A short introduction please, how did you start working with EuroDev? Could you describe the beginning of the relationship?
Jose, EuroDev’s VP reached out to me with a nice email intro. I then engaged in a meeting with him to introduce our business and for Jose to introduce what EuroDev does.
Setting up an American entity in Europe, that’s something, I’m not comfortable with as I did not have any experience with. I have run businesses in Europe, but had never started one from scratch. EuroDev was extremely helpful in getting a team together to help us launch this project of bringing our product to the European market. They started by doing a market analysis and figuring out if there’s a fit for suppliers like us and what we do in America. This way we don’t have to reinvent the wheel.
What were the major challenges of expanding in Europe according to your experience?
Sourcing a building, finding employees, but the major challenge was establishing banking and getting our VAT situated. Looking at banking, it's close to impossible to get a banking relationship going as an American business without an entity in Europe. EuroDev has effortlessly managed to handle it though so we can operate legally. Another challenge has been the technical part of our product applications and training the sales team at EuroDev. However, I was partnered with (EuroDev’s) a smart team to help me. The team has been great with the learning process of our product so that they can effectively sell it.
What did you learn from partnering up with EuroDev to expand your product’s target market in Europe?
I learned that similar products of potential competitors in Europe are far more complicated to explain than ours. Our products are adjustable and simple. That competitive advantage has given us more confidence to continue to go down the path. It’s therefore a solution for Europe, surprisingly.
What do you think that other American companies should do when they decided to penetrate the European market?
Well first of all, knowing how to do business in Europe is a good start. Knowing where and how to start with EuroDev’s help is a great advantage. It is important to honestly tell potential customers, and current customers, that you are now distributing in Europe. This is a great competitive advantage. I’ve learned throughout my career that there’s always a competitor or a competitive solution in every geographical location you want to operate in. You have to employ a great team that shows all the competitive advantages of your solution, that it is available quickly, from a close location, and that it is more economical in material and use.
How happy are you with EuroDev’s sales outsourcing team? Are there any improvements would you like to see happening?
I’m incredibly happy with them. They are very well versed in doing their own educational research. They are very buttoned up. In America, we can tell if someone is “winging it – making it up as they go” but this is not how things work in Europe and definitely not at EuroDev. We have managed to work within the balance the European way and the American way on the speed side of things.
