snowleopard

Founder

Old School Bravo

Territories: Canada vs US?

Hey Bravado fam, looking for your take on territory choice. I'll be selling a category defining B2B martech platform targeted primarily at software, hardware & services companies, 150+ employees and a tech stack like Marketo, Hubspot, Eloqua, SFDC.

I'm based in Canada and a bias against selling Canadian accounts (historically conservative, slow, cheap etc) but I also have a good amount of existing relationships here. I'm leaning towards Georgia - but curious what the landscape looks like there in terms of my ICP.

One thing to keep in mind the software I am selling is a new category. It's adjacent to ABM platforms, but has functionality that the market hasn't seen before. PMF is great and we've raised our Series B, but I am wondering whether the Canadian environment may be more reticent to this vs. a 'need to have' like a Zoom, SFDC, etc.

Curious what your pick of the below territories would be?

1. Canada

Alberta
Manitoba
Ontario
Saskatchewan

2. Georgia

3. Connecticut, NY (not NYC)

Your pick

Attached poll

Canada Georgia Connecticut, NY (non-NYC)

*Voting in this poll no longer yields commission.

☁️ Software Tech

13

27 comments

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funcoupons

WR Officer

11

👑

The Canadian territory will have the most opportunity...hell, the GTA alone is worth claiming. The prairies are seeing a huge upswing in startup HOs as well. This paired with the fact that you are Canadian and have connections in Canada makes this a no brainer for me.

sketchysales

Politicker

2

Sales Manager

100% agree with coups and Alberta is an oil driven province and with the way things are going atm they will have money to burn there, its a surprisingly busy city. Personally wouldnt waste a ton of time in Saskatchewan/Manitoba until you have exhausted Calgary/Toronto/Edmonton.

If you have to pick somewhere in the US, id head for somewhere like Minnesota if you are Canadian, they are basically Canadians from there.

RealPatrickBateman

Politicker

1

🔪Amateur Butcher🔪

OHH Canadaaaaaaaaaaa 🍁

TheNegotiator

Arsonist

1

VP of Sales

What’s coups said, but emphasizing that if you don’t get Ontario, don’t waste your time.

The rest of this country is so small town, conservative, complacent, pushing a decision is like pulling teeth.

snowleopard

Contributor

0

Founder

Thanks for the input. One thing to keep in mind is the software I am selling is a new category. It has shared functionality to certain legacy ABM platforms, but positioning is relatively new. That said, PMF is great and customers are obsessed. Makes me wonder whether the Canadian environment may be less opportunistic here in terms of appetite for innovation vs. a 'need to have' like a Zoom, SFDC, etc.

funcoupons

WR Officer

4

👑

I don’t see Canadians as any less innovative than Americans in comparable cities. Sure, you probably won’t get much traction in Red Deer, AB. But you likely won’t get much traction in Nowheresville, GA either.

E_Money

Big Shot

6

💰

I love cold calling Canadians tbh

So much nicer than Americans! Make you feel like family #papajohns

snowleopard

Contributor

1

Founder

😂😂😂😂 what you don’t like the New Yorker “fuck off” style??

funcoupons

WR Officer

1

👑

You must not be calling people in Toronto. lmao

CuriousFox

WR Officer

4

🦊

I'd stay where I had the relationships 🤷‍♀️

snowleopard

Contributor

1

Founder

Fair. 4 years of grinding it out here in the ecosystem has led to a decent network here!

Sunbunny31

Politicker

3

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Ontario alone > the other two US territories. I'm going to guess there won't be a whole lot in the other three provinces, but Ontario is huge.

funcoupons

WR Officer

4

👑

You’d be surprised. Calgary, Saskatoon, and Winnipeg are all seeing some pretty nice cash injections for tech and similar businesses rn. Not at the same level as the GTA/GVA but they shouldn’t be discounted.

jefe

Arsonist

1

🍁

There's a surprising amount of tech in the 'peg

sketchysales

Politicker

0

Sales Manager

Calgarys actually a big Canadian player. Small population compared to Toronto but plenty of money.

Pachacuti

Politicker

1

They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy

Just GA -vs- all of Canada? I'd take all of Canada. More people, companies, etc. This is based solely on just the info you have provided.

snowleopard

Contributor

1

Founder

Not quite - just Ontario, Alberta, Manitoba, Sask. ICP being B2B software/hardware/services companies.

Pachacuti

Politicker

1

They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy

That’s like most of CA (except BC I guess). Still probably more everything than what’s in GA.

snowleopard

Contributor

0

Founder

Fair call. I definitely have a bias towards this country, but I know it's from a narrow field of experience (namely a 1-year long sales cycle selling a 10K deal of social media software into a publishing company, then the same thing when I brought the customer to another startup lol, yikes.). Would be interested in success stories.

funcoupons

WR Officer

2

👑

I’m Canadian and have sold exclusively to Canadians for years. Never had trouble making money but I’ve also chosen my companies carefully to ensure that I’m actually selling something valuable that people want. Social media software at 10k does not sound compelling. The product you describe in your OP sounds way more promising.

snowleopard

Contributor

0

Founder

What software have you sold and to what types of customers?

funcoupons

WR Officer

2

👑

I recently got into software. My track record isn’t long enough to comment yet. My previous companies were in recruitment and business insurance. B2B, selling mainly to MM

SaaSam

Politicker

1

Account Executive

Being that you're from Canada I already assume you know more about that market than me so I'm not going to touch on that.

That leaves Georgia and Connecticut, NY.

In the south (Georgia) you'll be more likely to get in touch with DMs. Folks in the south are pretty nice to your face but they'll smile fuck you all day long. They aren't planning to buy but they want to be nice so they tell you what you want to hear and drag you along for miles.

Connecticut, NY folks are a bit more to the point. GKs are going to be a lot less friendly, you'll likely come across a lot more people that will tell you off. But, if someone seems interested, it's likely genuine and it'll be easier to close them down once you've started a dialogue.

Depending on how Canada compares to the two situations above, I would go with Connecticut, NY. It's nice talking to nice people, but getting led on sucks ass. I'd rather someone tell me to fuck off than drag the "no" out for months.

snowleopard

Contributor

1

Founder

“smile fuck” 🤣🤣 you have an amazing way with words. I agree with you 100%, give me the bluntness of east coasters all day. Canadians also aren’t the most direct people in the world (to put it lightly) but I do have the volume advantage of more connections here.

Justatitle

Big Shot

0

Account Executive

With Georgia it seems you're most likely going to be focused on the Atlanta market. For Connecticut and NY there's lots of pockets there.

DungeonsNDemos

Big Shot

0

Rolling 20's all day

I wasn't sure if you meant Georgia the country, so I voted Connecticut.

slaydie

Big Shot

0

Account Executive

I often think American buyers are more ready to pull the trigger than Canadian (slower and cheaper) but heck, any one will do you good

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