Get Offshore Leverage
How offshoring became my competitive advantage
This is my inaugural newsletter. I created this company to help my fellow founders & CEO’s navigate the murky waters of offshoring. Offshoring may have felt taboo, or opaque, but I aim to shine a light on the opportunities and successes that people just like you are having.
What will we cover in this newsletter?
- How offshoring became my competitive advantage.
- $1,000/mo sales pros in South Africa crushing quota in USA territory.
- Perks & Benefits – the Philippines annual PTO/vacation schedule that works.
- What is your Operating Leverage Benchmarking (OLB) Score?
How offshoring became my competitive advantage.
If you’re a founder like me, you think you have the “midas touch”. Nothing can go wrong. We’re optimistic to the point of borderline pathological. Until we’re not. In April 2018 I wrote this Medium article about my financial meltdown at Sales for Life (-$500,000 in losses, over $1,000,000 in deferred liabilities) as a therapeutic way of helping myself cope with my company’s financial meltdown.
The bi-product from addressing my weak financial acumen in 2018 was an exploration into offshoring – for the purpose of seeking great profitability. One (1) offshore teammate turned into two (2), then 4, 8, 16. Now I have +25 teammates in the Philippines, Bangladesh and India helping operate three (3) companies. Within my +$2,000,000 sales agency, Sales for Life scaled EBITA to the following in just two (2) years.
2018 = -$454,314
2019 = $392,836
2020 = $482,962
I look forward to sharing my experiences and best practices with you.
$1,000/mo sales pros in South Africa crushing quota in USA territory.
A customer of ours at my SaaS / Tech-enabled Services company Pipeline Signals has a business development team (BDR’s) of four (4) last quarter.
- 2 BDR’s are experienced
- 1 BDR is junior
- 1 BDR is newly onboarded (non-productive)
The BDR team is based in Cape Town, South Africa. A hotbed of talent for customer-facing teammates in sales and customer support.
- English as a 1st language.
- Time Zone that straddles Americas and EMEA
- A deflated currency (RAND) that creates incredible arbitrage opportunities.
Last quarter the BDR team created 24 Sales Qualified Leads (SQL’s) with mid-market and national retailers all across the United States. These BDR’s prospect with cold calls, email and LinkedIn Navigator.
Each BDR in South Africa is paid $1,000/mo USD! (4-5x less than a BDR in the USA). This is amazing Talent Arbitrage.
4 BDR’s X $1,000/mo X 3 months = $12,000 USD investment.
$12,000 USD / 24 SQL’s = $500 per SQL (just getting started).
Now our customer is looking to scale their team 3-4x based on these initial results. This is HIGHLY scalable.
Perks & Benefits – the Philippines annual PTO/vacation schedule that works.
Over the years I’ve aimed to own companies that offshore talent gravitated too. How? Referrals from our existing teammates that tell their friends and past colleagues about our culture, perks and benefits.
A simple hack for your business – offer PTO/vacation that big, cultureless BPO’s don’t. Be generous with time off so your offshore talent can experience cultural events with their friends and family. We have teammates that hadn’t celebrated events like Easter with their family in YEARS! These perks cost you little, but go miles for your employee retention and productivity.
At Pipeline Signals, we offer ten (10) PTO/vacation days + we close between Christmas and the New Year (essentially giving 15 days). This is HUGE for the team. For teammates in the Philippines, offer the following:
- Multiple days off around Easter (Thursday to Monday) if you can;
- Multiple days around Halloween (big family events)
- Time around Christmas
You will have a much more engaged team.
What is your Operating Leverage Benchmarking (OLB) Score?
What is the opportunity cost of not considering to hire your next customer support, marketing, engineer – offshore? We created an Operating Leverage Benchmarking (OLB) tool for you. This compares the salary of your current or future team members against the equivalent in Bangladesh and the Philippines.
- What is the profit increase you could expect?
- What is the sales relief/reprieve you could expect to generate the same profit?
Get ready to be shocked!
