Helen Southgate, Chief Global Officer for Acceleration Partners clearly knows how to build a global team and increase sales for expanding companies. Acceleration Partners builds affinity links and partnerships in over 30 countries as of today, and they continue to expand into new markets. Clients benefit from their expertise on the ground and on the web to drive buyers to purchase.
Helen has responsibilities in three key areas:
1. Global Marketing Consistency – Although they operate in 34 countries, when a client wants to expand into a new market, her team does an analysis to measure the potential for their products or services. They start by looking at pricing, doing a SWOT, looking for any gaps and what is currently working in the market. Then they do a “gut check” to see if it makes sense while looking for partners, and agencies to launch.
This is important to keep a consistent global brand and to understand what might need to be culturally adapted for local markets. She believes in Think Global, Act Local!
2. Opening New Markets for Acceleration Partners – The company expanded from 50-350 employees in the last five years and about 90 of those new employees are based in the target countries to be able to launch new products. As the company looks to expand or clients request new markets, Helen does the research on what countries make sense. She looks across these variables:
- Opportunity
- Viability
- Risks
- Costs
- Time
If the opportunity doesn’t outweigh the risks, costs, and time, it may not be a good target market. Helen gives a helpful link to a downloadable document that lists the countries that are hardest to easiest to open for business (see Global Business Complexity Index link below). She shared that the US and the UK are two easy markets, while Germany takes about a year to open.
3. Inclusive Employer – Managing employees in different countries becomes more difficult if the culture is not inclusive. When employees do not feel part of an organization, they leave. Helen’s job is to make sure that the corporate culture extends around the world, employees feel connected, and they follow the laws. She does this by talking to employees and relying on experts for information.
Slack serves as a valuable communications tool for employees to have “water cooler” conversations no matter their location. They have channels for people’s pets and animals, and even one on dinosaurs.
They use TMF Group as their Employer of Record in countries where they only have a couple of employees. TMF serves as the company of record for laws, benefits, payroll, and HR services. She says this is a great way to test a market before hiring a big team.
As for language – English is the primary language spoken in the company but as they’ve gotten bigger, she sees more desire by employees to have employee resource groups to speak their native language.
And for the partner programs, there are global managers for consistency in partner programs and then local teams do a “sense check” - do the local marketing materials make sense.
We talked about funny US – UK English misunderstandings.
My favorite was when her new US boss told her that he would be “out of pocket” next week. In the US, it means unavailable, while in the UK, it means that you’ll be out of money. She was a bit perplexed as to why he’d tell her that.
She has also made her communication mark – one time she told the senior leadership team that she was slightly concerned about an issue. They brushed it off because it was a slight concern. In the UK, a slight concern is something to pay attention to. They now know that any slight concern is to be reckoned with.
Helen’s advice to companies expanding -
- Do your research to balance the cost, time, risk and the return on the opportunity.
- Develop relationships on the ground in the country.
- Don’t forget about culture – including your team and your target audience.
Her favorite foreign word is Hygge – the Norwegian term that she recently learned in Denmark that means content, comfy, and happy.
Links:
https://www.accelerationpartners.com/
Global Business Complexity Index - https://www.tmf-group.com/en/news-insights/publications/2022/global-business-complexity-index/
Connect with Wendy - https://www.linkedin.com/in/wendypease/
Connect with Helen - https://www.linkedin.com/in/helensouthgate/
Music: Fiddle-De-Dee by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com
ATTENTION: Below is a machine generated transcription of the podcast. Yes, at Rapport International, we talk a lot about how machine translation is not good quality. Here you see an example of what a machine can do in your own your language. This transcription is provided as a gist and to give time indicators to find a topic of interest.
[00:00:34] Wendy: Welcome to The Global Marketing Show, friends, family, and partners. We're gonna talk a lot about partnerships today, and particularly when you're building them, on a global scale, so it's gonna be really interesting. So, but before we get into it, just a reminder that The Global Marketing Show is sponsored by Rapport International, who connects you to anyone around the world, no matter the language in over 200 languages through high quality translation, written translation, spoken interpretation. Think Rapport International when you think translation, and they're known for their tidbits.
