This document provides lessons learned from a French executive with experience doing business in America. It summarizes that [1] the large size of the American market necessitates different approaches to marketing, sales, pricing, quality, and management compared to France, [2] key lessons include focusing marketing efforts online through websites and emails, properly explaining your value proposition to customers, and providing excellent customer service, and [3] successfully expanding into the American market requires redefining your company's global strategy, value proposition, and go-to-market approach to adapt to stronger competition in a high-cost, high-risk environment.

1. How to do business in America
Lessons learned
Xavier Wartelle
14 Mai 2012

2. About the Presenter
• 27 years dealing with the US
• 17 years living in Silicon Valley
• French American Citizen
• Background: Xavier Wartelle
– CEO Subsidiary Thomson-CSF
– Started 5 start-ups in high tech
– VP Sales, Marketing, CEO, COO…
– 15 acquisitions or funding events

3. Agenda
• Size matters
• Marketing
• Sales
• Pricing
• Quality
• Management
• Strategy
• Funding

4. Size matters
France USA Market
Population 60 m 300 m X5
Company over 500 1,824 17,509 X 10
employees
Number of 2,7 m 58 m X 20
employees
Number of 1,1 m X 50?
establishments
Capacity of X 100 ?
investment

5. Why Marketing is important
Size of country makes face- Be clear by emails, web
to-face meetings difficult site, confcall
People don’t have time Stick to the essentials
Lots of competition means
better customer service Explain your value prop.
Nobody wants to deal with
Reassure them
foreign startups

6. Crossing the chasm
Geoffrey Moore Technology Adoption Cycle
How to pass it:
– Vertical focus (attention niche size)
– Build trust with key customers
– Reassure them with top- notch support
– Start by selling non-mission critical components

7. Sales
• Typical Sales person
– $200K+
– Needs strong support from Marketing and SE
– Not a business developer
– East/West Coast
– 50% of sales recruitment are failure
– Watch out for pipe dream
Cost $
Impact on Business
Model

8. Sales
• No Product Dump!
• Start with an agenda
• Establish a dialogue
• Find the needs, never let go of
the needs
• Ask questions
• Time check
• Be ready for objections

9. Pricing
• Bring value = show me the
• Typically price = 15% of the value
• Top line or bottom line?
• Can you make money selling directly a $20K
product?

10. Quality
Emails, web site, brochure
Product quality
Customer services and tech support

11. Management
• Scaling the company means scaling the
management and its board
• Stock options is a key issue
• Could mean stepping down
• Remote management is difficult. You need trust.

12. Strategy
Coming to the US is not just opening a new sales office
• High potential
• High cost
• High risk
• Stronger competition
• Redefine value prop
• Redefine go-to-market
• Impact on product management
Revisit Global Strategy

13. Funding
• Silicon Valley VCs
– invest $25m in a company
– to build a $100m revenue company
– that will exit at $250m
• Minimum Market $1B
• Bring a differentiated solution to a repetitive and
important problem
• Founder background
• Management background
• Barrier to entry and IP