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Tim Rath 41 min

How to successfully grow a startup brand and drive growth in the German market - Tim on the Wyngs Podcast


Andrea Vaugan, Founder & Operating Partner at Wyngs, interviews Tim on how to approach the German market and the critical steps to launch a brand successfully. Listen now!



0:00

[Musik]

0:05

So was ich sehen, was die meisten companies machen, und die meisten companies

0:09

machen, die auch auch US-Kamten, die auch in die

0:12

Deutschland-Market, die auch die meisten Facebook-France-Kamten, die auch in

0:15

die

0:15

Deutschland-Market, die sich einfach kapiontätigen sind. So das

0:19

basically means just translating them, nicht even paying attention to

0:25

cultural differences. Und natürlich, wir alle schon nicht arbeiten, aber

0:32

aber wir sind aber auch noch überrascht, dass es nicht arbeiten kann,

0:35

wenn wir sehen die Results.

0:36

[Musik]

0:41

So, willkommen, Tim, zu der go-to-gemony-Podcast,

0:45

der podcast, wo wir uns überlegen, wie sich die

0:49

Deutschland-Market und auch wie sich die Brand in die

0:52

Deutschland-Market, ich bin wirklich, wirklich happy, zu haben

0:55

auf mein Podcast heute. Für alle, die gibt es einen

0:59

Tim, ich habe noch einen Tim für ein paar Jahre jetzt. Und ich

1:04

kann sagen, dass er die Fonder der Japa, die

1:07

Leading, B2B, Tech-Sass, Growth-Agency in die

1:12

Deutschland-Market. Und wir haben viele

1:15

Diskussionen über, wie zu leuchnen, in die

1:18

Deutschland-Market und wie zu Speed-Up, Growth und auch

1:23

your branding in die Deutschland-Market. Ich bin

1:24

wirklich happy, zu haben, Tim, willkommen.

1:28

Thank you so much for having me Andrea.

1:31

It's a pleasure to be on your podcast.

1:33

You know, I love podcasts, so I'm always excited

1:37

to talking about tech stuff, marketing stuff, also for

1:42

this conversation, very excited to diving into this.

1:45

Yeah, so you know, I told you I was a little intimidated

1:48

because you have your own podcast also, which is very

1:51

successful, the revenue marketing podcast.

1:55

And I really recommend everyone to listen into this

2:00

podcast, because it gives a lot of insights and I've

2:02

shared it a lot with our clients or prospects already.

2:05

So I hope I'm going to be up to the task, but I think

2:09

it's going to be okay. So Tim, please present

2:12

yourself a little bit. Tell us what you do, what you do

2:15

at Yaba, and then we dive into the topic of today.

2:19

Yeah, sure. So almost five years ago, I actually co-founded

2:23

your Yaba together with my dad, which already in itself is

2:26

probably kind of a crazy story, I would say.

2:29

At least that's what most people tell me.

2:32

And we basically started as a kind of a basic online

2:38

marketing agency that then quickly transitioned into

2:41

a highly specialized, to a tech agency for B2B SaaS

2:45

and tech companies, taking care of all the different

2:49

growth activities, such as course demand generation,

2:53

mostly on paid channels, but also organic growth,

2:56

which is becoming more and more popular, actually,

3:00

because it's very efficient. So going deep into thought

3:03

leadership content on kind of optimizing the inbound buying

3:07

experience. And basically taking care of all the

3:10

initiatives that drive pipeline and revenue through

3:14

inbound demand, so to speak, that makes sense.

3:18

And we call that revenue marketing.

3:20

Yes. So the challenge that we have when we talk to

3:24

brands that want to launch the German market and your

3:27

real, real expert, I know you also do international

3:30

campaigns, but your real expert for the German market.

3:34

So, and you have worked with French and international

3:38

brands also launching in the German market. So,

3:42

what is always a challenge for us is to explain to

3:47

our clients or to our ecosystem how to approach the German

3:51

market and what are the critical steps you have to take to

3:54

really launch a brand. So when we talk about scale ups,

3:57

then normally they already have a brand in their whole market.

4:00

They already exist. They have clients. They have a product.

