About Sandrine
Sandrine Puichaffret is an international expansion consultant specializing in the North American market. She spent 15 years at Disney with dual English and American reporting lines, then led communications for Quick across the Middle East and Africa before going independent. She now helps French and European companies enter the US and Canadian markets, focusing on the cultural, legal, and structural mistakes that derail most attempts before they gain traction.
🎙️ Listen on YouTube, Apple Podcast, Spotify
Most French companies think going to the US is a bigger version of going to Belgium. It isn’t. The rules are different, the culture is different, and the mental model that made you successful in France will actively work against you on the other side of the Atlantic.
In this episode, Sandrine Puichaffret broke down what French companies consistently get wrong and what the ones who succeed do differently.
Here’s what I took away:
1) You’re not going to “the US.” You’re going to one city, one state, one ultra-specific segment
A hundred leads from a trade show does not open a market. The companies that make it pick a niche so narrow it feels almost absurd, identify which segment they’ve closed fastest in France, check whether their existing French clients have US subsidiaries, and start there. Only once that works do they expand to adjacent segments or geographies.
2) Register your trademark before you do anything else
Any American company that sees your brand can register it in your place. If they do, you lose the ability to operate under your own name on the US market. This costs roughly $30,000 to protect yourself upfront. Skipping it is a category error, not a cost-saving decision.
3) American contracts are not French contracts translated into English
The US has a strong litigation culture. Your contract needs to anticipate every possible dispute scenario, because the client's lawyer will. At-will employment works both ways: trust is extended immediately upon agreement, but the relationship can be terminated at any moment. One company Sandrine followed fired someone at-will and faced a claim of $500,000 to $600,000 in compensation. Understanding the legal framework before entering the market is mandatory.
4) The American pitch is 30 seconds then emotional storytelling
French pitches typically open with company history, technology, and product features, with pricing buried in the last slides. American buyers want to know in the first 30 seconds: why you over the competition, how much they will gain, and how fast. After that, they want a story that makes them believe it. Logical argumentation without emotional resonance does not close deals in the US.
5) Small talk is the operating system
Americans do business through community. The Protestant culture of mutual aid runs deep: they make introductions freely, they refer without expecting immediate return, and they build relationships across every surface of their lives. Without being part of the community, you do not get the introductions. Mastering small talk is how the market works.
6) American companies treat marketing as a compounding asset
They spend more on marketing because brand strength and customer conviction are what make a business valuable over time. Sandrine spent years having to explain to French executives what marketing actually does. CMOs heading to the US need to make this shift themselves before they can compete.
7) International expansion requires full executive commitment
When the board is aligned, the product team is ready to adapt, the legal and pricing structures have been rethought, and the leadership is prepared to sustain the effort through the slow phases, things can work. When any of those are missing, the result is a few deals that flatter the ego and a budget that disappears. Going international is a company transformation, and it needs to be treated as one.
8) Don't open in New York
It costs too much, and it may not be where your clients are. Atlanta is a major hub. Americans take planes like buses. One week in New York, one week in San Francisco, structured around where your actual accounts are located, is a more effective and significantly cheaper strategy than anchoring in the most expensive city in the country.
Find Sandrine on LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandrinepuichaffret/
Enjoy,
— Jordan