[00:01:14] So today's tidbits is about a delicious marriage, and it's going along with our partnership theme today. Have you ever had wedding soup? I'm sure you have. It's got meatballs and it's got the little rice or the little pastas in it. It used to be one of my favorite, I haven't had it in a while. And wedding soup is actually a mistranslation of the Italian language phrase, "Minestra Maritata" which is married soup, but it refers to how the green vegetables and the meat ingredients marry well together. So there's your little , Italian mistranslation for today.
[00:01:56] So let me introduce our guest. Her name is Helen Southgate. She has nearly 20 years experience in the digital marketing sector with high growth companies. She's worked in affiliate marketing on the agency and the client side. She's currently the chief global Officer at Acceleration Partners, and she's responsible for the global strategy across the business. She's been at Acceleration Partners for nearly five years, where she initially launched the, EMEA region in 2017, and then she took on the APAC region in 2019. She's previously served as the managing director at a Phil. Which is if you don't know, one of the largest European affiliate marketing networks, and she's been on the digital marketing team at Sky PLC. So Helen, you have such a fabulous background. Welcome to The Global Marketing Show.
[00:02:57] Helen: Thank you very much, and thank you for having me. It's lovely to be here.
[00:03:00] Wendy: Yes. Yes. And your experience is fabulous and I know we're gonna get into some, some things that are gonna be really helpful. So first off, tell me a little bit about the services that Acceleration Partners handles.
[00:03:15] Helen: Yes, of course.
[00:03:16] So we are a partner marketing agency, so we work with a number of global brands across the world, and our key service is to connect those brands with potential partners who can support them in driving revenue to their business. So that sounds. Fairly straightforward. But the kind of unique proposition of the industry that we work in is that it's measured on outcomes.
[00:03:48] Like everything we do is about performance and outcomes as very high level of transparency, tracking and measurement in terms of what we do for our clients globally, and that also extends to the way partners work of our brand. The very unique proposition about the partnership marketing world is that brands will pay those partners at work with them on a, what we call a cost acquisition basis.
[00:04:17] So they will only pay partners when an acquisition is made. So if. The acquisition is sales, which it normally is for most brands. Then they'll work with different partners, which we find for them. And then if those partners manage to generate new traffic and new customers, then the brand will pay them per sale.
[00:04:39] Which is unique proposition. But this industry has been around for 20, 20 plus years, maybe 25 years in the UK and us. And it's probably one of the example,
[00:04:52] Wendy: like I get it at a high level, but can you break it down into what exactly that means or a success story?
[00:05:00] Helen: Yeah, let, let me give you a real life example cause I always think this works well.
[00:05:04] So Imagine you are looking to buy an air fryer. I've picked that because I really want one, and I'm looking to buy one at the moment. So I'm in this market for an air fryer. So what do you do? You go online and you search for air fryers. Imagine you come across a website, which is. Top 10 best air fryers, you know, most expensive, best looking one, budget one.
[00:05:30] You know, those kind of top 10 lists that you always come across, which are incredibly useful. So it will be highly likely that that website, providing that sort of top 10 list is. What we would call a partner, so working with one of our brands. So if you were to click and click on one of the recommended air fryers you go through, you purchase that website where that list of 10 air fryers was, we'll get a commission for that.
[00:05:59] So they're providing this sort of great service to the customer. Working with our brands to get in front of new customers. And then, you know, everybody wins because it's, it's based on performance as well. So you, the partner only gets paid if they actually drive a sale. So you will be amazed and people always amazed actually, how many sort of websites that they interact with are probably working.
[00:06:25] That sort of basis, a commission basis. It's, it's really popular and, And probably much more prevalent than you would imagine.
[00:06:35] Wendy: I haven't, I don't think we've looked at like, I think of that definitely for consumer products. But what about business to business services? Like for example, Rapport Internationals translation service.
[00:06:47] Is that a partnership opportunity?
[00:06:51] Helen: Yeah, a hundred percent. I mean, honestly, it, it stretches across all verticals and B2B is a really big vertical and one that's gaining a lot of traction at the moment. Because I think actually, you know, B2B fundamentally has always been built on partnerships and relationships, so it lends itself really well to this online world of transactions and outcomes and you know, partners referring, Traffic to brands.
[00:07:17] So yeah, it works across all sectors. You know, retail, finance, travel, anything really. And it's most, most brands or sort of well known brands particularly kind of the US is very progressive market when it comes to partnership marketing as it's uk. Most brands will run some sort of partnership marketing programs and they, they'll be very successful.