4:02

So it's not a small startup trying to, you know, get a

4:05

little bit of traction, but normally they want to go big in

4:08

Germany quickly. What do you, what are the first, let's say,

4:12

advice or how do you onboard those kind of clients?

4:15

What is really the critical points that they need to do in

4:18

the very beginning to be able to have something that they can

4:20

scale than in the German market?

4:23

Yeah. So I'm assuming that all the research and the

4:26

decision on a specific market has been done before,

4:29

because of course the due diligence on a market should

4:32

always be step number one. And after that, I like to call

4:37

the further steps the three M's. So for me, that's mindset.

4:42

Then market differences. And then third one is mechanics.

4:47

And I think also it's very important to put them into that

4:51

specific order because the mindset on how you approach a market

4:55

is crucial. Because for me, it's kind of a,

5:01

it's an evolution of your whole strategy and not a quick

5:05

tactic. And to understand that on its core level, I think

5:10

it's very essential because in your original market when

5:13

you were building, for example, your product and your

5:16

audience and your customers in France, you wouldn't be

5:20

just kind of throwing budget on all different activities,

5:24

but you would act and do it like a real startup, you know,

5:28

you would build bridges between the different steps and

5:32

also do different things when you raise your seed round,

5:35

your serious A, your S.B, etc. And maybe you're now past

5:39

your S.B. and you want to internationalize more. But that

5:43

doesn't mean that you should kind of use the same methods

5:48

that you and tactics you do now in France, also kind of

5:51

copy and clone them towards Germany, but you should

5:55

rather start how you would have behaved in your seed round in

5:59

France now with the same mindset in Germany, for example.

6:03

And I think it's highly important to, when you internationalize,

6:07

to be that startup in its early stages once again,

6:12

and not the scale-up that you're in your home country.

6:15

And I think understanding this, that it's really a strategy

6:20

kind of focus and not a quick tactic is this highly important

6:23

to start with.

6:24

The first step that you said, which is interesting,

6:26

and maybe we can just come back to it a little bit because

6:30

this is the preparation for the mindset, is the analysis

6:33

of the market and really understanding the ICPs,

6:37

the customers, the needs that they have.

6:40

This is something that I think is really very crucial too.

6:45

So you said, okay, it's a prerequisite when they come to you,

6:48

or maybe this is also something that you can do for your clients.

6:52

Do you have any advice on how to do that very thoroughly?

6:59

Because of course, we know, and this is also based on research

7:04

and all of our experience, a German client doesn't buy any product,

7:08

service, or software, as a French customer, for example.

7:12

We have different decision cycles.

7:14

We have longer decision cycles.

7:16

We need different kind of information.

7:18

So what would be your advice to really do this research and how deeply should

7:24

it be?

7:25

Yeah.

7:26

So I think the research is part of the second M-Den,

7:32

which is the market differences, which goes very deep into the research,

7:36

as you say, and I fully agree how important it is.

7:42

Because if you have the mindset that you are a startup now once again,

7:46

what do you do when you start up in your home country?

7:49

Well, you go very deep into your SAP analysis,

7:52

and you understand that you don't have product market fit yet when you receive

7:56

startup, right?

7:57

And that you should also understand when you go into a new country.

8:01

You should assume that you don't have product market fit yet.

8:04

And then you take all the steps that you also did before in your home country,

8:09

so that you can be certain that you have product market fit in your new,

8:13

the country that you expand into.

8:17

So to understand the market difference,

8:21

I think it's important to split into legal and cultural.

8:24

First and foremost, I think legal is quite obvious.

8:27

Here in Germany, we have the GDPR,

8:29

which basically regulates how you handle a prospect's data,

8:32

and then we have the PECD, which regulates how you kind of reach out to a

8:38

prospect, right?

8:39

And I'm sure there's similar laws in France, but I think it's important to

8:44

really have a look at them

8:45

and check in with your lawyer before you actually take any action.

8:49

And that box, you can probably check off quite quickly.

8:53

The cultural mod, of course, is a little bit more tricky,

8:57

and you probably need to do more research, talk with more people and potential

9:00

customers,

9:01

and it will take more time.

