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Outline your company's Sales strategy for Asia

Download this template and build your sales plan for the Asia region. Make it simple for your team, direct reports, and execs to understand what your goals are, how you'll accomplish them, and any support you'll need. 

Chapter 2

Why You Need a Local Framework to Win Asia's Diverse and Fast-Growing Markets

Sales in Asia: A Framework
2

Why You Need a Local Framework to Win Asia's Diverse and Fast-Growing Markets 

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Asia_Sales Each region in Asia has drastically different cultures, economies, laws, customer expectations, and languages. This brings significant complexity to sales leaders and reps. 

Thomas Jeng, Singapore GM at Aspire has worked in sales, GTM, and leadership roles in various parts of the US and across Asia shares that he has experienced major differences between selling in Asia and in the US, and sees the market as a promising opportunity for brands.

“People are starting to see the potential in [Southeast Asia]. But for any sort of commercial endeavor, you have to start with the market and see how it’s different organizationally and tactically. If you’re comparing the US and Southeast Asia, the US is essentially one big unified market. You don’t have to worry about borders or currencies or languages in the US, you have 350M+ people and growing, and companies coming to the US from all over the world. In Southeast Asia, because of the fragmentation of the economy, the economics [in each region] are quite different. It’s a very different conversation in terms of pricing and how you service these customers.”
Thomas Jeng, Singapore GM, Aspire — from How to Sell Across Diverse Markets in Southeast Asia.

Thomas Asia Sales Guide

Countries in Asia not only vary in terms of culture, currency, and language but also by their level of maturity when it comes to adoption of technology. While some parts of Asia are among the most technologically advanced in the world, others have only recently adopted tech in every area of business. 

With 96% of businesses in Asia falling into the small and medium businesses category, SMBs are the heart of Asia’s economy. But maturity and stages of digitalisation differ across the region and between industries. Sales reps must deeply understand each customer they’re speaking to: what software do they use? Do they have an extensive integrated tech stack? Or are they exploring their first CRM? 

Scott Pugh, VP of Sales and GM of APAC at Figma, shared on the Asia Growth Forecast podcast that expanding a business in Asia requires taking segmentation to the next level. Figma's biggest market in Asia is Singapore, closely followed by Indonesia, but the two countries are drastically different, so they require unique approaches. 

As Jess O’Reilly, Asia Vice President UiPath tells us, “If you can sell successfully in Asia, you can sell anywhere in the world.” The unmatched complexity of Asia necessitates the need for highly localised sales playbooks to win over the hearts and minds of buyers in the region. This is why we created the Asia Growth Forecast podcast to help sales leaders manage their teams, help sales reps hit quota and grow their skills, and help businesses scale in the Asia market sustainably. 

This sales framework will explore:

  • Challenges to selling in Asia and solutions for global and local businesses
  • Why companies need a region-specific sales strategy in Asia
  • How to segment contacts across regions in Asia
  • Ways brands can work with local partners to expand their business
  • Key considerations for building out successful sales teams at different stages of growth
  • Tips for winning sales during market downturns
  • Predictions for the future of sales in Asia
  • Insights from knowledgeable podcast guests — seasoned sales leaders who have successfully scaled teams and businesses across Asia

Let’s dive in.

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