How to penetrate into a new territory?

I have been predominantly working in the APAC market for 2 years.


Now, my company(an e-learning company focusing on professional learning) is shifting the target market to US and I have to work in the US as a new territory. I have been prospecting for the past couple of weeks but have not been able to book a lot of meetings.


What I have been doing?

  • Creating a list of prospects falling in the target persona.
  • Sending out relevant and personalized emails to these personas.
  • Cold-calling in the first two hours.


Any ideas on how I can book more meetings?

🔎 Prospecting
💌 Cold Emailing
📞 Cold Calling
9
SellerBeware
Opinionated
2
VP Inside Sales
I'm from Europe with most of my experience in EMEA. Moved to the US five years ago, here's a couple of things I learnt about America as a "resident alien". 

*Disclaimer* I love America, glad to be here!! These are just observations I have made over years of leading SDRs in EMEA and USA

Your 1st point - target persons

Title inflation in the US is very, very common. Most job titles you hear of will be a level (or more) lower than what you initially think. That means they are not the decision maker most of the time, you gotta get as many names as possible from every person you ever speak to and work your way up the chain. Check your list of target persons and see if they will actually be the right person to do business with. 

2nd point - sending out emails 

Less is more. Less words = more people read it. Make sure your emails look good on an iPhone that is running Outlook, that is probably the most commonly used platform in the US. 

3rd point -  cold calling 

There are 6 Time Zones in the US. More if you include overseas territories!! Which 2 hours are you calling? Change it every day depending on the time zone you are working on. To make it easier, break it down by a State per day/City per day/Time Zone per day. It's a big country, don't try to do the whole thing at once! 

Hope that helps, good luck! 
sales4lyf
Politicker
1
Business Development Manager
I used to work in the US market and found that they're not so keen on going into a pitch on a cold call - use your cold calls to book in meetings, they seem a lot more receptive to this in my experience 
PhlipOut
Politicker
0
Account Executive
if you can use client referrals and if it applies to your business start developing a channel partner network.
cw95
Politicker
0
Sales Development Lead
Do you have a tool to help? 
CuriousFox
WR Officer
0
🦊
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