9:04

I think all the steps you've done before for your home country, you should also

9:07

do for the new country.

9:09

You should look at all the competitors that exist in that market.

9:14

You should look at their communication, how they kind of go into the market,

9:19

and how you kind of...

9:21

So it's basically for the strategy questions, I like to think into questions.

9:26

It's, where do we play?

9:28

Right? So now you have a new playing field with that new country,

9:32

and new playing fields have new rules.

9:35

So you need to look at how does that market really work?

9:38

And then the second question is, how do we win?

9:42

And answering how you win is basically analyzing all the things that other

9:49

companies do,

9:50

and then picking your game plan or playbook that will define how you win in

9:58

that market.

10:00

And I think all the work you've done in order to reach product market fit and a

10:05

level in your home country

10:07

that have kind of given you the opportunity to even internationalize,

10:12

you should do all the work again for the new country.

10:15

I think maybe you will talk about it when you talk about the mechanics,

10:20

but because I think what's interesting is also that sometimes we...

10:26

People are less patient with a new market, because they say, "Okay, we have...

10:32

Word."

10:33

We have...

10:34

I think you should repeat that sentence one more time.

10:37

You need to be more patient.

10:39

Yeah.

10:40

Because, of course, you think, "Okay, we figured it out.

10:44

We have found product market fit and all home market, and we know how it works.

10:47

We know our customers, we know ICP, we know all of the unique selling points

10:51

and everything.

10:53

They're less... and they forget that it took them months and years to build

10:59

that information.

11:01

And I think it's a good basic information that you can build on when you go in

11:05

another market

11:06

and you can set up hypotheses of what should work, what work at home, what

11:11

could work.

11:12

But then you have to take the time and test everything again.

11:15

And sometimes we see companies that start campaigns or ads or those kind of

11:21

initiatives

11:22

and they get upset very quickly because it doesn't work.

11:25

So maybe you can tell us how this testing mechanism, you know, A/B testing

11:31

and also testing different messages, testing different use-piece, different IC

11:36

Ps

11:36

is also part of what you do.

11:39

Because I think this is something where people get...

11:41

I see people sometimes, you know, or companies stopping campaigns after two or

11:45

three months,

11:46

I said, "Okay, we don't have the right KPI.

11:48

It's not working.

11:49

We have to stop.

11:50

We have to do something differently."

11:51

Yeah.

11:52

Yeah.

11:53

So when we talk about the mechanics, we can kind of check the box that we have

11:59

kind of done legal work, right?

12:01

So we have set the legal foundations.

12:03

And as you said before, I think that it's important to dive into our ICP very,

12:07

very deeply.

12:08

So we need to define our ICP one more time.

12:11

We can't just copy paste the same ICP.

12:13

We need to define it for the new market.

12:15

And that also means that we need to select new use cases.

12:21

Because of course, for German countries, very different use cases are relevant.

12:27

Then there are for French companies.

12:31

So we need to pick the relevant ones.

12:35

And of course, if you're...

12:36

I think the best case would be that before you enter a new market, you already

12:40

have some customers in that country.

12:43

And you already have some success stories.

12:46

Because if you don't have that, you will have a pretty hard time.

12:50

So I think that should be your very first goal to win your first customers,

12:54

make them successful,

12:57

and then also create really, really compelling, well thought through detailed

13:03

oriented case studies.

13:05

Because Germans like to go very deep also in understanding the cases and they

13:10

read everything.

13:11

Especially if you're not a German company.

13:14

Because you need to show that they can trust you.

13:20

So the more detail you can add to the success stories and case studies, the

13:24

better.

13:25

And then you need to also of course define new KPIs.

13:32

And I think that will go in stages.

13:34

Because the KPIs you look at within your first quarter will be different than

13:38

after your fourth quarter in a new market.

13:41

So it should be kind of an evolution of your KPIs.

13:46

So to say, I think in the first quarter it would not be the best idea to

13:50

measure your success in net new AR.

13:53

For example, right, I think we can all agree on that.

13:56

But maybe after the fourth quarter, I think it should be quite relevant to

14:00

measure success on AR.

