He Spent 15 Years Selling Across Asia. The Same Buying Signal Didn’t Always Mean the Same Thing.

A successful go-to-market strategy in Europe or North America does not automatically travel well.

Foreign technology companies entering Asia can encounter familiar-looking business environments, English-speaking prospects, global corporations, and increasingly connected markets. Yet beneath those similarities are major differences in how buyers build trust, assess risk, communicate interest, and make decisions.

Nicolas Levitte has spent more than 15 years working in Singapore and across Asian markets. Before founding Expand In Asia, a Singapore-based B2B prospecting company, he launched and scaled businesses across APAC for companies including LinkedIn and Triton Digital. Today, he helps technology companies validate markets, build sales pipelines, and determine how — and where — to expand across the region.

His experience points to a deceptively simple problem for companies entering Asia: the same buying signal does not always mean the same thing from one market to another.

And sometimes, what looks like a disastrous sales meeting is not going badly at all.

He Thought the Decision-Maker Had Fallen Asleep 

Nicolas Levitte moved to Singapore in 2011 to build the Asian subsidiary of a US company in audio streaming and digital advertising. Its technology helped radio broadcasters generate revenue from their online audiences.

The company gained good traction in Singapore and Malaysia. But as Nicolas entered other Asian markets, he began discovering how much the sales process itself could change.

In Japan, for example, he worked with a translator even when meeting Dentsu, a major advertising group. Several people were involved in discussions, and understanding how they would evaluate the solution became an important part of the sales process.

Decisions were consensus-driven, which meant a much longer sales cycle, more questions, and a need for more proof points than he had encountered in other countries.

Then came a meeting at NHK, the largest broadcaster in Japan.

Nicolas was presenting to a decision-maker who appeared to be dozing off. At one point, he seemed to be sleeping.

“Frankly, my ego was bruised,” Nicolas recalls.

It had never happened to him before. He assumed the prospect had absolutely no interest in what he was presenting and even wondered whether he had done something wrong — either in his presentation style or in the content he had chosen.

So he rushed through the rest of the presentation.

At the end, he asked whether there were any questions. He wasn’t expecting any.

To his surprise, the decision-maker had several relevant questions about the service, demonstrating that he had not only been listening but had a strong interest in what Nicolas was offering.

It was an early lesson in the danger of interpreting an unfamiliar business environment through familiar signals.

The Meeting Went Great. The Answer Was Still No. 

Thailand and Indonesia taught Nicolas a different version of the same lesson.

Prospects were often polite and receptive. He would leave meetings feeling that the conversation had gone well and that a deal should follow.

The people he spoke with were friendly and positive. Many of his contacts in Indonesia spoke English, which added to his impression that they were highly interested in the service.

After several conversations, however, Nicolas realised that in many cases, they were not interested.

“They simply didn’t want to say ‘no,’ or didn’t know how to say it directly. They were helping me save face.”

The experience challenged a basic assumption: a pleasant conversation and apparent enthusiasm do not necessarily indicate purchase intent.

Singapore presented another variation.

Its large expatriate population and concentration of Western companies with regional headquarters can give foreign executives the impression that business is conducted much as it is in North America.

Nicolas Levitte initially found himself pitching as he would in the US and interpreting the same behaviours as familiar buying signals.

During one meeting, several decision-makers were in the room. Some were quiet; others were engaged. One person was particularly active in the discussion, and Nicolas felt he was gaining ground with him and moving closer to a decision.

Only at the end did he realise that the true decision-maker had been sitting quietly at the back, mostly listening while someone reporting to him handled the discussion.

“The person who talks the most is not always the most senior person — or the main decision-maker.”

After 15 years in Asia, these experiences have shaped how Nicolas thinks about localisation.

It goes much further than language. It affects how companies approach people, what creates confidence, how interest is communicated, and what buyers need before they are willing to move forward.

His Best Sales Argument Had the Opposite Effect 

Nicolas Levitte encountered the same challenge from another angle after joining LinkedIn in 2014, when he was part of the team launching Sales Navigator in Asia.

