SgtAE

AE

OG Sales Savage

Expanding out to the US from Europe

Hi team, we are looking to acquire our first customer in the US

We're in the building automation and controls industry, we sell an integration/data acquisition service hybrid Hardware/software product.

Our customer base is predominantly in the Nordics and western Europe.

I handle international sales (outside of Finland) and have landed us pilots/customers around Europe.

I have established partnerships with reputable vendors in the US and we had a pilot lined up but that one fell through.

Our usual GTM strategy is find a partner (typically analytics platforms who need data from buildings) and get a pilot from one of their existing installs, from there expand.

The goal is to move myself + the wife to US next August, but just looking for advice on entering/selling to the US market from Europe.

Open to any discussions on the topics and very keen to coffee chat with people if they are open too.

👑 Sales Strategy

🏠 Real Estate

9

22 comments

Sort by:

HVACexpert

Politicker

6

sales engineer

hello!
Your best bet might be to try to find regional Tridium dealers. What you have to realize is all the big players like JCI, Siemens, Schneider, Honeywell will all be directly represented in the market and can do a lot of the things you suggest. Getting together with the local Tridium dealers might be a good way to get in the door and get some success.
Your solution will need to be simple and easy to set-up, implement, and integrate though. Are you offering a UI as well or would that be by others?
I would try a specific region or city first, try to get some traction and use that success story to expand to other major cities or territories.
I would also be patient, there are a lot of American companies who offer what you offer as well. When it comes to BMS and building automation local service and support is key.

CuriousFox

WR Officer

4

🦊

Damn you are a STUD

HVACexpert

Politicker

3

sales engineer

Ha! Thanks, I’m really not, just know enough to be dangerous

Sunbunny31

Politicker

3

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Well, you're very dangerous. That's a very detailed and thoughtful answer.

pirate

Big Shot

1

🦜☠️ Account Executive

That's a great answer

SgtAE

WR Officer

1

AE

This is something i've been looking into as well, there's a pretty big technical wall as i'm coming from the software development side of things so BACS are a bit out of my league but learning where I can.
Our Niche is within the legacy system retrofit space, mostly BACS that are end of life and where the big players like you mentioned would push to upgrade the controllers themselves as they don't have easy to integrate protocols.
Our typical partnerships are with cloud vendors who want data at the control level.

We've seen success working with the local building maintenance engineers at companies that have a portfolio of buildings in an area.
Effectively we work well with people who speak building controls language.

In terms of the tridium dealers they are considered distributors right? Curious to know what kind of companies are purchasing off the distributors and if it's something I can build a lead list off to have a few conversations

HVACexpert

Politicker

0

sales engineer

Tridium dealers are basically full service install BAS contractors. They represent various re-branded Tridium products, but there are multiples of them in each region.
I worry though, that if you are attacking old native protocols to try and integrate into that space is limited. Everyone is BACnet nowadays, and all the old legacy items can be integrated into the new BACNET based protocol systems.
Cloud only vendors are good, but again all the main players can do all the field level and supervisory controllers and set-up, and offer cloud based services. That is why I thought Tridium dealers might not be a bad idea, as they might not have cloud based analytics. And if you can connect to native or legacy controls that would be an added benefit for them.
Have you tried talking to commissioning agents or energy modeling engineers? they might not be a bad idea, since they offer independent services either pre and/or post project regarding building analytics.

SgtAE

WR Officer

1

AE

Thanks for the info so far really appreciate it!

I'll definitely take a look into all three categories here.
You're right in the sense that a lot of our business is coming from the edge cases right now e.g customer has a portfolio of 10 buildings 8 of them are integrated 2 of them are giving them a hard time so we come in and get those sorted for them.
But there are customers who are also valuable e.g IoT sensor companies installed and they want to be able to write to the BMS without going through a local BAS contractor so we help them there.
My big concern is that typically in the building space people are going to want to work with local partners, as we are based in europe have you ever seen international talent enter the market similar to our situation?

HVACexpert

Politicker

0

sales engineer

I haven't specifically, but my expertise is very regional based and I don't run into a lot of cloud based integration anymore with what I do now. So there could certainly be international companies offering what you do. And I agree local relationships are key. That is why I suggested finding a local dealer/distributor/BAS contractor to partner up with, who can bring your solution into the space and already has the relationships.

Kosta_Konfucius

Politicker

1

Sales Rep

Would they be likely to sponsor?

HVACexpert

Politicker

0

sales engineer

Would who likely sponsor what?

Kosta_Konfucius

Politicker

1

Sales Rep

Assuming Sgt isn’t a US Citizen, the company would need to sponsor his visa

HVACexpert

Politicker

0

sales engineer

Oh yeah that is an entirely different element to this, didn’t even think about that .

LambyCorn

Arsonist

1

A mfkn E

huh.. this is consultant tier advice. What a fkin awesome community

HVACexpert

Politicker

5

sales engineer

Which vendors have you found to partner up with?

poweredbycaffeine

WR Lieutenant

4

☕️

@HVACexpert what would you advise Sarge do first?

jefe

Arsonist

3

🍁

@HVACexpert is definitely the best bet

HVACexpert

Politicker

1

sales engineer

thanks for the tag gentlemen!

GDO

Politicker

3

BDM

Good luck! I'm in EUrope as well and starting to initiate first contacts in the middle east. So I get that you're looking for tips & tricks.

SgtAE

WR Officer

1

AE

Ooh middle east, I think their working days are different over there as well, very big cultural difference. Good luck!

BTQ

Politicker

3

Account Manager

@HVACexpert bah gaw that's his music

HVACexpert

Politicker

0

sales engineer

thanks for the tag!

Bravado is a community of trusted sales professionals endorsed by their customers.

Products

The War Room Jobs Salary Guide Tech Sales U

Company

About Us How It Works Blog Bug Bounty

Contact

© 2024 Bravado Inc. All rights reserved.

Privacy Policy Legal and Privacy Center Sales Jobs

If you are hired as a contract sales rep by a Bravado customer, we may ask you to prove access to the employee email account provided to you by that customer. This data will be shared with customers to track your sales productivity; customers can use this data to confirm you meet the minimum activity requirements to pay out your ramp stipend and commission.