14:02

And that you have to define with your leadership team.

14:05

What are the different stages of the North Star metric so to speak of how we

14:10

will measure success in a new country.

14:13

And once we've done that, I think it's highly important to approach your

14:18

creative strategy.

14:20

And by creative strategy, I mean start from the bottom once again.

14:26

You've done your research now.

14:28

You know the pain points in the market. You know what competitors do.

14:31

You know how you will win in that market.

14:34

And now it's important to craft a creative strategy that is only relevant for

14:39

that specific market.

14:41

So what I see what most companies do and almost all companies actually do that.

14:46

Especially also US companies going into the German market, but also most French

14:50

companies going into the German market.

14:52

They just copy and paste their playbooks.

14:55

So that basically means just translating them.

15:00

Not even paying attention to cultural differences.

15:03

And of course we all somehow know already that it doesn't work.

15:08

But somehow we're still surprised that it doesn't work after we've seen the

15:13

results.

15:14

And it's a completely different story if you're taking something that exists

15:18

already and you translate it versus creating something new from scratch with

15:23

your new research.

15:24

And I think that's very important that you go very deep into that.

15:28

So when you've created your first campaign for your home country, you also

15:31

created a creative strategy.

15:34

So you've done your research, you've selected the pain points, you've crafted

15:38

your messaging.

15:39

Basically what is the story that we want to tell?

15:43

Some people also, and I also like to call it strategic narrative.

15:47

What's our narrative for our product and for our customers and everything in

15:55

between?

15:56

And how can we distribute our story not only through all our different go-to-

16:04

market departments such as marketing sales, customer success, success.

16:08

Everybody needs to be in board, but also through all different channels.

16:14

So that's events that also all the digital channels.

16:18

So probably linked in Meta, Google, your website.

16:22

If you don't have a localized landing page, I think at least you should have a

16:28

landing page in German for example.

16:31

You don't need to have, I think you don't need to have your whole website in

16:35

German in order to go into the market because that's a crazy lot of work to do

16:39

first kind of test.

16:41

But I think you should have at least one landing page that all of your

16:46

campaigns can kind of lead into so that you actually show, hey, well at least

16:51

we're trying and we're making an effort to provide you in your native language

16:56

and to understand you better.

16:59

So yeah.

17:01

So you said in the beginning and it's interesting because it's also a question

17:06

of the size of the company and the resources that they have that they're disp

17:11

osed so you mostly work with scale up so companies that really also have the

17:16

firepower to do those kind of things.

17:21

Very often what we see in the practical world is that they do not have

17:27

customers in Germany.

17:30

I know how important social proof is in Germany and that you need logos that

17:35

you can recognize that Germans can recognize big logos that are known.

17:40

So let's say you have international clients.

17:43

I don't know, could be a France or aliens or those kind of companies that you

17:47

already have that you can use.

17:50

But you know to really understand and find German customers if we talk about

17:55

the German middle strand also so the SMB companies in Germany.

18:00

How do you, can you, what kind of channels would you, let's say, advise

18:09

companies to use in the beginning because you know have such a big portfolio of

18:15

things that I can do from events to social media to ads to newsletters.

18:19

To whatever webinars and all those kind of things.

18:22

So how would you build it up from the beginning? Let's say I want to start my

18:26

scale up in January 2025 in Germany.

18:30

What would be a little bit the sequencing to be able to build it up in the

18:34

right with the right resources also?

18:37

It's a great question.

18:39

And that's exactly what you should think about after you've done your creative

18:45

strategy. So you know your story and you've selected the channels.

18:49

So that's particularly relevant for the German market to warm up the market

18:55

before you go heavy into sales mode.

18:58

Because if if if German people have never heard about you ever before and you

19:03

outreach them, I think your chance of success are very minimal.

19:09

It's much better if you provide value first without having the intention of

19:13

winning customers right away.

19:16

So that means maybe creating a webinar, maybe creating even a local podcast,

19:21

maybe even kind of picking subject matter experts within your country.

19:26

A sorry, not country company that will post in the German language very

19:31

regularly on LinkedIn, for example.