The company had successful customer examples from the US and Australia. The sales pitch emphasised the competitive advantage companies could gain by becoming early adopters and using professional relationships to support sales.

Initially, Nicolas thought he could make the same argument to major companies in Asia.

He quickly realised it was the wrong approach.

Instead of sounding like an opportunity, being among the first adopters sounded risky.

Prospective customers raised questions such as: If nobody is using it yet, perhaps there is a reason. Maybe they did not need it. Perhaps the product was not built for companies in Asia.

The message simply was not generating the response the team expected.

So they changed the approach.

Rather than concentrating immediately on major companies, they focused on winning smaller businesses first. They could then return to larger players with local success stories.

Now the argument was different: other companies in your market are already getting results, and you could be missing out.

The product had not changed.

The evidence — and the reason to act — had.

Sometimes It’s the Sales Playbook That Needs Localising 

The Sales Navigator experience also revealed another assumption that did not always travel well: that an enthusiastic user would advocate for a solution internally.

LinkedIn often used that bottom-up approach. But within more hierarchical organisations, Nicolas Levitte found that someone could like the product and still hesitate to recommend a change without their manager’s backing.

That meant involving senior decision-makers earlier while continuing to build support among users.

Even the channel used to reach prospects could require adjustment.

A company cannot assume that the outreach methods it relies on elsewhere will reach the right people in every Asian market. In Nicolas’s work, a phone call, an introduction, or even a formal letter has sometimes opened a door that email or LinkedIn did not.

That does not necessarily mean rebuilding the entire sales operation for every country.

Instead, Nicolas recommends examining where the process gets stuck.

Is the company struggling to reach the right people? Is it reaching them but failing to generate interest? Or are prospects interested but decisions not progressing?

The answer can reveal which part of the go-to-market process actually needs to change before a company responds by investing in more people or simply increasing outreach.

Why the Better Product Doesn’t Always Win

For companies heavily focused on sales efficiency, one factor can be particularly difficult to quantify: confidence in the people behind the product.

Nicolas saw this firsthand in the audio-streaming business.

Back in 2011, the company had what he considered a very strong value proposition. Streaming represented a growing cost for broadcasters, and its technology could help them generate revenue from their online audiences.

From a product perspective, Nicolas found the proposition highly convincing.

But competitors had something else: established relationships.

Their customers knew them. They had experience working together. A stronger product did not automatically outweigh that confidence.

Nicolas and his team successfully developed the business, but there were opportunities where, looking back, he believes spending more time developing the relationship would have helped.

For a buyer, selecting a new supplier can also mean putting their own credibility behind the decision. They want to know how the supplier will respond when something goes wrong, whether the team understands their organisation, and whether they will still be around after the contract is signed.

That confidence accumulates through relatively ordinary actions: following up when promised, answering a difficult question honestly, meeting other people within the account, and understanding their concerns.

These behaviours do not always fit neatly into a sales-efficiency dashboard.

If a company measures only meetings booked and how quickly opportunities close, it can miss meaningful progress.

But Nicolas also cautions against using “relationship-building” as an excuse for an opportunity going nowhere.

Are prospects openly sharing their priorities, introducing you to colleagues, or explaining their internal buying process?

Those are signs that the relationship is progressing.

“If you’ve had five friendly lunches and still don’t know whether there’s a need, you should question the opportunity.”

Patience matters. But it should come with progress.

AI Can Scale Your Outreach. It Can’t Read the Room.

AI has made it possible to automate and scale more of the prospecting process. Nicolas Levitte sees clear value in that efficiency, but also a risk: companies can become faster at sending communication without necessarily making that communication better for the person receiving it.

He has experienced this himself as a customer when communicating with an insurance provider.

The responses can be polished, with lengthy explanations and sometimes far too many questions. Yet Nicolas still finds himself having to work out what his contact is actually asking.

What information do they really need? What is he supposed to do next?

