Services

Starting your business or launching a new product category in Asia Pacific?

Are you looking for a sales VP to get sales started in Asia Pacific or to launch a new product category? ? Depending on your product maturity level, a traditional sales VP might not be the correct fit.

Asia Pacific is a growing region with different opportunities for your business. There is China, a mammoth in the spotlight. India, another large growing country. SEA (South East Asia) the new growth engine. And not forgetting the established economics of Japan, Australia and Korea. If you are building or expanding your business, Asia Pacific would certainly be in your radar.

The traditional Sales VP is not the right fit

A traditional sales VP and sales organization thrives only when a repeatable sales model exists, where they help to scale and accelerate your business.

Depending on your product maturity level, a traditional sales VP might not be the correct fit. Neither would your traditional sales organization be a correct fit to sell your MVP³, (Minimum Viable Product) that is still pivoting. Prior to the execution stage as described (see Mark Leslie and Charles A. Holloway¹), you would not have derived your repeatable formula for success to support a standardized volume sales engagement model through a traditional sales organization.

As Asia Pacific is a diverse market across the different countries with local nuances, you will need to localize your product for the region. There would be multiple rounds of testing needed to refine your product offering as well as sales engagement process. The end result would be to derive a repeatable formula for success to support a standardized volume sales engagement model, after which a traditional sales organization can now come in to scale the sales operation.

While you are in this pivoting stage, an all rounded Business Development VP would be a better fit. He can help you build and iterate the sales engagement process.

Get an all rounded Business Development VP

Our business development consultants are industry veterans, with 15 to 25 years of experience in the Asia Pacific region. Most of them have backgrounds spanning across business development, sales, marketing, channel and product management.

Their broad base of knowledge across different parts of the industry can get you started quickly. Their vast experience allows them to adapt to the developing sales engagement model. You would also want to leverage on their network of contacts covering end users, channel partners (distributors, resellers, system integrators), as well as other industry contacts to fast track sales customer engagement. They would be a great asset working as your Business Development VP.

Reference reading

1. Mark Leslie and Charles A. Holloway (HBR reprint R0607J) describes the different stages in the sales learning curve – Initiation, Transition, Execution.
2. Greg Sands founder and managing partner at Costanoa Venture Capital on the sales learning curve for young companies.
3. Steve Blank, The Four Steps to the Epiphany: Successful Strategies for Products that Win.