19:34

So really kind of creating that demand, providing that value at scale through

19:38

different through different materials and assets.

19:43

And I think what works great here and that's that's a kind of something we've

19:47

also done with, for example.

19:49

So we've done the go to market for play play and pay for it. And what we've

19:56

done there also is that we co hosted webinars with brands that are already very

20:01

popular and relevant in the market.

20:04

And there's always different also SaaS companies, but maybe sometimes even

20:10

service providers or agencies that kind of compliment your product really,

20:15

really well.

20:17

So if you can pick them and ask them to do a co hosted webinar, for example,

20:23

you will appear next to the brand that's already known to German people so that

20:27

already gives you an advantage in terms of trust.

20:32

And not only that, I think another step that's that's highly relevant and pay

20:38

for it at the so pay for this in the HR space.

20:42

And in HR there's a lot of business creators, D2B influencers, thought leaders,

20:48

however you want to call them, that have a lot of of reach and have a huge

20:53

audience, especially on LinkedIn.

20:56

And I think what makes a lot of sense is if you cooperate with them for a set

21:01

period of time, so not just for one promo post because that doesn't really work

21:08

, but kind of use them as

21:11

Yeah, kind of brand ambassadors almost. So you go into an agreement for like

21:16

maybe six months, if that's your or maybe 12 months, if that's the time that

21:21

you want to prove your success of your go to market and then do different

21:27

events with them. So do webinars do so they should write linked in post maybe they can also be

21:31

featured on your website maybe they can give you a quote maybe they can even

21:35

use your product and show how the product is inserted into their own workflow

21:41

etc.

21:42

Because thought leaders nowadays I think they have so much attention and are so

21:48

underpriced because so few B2B companies actually use them. It's kind of like

21:55

it's kind of like a gold mine still.

21:57

It's like the early days of when when first influences were used for B2C in e-

22:03

commerce that's how we're now will in B2B.

22:07

And I think there's there's a huge advantage if you kind of do a webinar in

22:12

Germany with a German thought leader in your vertical in your industry and they

22:17

will invite their audience into the webinar.

22:20

So you will have a lot of trust and you also have great content that you can

22:25

record and then distribute on all other channels and use also in your campaigns

22:30

because of course it's part of your strategic narrative and your story because

22:35

you've picked also the theme of the of the event for example.

22:39

That will give you a great great way to warm up the market to only focus on

22:45

demand creation to create new net new demand in a new market for a couple of

22:51

months and only then focus on on capturing the demand that you've created

22:55

already because you will have a much higher level of trust.

22:59

Okay, so now if I look at the classical playbook of a scale of wanting to go to

23:06

the German market.

23:08

The question is now mostly what we see is that because I agree with you if not

23:12

I wouldn't have you thought because I think it's really the right way to do it.

23:18

But what we see in reality very often and it would be interesting on how you

23:23

convince your clients and maybe also help your clients convince their boards

23:28

and also their investors basically to invest in warming up the market without

23:34

having revenue goals from let's say months sometimes we see it months three or

23:41

four or five or six because basically what you say is that you can go six

23:44

months nine months maybe 12 months depending on your product.

23:47

Depending on the sales cycle that you have without doing any revenue.

23:51

So the idea is how can we get people to understand that this warming up of the

23:56

market is so important and then basically because what we see is that people go

24:02

in and then they do outreach they do LinkedIn they do called email they do

24:06

funding they do all of those things when I think that they can close a deal

24:09

very quickly and they want to have the you know the low hanging fruits and the

24:14

quid wins and all those things.

24:15

And basically what they should do is what you just said warm up the market and

24:19

then try to build on that but it's the other way around and this is also what

24:23

sometimes even the board and the investors don't really understand because if

24:28

you go and be to be sus and you say you want to work with inference as they're

24:32

going to say no no what we want is revenue we want customers we want to lead

24:36

you and pipeline everything.

24:37

So how do you convince people that this is the right way to go and how can you

24:41

help them convince you know be the internal heroes to defend this kind of

24:45

strategy when we talk about country managers or marketing managers.