[00:07:41] Wendy: So fascinating. Okay. And so there are certainly like a, we've, Rapport International has partnerships in the United States where there's links to it. But I hadn't thought about really making that a focus of growing, but I don't, I don't wanna talk about that. I'm gonna pick your brain about that after the show.
[00:08:00] What I wanna talk about is you have taken acceleration partners global, and you're the Chief global officer, which is a huge role. Can you tell me what your responsibilities are in that role?
[00:08:17] Helen: Yes. Cool. I think Chief Global Officer always, always sounds like a big role, but always like, Oh, you're responsible for everything global.
[00:08:25] Which in a way it is, but it,
[00:08:28] Wendy: it really, it definitely my role
[00:08:30] Helen: falls , Yeah. Good for, good and bad. But really my role falls into three parts. So one is around our actual. Global strategy. So we have new initiatives. We have new services, we have new ideas, and it's ensuring that we have consistency cuz we are a global company and our services are global.
[00:08:53] So we need to make sure the service that we give is consistent. But with the added element of adapting those services to different markets and regions where needed. Because obviously, you know, you, you have a service, but the pricing might be different in one country or the proposition might need to be slightly adjusted to meet the market needs.
[00:09:14] So that's one of my roles to just make sure that we are doing the right thing across the business and for each of our different markets. The second
[00:09:24] Wendy: area. Wait, so hold on before you go the second thing. So on that, how do you figure out when it needs to be adapted and how is there consistent? Do you have a framework that you're working within or is it kind of gut feel or something else?
[00:09:43] Helen: Stephanie, something in the middle of those two, I would say there's a framework in terms. How we find information. So we will talk to our clients in the market, we will talk to our partners we will talk to potentially other agencies and, you know, other platforms that we work with to get a sense of, you know, what, what is the market like right now?
[00:10:08] What are the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats particularly look around what's working in the market where there might be gaps. What does a pricing look like? You know what pricing works and what pricing doesn't. So we definitely have a framework around that where we'll sort of every market we will do the same research and data.
[00:10:30] But then I think there is also sometimes. A gut feeling about things. You, you just look at something and go, It just doesn't feel like that's gonna work for the market. Let's adjust it and try something slightly different. And look like everything. Sometimes it will work and sometimes it doesn't, and we've, we've sort launched services or pricing in some markets and then adapted them as we've gone along as.
[00:10:55] Learned more and got more feedback as well. So, so there's some level of a framework and then some experience
[00:11:04] Wendy: set of questions that you ask when you're going to look for information.
[00:11:11] Helen: Yeah, so we would always ask about pricing. So pricing is probably one of the biggest differentiators we're found, particularly from US pricing to European pricing.
[00:11:22] There's some significant differences there. For lots of reasons. I mean, one of them is sort of, labor costs are very different in the US versus UK and Europe as well. So therefore pricing adapts to that. So pricing is always one of the main questions. The second question will always be,
[00:11:40] Wendy: yeah, I mean, just to clarify here, I have my guesses, but which is more expensive?
[00:11:45] The US or European pricing?
[00:11:46] Helen: US pricing, I would say it's probably about, The moment, maybe 10, 15% differential, which is quite significant. But a lot of it is due to labor costs. Like the labor costs are just very different in the US versus UK and some other countries in Europe as well. So that's the biggest differentiator we found.
[00:12:07] Cuz you know, when, when we first launched we, we sort of launched in. The UK in particular with us pricing, and people were just like, that's way, way too high. Like, that just doesn't work. So we, we've learned a lot and adjusted as, as we've gone along. So that's definitely a, a key part of it. And also, you know, there's an element of exchange rates and honestly, the past few years have fluctuated so much between sort of the dollar and the pound and the euro that.
[00:12:41] It's impossible to follow and, and get that exactly right. So you have to really look at the actual market and what it's doing and where the pricing is and, and where you wanna position yourselves. Okay.
[00:12:54] Wendy: Okay. So first responsibility is global strategy and going into. New markets with the same services.
[00:13:01] You've got this framework of questions that you ask, but you also do a gut check on it. Okay. So thank you. That's very good cuz I think it helps listeners to understand what you know that, that SWOT analysis and the pricing and, and how you look at it. Okay. So your second responsibility then is
[00:13:21] Helen: Yeah. So the second responsibility, which is.
