3 Steps to Identify New Markets For Your SME

Life as a small business owner entails a lot of innovation and improvisations. At the end of the day, the successful entrepreneur is one that’s adept at identifying opportunities where others see challenges.

After all, the worst problems bring the most brilliant solutions. Therefore, SMEs that are capable of looking beyond the limitations of their immediate market position themselves for long term benefits. Get tips from successful entrepreneur Ally Spinu and learn how small and medium-sized businesses can find new opportunities for growth abroad.

Pay Attention to Previous Leads and Potential Clients

Despite the current level of development of the business process in many developing countries, most SMEs conduct some level of customer research and target. In this regard, it’s essential to pay close attention to the individual needs of the customer.

You have to pinpoint their challenges and why they choose to do business with you. Also find their frustrations with the current situations in the industry. Some questions you want to ask include the following:

• Would other markets have the same issues and challenges?
• Are they familiar with similar services and products?
• If yes, have they used it previously?
• What aspects of the services/products did they dislike or like?
• Did they have any objections to similar products or services?

After you’ve been through answering these questions, you should have a better idea of how to develop a bespoke solution to problems in new markets you’d like to target. Mind you; customers choose a business for specific reasons. And they also reject them because of particular objections.

Therefore, finding the objections to similar businesses like yours helps you find a way into the market.

Let Your Current Competitors Inspire You

Doing a competitive analysis of companies in your industry abroad goes a long way to give you a better vision of the expectations you’d have to beat. Here too, there are specific questions you’d like to find answers for. Some of these essential questions include:

• What are they doing right?
• How are they approaching marketing?
• Why would customers choose your products or services over them?
• How can you improve upon what they offer?

Upon carefully analyzing competitors in new markets you’ve targeted, you’ll have a good idea of the market conditions you have to deal with. But most importantly, you’ll find a weakness that you could exploit to the advantage of your business.

Watch Out For Industry Insights and Trends

Information is very accessible today. As such, it’s relatively easy to find relevant industry publications and other reliable sources where you get all the information about industry trends. You could also consider joining associations.

Mainly tech businesses recommend social media listening, setting alerts on Google for relevant keywords, and many others. Ultimately, you want to keep your finger on the pulse and remain aware of any changes or developments in your industry - both at home and away.

Sweet Tips from Ally

1. Be the solution for your current clients and potential leads
2. Gather inspiration from your competition
3. Stay informed on all industry trends

Be sure to follow these tips to discover new markets, and let us know about your success!