Snark Consulting - Doing business in Latin America
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Snark Consulting specializes in business development within the technology, media, and telecom (TMT) sector in Latin America, leveraging a decade of experience to assist startups and new players. The document outlines a structured methodology to navigate the region's unique business culture, emphasizing the need for local language fluency and an adaptable roadmap. Key strategies include building a cohesive contact database, effective messaging, and continuous follow-up to ensure successful deal closure and delivery.
Snark Consulting - Doing business in Latin America
- 1. Snark Consulting: doing TMT (*) business in LATAM September 2014 (*): TMT = technology, media, telecom
- 2. Introduction § Snark Consulting has 10 years of consulting and bizdev experience in LATAM, with a focus on startups and new players. § TMT (technology, media, telecom) is a constantly evolving area that demands specific skills, both in consulting and sales. § You do not need a large structure to start doing business in LATAM if your message makes sense and your roadmap is well planned.
- 3. Snark Consulting methodology 3 Context Goal Roadmap Operation Fine tuning Follow-‐up Closure/ Delivery 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
- 4. Focus on 3 groups and 8 cities § Latin America region is easy to describe in terms of TMT ú One third Telefonica ú One third Claro ú One third “the remaining players”. § Region is vast; roadmaps are challenging but not impossible. § Meetings should be focused in 8 cities 4 Context 1 ú Sao Paulo (Brazil) ú Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) ú Mexico DF (Mexico) ú Buenos Aires (ARG) ú Santiago (Chile) ú Bogotá (Colombia) ú Lima (Perú) ú Montevideo (Uruguay).
- 5. Context: being there § Doing business in LATAM is an experience with some particularities. § What you should expect: ú Cultural differences and tricky final negotiations ú Frequent reschedule of calls and meetings. ú Forget about making business in January or during football matches. § Communication in English is frowned upon ú Your people need to be fluent in Spanish and Portuguese ú The answer is“ahorita” in Mexico and “ya, po” in Chile. ú You must adapt to local nuances. ú Literal meaning is often misleading. 5 Context 1
- 6. 2 – Building a common goal 6 § Build a single contacts database § Come up with a clear roadmap of activites § Expect a communication rush during the first month. ú A weekly Skype call. ú A go / not go decission for some accounts ú Prioritize accounts and activities § In about two weeks we are ready to go! ú You decide if our team goes as “Snark” or with your branding. Goal 2
- 7. 3 – The “sales kit” trick 7 § What is the message that needs communicating? ú A new VOD platform ú A premium wi-‐fi extender modem ú The best way to publish new content? § Do you fully understand the driver for each operator? ú Is it Capex reduction, a better branding, or customer satisfaction? § How does your product or service differ from your competitors'? ú Is it necessary to adjust your web site by including Spanish or Portuguese material? § Documentation to be shared with Snark: ú White papers, Press Releases or Customer Satisfaction analysis. ú A standard xls describing the business model. ú A couple of slides decks, either with a BP for “handshakers” or technical info for CTOs Roadmap 3
- 8. 4 – Approaching the prospect 8 § This is the “business as usual” part of the operation. § A key message is sent to a predefined set of prospects § Difficulties to be overcome: ú Understanding: Not all prospects require the same message ú Time: we need to work previously on Skype calls and mails before going “face to face” with clients ú Travels, events and meetings should be optimized in order to keep expenses down. § Adjusting the output: ú After initial meetings a proposal is usually sent. ú Negotiation is managed following vendor approval. Operation 4
- 9. 5 – Follow-‐up 9 § Reporting is built in to our process. ú A weekly follow-‐up document is good practice so that key players are on the same page. ú Evaluating a prospects is more challenging and requires consensus ú Can we agree on a single spreadsheet to evaluate a deal? ú Do we have a common set of criteria on how to close deals? § When delivering the proposal ú Do we have a 10-‐page document including all aspects of the deal? ú Can these aspects be summarized in one page? § Is it possible to share LATAM best practices with other regions currently in operation? ú Example: Latam and APAC are similar regions in terms of piracy in the video industry. Follow-‐up 5
- 10. 6 – Closing a deal and delivery 10 § A deal is achieved under a given criteria ú ARPU driven (revenue flows on a given period) ú Leverage on some accounts (i.e. Global Client perspective) ú Strategy (to be first on a given market or a given technology) § Recommendation fees, channels interference, and other incidents. ú Unforeseen incidents will often appear. ú Sound the alarm and we can dismantle these explosive situations together. § Anticipate steps required after closing. ú Delivery plans. ú Extra resources needed to manage the new account. ú Press releases. Closure / Delivery 6
- 11. 7 – Fine Tuning § Overall strategies are adjusted on a six month period. § This is a win-‐win: ú Snark brings to the table 150 contacts in Marketing, Finance and IT from Telcos, Cable operators, Content providers and Integrators. ú Snark provides local skills and people doing business with our own contacts ú You provide the services, goals, and the overall strategy.. § So let´s share ideas and stay tuned! 11 Fine tuning 7
- 12. 12 Bonus track
- 13. Contact Daniel Collico Savio Director of Snark Consulting dcollico@snark.com.ar 13