
Ask HN: Business Developer or Sales Dilemma - urbanstat
We have an enterprise software that&#x27;s been succesful in non-us markets. We are trying to expand our business to the US. Since we have limited budget for US expansion we have this dilemma: Should we hire Sr. Business Developer or Sr. Sales Manager?<p>The reason we want to hire business developer is we are not 100% sure that we have a product-market fit in the US. On the other hand, hiring Sales Manager would increase our chances of sale as we already have the product that we believe it&#x27;s ready for the US but we are not 100% sure.<p>What do you think is the best option for us?
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IAMsterdam
You are basically looking for a hunter and not a BD or Sales Manager. This is
why: The sales hunter will dive in to your current client base for a certain
profile and will search a similar client profile in the US to sell the
solution and co- create a product - market fit in a joint effort. An
experienced hunter understands complex stakeholder landscapes, long sales
cycles and how to create early adaptors for the solution. The hunter will try
to shorten sales cycles and close deals quicker, since it's their driving
motivator. After closing the first deals a BD further mature a value
proposition and a sales manager will sell the mature value prop in a
repetitive way.

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urbanstat
Yes, but how do you find "hunters"? BD was a term that matched closest to what
I have in my mind.

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IAMsterdam
I think you can find them at your competitor, but it won't be easy to convince
the loyal ones. Give them more freedom, full trust, a good base salary,
vesting and on OTE a LOG multiplier on their base salary. Hunters like freedom
and appreciation for the business (intelligence) they gather.

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brudgers
Why not contract with a consultant?

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urbanstat
In my experience, contractors do not own the product. It's a very technical
product that requires communication between multiple stakeholders within the
company and customers. License cost varies between $100k to $750k per year.
Making the sales process very long (9-12 months).

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brudgers
I was thinking consultant because the question made me think that there was
uncertainty about product-market fit in the US in addition to the uncertainty
regarding the role into which to hire. A consultant seemed like a way to get a
clearer picture of the market before making the investment of a hiring
decision.