“A beautifully written response isn’t necessarily a clear or useful one. If the customer has to decipher it, you’ve simply shifted the work onto them.”

Nicolas sees AI as useful for preparing research, drafting messages, and reducing repetitive work. But someone still needs to determine whether the communication is clear and relevant.

He is particularly cautious about allowing automation to decide how a relationship should develop without someone interpreting the context.

Imagine a prospect replying: “Very interesting, please send more information.”

An automated sequence may interpret that as sufficient reason to continue pushing for a meeting.

An experienced salesperson still needs to determine whether there is a genuine priority behind the response. The better next step may be asking another question — or recognising that the timing is not right.

Hierarchy and tone create similar challenges.

A message that directly challenges someone could generate a productive discussion in one environment while making the recipient uncomfortable in another, particularly when their manager is involved.

Translating the words does not resolve that.

Nicolas would use AI to help sales teams prepare and follow through. He would keep people responsible for interpreting conversations, selecting the next step, and knowing when to stop pushing.

Before You Make the Local Hire, Prove There’s Something to Build On 

For a technology company considering expansion into Asia, localisation does not mean immediately building a local team.

There is a difference between being ready to test a market and being ready to build a team there.

At Expand In Asia, Nicolas helps companies validate markets through prospecting and conversations with potential customers. The aim is to identify real opportunities, establish early relationships, and develop an early-stage sales pipeline before committing to a local team.

He would not expect a company to begin with a fully validated pipeline. But he would expect it to understand who it serves successfully today, what problem it solves, and what results it can demonstrate.

That provides a starting point for testing whether the same need exists within a particular market.

Internal ownership matters too.

When a prospect agrees to a conversation, someone needs to run it. Someone needs to answer technical questions. And if the opportunity progresses, the company needs to be capable of supporting the customer.

Generating interest means little if the business cannot follow through.

Groundwork Matters More Than a Fast Headcount

Leadership expectations can be another warning sign.

Are leaders willing to adapt their message based on customer feedback? Have they allowed enough time and budget for prospecting, follow-up, and relationship development?

By contrast, “We need revenue quickly, so let’s try Asia,” without a clear customer focus or someone available to develop the resulting opportunities, would concern Nicolas.

So would the assumption that hiring one local employee will solve everything.

Before making that larger commitment, he would want evidence from several target accounts: a clear need, access to relevant people, and agreed next steps.

Those opportunities do not all need to be close to signing. But there should be enough substance to give the local hire a concrete job to do.

Nicolas’s own arrival in Asia followed a similar model.

Before his company sent him to the region, it used a local consultant to open the first doors in Southeast Asia. Nicolas arrived with early relationships he could deepen rather than starting completely from scratch.

“That groundwork made a difference.”

Before You Expand Into Asia, Ask: Which Asia? 

The product may travel more easily than the assumptions surrounding how it should be sold.

That is why Nicolas Levitte encourages companies to speak with potential buyers in a small number of markets before committing heavily. Those conversations can test where an existing solution fits, reveal what needs adapting, and expose differences that market-size estimates alone cannot show.

Companies can learn who actually influences a purchase, what gives buyers confidence, which outreach channels open doors, how decisions move internally, and what evidence customers need before taking a risk on an unfamiliar supplier.

Success in one Asian market does not answer those questions for the next.

For companies considering expansion, the objective should therefore be to learn before building a cost base around assumptions.

Asia has plenty of opportunities. But “Asia” itself is not a go-to-market strategy.

The more useful question is not simply whether a company is ready for Asia.

It is whether it has done enough learning to know which Asia it is ready for.

Planning an Asia Expansion? Put These Lessons to the Test 

On October 7, 2026, Expand In Asia will host a webinar examining five critical mistakes companies make when expanding into Asia. Nicolas Levitte and the team will share experiences from across the region and practical approaches to issues ranging from choosing an initial market to deciding when it is time to build a local team.

Companies exploring Asia — or already operating in the region and looking to refine their approach — can find further details through Expand In Asia’s events and webinars page.

Read the Chinese article here.