24:50

Yeah, I think I think it's it's it's a really tough challenge because I've

24:55

experienced so many times exactly this conversation and it applies to so many

25:00

different things also.

25:02

But I think a great way is to of course also bring external experts who've seen

25:07

it so many times into the conversation someone like yourself you've seen it so

25:12

many times how it should be done if you've been brought into the conversation

25:18

you can bring the relevant arguments that actually then make sense so you can

25:21

actually execute like that but.

25:24

On the other side I think I think at the end of the day you will be need you

25:30

will be needed to find kind of a compromise so that you can go kind of yes you

25:38

need to capture demand and you need to show success but also then you need to

25:42

be able to warm up the market and I think it all comes down to aligning on a

25:48

mindset right so what's the mindset that we have when we go into the market now

25:53

How can we how can we establish shared beliefs that will that will align us on

25:59

also the success then and when you have the mindset that you can define KPIs

26:05

and I think we've talked about this earlier on on this podcast and that you not

26:10

pick for example new one logos for the first month for example as your nostarm

26:15

etric but rather you you pick for example engaged accounts or something like

26:20

this you know.

26:21

And then you can you can really work your way through and the KPIs you will

26:25

pick they will make all that they will make all the difference to be honest

26:30

because if you pick engaged accounts and then maybe the next stage is maybe you

26:34

see a brand uplift in the country.

26:37

From Google searches that would make make sense or maybe even you will see an

26:41

increase in company followers on LinkedIn from from German people and accounts

26:46

from your ICP in that country etc.

26:50

And so that you can really work your way through in a way that it makes sense

26:54

and that will also support your initiative and your your tactic of warming up

26:59

the market first before capturing it.

27:03

And so maybe if you yeah go ahead yeah if you if you really make that if you

27:07

presented in a way that it's completely logical you bring someone in like

27:11

yourself that has seen it many times and can support this this kind of way of

27:15

working.

27:16

Then I think also investors will agree that it makes most sense to do this and

27:21

also show them the threats if you go especially in Germany heavily into sales

27:26

mode of like needing to win clients in the first week.

27:30

Your brand will be highly damaged and I think that's a huge threat also if you

27:34

if you want to see this as a long term play and it should be a strategic long

27:39

long term play not a quick tactic as we've discussed at the beginning.

27:44

Yeah so I think when we go back to the mindset what is interesting that I think

27:49

that the first step of the mindset will basically be how do I prepare this

27:54

project and prepare everyone who is part of this project.

27:59

Even before you pitch it to your investors or even before you pitch it to your

28:04

board is to basically build up the international project with this mindset in

28:10

mind if you can say it like this you know is that you say okay what we will

28:14

what we are looking for is building up and growing a market on the long term.

28:20

Even though we have some short term metrics but then you have to define short

28:24

term you know short term for a start up can also be nine months or 12 months to

28:28

have some you know really strong KPIs like sales for example but to really have

28:33

this in mind before you start crafting the project is to say how we're going to

28:39

how we're going to craft this whole project together and what kind of mindset

28:43

do we have to have from the beginning of building it up this is why we also

28:46

because as I said.

28:48

Mostly the KPI that we see for the international project is sales pipeline and

28:53

so we say you need to get other KPIs into the discussion in knowing the market

28:59

talking to the client talking to the prospect having partners building up a

29:04

network all of those kind of things understanding the culture understanding ICP

29:08

all of those are also really strong KPIs that you have at least for the first

29:12

six to 12 months that you need to that you need to get in and this is why I

29:17

think the earlier you be able to do that. The earlier you build up this is what we call a little bit international by

29:20

design because this is the further the earlier you build up this kind of

29:23

mindset into your company and into your investors and you start pitching the

29:27

story from the very beginning.

29:29

The easier it will be to convince them to do what you just said and to build a

29:35

common belief on how we should start this project.

29:39

And also I mean you need to be you need to be you build you build new

29:43

structures right and it can also be considered a complete phase shift in your

29:49

company kind of journey of building your startup and for every phase shift.

29:55

Of course you need to prepare months if not years in advance so I fully agree

30:00

with you the earlier you start the better.

