The globalization that we’ve seen in recent years has made the global supply chain as efficient as ever. So, you might wonder why you would need an actual presence in America at all?

Well, here are some of the key reasons why:

Time Zone : When you’re selling into the USA, you’re going to need to be available to interact with customers, suppliers, partners, and other stakeholders – so that you can build trust and operate efficiently. Doing so over the phone is challenging because of the time zone difference that requires lots of gymnastics to get around. Having a local presence means that you can match working hours with your clients – making for much more seamless value exchange.
Perception : Having a local US office can do a lot to signal that you’re a global company that is taking its American expansion seriously. It shows that you’re not just a fly-by-night operation, but rather than you’re a multi-national company seeking to make a dent in overseas markets. This builds credibility and trust with local Americans which can only serve to improve your prospects across the country.
Local Context. When you’re selling into an unfamiliar environment, it is very easy to miss the cultural and economic context that is at play in those communities. When there’s an imbalance here, there is a risk that your offering doesn’t fit what’s required and that can lead to problems. Having a local office means that you have feet on the ground and you can learn about the people that you’re selling to. Just by engaging in that specific location, you’ll drastically improve your ability to craft a compelling and viable proposition.
Opportunism : Having a local presence in the USA will also help you to spot additional opportunities that you might be able to capitalize on. By drawing insights from what’s around you and, more importantly, what’s not around – you can come up with new product ideas that might be even more lucrative than what you’re currently doing. It’s all about creating idea factories that can give you the insights you need to continue innovating.
Those are just a few of the things that make a local US presence so powerful for Indian companies looking to expand. However, doing so can be an expensive and challenging endeavor if you go about it the wrong way.

Mistakes That Companies Make When Trying to Expand to the USA
In our experience, we’ve seen that some of the more common mistakes made when opening in the USA are as follows:

Significant Upfront Expenditure : Some organizations invest too much too early before they’ve had a chance to actually check the product-market fit in the USA. They will go and sign an expensive lease, invest in new assets, and incur a wide variety of other expenditures upfront. This is risky because you don’t have much wiggle room here and if you aren’t able to start making inroads quickly you can find yourself in a difficult spot.
Lack of Market Research : The USA is a big place and it has a lot more diversity than many of us realize. As such, it’s crucial that you do your market research about the best place to be, how you should enter the market, and what offering you should lead with. Companies who don’t do this often find that their assumptions were wrong and they can quickly find themselves behind the 8-ball.
Forgoing a Premium Address : Some companies know that they need an American address to build credibility but the thought process stops there. As a result, they choose a cheap USA location only to find out that the address doesn’t carry the sort of cache that they were hoping for. In these cases, they simply don’t get the return on the investment they were hoping for because the address wasn’t premium enough.

These three mistakes are emblematic of trying to do it yourself without the context and experience that you need to do it well. It makes a lot more sense to partner with someone who has done it before and can ease the path ahead of you.