Jackrabbit69

Business Development

Valued Contributor

Shutting down US Sales

We build a cloud-based software that can be used by kitchen remodelers, contractors to create 3D designs and generate required production outputs for those designs.

We're based out of India, I was the only one looking after the NA market. We'd get inbound leads through FB/Insta ads. Our target audience would leave their details on a Contact Us form and I'd ring them up. But I've had terrible experience. People in NA just don't seem to answer the phone. Which hasn't resulted in booking enough meetings for us to keep the US side running.

The few people that would answer the call, wouldn't speak English natively. It'd either be Spanish or French. Our target audience is generally SMEs and I can understand that they're busy running their businesses, but no replies to texts, voicemail or even emails? Like Christ, I've called some people at least 4 times over a week before moving the lead to Disqualified.

Has anyone selling to the US from outside been able to work around this? Specifically, have you targeted SMEs? What worked for you?

👑 Sales Strategy

☁️ Software Tech

13

17 comments

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oldcloser

Arsonist

5

💀

I think you're using SMEs where you mean SMBs. Which leads me to an assumption. Feel free to correct me if I"m wrong.

Is your outreach accent free? If it's not, contractors and the like will be predisposed not to want to engage. It's a shitty bias, but its real in that world. Is the phone number you're calling from localized? It has to be to have a chance. Could it be flagged by devices or carriers as "spam likely?" If so, nobody will answer... ever. They'll delete your voicemails without checking. Are your emails getting through to inboxes? Have you warmed up your domain and set the dmarc and dkim correctly? There's much nuance to this country, but if you've got inbound, you've got a reasonable chance of success.

You're dealing with people who work with their hands. They're just not going to take a call from an unfamiliar number while on a job. So you've got to call them in the evenings.

Something in your process is broken. Hard to diagnose without seeing it. But don't quit. That's a product that does seem to fit.

Edit: Don't forget to upvote your replies if you find value.

Jackrabbit69

Valued Contributor

1

Business Development

Haha hard to fake an accent but I do try! However it hasn't been an issue, see the problem is there's so few people answering the call that accent isn't really a challenge. At least not at this stage. We are using a US based number that works through VOIP, so that shouldn't be a deterrent to picking up the call either. But going through all your comments here, I'm guessing it was just the timing. You're right, calling them during work hours was probably what wasn't working out for us.
But out of curiosity, just trying to understand the culture there, how open would people (contractors, remodelers, carpenters) be to take up a sales call post their work hours? I mean I may be prejudiced but wouldn't people be happy to not have to deal with anything work related after say, 5 pm?

On the email front, deliverability and open rates were pretty good. Still little to none responses. But considering this sort of an audience, I doubt they'd be open to having a conversation over email anyway

CuriousFox

WR Officer

2

🦊

Ok your name has me DECEASED

js2458

Politicker

2

Enterprise SDR

Not sure what titles you are reaching out to within those inbound companies, but often times decision makers will take 10+ dials to get ahold of. This is unfortunately just how cold calling works in NA.

Of the deals that I’ve set up via cold call, it’s usually taken me at least 15-20 calls to get thru to the correct decision makers. Patience is key.

Jackrabbit69

Valued Contributor

1

Business Development

So these are usually the business owners themselves reaching out. But I agree with other members here, I guess it was about the timing with this audience. Post work hours were probably the best hours to reach out. That would basically mean I'd have to start calling at 2 AM my time and keep that up till about 8 AM. But for now, we've put the US sales on the back burner. We're gonna take it up in another 6 months again. All these insights I've got here are definitely going to help!

FoodForSales

Politicker

2

AE

most contractors are working 8-5 (or longer) so you need to talk to them on their schedule. But it seems that direct sales isn't working. You need partnerships or just do everything online without people involvement.

GDO

Politicker

1

BDM

Sounds like a better solution indeed

jefe

Arsonist

2

🍁

Unfortunately your comment about calling them during their afterhours is correct. They're not answering unknown calls when they're climbing a ladder or on a roof.

Diablo

Politicker

1

Sr. AE

Is the contact us page for the prospects to submit inquiries or landing page where you give them some info after submitting their details? Do you guys have any set of questionnaires that allow you to further filter the data to allow you to see the high to low potential leads

Jackrabbit69

Valued Contributor

0

Business Development

We've intentionally kept the Contact Us form as easy as it gets to fill. Just name, company name, email and phone number is collected.
We've experimented asking more questions or leading them to a Calendly page to directly set up a demo, but the drop offs are way too high with this and that doesn't even guarantee our ICPs fill our forms.

We don't seek any information on their pain points or anything like that on the form, our ads address their pain points (these are video ads)

Diablo

Politicker

0

Sr. AE

Got it, its so difficult to get to the reasons in this case. I would at least understand their motive behind sending us their contacts. That's the starting point.

Is the same method giving great results in other geographies?

Jackrabbit69

Valued Contributor

0

Business Development

We haven't focused on other geographies just yet. US is a market that we CAN crack. I'm positive because we'd come down there for an expo a couple of months ago. We spoke to people and they were frankly, looking forward to a software like ours.

Phillip_J_Fry

Opinionated

1

Director of Revenue

What's the turnaround time between them submitting their info and receiving a call? In my experience, you've got to strike while the iron is hot, <30mins after submission.

Jackrabbit69

Valued Contributor

1

Business Development

In a lot of cases, it's almost as soon as they fill up the form. But, I've noticed a lot of them tend to fill it up late at night (their time). Probably browsing social media before bed and stuff. In those cases, 12 hours later. I'm usually reaching out to them around 9 am - 12pm their time. Or, around 2-3 pm.

Sunbunny31

Politicker

2

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Looking at those times, those are times they may be on the job actually working, and not available to chat. Maybe try a bit later in the day. Also perhaps try a quick text first to find out if that's a good time.
Finally, even homeowners here in the states have a challenging time getting a hold of contractors. And we want to give them money.

ApocalyBoom

Politicker

0

Account Executive

Is it contact us with a potential question or a landing page that gives them some information after sending them the details? Do you have a set of questionnaires that allow you to further filter the data so you understand potential from high to low?

Jackrabbit69

Valued Contributor

0

Business Development

Absolutely no questions except for collecting details. The reason is they're seeing our ads scrolling through Facebook and instagram, they're going to likely give a few seconds to give their details (which a lot of times gets auto filled on social media), but diverting them away from mindless scrolling to probe them with questions? Nah. We'd see a huge drop off in forms being completed..

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