[00:13:24] Really interesting. Probably the most challenging part of my role there is looking at where we expanded to new markets. So we are, we can service at the moment, I think in 34 different countries around the world. But we are constantly either looking for new opportunities or often, cuz we work with many global clients, they will often come to us and say, We're actually really interested in expanding into this market.
[00:13:55] How do we do that with you? Because the partnership marketing that we do is fairly sort of standard globally, so you can easily expand it into the other markets as long as you understand that market and can kind of adapt to some of the maybe slight differences there are. But that, that's part of my role just looking at Right.
[00:14:16] What's the opportunity? Is it even viable? You know, how, how would we market in that country or region? Can we even do that? What are the risks? What are the costs? And one thing that we've probably learned, the harder way, which we assess now in a lot more detail, is how much time it will take. So we we established an entity.
[00:14:42] Germany, we got it live I think just at the end of last year. It took us one year to do that. And so you have to take those things into account that it's not always as easy. Like in the US things are very easy to set up and establish a company. UK is very similar, but other parts of the world there can be some real sort of bureaucracy and red tape and challenges.
[00:15:10] To overcome. So time, cost, risk versus opportunity and demand for our clients is, is how we look at those markets.
[00:15:18] Wendy: How long do you think it takes to open a new market? Germany is a year. Us is what, a week ?
[00:15:27] Helen: Yeah, probably. I mean, that's the difference. It's, yeah, it's, it's mad and the UK is very quick as well.
[00:15:33] You know, it'd probably be a few weeks. So it, it really varies. I, there's this great List, there's, there's a company that we work, I women probably shouldn't, but they have a list of like 50 countries, like hardest to do business in to easiest to do business in. And it's fascinating sort of where different countries sit on that level and it actually changes a lot because obviously as countries.
[00:15:59] Develop and countries want to get more foreign investment or sort of, particularly in digital marketing at the moment, you know, they will try and make things easier for companies to set up. So it changes a lot as well. But yeah, it's it's fascinating and, and definitely something that's probably been my biggest learning curve over the past couple of years.
[00:16:19] Looking into that as well.
[00:16:21] Wendy: Do you have, can you send me a link to that list so we can put
[00:16:25] Helen: it in the show now? I will definitely find it for you. It's a really good, it's a, a long sort of PDF document, but it's, it's really, really helpful. Like we, we refer back to it a lot, so I will definitely send that to you.
[00:16:37] Wendy: Okay. Yeah, that'll be fascinating. That's very helpful for people who are looking to expand. Okay, so number one is looking at the global strategies. If you're gonna take a new product into one of the markets you're already in, what do you need to look at? Then number two is looking at new markets, new geographies that you go into help clients enter, and then what's the third area of your business or responsibilities.
[00:17:00] Helen: Yeah, so this area is probably the area which I find. Most rewarding, I would say. So this is about ensuring that we have an effective and inclusive global business. And so what I mean by that is, We have employees in, I think it's 10 different countries now across the world. And in some countries there's maybe two or three people.
[00:17:27] In other countries there's 50, a hundred. You know, it varies quite significantly. So a big part of my role is making sure that. Everybody feels like they are included part of the business. Different cultural, economic, social differences are understood and taken into account. Particularly when we look at management and managing people.
[00:17:52] Because in our structure, cause we are client services, so we have this sort of very standard structure where you normally have, you know, at a director that leads a team and then you have. Sort of senior account manager and account manager, we will often have people who are managing across different countries and regions.
[00:18:11] So it's a big part of my role to make sure that they understand. How to manage people in different countries. What are the things they need to be aware of? How might people work differently, How they might communicate differently? How do you ensure that they feel included when they're on a time zone, which is eight hours different to, you know, sort of east coast of America where a big number of our employees are?
[00:18:38] So that's probably been. So how do you do
[00:18:42] Wendy: that in, You're in 32 different countries. You're based in London, you got a lot of employees in the us. How can you be an expert in all those different countries and how to manage across all those areas? How do you
[00:18:54] Helen: consult with them? Yeah. I have lots of people that are much more cleverer than me in those specific markets and understand them.
