1. Starting point
MenSe manufactures feed rollers and other attachments for forestry machines. Its products can be used virtually anywhere in the world where forestry is done — Finland, Sweden, Germany, Poland, Canada, the US, Australia, Uruguay.
There were plenty of markets. There was demand. The challenge was somewhere else entirely.
How does a forestry contractor or dealer find MenSe specifically, at the moment they are looking for new feed rollers, rolls or other attachments — in their own language?
2. Challenge
When a Finnish SME wants to grow internationally, the first thought is usually the same. Hire more salespeople. Find dealers. Attend more trade shows. Fly out to meet customers.
I’ve seen that model work well at times, but I’ve also seen its limits. Building an international sales organisation is slow, expensive and risky. Every new market demands more people, more travel and more fixed cost.
In many cases a company doesn’t need more salespeople first. It needs visibility. If the right buyer can’t find the company when they’re looking for a solution, even the best salesperson never gets the chance to join the bid.
3. Strategy
At the start of the project we made one decision: we wouldn’t build growth on new salespeople. We would build visibility.
The idea was simple. When a forestry contractor searches Google for new feed rollers — in English, German, French, Spanish or any other language — MenSe should appear among the first options. Not because it is the largest company, but because it is the most useful and visible to the buyer at the exact moment.
This is one of the most important things I’ve learned in international B2B. A customer doesn’t usually look for a new supplier when you want to sell. They look when they have a problem to solve. If your company is found at that exact moment, selling becomes dramatically easier.
So the goal of this project wasn’t merely to grow website traffic. The goal was to build visibility that works like additional salespeople — around the clock, on multiple markets at the same time.
4. What was actually done
For each market we mapped how forestry operators, contractors and dealers actually search. Content was built systematically to answer those questions — not as generic product copy but as material that helps the buyer solve a problem.
Content was produced in the buyer’s own language across multiple markets. The aim was for MenSe to feel like a local player in each country — not a translated Finnish site.
Google Ads were used as a precision tool in countries and search terms where organic visibility was still maturing. This made sure the buyer found MenSe even before SEO had fully kicked in.
When AI-driven search tools like ChatGPT became mainstream, we didn’t need to change strategy. The genuinely helpful, customer-focused content built over years started showing up in AI answers too. We tested in several languages the questions buyers might ask — and time after time MenSe appeared in the answers.
5. Results
Digital marketing loves to talk about quick wins. This project was the opposite. Growth was built piece by piece over several years, and MenSe’s digital visibility kept expanding into new markets, new languages and new search topics.
Over the course of the partnership, revenue has more than doubled and operating profit has roughly tripled. Trade-show spend has been reduced, international visibility has expanded across several markets, and the company has reached new customers without hiring new salespeople.
It’s important to note this was never marketing alone. Growth always comes from many things working together: a good product, good service, good leadership and good people. But I am convinced that without systematically built visibility, many of those customers would never have found MenSe.
That is exactly why I believe marketing’s most important job isn’t to sell. Its most important job is to make sure the right customer finds the company at the moment they are looking for a solution.
6. What I learned from this project
If someone asked me what the most important lesson of this project was, I wouldn't answer "SEO".
I wouldn't answer "Google Ads" either.
I would answer like this:
A small business doesn't need to look big. It needs to be found at the right moment.
I have seen this same phenomenon dozens of times over the last 27 years.
Many companies still think that international growth starts with hiring new salespeople.
In my experience, it starts much earlier.
It starts when the right customer finds the company at the moment they are looking for a solution.
When visibility is built systematically, every new piece of content, every new language version and every new search result starts doing sales work on the company's behalf around the clock.
Then the individual salesperson's job becomes significantly easier.
They no longer need to convince the customer that the company exists.
The customer has already found the company themselves.
This is one of the biggest changes I have seen in international B2B sales over the last ten years.
Before, the best salespeople flew around the world looking for customers.
Today, the best customers find the company themselves.
That is why I no longer think that search engine optimisation or AI visibility are marketing.
I think they are part of modern international sales.
Could the same work in your company?
If your company sells products or services internationally, I usually ask only one question.
Do your customers find your company when they are looking for a solution?
If the answer is yes, the next question is:
Do they find your company, or your competitors?
And if the answer is no, the problem is not necessarily in the product.
Most often the problem is visibility.
This is not solved with one campaign.
It is solved with a long-term strategy where customers' real questions are connected to quality content, search engine visibility and nowadays also AI visibility.
This is exactly what I have been able to do with MenSe for many years now.
Want to find out where your company's biggest growth potential is?
Every company is different.
That is why I don't believe in ready-made marketing packages.
I believe in strategy.
If you want to discuss how similar thinking could be applied in your own company, book a strategy call.
Let's look together at which markets, search demand or visibility your company's biggest growth potential currently lies in.
7. How to apply this in your own company
If you want to apply this thinking in your own company, start with three questions.
1. In which concrete words and languages does your buyer search for a solution to the problem your product solves? Don’t start from your own product names — start from the buyer’s language.
2. Is your company currently findable in the moment when the buyer is actively buying? If not, the problem isn’t solved by adding salespeople — it’s solved by building visibility before the salespeople.
3. What is the minimum timeframe you are willing to commit to? If the answer is under 12 months, I don’t recommend starting — this kind of lead isn’t built in a quarter.
Once those three questions are answered honestly, it becomes far easier to decide in which order salespeople, dealers and visibility should be built.