#13 Grow Fast, Grow Global - How Fast Do You Want to Grow Globally?

Welcome to the thirteenth extract in my series from my book 'Grow Fast, Grow Global: 6 steps to unstoppable international growth in the digital age'. Here's an extract from chapter three, delving into the concept of local social media.

In this extract, I am going to reveal my fail-safe 6-step method to deliver serious international growth to your business by showing you what you need to do to expand into more and more countries by using digital channels. I’m passionate about helping businesses to fulfil their international potential, and have created this step-by-step system to ensure that you can safely enter a new international market and win more international online leads and sales. My prescriptive method will save you time, money and get you growing your business in the right way from day 1, at a lot lower risk.

It’s a bit like when I was training for my first 5k run. As I jogged around the park a couple of times, I was getting a bit fitter and going a bit further each day. After about a week, I started to give up, slow down and walk more and more. So I decided to download the training schedule from the website, which told me exactly which days to run on, how long to run for, how far to go and when to take a rest day. I made much better progress and found it so much easier to keep going because I was following a plan that thousands of others had followed successfully, without having to worry if I was doing the right things or not. Within a week, I was running 1k without stopping. The second week, it was 2k, the third week 3k and by the end of the month, I went for the whole 5k. I was so excited to have made so much progress so quickly. The next year, I hired a personal trainer who adapted the downloaded schedule for my health and fitness level, as well as giving me additional advice on nutrition and hydration. He was there to keep me motivated and on track, and also answered my questions. My fitness peaked so quickly, I decided to double my challenge and enter a 10k race! All this extra help has meant that I now also know how to live a healthy fit life every single day.

Using the Grow Global Method is exactly the same. If you dip in and out of the bits you like, you’ll definitely make some progress, but not nearly enough (you’ll play it safe). How you implement the Method is up to you. It depends on how fast you want to grow globally.

It doesn’t matter if you’re selling services or products, as long as you are selling something that is unique or can be differentiated. This method applies to the largest enterprise or the smallest startup. It can be adopted whether you are selling to customers (B2C) or to other businesses (B2B) (or both). This method works for everyone, and for every country and every channel.

You are just 6 steps away from unstoppable international growth.

Step 1: Get Aware – take time to educate yourself and your colleagues. This way, you will all fully know the opportunities that are open to your business to grow globally using digital strategies, which will lead to a change in mindset.

Step 2: Get Ready – look at where you are now, check if your business is ready to scale internationally and get some quick wins from any existing sales and marketing digital channels.

Step 3: GetStarted – set the direction you would like your business to travel in, identify your success factors and pitfalls, work out what could be feasible for you, and then get everyone on board so that they are all committed to an international digital strategy.

Step 4: Get Strategic – put together the three best scenarios for your international digital strategy, depending on how fast you would like to grow. Then check your profitability and draw up an implementation plan.

Step 5: Get Building – build your digital sales platform for each country, one at a time. Make sure you resource each project effectively and train your teams with up-to-date digital skills.

Step 6: Get Performing – launch with a bang or go with a soft launch if you prefer. Keep selling daily and reviewing performance weekly to identify how to continually improve.

If you can't wait and want to get your copy of Grow Fast, Grow Global to read at the weekend as paperback or Kindle, then buy online now. 

Happy reading!