I have lived in America for 8 years now.
I’ve spent my entire career here hiring salespeople at B2B SaaS startups, mostly in San Francisco and New York.
I am going to talk about the differences that I have observed between Americans and New Zealanders. Most of these insights will probably map to what Australians and the British also find when dealing with Americans.
1: Americans are expensive
The first thing to know about hiring Americans is to expect some sticker shock:
Take whatever you think is a reasonable amount to pay someone.
Double it.
You might need to double it again.
And then whatever you do, do NOT convert this back to your home currency (this is also a good rule when looking at prices when you visit San Francisco or New York).
Americans don’t realize how good they have it.
People outside of America ALSO don’t realize how good Americans have it.
People in New Zealand will say things like “but the healthcare system”, and “Americans don’t take time off”.
America is brutal for poor people.
But that is not who you are hiring.
People who work in tech generally have great healthcare. They also take a decent amount of time off - added up I think it’s probably similar to NZ, BUT it’s more dispersed throughout the year.
My personal conspiracy theory is that a lot of the negative stories you hear about America are happily encouraged by overseas Governments who don’t want people to know how much poorer they are vs. their American counterparts.
If you make $180k in NZ, you have a higher income than 97% of people in NZ. That’s about $120k USD, which puts you in the 86th percentile in the US. The American “upper middle class” is much larger than other countries. And the top 10%, the top 5% make a lot more than that again.
It is common to talk to people in technology in their late 20s who are making upwards of $250k. This isn’t all base salary (engineers like to count their stock when they talk about their total compensation, salespeople talk about on-target-earnings which is usually 50% base salary, 50% commission).
The flip side of this: America is probably the easiest country to make money in. It’s a general truism that good salespeople love to buy. That rep who’s costing you $250k a year is expected to bring in $1m a year. And if they don’t… well you can fire them without any lengthy dismissal process!
Which brings me on to my second point:
2: Americans are very, very good at selling themselves. Tall poppy syndrome does not exist in America
Imagine you’re the VP of Sales at a tech company in NZ. You’ve taken the company from $1m to $100m in sales.
How do you talk about that? My guess (for 90% of people) is something along the lines of “I work in tech” or “I do software sales”.
That’s not how things work in America.
This defense mechanism against tall poppy syndrome means we’re very bad at accurately evaluating claims made by Americans.
I remember going to an event in NZ a few years back and one of the speakers touted himself as being an instrumental part of a company that had a $1.5b acquisition.
He had been an SDR and then an SDR manager. Not exactly the guy calling the shots.
People get upset and say this is lying or deceptive.
No.
You just don’t speak American English (yet).
You must be extremely specific when evaluating claims made by Americans.
“120% to plan in Q2” - ok great, what about the rest of the year?
“#2 on the team” - ok great, how big was the team? Where did #3 and #1 come in at?
It’s not that Americans are lying.
You just need to drill down into the claims made to objectively understand how good this candidate is.
A vague answer is a red flag.
You can broadly assume that whatever a Kiwi tells you is probably underselling it, and whatever an American says is overselling it.
Get used to it.
Because if you’re going to sell your product here, you need to learn how to position yourself effectively. And the United States punishes the shy.
If you are 10x better at something, SAY THAT YOU ARE 10X BETTER
You are allowed to be meek when you step back on that Air NZ flight.
But if you’re stateside, it’s showtime.
Speaking of evaluating things Americans say, you need to know
3: What American politeness looks like
In America:
“My friend” - person I’ve met before
“My best friend” - a friend
“The best thing ever” - something that is pretty good
In the same way you need to carefully evaluate claims made by Americans when it comes to how they sell, you also need to carefully evaluate claims made by Americans when it comes to how they buy.
If you’re from New Zealand, you probably aren’t used to such easy compliments. You end up with happy ears, and then get upset when deals don’t close.
If you don’t have a next meeting on the books, assume the deal is dead.
If they will “get back to you”, assume the deal is dead.
You need to get comfortable asking hard questions, and with hearing no.
There is always another prospect out there.
New Zealand has a GDP the size of Iowa.
Iowa brings in 0.96% of America’s GDP.
So, get snappy:
For example, when it comes to hiring:
“Where do we need to be comp wise, for this to make sense”
“Where are you at with regards to other opportunities”
You need to get good at cutting through the noise.
You’re probably erring on the side of being not transactional enough, rather than the inverse.
There is an appreciation for a strong call-to-action in American business culture.
Speaking of calls to action:
If you are thinking about hiring in the US, and want someone who understands English - both in the New Zealand AND American senses of the word, book a time with me here.