Entering Spain Is Not a Translation Exercise

One of the first things international companies do when entering Spain is translate everything.

The website becomes Spanish. The sales deck becomes Spanish. The case studies become Spanish.

A few months later, many of those same companies are asking a different question: if the product is good and the materials are localised, why isn't the market moving?

In most cases, the answer has very little to do with language.

Spain is not a particularly difficult market to understand, but it is a market that rewards context. Buyers want to know who you are, where you fit, who already trusts you and whether you're likely to become part of the ecosystem or simply pass through it.

That creates an interesting challenge for international companies. A business can arrive with a proven product, established clients and a strong reputation elsewhere in Europe or the US and still struggle to gain traction locally. Not because the proposition is weak, but because the market has not yet found a reason to pay attention.

Over the years I've seen companies spend considerable time refining positioning, messaging and sales materials when the real issue was much simpler: they had not yet developed enough local relevance.

Relevance comes from understanding how decisions are actually made. Which conversations matter. Which organisations influence opinion. Which partnerships create credibility. And, perhaps most importantly, how buyers define value in the first place.

The companies that build momentum fastest are rarely the ones with the most polished market-entry strategy. They're usually the ones that spend time listening before selling, learning before scaling and building relationships before expecting results.

Translation matters.

Understanding the market matters more.