The decision to enter a market is usually made on the wrong evidence. Market size, growth rate, a competitor's presence. All real, none decisive. I have entered and built more than 24 market areas across the Middle East, Europe and North America, and the failures I have watched, including a few of my own early ones, were almost all decided before the first shipment left the warehouse. Three questions have done more for me than any market report. First: who owns the customer r

Anyone can open a dealer. The first order is usually a favour: a container taken on goodwill, a shelf given to see what happens. The business is built on the second order, and the second order is never a favour. It is a decision, made by someone who now knows exactly what your brand did for them over ninety days. I learned this building a dealer and service network from zero to more than 350 locations over ten years at Valtra. In the early years I counted signings. Signings a