[00:19:02] So we, we work with, we either have people in market that are, you know, really good at sort of feeding back to us what's happening. So if, if you think at the moment I think it's a very difficult time, particularly for people in the UK and Europe. You know, the economic situation's very bad. I mean, Going on, energy prices are free.
[00:19:23] The roof if you live in another part of the world, you might not be aware of that at all. So often it's like just making sure we are talking to our employees in those areas and understand exactly what's happening with them day to day and in their lives. And then we do work with sort of experts in certain markets to.
[00:19:44] Understand things like employment law or what the right benefit should be or what we should be doing to support maternity in different countries. So we have that level of expertise as well to make sure that we really understand what's going on. But yeah, it's, it's
[00:20:01] Wendy: been So they typically, lawyers that you would call and say, What do we need to know about employees in this market?
[00:20:08] Or who would your experts.
[00:20:11] Helen: Yeah, we speak to a lot of lawyers and HR firms as well, and we work for a number of employee of records, so they often sort of help us. Put people in different countries and get people on the ground where we might not have an entity cuz we don't have an entity in all the countries we work in.
[00:20:30] So we often work an employer of record and they can be really, really helpful because you know, it's their job to make sure that we understand all the HR regulations, we are doing all the right things when it comes to any compliance, et cetera as well. So that's been really helpful in our global expansion.
[00:20:48] Wendy: Curious, who do you work with for your employee record company?
[00:20:53] Helen: We, we work with a company called tmf. So they've been really helpful, particularly in Europe as well. Cause if you think, you know, in Europe you have so many different countries and legalities and compliance just in one region,
[00:21:10] Wendy: Tom? Okay.
[00:21:12] Yeah. Yeah, that's good to know. There's a lot of those that are really coming up. And it's good to know who we have good experiences with.
[00:21:20] Helen: So definitely lots to choose from. But they've been good for us.
[00:21:25] Wendy: Yeah. And so if you're listening to this and you don't know what an employee of record is, it's a company that you hire the employee, but they manage all the backend HR stuff like the taxes and the vacation and, and filings and all that.
[00:21:39] So you don't have to do it across all 32 countries. They can manage whichever countries that you don't have a big presence in. So it's a, it's a wonderful service.
[00:21:47] Helen: Yeah, it's really good as well because often when, you know, it wouldn't be sensible to go into a new market and suddenly have 50 people there, you often wanna test the market with one or two employees, you know, see if it's right for the business.
[00:22:04] You also, because there's other areas to think about as well in terms of you. If they're in a country which is miles away from everyone else, like how do you include them in the global company as well? So there's, there's lots of things to think about when you do that. So having one or two people and testing it out can be really, really helpful rather than going full on into one country, which can be an expensive mistake if it doesn't work out very well.
[00:22:31] Right.
[00:22:32] Wendy: Now you mentioned earlier, you know, and to making sure that you're being inclusive, and you said that, you know, you rely on the experts to get the laws and the benefits of return. And then you also said you make sure that you're talking to people. Yeah. How do you handle the different languages?
[00:22:48] Are you translating, are you using interpreters? Do you you know, so you have your internal employee communications, but then you also have your, your client in the partnership. So how do you handle all the language issue?
[00:23:02] Helen: Yeah. So because we are a global client services agency and lots of our clients are global, everybody in our company has to have a good level of English, which is a good starting point.
[00:23:14] However, if they, for example, are based in Germany and work in Germany, they would also need to have an excellent grasp of German or French. Spanish or wherever they are. So it's, it's a little bit of both. I mean, we do communicate in English because I guess we have to, right? I mean, it's the universal language that everybody can speak and understand.
[00:23:38] But as we've got bigger, the one thing we've realized is. People do want to try and communicate in their own language and have, you know, sort of social groups in that language. So what's been really, really helpful for us I think particularly in the last few years as we've expanded a lot outside the US is having what we call employee resource groups and also, so employee resource groups are often thought of for.
[00:24:12] I guess kind of supporting minority groups within a company, but they can also be really useful to support people where, you know, they, there may be 10 French speakers and they wanna get together and just speak in French and talk about what's happening in their country. So that's been really, really helpful for us.
