They've launched 50 countries in 10 years and now have 18 offices around the world.

That’s what Little Big Connection has managed to do with a test-and-learn mindset and very little investment for each new country launch.

But…What is their secret recipe to make it work?

Jules Maillard, international expansion director, describes it in 4 steps:

• Hiring the right country launcher

• Leveraging the unlock program they created to support the launch of new markets

• Adopting a low investment & test and learn mindset

• Creating hubs to support multiple countries at a more local level

We emphasize particularly on the unlock program as they have spent years fine-tuning it to adapt to any cultural specificities country launchers stumble upon when they are in the job.

From closing the first deals, to hiring the first salespeople and to getting to maturity level in the targeted geography, the idea is to unlock rewards at every step of the way to help country launchers be succesfull in their mission.

In the last episode of International Corner podcast, you’ll learn everything about the steps of that program and their secret sauce to build a country launching machine.

9 months to take over a multi-market scope, structure it and scale it to get to the next stage of growth.

When she arrived at Partoo, there were 6 people within the expansion team.

2 years later, there are now 20 people.

That is what Cécile Farah, VP Sales Expansion, and her international team did at Partoo.

But it has been a long journey to make changes and generate positive impacts.

In today’s episode of International Corner, she explains what it took to get there:

• 1) Build a true team cohesion

As she took over a scope with different maturity levels, people are not living the same thing from one market to another one. They had to learn to move together to make it.

• 2) Follow global processes but keep a local approach

They make sure they use the right processes at a global scale while having local adjustments to take opportunity of the famous land and expand strategy.

• 3) Make the other departments understand what is going on in the different markets

The idea is to spread the knowledge and adjustments needed to marketing, legal finance etc… to avoid copy, paste what they did in other markets and make sure the entire organization is on board with what they do.

Find out more about these aspects in the episode!

As you move from the launching to the scaling phase in a new market,

You’ll Have A Tough Time.

Yet, you thought you went through the hardest part - getting the first few customers.

Well… I hate to break it to you… but this was just a “Mise en bouche”.

There are tons of aspects you need to consider afterwards such as:

• Building a clear vision of where you are going

• Spreading clear communication across local and global teams

• Adapting to the local market and localizing the Sales approach

• Implementing an agile sales process

And the toughest part according to Frederic KINGUE JOHNSON, GM and VP South EMEA and Latam at Content Square :

Stabilizing a team to scale the business efficiently.

A few highlights of our discussion

• Mistakes when hiring in a new market

• Misalignment to avoid between new hires / local people and HQ teams

• Global vs local process

• Challenges when transitioning your team from the launching to the scaling phases