Before you enter a new market, separate real demand from interest, count the full cost of entering, and agree on the checkpoints that would make you continue or stop. Paste the expansion proposal, the demand evidence with its source, the localization and compliance needs you know about, the team you plan to move, the channel plan, and the core roadmap those people would leave into one request. Instruct Pingpong to rank the evidence, find costs the proposal leaves out, and test whether the six- and twelve-month targets are specific enough to act on. Review your written answers in a second round before you fund the team.
This page is for chief executives, revenue leaders, and directors weighing a new country or customer segment while the core business continues. If the new market would replace your current customers, the decision is a pivot, and the board's questions before you pivot fit better. Executive starting points live under Pingpong for executives.
Rank the demand evidence
From weakest to strongest: inbound inquiries, survey answers, conversations at events, unpaid pilots, paid pilots at a discount, contracts at full price, and repeat purchases. A proposal built mostly on the first three is still a hypothesis. Also check whether interest comes from customers you already serve, who may only want existing service extended to another location.
Count the full cost of entry
Language and product changes, local payment and tax handling, data residency, employment and sector rules, a local entity, support hours in a new time zone, and the sales channel buyers in that market expect. The largest cost is often the work your core customers stop getting while the best people focus on the new market. Legal and regulatory questions go to counsel before the budget is final.
Set two checkpoints
At six months, a small number of customers with no prior tie to the company should be paying full price. At twelve months, the market should show a path to funding its own team. Write the numbers, and the decision you will make if you miss them, before you start.
A worked example
This example is illustrative and does not describe a customer. A 250-person field service scheduling company based in the United States is considering an entry into Germany. The proposal cites 30 inbound inquiries from German companies and four existing customers with German operations, and asks for two sales hires in Berlin, a product manager, and three engineers.
The chief executive pastes the proposal, the inquiry list with company sizes, notes from the four customers, the engineering estimate for localization, the core roadmap, and a summary of how competitors sell there.
A useful pass finds that 22 of the 30 inquiries come from companies below the size the product serves well. The four existing customers want their German sites added to their current contracts, which is expansion revenue and says little about winning new German customers. Competitors in the summary sell mainly through local resellers, while the proposal plans direct sales only.
On cost, the engineering estimate covers translation but leaves out integrations with local payroll systems, which the inquiry notes mention repeatedly. Customers may expect hosting inside the European Union. Scheduling software that tracks employee hours can raise questions under German workplace rules, and the pass flags that for counsel. The product manager and engineers would come from the team building the core roadmap's top priority, which large customers in the United States are waiting for. The proposal sets no checkpoint.
The chief executive revises. Phase one serves the four existing customers' German sites and runs a pilot with one local reseller, which needs one engineer instead of three. Counsel reviews data residency and the workplace rules before any German contract is signed. The core roadmap keeps its team. The six-month checkpoint is three German-headquartered customers paying full price through the reseller or directly. If the company misses it, new-customer efforts stop and existing customers keep their service. The board reviews the result at month six before approving a sales team.
A request you can copy
Below are our proposal to enter a new market, our demand evidence with sources, the localization and compliance needs we know about, the team we plan to move, our channel plan, and the core roadmap those people would leave. Rank the evidence from weakest to strongest and separate new demand from existing customers. List costs the proposal leaves out, including the effect on the core roadmap. Test our six- and twelve-month checkpoints and the decision attached to each. Mark legal and regulatory questions for counsel. Stop there so we can answer in writing, then review our answers.
How Pingpong runs the review
The web review app sends your request through several models in order. Each later model receives the original request and every earlier answer, with instructions to assess the work so far. For the steps inside the app, see running your first review.
What a model can't review
A model does not know the buyers in that market, how local competitors respond to a newcomer, or what your team learned on its last visit. Counsel owns the legal and regulatory questions, and you and the board own the decision.
When the proposal goes to the board, see war-game a decision before the board meeting. More guides live under work decisions before you commit.