[00:24:34] And aligned with that as well. This will sound, it might sound a little. A little bit digital and a little bit crazy, but I think it's been incredibly useful for our company cuz everyone works remotely and in different countries is Slack channels. I mean we have so many Slack channels at our company that it often, I find it's complex, but it's amazing for inclusivity cuz when you think about it, I actually think it's often better to think.
[00:25:04] Our similarities rather than our differences. So we have a Slack channel that's about pets and animals. Everyone in the world may like pets and animals, like it doesn't matter where you are based and you can suddenly find you've got a really good relationship with someone halfway across the world that has a really cute puppy and you wanna.
[00:25:23] Share your pictures of them and I, that's just been incredible for just trying to sort of bring different people and cultures and regions and countries together, like to actually find the similarities rather than sort of highlight some of the differences. I mean, I think we even had a Slack channel for people that were interested in dinosaurs at some point.
[00:25:45] So, you know, whatever. Whatever goes, what, How many employees do you have now? I think we've just tipped to the 350 point. So yeah, a lot. A lot of people across the world,
[00:26:01] Wendy: so through Slack. Which is, yeah, I've done a presentation before on on tying in employee communications and synchronous and asynchronous and Slack really does the asynchronous where it takes into account time zone.
[00:26:15] You can still be part of the conversation, but Exactly whenever you want to do it. Not like we're gonna be on this webinar and have to talk now. So that's a really good point. Rather than, Hey, here's the French speaking span channel. You just pull together who likes pets and animals and it gives people a natural break in their, their remote work from home or work from wherever.
[00:26:40] Helen: Yeah. And I think we, we found that incredibly useful, but I think, look, we learn all the time as well. And a big part of this is, you know, Making sure that people feel comfortable to feed back and, you know, give us ideas on how we could do things better, which we are constantly asking people to do.
[00:26:57] Wendy: And you're looking for partnerships for your clients. And so if you've got large companies and they wanna work across different countries, there's going to be a language. Because if you go on to buy an air fryer, you're not gonna look in your second language. You wanna look in your local language. So how do you handle your, your, you know, your growth engine translations and language?
[00:27:22] Helen: Yeah. So it, it often depends on, The client, how that's structured. But the most common structure and what we find works well is, so say you've got a global client and they are in North America, South America, APAC, and Europe. What they would have in our structures, our client services structure, is they would have someone that manages their overall program.
[00:27:50] So that's a person making sure everything's consistent. All the regions are getting, you know, the same attention. It's working really well. But then there will be teams in each market and potentially teams in countries as well. Because you're right in the, if we are building a partnership program for, so say one of our clients is Marriott.
[00:28:12] So Marriott Hotel all around the world, say we are building a partnership program for them in Germany. We will need people on the ground in Germany speaking to German partners to build that German part of their partnership program. So that's where this kind of, you know, think globally, but act locally comes into play and that's the stress we tend to use and is usually most successful for our clients because you know, you need to have.
[00:28:47] Very detailed market experience as well as making sure that globally it's all running effectively as well. Which is why sort of one of my roles is like looking at where expand. Cuz we do often then have them, Oh, okay, our client actually now wants to be in Sweden. We don't have anyone in Sweden. So how can.
[00:29:09] Get someone in Sweden to be able to deliver that partnership program. So often that is the conversations that we're having. Example
[00:29:19] Wendy: of how. Of one company that built their strategy. Like you said, there's an overall program manager that keeps it consistent, and then you go off to the local market and sometimes that local marketing message is gonna stay the same, and sometimes it's gonna have to change.
[00:29:38] Can you give real life examples of one that stayed the same and it was a translation issue, and another one that maybe had to really adapt because the local markets were so d.
[00:29:51] Helen: Yeah, it's tricky to give you one of our examples, but I will give you one that I always find fascinating and that was I think it was Mercedes-Benz when they moved into China, they decided to shorten their name to. Bensey for the Chinese markets. So everyone would drive a bensey, I think was what they were trying to get to.
[00:30:17] However, that word in Chinese actually meant rush to die, which is probably not a, a great, great tagline for Mercedes-Benz. So I think like, I think it's. Fascinating. There's been so many extreme examples of that, and I, I always, I always look at that and go, How did they, how did they get that wrong? Like, how did somebody not say, Hang on a minute.
