By John Bates, founder of AXQ
When a US software company decides to take the UK seriously, the first hire usually writes itself. Someone senior, with a good contact book, who has sold software in London before. Give them a territory and a target, and see what happens.
Sometimes that is exactly right. I would still want a few questions answered first, because that one hire tends to set the shape of the whole UK business for the next couple of years.
Why the first hire matters so much
Your first person in a new market does more than sell. They decide who you talk to, how you price in practice, which partners you meet and what head office hears about the UK. If they are a direct seller, you will probably build a direct business, because that is what they know how to build. Partners become something to look at later.
Later often turns out to be expensive. By then your seller has customers, your partners see a vendor who competes with them, and the good resellers have already filled the gap on their line card with someone else.
So it is worth deciding on purpose.
Four questions to answer first
How do UK customers like yours buy today?
In the US you may sell straight to the customer. In the UK, the same kind of customer may well buy through a reseller, a managed service provider or a framework. Public sector and mid-market buyers in particular often have a supplier they already trust. Ask a few UK customers who they bought their last comparable product from. That answer tells you a lot.
Can a deal close without a partner?
Look at your first UK deals, or your first likely ones. If each one needs local implementation, local support or a supplier already on an approved list, a partner is part of the sale from day one, and your first hire needs to know how to work with them.
How big is the first year's list?
A strong seller with a list of 30 named accounts can do very well alone. If your market is thousands of smaller companies, one person cannot reach them, however good they are. That is usually the point at which partners stop being optional.
Who will head office listen to?
Your UK lead will spend a surprising amount of time explaining the UK to people in another time zone: why a deal needs a partner margin, why a contract needs changing, why the forecast looks the way it does. Whoever you hire needs the standing to have those conversations and win some of them.
What the answers usually point to
If deals can close direct and the list is short, hire the seller. Keep it simple, and think about partners once you have some proof.
If deals need local delivery, or the market is too wide for one person, look for someone who has sold directly and also worked closely with partners. That person is harder to find than a pure seller, and worth waiting a little longer for. They can win your first customers and bring two or three partners along with them, without promising the whole channel a programme you do not have yet.
If you are not sure, you do not have to settle it with a permanent hire. Interim cover for six months, or a small piece of partner groundwork before you recruit, will tell you what the job actually is. You then hire against what you have learned, and the person you hire arrives with something already moving.
One thing to avoid
Try not to hire a seller and give them a partner target as an afterthought. Partner work takes time before it shows up in the numbers, and a seller carrying a quarterly number will sensibly go where the quickest deals are. If partners matter to your UK plan, make them somebody's actual job, with time set aside and a way of measuring it that fits how long they take.
A note from the partner side
I spent five years at TD SYNNEX (via IQBlade, acquired), leading partner go-to-market programmes for AWS, Cisco, Google, Microsoft and Nvidia across EMEA. The first UK hire is a small decision on paper. It is worth an extra week of thought, because it tends to decide which business you end up building here.
John Bates, AXQ
Related: A London office is not a channel · The first 30 days with a UK partner · UK First guide