Hi everyone, I'm one of the co-founders of a web/software agency in India. We create high-end web designs and software services. We take pride in what we do. But unfortunately, our clients here in India do not. They just want to get stuff done as cheap as possible. 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! Thanks in advance!
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.
Answered 9 years ago
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