30:03

Yeah and maybe when we think about because I know that you have been to an

30:09

event in the US and last and we talked a little bit about this how to create

30:16

you know the difference approaches on branding and communication that we can

30:21

see because we're in this as field right we talk about text or there's a lot of

30:26

you know American communication of course that is we see every day.

30:30

What do you think is the and then we said okay is there maybe an American way

30:34

to communicate and the European way to doing branding and those kind of things

30:39

what do you think is really crucial to build a European brand so not to have

30:44

like a French startup that also has activities in other markets but to say okay

30:49

I'm a European company and I have a European branding.

30:54

So I think first it's important to define what brand what's branding and for me

30:59

it's how people in your market talk behind your back when you're not in the

31:04

room pretty much and that is defined by every single interaction that they have

31:10

with your company right so I think it's it's it's better to look at.

31:17

Like what kind of way of doing business is is really relevant and it's what

31:22

people look for in that new market that we should talk about first and then we

31:27

can see of how we can actually adapt that within our company for that specific

31:32

market that will be of course executed by different people then for other

31:38

markets of course and something that quickly comes to mind is especially you've

31:43

talked about the German middle stand before is to really keep it formal.

31:46

They don't want to be talked to in this startup is slang language that we like

31:52

to talk in the tech space here they want to be respected they want to start

31:58

formal into a conversation and if you decide after the third fourth of fifth

32:04

call that you want to make it a little bit more informal then that's completely

32:08

fine if you have that consent.

32:10

So I think that's that's highly relevant the next one is and I think that's

32:15

that's very typical for Germans to keep it really task oriented when you're in

32:21

a conversation because we're Germans were all about efficiency.

32:26

So don't do too much you know like small talk at the beginning but like start

32:31

into be kind of structured be well prepared be task oriented get the task and

32:37

if there's time at the end for some other chatter that's completely fine but

32:43

you need to be efficient in in your way of business and also in your follow ups

32:47

for example if you promise to follow up same day or next day you need to do

32:51

that if you don't you you've lost that trust.

32:55

And that also comes to the next point which is reliability not only with your

33:01

follow up but also just be on time I know especially in the US people don't

33:07

value that as much as German people but German for German people it's really

33:12

important if you're five minutes related considered as highly disrespectful.

33:18

So I think that's that's a crucial time sorry crucial thing and then also just

33:25

doing what you said you were going to do that's that's how you win when the

33:31

trust and then of course I think now when I think about it I think Germans kind

33:38

of prefer written over spoken communication a little bit more.

33:43

So especially I mean it's fine to to have a call especially when scheduled of

33:48

course and also to be spontaneously called sometimes but there should always

33:53

also be written communication where everything is like documented in an

33:57

official kind of way in German in German yes via email not not only on LinkedIn

34:06

or Slack which is kind of an unofficial channel but like on email I think that

34:10

's that's important.

34:11

And then I think it's important to especially in a professional context really

34:17

treat business first and then private second if at all to be honest yeah I

34:23

think that's important to keep it.

34:26

That's a big difference between that's interesting because you know in in in

34:30

France for example what can happen to you is that you meet a business acquaint

34:34

ance the first time over lunch which is something that does not so much happen

34:38

in Germany is you meet someone I don't know linked and you say.

34:40

Okay let's have a coffee let's go for lunch and then you meet and this is a

34:44

little bit different in Germany way first build up the you know before sharing

34:48

a meal you build up some kind of relationship basically and here it's a

34:52

different so this is one of the cultural differences so.

34:56

And one more thing I would like to add is this and I think that's highly

35:00

important especially for for German people is a complete transparency over how

35:05

you handle data.

35:08

Like a don't try to kind of to chat or like kind of like go into gray zone or

35:13

kind of thing that you can trick German people because we're so smart here

35:19

about data and we take privacy and all that kind of topic so so seriously that

35:26

the better you are the more transparent you have you the more transparent you

35:30

are the more trust you will gain from those people.

35:34

And if you have maybe even a landing page where you show how you handle that

35:39

data maybe even a video where someone explains it specifically that will that

35:45

will really win hearts here in Germany.

