Answer first: hire someone who can test the growth thesis, not merely someone with a network
A network and a well-known employer name are not enough for the first commercial hire. The leader must form testable assumptions about target customers, value, route to market, pricing and adoption barriers, then revise them through customer conversations and data. Singapore and Shanghai provide two useful centres, but each Southeast Asian and Greater China market still needs local execution.
Do not merge Sales and Marketing by accident
- Sales owns account selection, qualification, proposal, negotiation, closing and forecast
- Marketing owns market insight, message, demand, content, channels and lead quality
- One person may cover both early on, but keep separate KPIs and time allocation
- For technology and engineering services, define hand-offs to pre-sales and delivery
Use an outcome scorecard
- Customer segments and assumptions to test in the first 90 days
- Self-created pipeline versus inherited brand demand
- Sales cycle, win rate, loss reasons and forecast accuracy
- Product, pricing, proof and technical support required from headquarters
- Ability to align customers and teams across relevant languages and time zones
Expected outputs in the first 90 days
- Defined ideal-customer profile and target accounts
- Local-language value proposition, FAQ, proof and proposal templates
- Weekly pipeline and loss-learning cadence
- A fixed decision route with product, delivery and leadership
- Evidence for the next hiring or channel-investment decision
How Tech Alliance supports commercial search
Our Singapore–Shanghai team connects searches for Sales Managers, Business Development, Marketing Managers, Country Managers and pre-sales talent with market design across Southeast Asia and Greater China. We structure role ownership, target-company mapping and assessment—not only CV delivery.