Insights··4 min
Market size is a spreadsheet. Growth is a habit.
Two thoughts on entering a new market, from someone who has been around the block a few times with Saudi, the UAE and everywhere in between.
Ghassan Nawfal, Director of Sales, GPOS at Geidea UAE · Updated
As someone who has been around the block a few times with new markets, here are two thoughts on the entry process. They are not in the market-entry decks I have been handed over the years, which is probably why they work.
One: get your feet wet while keeping your eyes on the prize
Every new market is its own beast and you have to tailor your approach to fit the local scene. Saudi is not the UAE with more people. Kuwait is not Saudi with less. What tailoring means in practice is that you are adaptable and quick to respond, and that you keep your ear to the ground, always listening and learning, especially in the first ninety days when you know the least and are most tempted to act like you know the most.
Feet wet means real conversations with real buyers, in their offices, in their language, before the go-to-market plan is finished. The plan is a draft until the market has corrected it.
Two: talk about real growth, not numbers on a spreadsheet
Market size, market opportunity, addressable market size to me is bullshit. I'm all about tangible, practical growth, not just chasing projections.
That is the verbatim version, and I stand by it. A total addressable market tells you the market exists. It tells you nothing about whether you can sell into it this quarter with the team and the product you actually have. Practical growth is a habit: a handful of accounts you can name, a reason each of them buys, and a number you can hit with your own hands before you hire against a projection.
What I track in month one
- Named accounts met in person, and which of them asked a second question.
- Objections that repeat. The second time you hear one, it is a product or pricing issue, not a sales issue.
- Who in the local ecosystem introduced you, and who could have but did not. The second list is your next month.
Either way it is a wild ride. But when you hit that sweet spot in a new market, it is like striking gold. I have felt it a handful of times in twenty years, and every time it came from feet on the ground, not a bigger spreadsheet.