35:48

Yeah we have done a review of many German websites even especially the bigger

35:52

ones like the big text that upset our Germany and most of them actually have

35:57

what you say this kind of landing page where they only talk about the different

36:02

certifications they have on e-zo GDPR how they handle data and it's something

36:07

that we always recommend.

36:08

We just not always understood because it's not so complicated to do you just

36:12

have to build the page and you know at the text it's not that complicated but

36:17

it's really something that is that is important for the for the German market.

36:22

So this is really interesting to have this special localized information from

36:29

you and those tips on how to prepare especially for the middle stand which is a

36:35

big big target group is there maybe a last tip that you can give on the middle

36:40

stand how to reach them and how to really because you know there is so many of

36:44

them you know people from

36:46

5,000 to 25,000 companies depending on the size that you that you see and it's

36:51

something that we do not have so much in France this really big big big strong

36:56

group of SMBs how do you reach them.

36:59

Yeah I think I think we've talked about many great things already one thing

37:05

that we haven't mentioned I think is they love personal interactions and

37:11

offline events.

37:12

So if you have the chance to create local events small minimum size or big any

37:18

size and kind of meet them there offline not only on LinkedIn or digital

37:24

channels I think that will give you a huge advantage and I think that's

37:29

something that you should highly highly consider in your in your go to market

37:34

strategy and playbook especially when trying to win German companies.

37:40

So there are a lot of conferences in Germany that are kind of where a lot of

37:44

these middle stand companies actually go to so you won't find many startups

37:50

usually on those conferences so you if you can pick and choose the conferences

37:55

for your industry and you start there with maybe buying a booth or just going

38:00

there to talk and understand them first I think that will give you a lot of

38:03

value.

38:04

All creating your own events like some dinner events or lunch events or maybe

38:09

with a partner doing a road show in different in different locations to invite

38:15

yeah prospects and okay so many great content thank you Tim with completely

38:21

again you know stretched the time that we had but I think it was very valuable

38:28

advice from you so thank you very much.

38:30

So tell me what is the exact use case where people should call Tim to launch

38:34

the German market what would be the best use case for you what kind of company

38:39

should come and talk to you when they want to conquer the German market yeah

38:45

yeah yeah so we usually work with B2Bs us and tech scale ups that are mostly

38:53

past series A but usually past series B and really have really are in the deep

38:58

growth phase.

38:59

And I think you should I think I mean of course any time where you want to go

39:04

into the German market it makes sense to contact us either just for consultancy

39:10

and we will also tell you when it's a little bit too early if you still need to

39:14

do more due diligence or research on the market or kind of yeah just your legal

39:20

topics first but once you've done this and you want to localize your creative

39:25

strategy and create a completely new creative strategy for the general market.

39:28

For the German speaking market for the I think that's exactly the moment where

39:33

we come in and we can really craft all with with all of our experience and

39:37

inside the German market your your ideal creative strategy and and strategic

39:43

narrative also the story that you want to then distribute on all digital

39:47

channels.

39:48

Okay and you have done it so many times before and again the leading agency for

39:53

those kind of use cases in Germany so thank you very much Tim I was really

39:57

looking forward to doing this podcast and I think we've done a good job and

40:02

given a lot of good advice. Thank you.

40:05

Thank you so much Andrea yeah enjoyed a lot great questions and yeah very

40:11

excited to to seeing yeah some comments maybe maybe some further questions from

40:16

listeners.

40:17

And of course everybody's also welcome to message me a link in any time.

40:21

Yes and check out your own podcast revenue marketing podcast. Thank you Tim.

40:27

Yes, speak soon.

40:28

Thank you.

40:29

Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Go to Germany Stories.

40:40

I hope you enjoyed today's insights and found them very valuable for your own

40:43

journey.

40:44

If you have any questions stories to share or topics you'd like me to cover in

40:48

future episodes feel free to reach out.

40:51

Don't forget to subscribe, leave a review and share the podcast with others who

40:55

might benefit.

40:56

Until next time keep pushing forward and making your mark whether you already

41:01

in Germany or on your way despite.

41:03

* Musik *