We've worked with about 10-12 clients based out of the USA, and it has been a great experience everytime. The only bottle neck is, they expect us to work for $4 an hour as they see people from India work at that rate on freelancing websites. We try to explain the quality of work we deliver. Sometimes we succeed, sometimes we fail.
We think having someone out there, in the USA would be the possible solution to this problem. We need someone to be the front face while dealing with the clients and bring in more business. Having said that, we also cannot afford to pay a fixed salary. We only afford commission based sales consultants.
Is there any way we can find these people? How do we pitch them? Also, any other input will be more than appreciated!
I'll cut right to the chase. You need to pay to get a good person.
You are not selling a product with recurring revenues or a widget that a lot of people need. You do one-off projects for very custom business needs. These needs are random, and there is a LOT of competition.
The person you want to hire is someone who needs to have a great rolodex of contacts. He/She needs to be a good at networking, attending events, making connections, getting referrals, contacting people on linkedin groups etc.
This is very hard work, and is not always rewarding (expecially in the begenning). It takes time to build the network that is large enough to be fruitful. You should not expect a high quality person to do this on commission only. You need to invest in helping them build the contacts. Because there are so many low quality businesses doing this, your US rep needs to stand out. He/she needs to be skilled in sales and business development. No one who is highly skilled will work for commission only.
Happy to hop on a call to share ways in which you can identify great business development reps and how much to pay them.
I think your problem is that you are not advertising like an american company, if you are looking to fill a position you should try using Monster.com or Jobing.com, etc. to fill these positions. looking for a sales partner for your work.
Once you find that, provide them with the right tools such as all the seo needed, maybe help with a physical location, etc. so that you essentially do have a small 1 or 2 person team in the US as your business development team and as the face of the engineering team in india.
These people are not hard to find, business consultants like myself, sales people currently selling SaaS platforms, small or new web development guy or firm...
Try reaching out to people and offering the opportunity to them or try advertising your job through job lead boards as I mentioned :)
Best of Luck
Humberto Valle
Here is what you have to do. You have to get a partner/marketer in the US and use only US names and marketing. Do not ever refer to India or Indian sounding names. What I am saying my sound harsh, but it is true. Made in India sends a signal to US buyers that the price is cheap.
I am not trying to sell you on calling me. Really, I am pretty busy with my businesses and consulting. However, I need more info before I could have a greater impact in helping you.
Ask, Ask, Ask, then Ask again.
Bonus:
Here is $10,000 worth of information for free and in a nutshell.
Concentrate on the 3 M's. There are actually 7, but 3 will do for now. These are Market, Message, and Media. They come in that order.
Who is your target market (customer, clients, buyers, users, etc.)?
Tailor your laser focused message for this target market.
What is the best media mix to get your message to that market?
Here's what you do...first, make it an offer that is so incredible that they cannot resist. Secondly, do all the work for them. Make it so easy to make the purchase now that they can do it virtually without effort. Thirdly, give them an incentive to act right now. Fourthly, offer an almost unbelievable guarantee. Fifth, offer a bonus for acting now. There are many other incredible steps, but these steps should help the novice to the professional sell anything.
Whether you are selling B2B or B2C, you have to focus on selling to only one person. You can actually sell to one person at a time while selling to millions at a time. They are one and the same. Don't get off track, what we call digital marketing selling is just selling in print. And that has not changed since Cluade Hopkins wrote "Scientific Advertising." Really long before he wrote the book.
The secret to success: I have had the pleasure of knowing and working with some of the biggest names in business, celebrities, actors, entrepreneurs, business people, and companies from startup to billion dollar operations. The number one reason for their success is doing what they know and love while doing it in new, creative, and innovative ways.
Ask, Ask, Ask. Have thick skin and learn from each "mistake." In a short while, the market will tell you what you need to do and who and what you need to ask. But get started now even if that just means asking a contact on LinkedIn.
While you are thinking, think big and think of something at least 1% better, newer, or different. And being cheaper is not a winning strategy.
Make decisions quickly and change decisions slowly..unless you are actually going off a cliff.
Remember these two 11 letter words...persistence and consistency. They are two of the most important tools ever invented.
Treat everybody you talk to and everybody you meet (including yourself) like each is your number one million dollar customer.
Bootstrap when possible and reasonable. Read "How To Get Rich" by Felix Dennis. Or better yet just remember the camel's nose in the tent story.
However, sometimes you just need to make a deal.
Listen, in any business you have to take some chances and some risks. Make sure you don't need a license and go for it. Remember, timid business people have skinny kids. Paraphrased from Zig Ziglar.
Best of luck,
Take massive action and never give up.
Michael
Michael Irvin, MBA, RN
