Ask HN: Business Developer or Sales Dilemma

[urbanstat]

We have an enterprise software that'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?

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's ready for the US but we are not 100% sure.

What do you think is the best option for us?

[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.

[urbanstat]

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

[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.

[brudgers]

Why not contract with a consultant?

[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).

[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.