Afternoon Coffee: Magnus advises procurement tech vendors on breaking into U.S. market; USMCA approved by Senate

Spend Matters’ analyst Magnus Bergfors is our VP of European Research, and he’s based in Sweden. So he knows the European market. He also knows the U.S. market, and in a post on Spend Matters Europe, he shares what it takes to make it here.

One of the main differentiators is the focus on sales and marketing vs. engineering.

“European companies are almost always run by a founder who actually created the product while the U.S. CEO is much more focused on sales and marketing,” Magnus writes. “The European vendor creates a great product and expects that to be enough, and the U.S. vendor sells a product and then builds it! The European vendor underestimates the amount of money it needs to spend on sales and marketing in the U.S. to make it and are often unwilling to take on outside capital because of a fear of losing control over the company.”

Read more here.

U.S. Senate approves NAFTA replacement

The United States Senate signed off on the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) with an 86-10 vote Thursday. This followed a House vote in December to approve the deal 385-41. The bill will now be sent to the president’s desk to be signed into law.

MetalMiner, a sister site of ours, takes a look at the USMCA deal and includes feedback from the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI).

The USMCA still awaits approval in Canada.

In other news:

· AP: Employers post fewer jobs in November

· CNBC: The US is running a $1 trillion deficit, but politicians and investors don’t see a problem

· Reuters: Trump adds legal heavyweights Starr, Dershowitz to impeachment team

Update that Almanac listing

Be sure to add or update your company profile at Spend Matters Almanac by Feb. 7 to be considered for our 2020 “50 Providers to Know” and “50 Providers to Watch” lists.