Getting to grips with US culture
Why US business culture is important, but not for the reasons you might think
Wednesday, July 28 2010 || Comment || BY Phil Rogers
Corporate culture within the US varies widely. Some companies focus on empowered employees with equalitarian principles while others make the former Soviet Union look upbeat and freewheeling. Developing ideal customer profiles and related personas is a vital step as companies develop their messaging for the US market. The culture of the prospective customer is an often overlooked component of the ideal customer profile. Think about your best customers in your home market. Which ones value your solution the most and why? Who do you like dealing with the best? What is it about the way they do business that makes them your most profitable/easiest to work with customer? These questions usually lead to some discussion around culture. Your firm might prefer clients with a strong purchasing culture because you offer the lowest cost solution. If design and functionality are your strengths then your focus is likely to be buying cultures that are heavily influenced by users. The US market is large enough to choose customers rather than approach the market with the mentality that all customers are good customers.
Having a targeted approach means that you cannot rely entirely on word-of-mouth, relationships and inbound marketing. Once you have your initial customers, it is necessary to do targeted outbound marketing. This involves using your ideal profile to identify a large group of prospective organisations that could fit this profile. The next phase involves a research call to confirm the fit with ongoing nurturing contact to develop the relationships based on the rule 'don’t contact unless you can add value' . US business culture is built on the idea that this kind of 'warm' contact is acceptable and in some cases welcomed as long as the vendor does the homework on the prospect and can truly add value.
Buying cultures
Why Killer Products Don’t Sell by Ian Gotts and Dominic Rowsell makes an excellent case that buyers buy products in different ways depending on how the product offers value. This is not a US market only concept but very useful in understanding the buying process in the United States. They describe four quite different buying cultures. For example, a customer may not even be able to describe a solution to a problem until the vendor brings it into focus. This process is entirely different from a known category where the buyer is simply evaluating options. The vendor needs to be organised to match the buying culture and process based on the position of the product or service is in its lifecycle. In either case, helping a prospect through a buying process in a value add way is much more effective than trying to force a sale.
Your culture
The perception of your business is heavily influenced by the culture that you communicate. The major communication channels are leadership behavior, formal communications and the impression that is created through interactions with the company’s systems and people. Many companies see the formal communications (website/brochures etc) as the dominant way to create their position. However, consistency across all channels is vital to create a brand position and to reinforce messaging. Hiring the right people and rewarding them in the right way is top of the list. Many firms hire based on the idea that a person’s 'rolodex' will get them into the market quickly. Commissions will motivate them to use their relationships. This focus communicates directly or indirectly through employee behaviors that the company will not be strategic in its customer acquisition (all customers are good customers). Commission-based compensation suggests that the sale is important rather than long-term customer retention and satisfaction. It also communicates to your employees that the rewards of what usually is a team process will go to one person. This can de-motivate the support team. Hiring based on the person’s ability to support the customer (technical expertise) combined with a company-wide performance bonus structure communicates a different set of priorities. This hiring and rewards approach tells your employees and your customers that you are customer-focused, think from a systems perspective, value team work and are looking for long-term success.
What this all means
Understanding the impact of culture is vital for success in the US market. There is a very specific seasonality and buying processes are slow. Taking on too much cost too soon or at the wrong time of the year can be expensive. At a company level, buyers select vendors that they trust and believe are expert 70% more often according to a recent survey. However, a cultural fit between two organisations is a two way process. Research and profiling allows you to effectively target companies that will likely fit with your culture and become long-term, profitable clients. The good news is that the size of the US market requires you to be targeted with your client acquisition. Targeting based on an ideal profile is necessary for success. The US remains by far the largest and most open market in the world so even a small slice of the US market is likely to be far larger than your total home market. Imagine what your business would look like with ten times the number of 'A' clients that you currently have.
Phil Rogers is the founding principal of Endeavour Advisory. New Zealand-born, his vision is to change US market entry from a one off high cost, high risk project for individual companies to a managed process using repeatable and proven programs that dramatically increase success rates
