Are you looking to expand your B2B business to Scandinavia and the Nordic countries?
If you are still considering, here are 2 good reasons to go ahead – but at the same time, it is the most common barriers of entry:
- Many companies never try to enter Denmark, Norway or Sweden, because Scandinavia is a small region with languages spoken nowhere else in the world. Thus, competition is scarce.
Actually, a thorough analysis from GfK Denmark has shown that the supply of groceries in Denmark is 60% lower compared to 10 other European countries. - The costs of establishing own offices and hiring employees are high. Because taxes (including company taxes) and costs of living are high. But this also means that your company can profit from higher prices.
The prices in the 5 Nordic countries are 38,5% higher compared to the general price levels in the European Union.
Considering the above, how should you go about establishing your company in the Nordics?
Outsourcing or establishing yourself?
Let’s be honest. We are totally biased.
Our business is basically to help B2B companies outsource their entire sales process in the Nordics and in particular in Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Germany.
However, starting with the facts, there are some major consideration to do have in mind:
- Cost of offices: An office of 50 square meters in Nordhavn, Copenhagen, will cost you approximately 833 EUR each month, statistics from Lokalebasen reveals. Those numbers are from 2016, the price is probably way higher today.
- Sales management: You can’t expect a sales representative to be able to both do the hard groundwork in generating leads and closing deals simultaneously with managing himself and being the head of your go to market strategy. So you need both an operative sales representative and a professional sales management.
- Taxes: The company taxes in Denmark is 22%. Even if this isn’t higher than what you are obliged to pay in your own country, the administrative burden of doing the tax work is remarkable. The Danish Tax Authorities have concluded that some countries can avoid that burden by using the sales as a service solution from Nordic Sales Force.
With that being said it might make sense for you to establish your own sales team if you have the above mentioned in mind and if you can easily adapt to the Nordic culture. It is not completely necessary, but definitely a huge advantage to have native speaking ressources.
Next step for your Nordic expansion
Before entering – whether you partner up with us or do it yourself – we would highly recommend to have a clear plan for the following:
- Identify your Nordic target group: Your ideal customer profile (ICP) might differ from your ICP in your home market.
- Have a clear plan for execution: Be specific about the steps in your preferred customer journey and sales proces. But be open enough to test different cases out.
- Have a specific target: What do you aim to achieve in year 1? We recommend to set a clear target on number of customers or revenue.
Ready to go for your Nordic adventure? Happy hunting!