German engineering alone won't win the US market. Stefan Grunwald shares how local product management multiplied revenue. 20+ years of US experience.
"Customers should be grateful they have access to such a great product."
Stefan Grunwald has been hearing this sentence for over 20 years. As a product manager at Lütze and TK Cable in North Carolina, he has witnessed firsthand how this mindset costs European tech companies millions in US revenue.
"That's difficult, of course," Stefan says dryly.
Difficult is an understatement. It's the fundamental mistake that 90% of German tech companies make when entering the US market.
You have a brilliant product. German engineering at its finest. Your customers in Europe love it. And now you want to conquer the US market – firmly convinced that your product will practically sell itself.
Stop right there.
Stefan has lived both worlds. He's been commuting between Europe and the USA since 1999, and has lived permanently in North Carolina since 2001. With his experience at Lütze, TK Cable, and now as founder of GSH Consulting and Green River Technology, Stefan has a clear view of why so many fail – and what the successful ones do differently.
"In 2004, we started doing product management truly locally," Stefan recalls. "And that opened up completely new possibilities."
Before? Business as usual. Products from Germany, some marketing in the USA, moderate revenue.
After? Revenue explosion.
The game-changer: "We acquired a supplier in the USA. That meant we had this 'Engineered in Germany and Made in USA.' After that, things really took off. Revenue multiplied."
Why? Because European products – as good as they are – are often perceived as a "specialty solution" in the USA. Something you use when you really need it. But not as the standard option.
Stefan distinguishes between two critical dimensions in product management:
On-the-shelf Product Management: Which products do I really want to have?
Off-the-shelf Product Management: How do I sell these products successfully?
Most European companies focus on the former – and fail because they neglect the latter.
"One of the bigger mistakes is certainly not doing any product management at all," Stefan explains. "If I don't have anyone on site who helps you explain why the product isn't working properly here – because maybe I'm going into the market with the wrong message."
The problem: In Germany, you often sell to engineers who understand your product. In the USA? You might be sitting across from a purchasing agent. Or a technician without an engineering background. Or a manager who only wants to know: "How does this save me money?"
The solution: Someone on the ground who speaks the US language – not just English, but the language of the US market.
To-Do: Evaluate whether you need a local product manager or should start with a consultant like Stefan. But don't wait until your revenue stagnates.
Stefan has a checklist. And if it's not complete? No launch.
"For example, I need a complete price list," he explains. "I can't end up saying, hey, let's go to market with this product, and then we've developed a brochure showing 25 item numbers, but in the end I only have prices for three of them."
What happens? Your manufacturing rep sits with the customer. The customer wants a price quote. Your rep has to say: "I need to check on that."
Game over.
"The market here is fast, and at product launch I actually need to know the sales price for all 25 items so I can act quickly in discussions."
Stefan's launch checklist includes:
"For us here in the USA, there may be a few different approaches to what makes a complete product launch," Stefan says diplomatically.
To-Do: Create a brutal launch checklist. If even one point is missing, postpone the launch. A bad launch is worse than no launch.
"In Germany, people often assumed we were selling to engineers who already knew what a great product it was," Stefan explains.
In the USA? "You might be talking to technicians, you might be talking to purchasing agents, you might be talking to people who have nothing to do with the subject matter at all, but are still tasked with buying this product."
Your datasheet with DIN standards and tolerances interests no one.
What does interest them? "Where does the customer benefit actually lie in this product?"
The translation:
"That's the typical features & benefits discussion," Stefan says.
To-Do: Take your datasheet. For every feature, write the business benefit. If you can't find one, ask yourself: Why is that feature even in there?
Stefan shares a concrete example from his time at Lütze that shows how crucial local product management is:
"We were heavily involved in industrial cables for automation technology. The American market had accepted that European cables were more flexible and easier to install."
Sounds good, right?
"But we still always hit a ceiling somewhere. We just couldn't really grow beyond our existing revenue, because a European cable was ultimately still viewed as a specialty solution."
The solution wasn't better marketing. Not more aggressive pricing. Not more sales partners.
The solution was product management.
"We started saying, let's take the properties of the European cable and integrate them into an American cable. That's where this compliance topic came in – NEC types."
What does NEC mean in the USA?
NEC stands for National Electrical Code. And many European cable suppliers in the USA have never thought about it.
"There are many European companies that have been selling cables here for years but have never thought about NEC types. And they just constantly live with the market share they've been able to achieve."
Stefan's team took a different path: "We released this completely new product generation that was also fully managed locally."
