Time of Reading: 3 minutes

Up before sunrise for the next three weeks! ☕️ Why? I’m leading a custom executive training program in partnership with ECRM for the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce, working with 15 VIP international businesses.

These are not early-stage founders. They’re experts and established businesses in their country and Europe.

The question they’re asking is specific to wanting to grow from NATIONAL → INTERNATIONAL success. What actually takes a brand from a national business into an → international business?

But it’s technically the same question every executive or owner must ask when trying to SCALE:
What actually takes a brand from an existing market into → new markets?

3 Essential Explained

In my experience, it comes down to three things:

1️⃣ Product
2️⃣ Process
3️⃣ Pitch

Each of these can be mastered when a business or leader chooses curiosity and human connection.

Here’s what that really means when you strategize to SCALE:👇

1️⃣Product
International growth cannot be a copy-paste product expansion from your home county or local market. Global and regional culture shapes taste, color pallet, language, packaging and buying psychology.

The brands that win at scaling globally don’t assume their way is “right” — they adapt with respect. That’s how products become welcoming, not foreign. Easy to understand.

This applies to your growth strategy within a domestic market – all scaling requires assessing the differences and desires of the new market and tailoring your offer to that new audience.

Remove friction to buy by being willing to adapt product and service to the new market’s their tastes.

2️⃣Process
For your customer in the new market, trying anything new has inherent risk.

Cross-border selling is expensive, complex, and risky — especially for the domestic buyer. Domestic retailers take more risk buying from an international supplier than a local one.

For leaders trying to simply scale into a new market – these risks are the same. What if they work with you and you fail to deliver? The current options they have and know, are safer because they know the risk involved in engaging them.

To earn trust, businesses must demonstrate process mastery: logistics, compliance, communication, and contingency planning — not just manufacturing capability.

That includes execution but also communicating that expertise before you get the order, so there is no doubt you can deliver on your promises. The way to demonstrate this is to explain the process simply, as if you’re giving instructions to a toddler.

Communicating with simplicity shows mastery.

Become an expert at the process. Find a simple way to explain it. Actually do what you say you are an expert in.

3️⃣Pitch
The goal of an effective pitch is to connect to someone and convince them to take action and work with you but you face real challenges.

      1. Every culture has different norms around doing business including the act of selling and decision making. Often times that culture prohibits them from being truly honest about their hesitations or fears in working with you. This means people have thoughts or expectations in their mind, they won’t tell you. Understanding these hesitations is ESSENTIAL for making a connection and convincing them to work with you. You need to figure out how to understand their cultural norms so you can connect.
      2. Our brains are wired to resist the unfamiliar — neuroscience shows this as literal discomfort. Even if your product or service is perfect for someone, their mind’s reflex will be to doubt or ignore you.

    If you are finding low closing ratios or replies, you must re-tooling the pitch to make sure it’s clear and addresses their unsaid hestiations:

    • Education – Clear, culturally aware
    • Questions – Smart, educated
    • Follow-up – Confident, respectful

    When the pitch is tailored to show you understand and care about their needs, resistance drops.

    Practice your pitch. Study your customer deeply and get curious about their real needs. Ask for feedback from locals or experts in that market. Educate them but also ask questions. Follow-up with respect, showing you really listened and understood.

    The Conclusion – Your Plan to Scale

    None of this advice is reserved for massive corporations. Or even global expansion. It applies in any human relationship where we want to create influence. Business just happens to be the easiest to measure in dollars.

    Scaling into ANY new market becomes possible when business choose human connection over assumption — and curiosity over ego.

    The leaders who understand the instinctive brain response to resist unclear and new, will design around it. They reduce friction at every cognitive touchpoint:

    • Product that feels familiar and culturally fluent
    • Process that lowers perceived risk before it’s questioned
    • Pitch that educates, anticipates objections, and creates psychological safety

    When uncertainty drops, trust rises.
    When trust rises, decisions move forward.

    Growth, then, isn’t about convincing buyers to take more risk —
    It’s about helping their brains feel safe enough to say yes.

    I hope this helps you go from START to SOLD!