke the language and understood the market, and removed the reporting line that had kept them apart.
Commission grew 153% and gross merchandise value 243% in a single year. The expensive answer was a new team. The right answer was recognising that the capability already existed one country over. Good market entry work is often about structure rather than headcount, and you only see that if someone looks properly before the budget is committed.
Questions
Common questions
Which markets have you operated in?
The United Kingdom, Germany, France, Poland, the Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Mexico, Argentina and Brazil. I have opened operations from zero in Brazil and built the first presence in several others.
Do you do market research or market entry execution?
Execution. There are firms that will size the opportunity and write the business case, and some of them are very good. I am the person who arrives after that decision and builds the commercial operation that has to deliver it.
How long does opening a market take?
First revenue is usually possible within a quarter. A functioning commercial operation with a local leader who can run it takes longer, typically several quarters, and rushing that handover is the most common way market entry quietly fails two years later.
Can you do this without relocating?
Often, yes, particularly where an adjacent team can absorb the market. Where genuinely new ground has to be broken, I travel and spend real time in the market, because the relationships that make entry work are not built over video.