The result: "Revenue really grew enormously."
The lesson: "I can develop a power supply in Germany, for example, and I can probably sell that worldwide. But with cables, I have to be prepared for the fact that there are many local standards and requirements."
To-Do: Identify the local compliance requirements for your product. Not just UL/CSA. But industry-specific, state-specific, application-specific. If you don't know them, you'll find your revenue ceiling.
Stefan's answer is unsatisfying: "It depends heavily on the company – what kind of product do I have, what kind of corporate culture do I have, how open am I to other things."
But he names clear warning signs:
You're too late if:
"Once you've reached the point where you've created a saturation on the sales side and realize, 'I actually thought there was more potential, but somehow I'm not getting anywhere' – then you should have started with local product management earlier."
The good news? "But in the end, it's always better to say, okay, I've recognized it now, so I'm doing something about it."
To-Do: Look at your US revenue development over the last 12 months. If you see a plateau, now is the time. Not in 6 months.
Stefan's ultimate advice for German scale-ups?
"Openness."
His car analogy nails it:
"In Germany, when you sell a BMW 7 Series, you can talk about it being a large car – lots of space and luxurious. Selling the same BMW 7 Series in the USA, you have to accept that the space offering is mediocre at best."
Why? Because the Chevy Suburban exists.
"A feature that really hits home in one market can be irrelevant in another market."
This openness means:
"When you come here, you absolutely must have the openness to hear different things and perhaps do different things than you expected."
To-Do: Ask your US sales partners: "What are the three features that really sell here?" If the answer doesn't match your core arguments, you have a problem.
The best product strategy is useless if your sales strategy doesn't fit. Stefan has seen it too often:
"Fundamentally, it's always very important that the product strategy and the sales strategy – they simply have to fit together. And I've experienced this often: when they don't fit, it always goes wrong."
Especially critical with external sales partners.
Manufacturing reps and distributors have 20-40 different manufacturers in their portfolio. They might sit with a customer for an hour – but can't spend an hour on each manufacturer.
"If I send an external salesperson to talk to an OEM, I don't have the luxury of them spending half an hour discussing something."
"They need to deliver the right messages immediately, and it simply has to be a hit. For that, I need good tools."
Your marketing collateral must:
Stefan's approach with Green River Technology: "Let's take a look at whether your market messages are actually landing with American customers. There may be cultural and linguistic hurdles to overcome."
To-Do: Give your US sales partner your marketing materials. Ask for brutal feedback. If it takes them more than 30 seconds to explain the customer benefit, they're garbage.
"There's also Version 2.0," Stefan says. "It's about fast market entry – this is the product as it is today, and I'm already planning the next generation today."
German companies love getting lost in details. Nice-to-haves. Perfection.
Stefan's planning principle is different:
"People often get too caught up in the nice-to-haves instead of focusing on the essentials. If you've thought clearly beforehand about what the product absolutely needs versus what the nice-to-have features are – then I can get to market faster."
Must-haves → Launch → Feedback → Version 2.0 with nice-to-haves
Not: Must-haves + nice-to-haves + perfection → Launch in 18 months → Market has changed
"So that I can release the next version in two years."
Two years. Not five. Not ten.
To-Do: For your next product: Create two lists. Must-haves for V1. Nice-to-haves for V2. Launch V1 in 6 months, not V1+V2 in 18 months.
The gap between German product development and US market success is not unbridgeable. But it requires deliberate changes:
"Sometimes you simply need people from the outside who know their way around and say: 'Hey, maybe it's like this or that' or 'that's not clear to me.' Then you realize, maybe our messages aren't as clear as we believed."
The question is not whether your German engineering is good enough. The question is: Are you ready to translate it for the US market?
About StateMinded: We help European tech companies master the complexity of US market entry and growth. While Stefan's expertise lies in product management, we focus on the sales side: manufacturing rep networks, distributor partnerships, and sales enablement. The combination = successful US market entry. If you're ready to get serious about your US revenue, let's talk.
About Stefan Grunwald: Stefan is the founder of GSH Consulting and Green River Technology LLC, based in North Carolina. With 20+ years of product management experience in the USA (Lütze, TK Cable), he helps European tech companies with local product adaptation, compliance navigation, and go-to-market strategies.
🌐 GSH Consulting: https://gsh-consulting.com/
🌐 Green River Technology: https://www.greenrivertechnology.com
Tags: product management, us market entry, product launch, nec compliance, german engineering, manufacturing reps, b2b sales
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