[00:30:40] Should we just check what this translates to? So to be honest with you, because, because we. Do you have so many sort of market experts and people on the ground, they will always sort of flag anything like that and flag, you know, perhaps we should be talking a different way. Cause we often have, rather than sort of extreme examples like that, which I, I'd find fascinating.
[00:31:05] We often have sort of, partners are called different things in different markets. So for example, in the us We have types of partners called coupon sites. So if you ever think where you're sort of, you go on a website and you're looking for lots of different coupons to spend online coupon doesn't actually mean very much in the uk we call them voucher sites.
[00:31:29] So like there's things like that where there's slight differences where we will have to change how we speak to our clients even, or our partners in those markets. Lucky, We tend to flag some of those very quickly. Yeah. So that,
[00:31:46] Wendy: that really is a translation issue. I mean, we've certainly done translation from UK English into US English, and vice versa.
[00:31:55] But coupon to voucher is, is, is, is a translation. So when you Yeah. Start with your client on keeping it consistent, do you then translate it and then send it to the local market? Or are they recreating
[00:32:11] Helen: it all? Yeah, it's, it's normally, it's normally somewhere in between though. So we would normally do a translation, but then somebody.
[00:32:21] Almost sense check it, if that makes sense. So they would sort of say, Actually yes, you may have translated that exactly. But that does not make sense because it's also a challenge in a lot of markets where there's, you know, business terminology, which is even more complicated than just straightforward language translation as well.
[00:32:40] And that happens a lot in our industry cuz we are. We are an industry full of a lot of jargon. There's lots of different words and we have to make sure they translate well in sort of business language as well. But that's honestly why, you know, as a company, you know, we started off as a US company, sort of was 15, 16 years ago now.
[00:33:00] There was always a question of, you know, should we try and do global. Partnership marketing from the US or should we get people in those markets? And it was definitely a hundred percent right to get people in those markets because otherwise I think these mistakes are easily made and, you know, things don't translate well or mistakes are made, or, you know, people just don't get what you're trying to offer.
[00:33:28] So we, we definitely, from our experience, we would recommend. Getting people on the ground. It's incredibly important. Yeah, no, it's,
[00:33:37] Wendy: it is very important cuz you're talking about that translation and, and we've always talked about translation that is then culturally adapted and so you just used a new term that was very interesting.
[00:33:49] Can you sense Check it ? Yeah. And I love that because does it make sense in the local market? And so there's so many different ways to do that from. Having the translator in country or having your in-country people review the translation that was done, or having an industry expert. So yeah, so, so you've, you've, you're large enough now where you could hire out people in country that could actually do that, and then it sounds like they're maintaining relationships and doing a lot of other things too.
[00:34:24] Yeah,
[00:34:24] Helen: in the market. Yeah. And there's a lot of face to face in our industry as well where you actually need to meet partners. But you reminded me as well, so I'm always fascinated about translations and I remember the, I think US to UK is very fascinating cuz. I think they're very different cultures in the way we sort of speak, but I remember my, I think it was only my second week working acceleration partners and the CEO at the time said he was gonna be, he was going to be out of pocket next week.
[00:34:55] So out of pocket in the UK means you've run out of money . So I'm like, What? Why is the CEO telling me my second weekend that he's run out of money? But it's amazing, like, How those translations just don't work and he didn't think anything of it. And I was like, That's very peculiar, . But now I know. It just means you know you're not gonna be around.
[00:35:17] So
[00:35:20] Wendy: let's table that motion. What does that
[00:35:22] Helen: mean to you? So table motion means to me, Yeah, let's leave that and come back to it. Is that right? Oh, it does. Okay. I had heard that. Yeah, but I might
[00:35:31] Wendy: have, let's put it on the table and talk about
[00:35:34] it.
[00:35:34] Helen: Whereas in us, I have been Americanized over the past five years that that's been drummed into me.
[00:35:40] But the other one that always makes the US team laugh is cuz the British sort of way of speaking is you know, Often a little bit subtle and you have to read through the lines a little bit. And I Often would say, Oh, I'm slightly concerned about this. And the US team would sort of take that very literally like, Oh, that means she's not very concerned about it.
[00:36:01] But actually it means in British, I'm really concerned about that. It's a big problem. So we now have this running joke whenever there's a big problem. My, the US sort of senior leadership team always say they're slightly concerned and that as well, everybody laugh.
