The German-speaking market (Germany, Austria, and Switzerland) is one of the most profitable markets in the world. Compared to the rest of Europe, this market offers highly professional companies and a financially strong population. This market entails over 36 million companies, while many companies have plenty of spending money in their pockets- therefore having great potential for Israeli companies.

Here is a short guide for beginners on how to start:

Where to go – Locations:

In Germany alone, 13 main diverse regions are ranging from Schleswig-Holstein in the north to Bavaria in the south. When looking for a specific industry, one should focus on some areas cities in Germany. For startups, there are 12 Digital Hubs distributed over the country with a strong network enabling the exchange of technical and business expertise, programs, and ideas. It’s important to note that most of the large German companies run their own accelerator program.

Due to the large intercultural differences between Germans and Israelis, it is important to convey a clearer message of your business model to the German side, and to be able to explain the added value of the cooperation. It is important to show what the collaboration could and should lead to and how you plan on working together.

Otherwise, intercultural differences very often result in misunderstandings, frustration, and an unnecessary loss of time and money.

Social media

If you are looking for B2B connections or social selling, its preferable to go through

LinkedIn or Sales Navigator. In Germany specifically there is another platform even more popular in terms of developing business, called Xing. If you are interested in entering the German market, you can make the most of Xing or even consider creating some special campaigns using that channel.

Sharing is Caring

It is important to provide resources, knowledge, and assistance to your customers. Knowledge is power and companies always like to learn about the latest technologies, market cases, and new trends. To gain additional impact, create webinars, blogs and join online conferences. Provide tips and insights and share your thoughts on the current market situation. Share your insights and understandings of events you took part at, and always make sure to use the correct tone and wording to increase attention for your business and expertise.

Pump your Network with Steroids

Another important factor that demands constant attention is building up your networking efforts and social media presence. To do so, prepare a list of new companies you would like to reach out to and connect with, find new innovative solutions that draw attention and always identify new opportunities. In parallel regularly look into the type of items, blogs and articles, your clients are posting and sharing.

Understanding the “buyer’s journey”

By understanding the “buyer’s journey”, their challenges, obstacles, and dilemmas they experience along the way, together with the influencing factors that shape their decision making, sales representatives can better understand and empathize with the buyer’s position. It is this understanding precise, that will enable you to position and present your product or service in alignment with the path of the buyer.

By paying close attention to your potential customer, his needs, and requirements, you will gain insight into how to tailor your sales process to ensure your sales team has all the needed information to build a strong relationships with prospects and by that achieving your own goals.

Questions you should ask yourself are, how do buyers describe their goals or challenges in the context of your ongoing business relation? How are your buyers educating themselves regarding the goals and challenges in question? What are the consequences of inaction by the buyer?

You should create an individual profile for each potential customer, aiming to understand the relevant steps ought to be taken to deepen the business relations, each based on their cultural background and industry focus. For example, how much email and phone contact can and should be established.

In the sales and customer nurturing environment, good processes help create the structure for completing work according to specific standards. Multi-channel sales automation tool with on-demand generated data, customization, and lots of CRM integrations can assist in growing your business. Outreach sequences help sales representatives execute their playbooks by creating a measurable series of touchpoints that drive deeper engagement with prospects and customers.

Additional helpful methods include compelling event outreach automation, activity tracking, and artificial intelligence. Setup email sequences, email templates, dashboards and automate repeating tasks. An example for tools that can automatically produce lists of leads, and help you make initial contact based on initial criteria your sales representatives provided are Lusha and HubSpot.

Lusha– Search and select from over 60 million B2B contacts with phone and email data available. The platform enables smart and live data, geo targeting and profile selection, while only required to pay for new contacts.

HubSpot -The CRM is a powerful tool that allows you to organize, track, and nurture your leads and customers. Recently, HubSpot added a few more tools to its free offering, such as ads, forms, and email marketing

Finally, always try to connect on common grounds and try to add a personal aspect to the establishment of the connection, to create a good a positive initial engagement.