[00:36:18] Wendy: That is a really good point, and how like Americans are not subtle.
[00:36:21] They're right in your face. And so that communication style and being able to pick up on it. Yeah. So what advice would you have for people that are expanding internationally to new markets?
[00:36:39] Helen: Yeah, so I would. I would do your research and make sure it's the right thing to do for the business. So, as I said before, the things you need to think about are cost, time, risk versus, you know, The opportunity because sometimes the time cost risk can outweigh the opportunity and it just might not be worth it at that time.
[00:37:08] So that's one thing to think about. The second advice would be, you know, establish whether you can get people on the ground because it will. Make everything easier or make everything easier when you're starting up. But also when you do business, it's, it's very difficult to understand the market if you're not actually in it or have people that understand it as well.
[00:37:31] So that would be my, my big second, second piece of advice. And then I think lastly, you know, just to make sure that as you are expanding internationally, You don't wanna lose your, your culture. And it's like, how do you keep the same culture but across different markets? Particularly when you think, you know, people are the other side of the world, you're not gonna see them very often.
[00:38:00] Your communication's gonna be much less like how do you make sure that they feel included? And the culture is a. Company culture rather than, you know, different things popping up regionally, which generally isn't, isn't that great, but other things to think about. But it's hugely rewarding as well. I mean, it's amazing to see.
[00:38:19] When I started Acceleration Partners, you know, I think we were 50 50 people mainly in the US now with 350 people and I think we have 80, 90 people outside the US now, maybe even more so. It's, it's grown significantly.
[00:38:37] Wendy: Wow. That is, and that's just in five years, right?
[00:38:41] Helen: Yeah. Yeah. It's mad.
[00:38:44] Wendy: Well, I think this has been fabulous to get your perspective on partnerships, ideas on that, just from a marketing sense, but then also how to think about including employees and how to expand.
[00:38:57] So Always like to ask, you know, this question's coming and I am dying to hear what yours is. What's your favorite foreign word?
[00:39:07] Helen: Okay, so I learned this very recently on a trip to Copenhagen in Denmark, and the word is hah. And it's spell h y g e e. So it's very unusual, huga and it basically means, which I think is fabulous.
[00:39:26] It means to be content and comfortable and have a sense of happiness and wellbeing. So what the sort of Danish say is, like, for example, if you are out on an evening enjoying a bottle of wine with a couple of friends and chatting, putting the world to write, they would call that hogar, which I think is just lovely.
[00:39:48] Such a nice word, and a nice way of thinking about something that I think human beings love doing and is, is really valuable. To actually put a word to is, is pretty impressive.
[00:39:59] Wendy: It's a fabulous word cuz I have, I can't come up with any other English word that would, would capture
[00:40:06] Helen: Exactly. Yeah. Nothing.
[00:40:08] Nothing quite captures it, does it? So the Danish have managed to do it? Yes.
[00:40:13] Wendy: That's fantastic. Well, if people want to reach you, where's the best place to do that?
[00:40:22] Helen: Yeah, if you go to acceleration partners.com, that's the best way to reach myself or any of the team or on LinkedIn as well. So I'm Helen Southgate on LinkedIn from Acceleration Partners.
[00:40:37] They're probably the best ways.
[00:40:39] Wendy: Okay. And Helen Southgate. H e l e n. And then Southgate, just like the words. So South, not north. South Gate. G a t e. Yeah. All right. So LinkedIn. Yeah, I think this has been absolutely fabulous. So thank you so much for coming on and sharing your experiences.
[00:40:58] Helen: Nice. No, thank you.
[00:41:00] It's been great talking to you, Wendy.
[00:41:03] Wendy: So listeners, thank you for listening in here. Remember we do have a Facebook group, so if you go to Facebook and search for Global Marketing and Growth you can join in on the conversation. And I know somebody posted some really interesting information yesterday about foods from around the world.
[00:41:24] So bring your favorite English to English translations or other words that there might have been mistakes. Pop 'em in there. Or if you need connections or partners anywhere in the world, that's a good place to go and do that. So remember, we launch an episode every week on all the favorite places that you listen.
[00:41:42] So if you enjoyed this episode or you know somebody who might want to do a partnership program internationally, Certainly refer them to this episode and to Helen. Thanks so much and we'll talk to you next.
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